I'm pretty much addicted to racing at the moment. If theres a race on I go to it. I've done at least a 5k every week since April upto 10k. Most are 5mile races.
Is there any way I'll improve doing this? I'm not doing any workouts just strides after runs. My best race was 17:30 for 5k and 29:30 for 5miles.
Is it possible to use the races for training?
Well, assuming you could find a race to do every saturday and every sunday of the month you could probably do somewhere around 8 races a month. Plus with the possibility of evening track races you could probably do upwards of 12.
it depends on the month. months like this one (june) you can race 30 times...some others you can even race 31 like august, but lets not even get into the whole february convorsation....
This is like someone addicted to drugs asking how often they can do coke. Every frigging day if they want.
Race addiction is irrational and a not very effective way of training. I went through it back in 1973-74 until I stopped improving and had to face the fact that I needed to learn how to train. Eventually I raised my miles and began to aim for key races, keeping my racing and speed work at or under 10% of my total miles over a year.
The breakthrough, when it came, was significant. I would have racing seasons and non racing seasons. If I went to a race during a training period, I ran it at less than race effort or just ran with the mid pack and had fun. If it came during my racing season then i went for it.
The real question is how good do you want to be? I was a 16:54 5K runner and a 27:30 5 miler. That didn't rock my boat so I focused and got down to 15:46 and 25:45. Not world class by any means. Certainly not national class. Maybe local class but it got be a ranking in Norcal back in the day.
welllll wrote:
it depends on the month. months like this one (june) you can race 30 times...some others you can even race 31 like august, but lets not even get into the whole february convorsation....
Tell that to Michael Wardian. Your assumption that only one race per day is possible is an erroneous one.
The answer is 4.
At the pace you are going you will eventually breakdown, so enjoy your fun in the sun while you can.
There is a time and a season and your's is about to end.
of course its possible, but do you want to pay to just do a workout with a bunch of people for a t-shirt?
You will be the 10k version of DK if you keep it up..
I don't know how many I've done in a month, but last year I ran in 100 races, from 5K to half marathons. One weekend in October I ran in a total of 8 races, all 5Ks. Won my age group in 7 of those races and was 2nd in the 8th. The human body is amazing.
Yeah, and it's even more amazing when you train it right and you see its improvement.
RIP: D3 All-American Frank Csorba - who ran 13:56 in March - dead
RENATO can you talk about the preparation of Emile Cairess 2:06
Great interview with Steve Cram - says Jakob has no chance of WRs this year
Running for Bowerman Track Club used to be cool now its embarrassing
Hats off to my dad. He just ran a 1:42 Half Marathon and turns 75 in 2 months!
2024 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion