Spring Race Plan

A few days before the Twin Cities race, one of my running friends mentioned to me that the half associated with Grandma's Marathon, Garry Bjorklund half marathon, was doing away with the lottery and was opening on Sunday. The Sunday we were driving home from the Twin Cities 10 Mile. Which got my wheels turning. If it's a really nice cool day, as it tends to be, we could have an additional shot at a really fast half marathon time in the spring. If it's a super hot day, well we just spent a lot of money ($lodging$) to run 13 miles and cheer on our friends who are running the full. I've also always wanted to do Grandma's marathon, but have been hesitant to sign up because when it's hot, it's HOT. In the back of my brain I thought that maybe if we loved the race for the half, maybe we could do the marathon in 2019 too. ALL THE PLANS, ALL THE FUN, ALL THE RACES. It's been a million years since I've done more than one marathon in a year, so we'll see how that shakes out.

BUT. At 5pm on the drive home from the cities, I got in the queue for the half marathon, and 13 minutes of it auto-refreshing every 2-3 seconds while I was on data on the verge of being over for the month, we got our spots! And the next day our hotel$$$.

So this spring we'll have two goal races: The Brookings Half in early May and Garry Bjorklund half in mid June. There are some fun winter races that I've always avoided in the past, but I think we'll make those happen this year!

Toni and I have a half in Chicago toward the end of January for fun, as well as a 4 mile race in early February. There's also a 5 mile race in March and April as check ins for our spring training. I can't WAIT! Although, I'm not entirely ready for the ice/snow storms/below zero temps/windchill in the -30. ahhhhh!

Spring Race Plan

A few weeks ago, I had the insane idea that I would run a half marathon every month in 2017. After spending an entire Sunday plotting, pricing, and spread sheeting the hell out of the idea, I thought about my goals for 2017. In 2017, I'd really like to get faster. I looked at running a race every month in 2017... would that really help with my goal of getting faster? Maybe, maybe not. By spending money to travel for races during not great racing months (February, July, August) I was taking away from being able to double up on some months where it is beautiful to race around here--April, May, October.

I decided to scrap the plan for now, but I will do it someday when I have more of a focus on quantity over quality (and perhaps when my bank account has a lot more $$$ in it so I can travel to some really great locations!).

My plan for the spring is to travel to Dallas in January to see my family and Dominique. In March, I'll travel to San Antonio with Kyle for a work trip (that conveniently falls on the weekend of the Alamo 13.1!), and then my goal race for the spring will be the Brookings Half.

I recently learned that Pete Pfitzinger has a new book specifically for 5ks-half marathons, Faster Road Racing: 5K to Half Marathon. I have had a love affair with his book for marathoners, Advanced Marathoning, and ran my 10k and half marathon PRs during tune up races while training for a full on his plan in 2011.

This go around, I'm working through a 10 week base building program that will get me from my current mileage to 30 miles a week. I do have to modify it a bit, because during that first 10 weeks I'll be running the half in Dallas. More or less as a fun run slash reason to keep running during December/January when it is so much easier to stop running here!

The 12 week program will peak at 47 miles (eeps!) and has great progression through the different stages of training, similar to Advanced Marathoning. I'm also planning to continue with my weekly Sanford POWER sessions if they continue to offer them on a night or early morning that works with my schedule! Fingers crossed. 2017 might be a speedy year! Wait and see.

(yes I 100% asked for this new book for Christmas from my MIL. Danielle sent me the marathon one years ago on our mutual request to be speedy... spoiler, I never did, she REALLY did!)

Spring Race Plan

After a very lackluster running schedule, I opted to DNS the Houston Half Marathon. Bye bye $$$. :( Given how painful the Bemidji Marathon was while fairly prepared, I can only imagine how brutal a half marathon would be given my current running base (little to nothing). I'm truly enjoying yoga all day everyday, so I'm going to continue with that and run when I want to.

With that being said, my plan for this spring is to start back at the beginning (kinda)! Whenever I've "got back into running" I've always focused on a 5k race to shoot for. I know I'm doing great things for my body and my future running self, by strengthening areas that have given me trouble (glutes) and gaining flexibility in others (uh, everywhere, but hips especially). 

While I'm going to continue to go to yoga classes as much as humanly possible, I'd like to also start with shorter runs, lower weekly mileage, and re-introducing speed, essentially working from the ground up again. I'm hoping that by keeping my mileage low, and my goal races shorter, I can really work on keeping my form in check and find a balance between all the yoga and running.

My plan for this spring is as follows:

• 1/31/15 Frostbite Four (weather permitting). I've always wanted to run this race. It's a 4 miler in a town about 30 minutes south of me. They have multiple race routes plotted out and choose the route the morning of the race based on the direction of the wind. I think this race would be a good baseline indicator for me on a hard effort 4 miler. If it's ridiculously cold, I'll probably just go to a yoga class instead. Let's be honest. :)
• 3/14/15 Free Rebel Run 5k. I ran this 5k last year and had a blast. It's free/donation based and on one of my favorite parts of the bike trail. This is my first "goal" race of the spring. "Goal" being a loose term, but I'm going to attempt to add running back into my routine 3x/week with one speed session with a speedy-ish 5k time on this day as the game plan.
• 6/13/15 Harrisburg 10k. I love 10ks and look to have a crazy busy spring ahead of me as far as weekends are concerned, so this would be my next weekend free (insane!) in which there's a race nearby. 
• 6/19/15 Longest Day 10k (?). I have this Friday off, so if it's not a trillion degrees I may head up to Brookings and convince Megan to come run with me. :)
• 7/4/15 Firecracker 10k/5k (weather dependent). I love this race. I ran my 2nd fastest 10k there last summer. But I've also ran my 10k PW there on a hotter/more humid day. If it's gross out, I'll only make myself suffer through 5k. 
• 9/13/15 Sioux Falls half marathon. Shortly after the Firecracker race, it'll be time to start training for my 11th consecutive Sioux Falls half marathon! Wouldn't it be neat if taking things slow and steady all year long lead to a breakthrough race in September?? I wouldn't be mad... ;)

So obviously a spring marathon is out of the cards, as I had previously mentioned that Grandma's Marathon might be an option, and maybe 2015 will be the first year since I started running marathons that I won't toe the line for 26.2 miles. We'll see. There's still a little time that one could be snuck in if I feel the itch! :)