A New Year of Training

So it has been 3 weeks since my race at Rocket City Marathon.  An end to a worthwhile season.  A new PR of 3:37:59 at RCM, a PR at the Bridge Street Half: 1:39:38, and a PR at this year's Cotton Row 10K: 45:59.  Had some fun races with the Oak Barrel Half at the Jack Daniel's Distillery, the Knoxville Half, and the Georgia Peach Jam Half in Cumming, GA.  The last one ended a 4 back to back weekend worth of halves earning me a Jupiter status in Half Fanatics.  I did the Warrior Dash again with Jennifer as well as taking part in a fun Firecracker Chase 10.2 miler; both in Tennessee. 

I logged over 2400 miles, many with such an amazing group of runners, the Panera Pounders.  I also have such a great support group online at MyFitnessPal Monthly Running Challenges. 

The last 3 weeks have seen major cuts in mileage as I rested up for the new year.  Mileage has already started cranking up this week including a fun trail run up on Monte Sano last Sunday morning.  So now time to reflect on this new year and my goals.   I still have an ultimate goal to Boston Qualify.  This year's training brought me closer, but it is clear that I still have some work cut out for me.  Every year it get's harder and harder to race in Boston as more qualifiers become eligible according to the BAA's standard to enter into the beloved race which only has room for approximately 30,000 runners. In 2012, the BAA made qualifying standards 5 minutes faster for each age group  hoping to allow more "qualifiers" to actually enter the race.  This year, 4,562 eligible qualifiers were turned away for the upcoming 2016 race.  There are rumors that the BAA may increase the qualifying standards for the 2018 race.  Even though currently my age group (45-49) is set at 3:25:00, I have a goal to finish at least 3:20:00.  I still have a shot at the 2017 race.  The Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon is set for April 30th which is a qualifying race for Boston Marathon 2017.  If I decide to sign up and race it, it could be my last chance to make in for next year.  It will all depend on how much improvement I can make in the next few months over the winter.  Otherwise, the December 2016 RCM could qualify me for 2018. 

My current focus for the next few weeks is base building and slowly move my weekly mileage back up.  My peak weeks for this past year's RCM sent me up in the 60-65 mile range.  I plan on increasing that to 70 and possibly 75 miles.  This will include some daily doubles.  I may have to rely on treadmill based speed workouts if this winter's weather becomes unbearable.  I resorted to the treadmill only twice this past season.  I have a mountain run planned on Redstone with some friends next Saturday morning.  Madkin and Weeden Mountains are beloved training grounds for me since I spent so many Saturday long runs last year which includes over 1200 feet worth of elevation.

I have some plans once I get pass this base rebuilding phase.  In addition to extended long runs, tempo and strides will continue to make up a staple of my workouts.  In addition, I plan to introduce some hill sprints and some VO2 max workouts this year.  I also want to include more strength training and plyometric based drills.  I am hoping that this recipe will not only enable me to keep improving to meet my goal, but to keep me injury free.  In order to do so, I will continue to tailor my workouts according to how my body feels, perform more stretching, and not be so stingy on my cut back weeks. 

 I plan to blog more on training tips that are relevant to what I am doing.  This way, you can follow along with what I am doing if you wish to do so.  I wish everyone their best and hope for a fun filled injury free upcoming season.

You can keep up with me on my Facebook The Running Stan page.  You can also follow me on my Strava page.