Racing Schedule For Next Few Months

After having a week+ to think about Fall races post-ankle sprain, I decided it was best to stay off racing soft surfaces until next year. With originally 4 more XC races lined up, it's a big change.

Original XC Schedule:

September 11- GBTC XC 5K

September 30- Paul Short Run (8K)

October 2- NYRR XC 5K

October 23- Boston Mayor's Cup (8K)

November 6- USATF-NE XC Championships

One my goals of the year was to break 26 minutes in the 8K at Franklin Park. It's an iconic course, perhaps the only well-known XC course in New England and it would feel great to accomplish on a challenging course I'm familiar with. XC has been a struggle but sub-26 would make feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it. The other races were more to get a full season and I didn't have specific goals there. GBTC was really supposed to be just a reintroduction to XC with low expectations so not having a good result isn't terribly disappointing. Paul Short is a fantastic XC course, one of the few that is a single lap for 8K and their open race is actually very competitive. The NYRR meet is a 5K at Van Cortlandt which is a historic XC venue that I'd love to race at. The idea of a 10K at Franklin Park for the USATF-NE champs sounds awful but I've never raced XC 10K and it would be nice to get a PR on the boards for that plus it's nice to compete in New England championships when I can. 

Overall the only big goal race was the Mayor's Cup. That's not to say I had low expectations for anything else but it's the only one that is a disappointment to have to take off the schedule. I thought about getting rid of the rest, giving the ankle some time to heal and doing it anyway but I just don't want to take any risks and potentially harm some November goal races that I could be in pretty good shape for. Paul Short is certainly one I was looking forward to but I definitely wouldn't be in top shape for that. Most of these races will likely come back onto the calendar in a future fall as I still have XC goals and ambitions.

A huge positive about cancelling the XC portion of my fall racing calendar is training and racing will be far simpler. Originally I thought I'd get one mid-week XC interval workout and then a LR with blocks at HMP. But during race weeks, which is a good chunk of the calendar, I'd have to get rid of one of the hard efforts and have many weeks where I'm only working on XC strength and not road. Now I have three less races/race weeks, freeing up several weeks to recover from race efforts and focus on quality training. It's fun and tempting to just race all the time, but the best results come from a mix of quality training weeks and race weeks. Without any need to do XC workouts, I can fully focus on training for a great half marathon. Now I can incorporate moderate (MP) blocks into the LRs which are less strained and more enjoyable than HMP while still having mid-week workouts focusing on running HMP pace as much as possible. This approach makes me feel more confident rather than trying to train for two disciplines. I do think being successful at road and XC is possible in the same season as much of the paces are similar and many of the workouts will make you stronger for the other discipline, but it likely would result in less success than simply focusing on one. 

So here is the fall schedule, which you can also see on my updated racing page. For the fall season (end November), I went from 10 races to 7 which is a more manageable amount. While I still have some long blocks with racing every weekend, I now have a much shorter average race distance (taking out XC 8Ks and 10Ks) which is easier to recover from and the two weeks after Detroit Half off, which will be a good time to get in some last good training in before the final race block. I think 7 is a good number that keeps me excited for races without overdoing it. I'll have enough weeks without racing to get in good training but also enough races that I'll have plenty of opportunities to do well. 7 is still probably a high number for some people in two months but I find it takes me a little bit to develop race sharpness. Basically sometimes I feel fit going into the first race in a while but not having experience feeling the burn of racing in sometime I'll make tactical errors or be more likely to give into fatigue. But many times I'll see huge improvement after the early races as those first races will give me insight into improvements I have to make and sharpen me up for more important ones. 

I'm fully committed and signed up to these, it just feels better to sign up without worrying about price increases, being sold out, etc and just go forward in training with the mindset of knowing exactly what your race schedule looks like rather than maybe this, maybe that.

October 2nd- Ocean Road 10K: Narragansett, RI

This was originally going to be a major race weekend for me with Paul Short friday and NYRR XC on Sunday. With those out and others, this seemed like a great opportunity to get in a local 10K. The point to point concept is neat, it looks like a cool race, and it's pretty close to home. I also would like to take down my 10K PR (33:48) and this would likely be my only chance until the spring. 

October 8th- Hartford 5K: Hartford, CT

Before racing the New Haven 5K, I realized I had not run a road 5K since Fall 2020. It's a classic, fun distance that won't take as much out of you as longer race. With several opportunities in the area to take down my road PR (15:55), this looks a fun event and a good final fast tune-up for Detroit Half.

October 16th- Detroit Half Marathon: Detroit, MI

The major plan for the fall is two half marathons: Detroit in October and Philadelphia in November. Detroit will be more of a fitness check in to see if I'm on track and what I have to do for the next 5 weeks whereas Philadelphia is the goal race of the entire season. Originally, I was a little nervous about doing two half marathons in the middle on an XC season but with XC gone, it feels like a reasonable schedule especially with two weekends off post-Detroit. The course is interesting as it goes into Canada and back traveling over a Bridge and a tunnel. It's pretty flat but there are tight turns getting on and off of those ramps going across the border. My main reason for doing this is that Dad is doing the full so it's really an opportunity for this year to get in a different race as I probably wouldn't be interested enough to do it myself later on. 

October is fitness testing season to me- definitely expectations going into the race and decent fitness but not quite November which I will have high hopes for.

November 5th- Dash to the Finish Line 5K: New York, NY

Besides this race and Detroit, I mostly picked distances I want to do well or races that fit well in the schedule. Here, the weekend was open with USATF-NE XC out and this race looks awesome. It'll be a bit pricey and become a travel race for me, but with so many great bucket list races, this was an opportunity to cross one off while probably being in good shape for it. Who knows when the next time this one will line up again with the race schedule (based on 2023 and 2024 goals, it probably won't those years). This course looks much more challenging than the other road 5Ks I'm doing with a net uphill on the point to point course. Should be a blast.

November 13th- Big Steps 5K: Needham, MA

A flat course serving as the USATF-NE 5K championships, this isn't terribly far and is a great opportunity to cut down the 5K PR hopefully from some of the previous 5K while also getting in a good final tune-up for the goal race.

November 19th- Philadelphia Half Marathon: Philadelphia, PA

The big one. Second half since 2014 so I hope to come out with a respectable time that I can feel good about before a marathon next year. This is a fantastic event and awesome course, so I'm really looking forward to it.

November 24th- Manchester Road Race: Manchester, CT

I've been itching to get back to Thanksgiving racing for a while now, but most years I've either not been in shape or had some injuries. Right now things are looking for me to resume Thanksgiving race with a really competitive classic. 

Will end the season, some time off and then get back into Indoor shortly. I've been looking over potential indoor and outdoor meets and will post schedule with thoughts before then. There are a lot of open meets in indoor but it looks like I'll have to run unattached at college meets for outdoor (which many New England competitions don't allow).