How often do you race?

I race about 30 times per year.

April

Hilly half marathon trail race.

10k road

6 hour (paved park trail)

Extremely hilly and muddy 20k trail

May (planned)

25k trail

12 hour non technical park 5k loop

Smoove wrote:

I came of running age as a college walk on in the early 90s and we probably raced 25 times per season or more (including cross country, indoor and outdoor).

The trend today at the college level is obviously to race less often than that, and think most post-collegians race a lot less often than that because they have other things going on and because of the more challenging logistics and increased expense of racing as compared to college.

That leads me to wonder how often post-collegians race. For me it is about 10-12 times per year.

Probably 10 at most. South Florida does not allow for ideal racing conditions for a good 9 mos out the year, I'd do more if it didn't mean an aquathon during the summer.

I know some of the South Florida guys. Seems like a good group of folks to train with, but just rough conditions to train in.

Same age as you, but not as fast. I might race up to 9 times this year at 1 mile - HM distances. It depends on race length and training age - a year ago, it took me a week to recover from a hard 5K and I had to take a break after a couple of those. Now I find I need less time off after 5K races, and there are some road miles in my area where just one day off is enough. And maybe half of the races or less will be goal races where I taper significantly.

I run maybe 6 races per year (2 marathons plus a couple 5ks, one or two 10ks and maybe a half). I would run in more races but I'm too cheap. Fwiw I did not run in college but picked up running in my late 20s.

Depends on the definition of race.. do solo time trials count?

Official organized races? I train all year and pick out maybe 4 serious goal races to gear my training towards for top performance. If it's a marathon (like Boston) I will spend a long cycle on it and not race much in the buildup. I end up doing rustbuster races as workouts and occasional races to test my fitness, or jump in a weekend 5k if I think I can win something. Probably ends up being 10-12 races per year, with only 4 or 5 serious PR attempts.

Spring and fall marathon, a half in February. June, July, August probably busiest racing time about 10 5ks of course things change with injuries but this has been pretty steady over the years.

I'd say I average a little over one race per month when I am uninjured. In a good year I will run perhaps six half-marathons, my favorite distance, and another six to nine shorter races (5K to 10K). I rarely take the shorter races seriously as I don't have the speed to run well at anything shorter than the HM, but just treat them as speed work for my HMs.

I live in central California where we have good racing conditions for about eight months of the year. June through September get bloody hot but tolerable for short races.

10-15 races a year.

2 - 4 triathlons (sprint distance to IM)

6 - 8 in the 5k to 10k range

2 - 3 half marathons

Last open marathon in 2009. Might try one or two more. 59 y/o.

I think you should scratch that marathon itch that you have been talking about . ..

amkelley wrote:

I'd say I average a little over one race per month when I am uninjured. In a good year I will run perhaps six half-marathons, my favorite distance, and another six to nine shorter races (5K to 10K). I rarely take the shorter races seriously as I don't have the speed to run well at anything shorter than the HM, but just treat them as speed work for my HMs.

I live in central California where we have good racing conditions for about eight months of the year. June through September get bloody hot but tolerable for short races.

4 or 5 times per year is about all for me. I generally will put two races together at the end of a 4-6 mo training block and I'll only register if I am I shape to attempt to hit a goal time. Unfortunately, racing is just too distracting to my family commitments to do any more frequently than that. Although I'm not sure that I would race much more if I could given that it's also a potential training interruption. When I race, I race. I don't use races as workouts.

Since turning 40, I race about once or twice a month; when not injured.

Every day homey

2-3 times a year in actual paid races, HM and marathon. Maybe another 3-4 solo 1 mile, 5k, or 10k time trials on the track.

I don't like paying to race often although if I had more extra money I might. Generally I don't like racing less than 4 or so weeks apart because I like to get in at least a decent training cycle between races. I also usually have a few down months during the year where I'm not in good enough shape to feel like racing.

Q: How often do you race?

A: Whenever I feel like I want to. Gosh!

I have always been of the mind that as long as you can accept that your times may be somewhat appalling, racing when not fit is okay and can be a great substitute for a workout. There aren't too many better vo2max workouts than 15-16 minutes at vo2max pace. I acknowledge that there is definitely added stress on your body from subbing in a 5k race for a standard workout, but I don't think it prevents me from getting adequate training in.Definitely just one way of looking at it, I acknowledge.

NotMuchh wrote:Generally I don't like racing less than 4 or so weeks apart because I like to get in at least a decent training cycle between races.

Smoove wrote:

I have always been of the mind that as long as you can accept that your times may be somewhat appalling, racing when not fit is okay and can be a great substitute for a workout. There aren't too many better vo2max workouts than 15-16 minutes at vo2max pace. I acknowledge that there is definitely added stress on your body from subbing in a 5k race for a standard workout, but I don't think it prevents me from getting adequate training in.

Definitely just one way of looking at it, I acknowledge.

I agree. I guess I'm just lazy, but I find it awfully hard to really push myself to do hard workouts. It's worth it to me to pay $25 or $30 and drive an hour to a race to have a bunch of people push me as hard as I can go. As a slow old lady, even in smallish races I never have the problem of no one near my pace to race. I end up racing 8-year-old boys, big fat guys, old guys, skinny women who look good but have no aerobic capacity, etc. I don't care, I'll race whoever is there.

A 40s attorney on T can't figure out this out.

Bill Rogers and Frank Shorter raced alot. Pros today don't race enough.