I was planning on running two road races this summer, but my coach has advised me not to so I can focus on the training. They both fall on scheduled long run days and he says I just shouldn't mess with the mileage like that. Agree or disagree?
I was planning on running two road races this summer, but my coach has advised me not to so I can focus on the training. They both fall on scheduled long run days and he says I just shouldn't mess with the mileage like that. Agree or disagree?
Two road races all summer? That's not so bad at all go for it.
do like levins did, train like a madman
Win your road races. Long runs the day after your races.
Your coach sounds like a puss. I bet half his guys arent eveing running this summer
yeah what could I expect timewise though doing races in the base building phase? Will my times just suck, or would I still be in decent racing shape? The hardest things I'm doing before the first one in July are like strides and a tempo once a week.
Times probably won't be amazing, but it's a way to break up the monotony of constant mileage by adding a twist to it in the form of competition. You have to remember not to worry about what the time is. Don't go in looking to run "1x:30" or whatever, just use it as a day to go hard and see where you are.
Don't go super hard in these though, save your "A" performances for the season. But 2 5ks is perfectly fine.
I would recommend that you race a couple of times over the summer so that you can see how you are progressing and because you can not really duplicate that kind of effort in training. You won't be doing much speed but these will keep your anaerobic system working.
michiganxcrunner wrote:
yeah what could I expect timewise though doing races in the base building phase? Will my times just suck, or would I still be in decent racing shape? The hardest things I'm doing before the first one in July are like strides and a tempo once a week.
I've pr'd in base phase before in the second half of a double. I've also totally shit the bed when I'm sharp. You can get pretty fast on milage, strides and tempos so you could surprise yourself.
Your coach needs to lighten up a little bit.
Yeah I can kinda see both sides of the argument here. On the one hand, racing would be fun and mix up the training a little bit. On the other hand, missing a 14 miler would suck because I'd have to do it the next day or lose a bunch of mileage... but how bad could that be for one weekend...
Assuming your coach has had some success with others, I would suggest you heed his advice. However, if he is clueless about how to train, then ignore him. It sounds like he does know what he is doing, based on what little you wrote.
I think running a couple 5Ks would be beneficial. You could do a long run another day, or do a long warm-up and long warm-down.