Frequency of races

One dark day on Usenet, [email hidden] (Kip) said
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I'm a beginning runner. I ran my first 5K on 6/20 and did
better than I expected: 22.40. But now I'm hit with the
runner's bug. I want to run every race out there. Well,
maybe not every one, but quite a few of them. There's a
neat 5K trail race coming up Sunday that would be really
fun, but I also want to run a local 4 miler on July 4th.
So, just wondering...should I bag the Sunday race to
better prepare for the one on the 4th? How frequently do
other runners race?

I would bag the Sunday trail race. At the very least, run it
at sub- maximal speed. But that's just me. There are a lot
of runners that do a race every weekend. They do it because
they enjoy it. However, they most likely will not run their
best time at any one race. If you want to continue running a
lot of races, you should pick a key race. One at which you
want to do your best. Work out a plan that gets you into
peak shape for that key race. Work in the other races as
fast paced training runs where you don't go all out. Of
course that's easier said than done. It will be difficult to
go to a race and not get caught up in the racing atmosphere
and end up running too hard.

Phil M.

--
"Do, or do not. There is no try." -Yoda

It all depends. You didn't tell us your weekly mileage
totals. It'd be a lot easier to answer your question if we
knew "how often" and "how much".

[email hidden] (Kip) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I'm a beginning runner. I ran my first 5K on 6/20 and did
better than I expected: 22.40. But now I'm hit with the
runner's bug. I want to run every race out there. Well,
maybe not every one, but quite a few of them. There's a
neat 5K trail race coming up Sunday that would be really
fun, but I also want to run a local 4 miler on July 4th.
So, just wondering...should I bag the Sunday race to
better prepare for the one on the 4th? How frequently do
other runners race?

Kip said:

I'm a beginning runner. I ran my first 5K on 6/20 and did
better than I expected: 22.40. But now I'm hit with the
runner's bug. I want to run every race out there. Well,
maybe not every one, but quite a few of them. There's a
neat 5K trail race coming up Sunday that would be really
fun, but I also want to run a local 4 miler on July 4th.
So, just wondering...should I bag the Sunday race to
better prepare for the one on the 4th?

It depends on your objectives and opportunities for
various races.

If you want to see what a trail race is like and don't have
other opportunities in the near future, run the trail race.
If you are more concerned with doing well on the 4 miler on
July 4, then you might want to skip the trail race and
concentrate on that. Or depending upon what your training
looks like (you didn't give any indication), you might
consider running - not racing - both of them as training
runs just for the experience - see what their race
management is like, etc.

I'm a relatively new runner (at least to races and
structured running), but in my first summer of running, I
think I did 3 events in about a 3 wk period - orienteering
in early May (including unsuccessful search for one of the
controls and being out over 2 hr, iirc) followed by a trail
4 mi at end of month (Wed night, 45-50 min + 1.5-2 hr amble
back to car while taking pictures - they did't have a
shuttle) followed by a trail duathlon 2.5 days later (Sat
am, about 2.3 hr in almost continuous rain, iirc). Oh, and
mid-May is when my field season starts gearing up. Let's
just say I was really still sore Sat morning (before
duathlon), but I think I was less sore Sun (after duathlon
and recover swim later in the day Sat).

My goal was to sample various events and see what they
were like. In Alaska, all running related events for the
state are listed in one big schedule. There was a literal
buffet of running activities spread before me, and I had a
small window in mid-May to early June before field season
would prevent any summer races, and the only non-ultra
winter races we had the time was a winter tri, which I had
already done.

With 20-20 hindsight, would I do that combo again?
Absolutely. I was fine to run them as a sampling of events
and learned a *lot*. The main issue was mental stress
between races and gearing up for field season, which is one
reason why I haven't done that since. In future years, I've
picked one of the events and focused on that with a
particular goal, like not having to walk the bike in the
hilly duathlon.

That said, I'm lucky to get one race a year these days since
I've had bad luck with races being cancelled or changing
date to a conflicting time.

One caution: if you start with trail races, you may never
want to run on roads again 🙂 That can evolve from regular
running to orienteering, snowshoe running, etc.

Enjoy.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd
Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

Kip:

For an experienced runner, a 5k or 10k once a week, coupled
with relatively easy running otherwise, is not a problem.
You won't run your very best, but at this point your goal
isn't slicing seconds off of personal records.

Back-to-back races are not a good idea, at any time, imo.

Since you are a beginner, you may come up with injuries
(shin splints, achilles tendonitis, knee problems, etc). It
takes months to re-mold everything and adapt to running.

So, give it a try, but be prepared to back off if you
get injured.

-- Dan

"Kip" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm a beginning runner. I ran my first 5K on 6/20 and did
better than I expected: 22.40. But now I'm hit with the
runner's bug. I want to run every race out there. Well,
maybe not every one, but quite a few of them. There's a
neat 5K trail race coming up Sunday that would be really
fun, but I also want to run a local 4 miler on July 4th.
So, just wondering...should I bag the Sunday race to
better prepare for the one on the 4th? How frequently do
other runners race?

As to how often people race, the answers will vary. I seldom
race. Some of that is because of travel and some is because
I do not want to travel to races since I travel more than
enough on my job--the idea of driving even an hour is not
appealing! I also like each race to be an 100% effort and I
do not get that if I race too often.

It also relates to the distances one is racing and how
"seriously" one wants to run them. If you are really wanting
to be competitive (age group), then choosing fewer races to
me is better than racing too often. Racing should never get
in the way of training. If you just like the atmosphere, use
the runs as hard runs (tempo, LT, for instance) and let that
be the speedwork for the week.

I would discourage beginning runners from racing on Sunday
and then coming back within 1 week to do another race. A
trail race (depending on the terrain profile) could be very
hard. More experienced runners may be able to use the 5K as
a training run for the 4 miler, but inexperienced runners
might push to max and then not properly recover for the 4
miler. A more experienced runner might be able to run the 5K
hard and then take it easy on the 4 miler and not get caught
up in the race fever.

"Kip" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm a beginning runner. I ran my first 5K on 6/20 and did
better than I expected: 22.40. But now I'm hit with the
runner's bug. I want to run every race out there. Well,
maybe not every one, but quite a few of them. There's a
neat 5K trail race coming up Sunday that would be really
fun, but I also want to run a local 4 miler on July 4th.
So, just wondering...should I bag the Sunday race to
better prepare for the one on the 4th? How frequently do
other runners race?

Kip said:

I'm a beginning runner. I ran my first 5K on 6/20 and did
better than I expected: 22.40. But now I'm hit with the
runner's bug. I want to run every race out there. Well,
maybe not every one, but quite a few of them. There's a
neat 5K trail race coming up Sunday that would be really
fun, but I also want to run a local 4 miler on July 4th.
So, just wondering...should I bag the Sunday race to
better prepare for the one on the 4th? How frequently do
other runners race?

I wouldn't recommend more than once a month. Twice a month
is OK occasionaly, for example I sometimes race more often
in Spring/Fall because that's when I get into peak shape, so
there are several opportunities for PRs. But I don't race
unless I'm really expecting to give 100%.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>,

(Kip) said:

I'm a beginning runner. I ran my first 5K on 6/20 and did
better than I expected: 22.40. But now I'm hit with the
runner's bug. I want to run every race out there. Well,
maybe not every one, but quite a few of them. There's a
neat 5K trail race coming up Sunday that would be really
fun, but I also want to run a local 4 miler on July 4th.
So, just wondering...should I bag the Sunday race to
better prepare for the one on the 4th? How frequently do
other runners race?

Lots of different takes on this already, but here's mine....

You're a pretty new runner, so I'd recommend taking it easy,
and waiting for that 4-miler. Me - I've been running for 5
years and spent the first four years ramping up to doing
about a race per month for the racing season (which averaged
about 8 races per year). Last year, I only did a few races,
due to reasons other than training ones. This year, I
strayed from the usual formula - I did four races in five
weeks... sort of trying to make up for my lack of racing
last year. I had a little battle with an injury at the end
of that run of races, but it was minimal considering the
hard training and the intensity and frequency of the races.

But I wouldn't recommend racing so much, really. The high
intensity over a shorts space of time started to hurt me,
and I sure wouldn't wish that on anyone else, especially a
beginner runner... who just might get turned off of the
sport if they suffer from injuries.

Play it cool and take some time to recover and to prepare
for a strong race later. Some people can pull this off, but
they'd be the more seasoned runners.

Best of luck,

Cam

Kip said:

I'm a beginning runner. I ran my first 5K on 6/20 and did
better than I expected: 22.40. But now I'm hit with the
runner's bug. I want to run every race out there. Well,
maybe not every one, but quite a few of them. There's a
neat 5K trail race coming up Sunday that would be really
fun, but I also want to run a local 4 miler on July 4th.
So, just wondering...should I bag the Sunday race to
better prepare for the one on the 4th? How frequently do
other runners race?

Back in the day, my rule of thumb used to be up to a 10K
every week, then 10mi, 20K, or half marathon every two
weeks, marathon once a month. That worked for me at that
fitness level- I could race at that frequency. I must admit
running a 5 mile and 5K the same day once, just for fun, but
my time for the second race was way down.

--
Bob Burns Mill Hall PA [email hidden]

"Dot" <dot.h@#att.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Kip wrote:

One caution: if you start with trail races, you may never
want to run on roads again 🙂 That can evolve from regular
running to orienteering, snowshoe running, etc.

Enjoy.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd
Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

That is being sucked into the dark side. Run Luke RUN!!!

Seriously, Dot offers some good advice and perspective.

"SamANTHA" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

As to how often people race, the answers will vary. I
seldom race. Some of that is because of travel and some is
because I wear crappy nike shoes, and >I'm injured a lot.

HA! I knew it!

Sam said:

"Dot" <dot.h@#att.net> wrote in message news:i0iDc.141454$Gx4.75898@bgtnsc04-
news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

Quoted message said:

One caution: if you start with trail races, you may never
want to run on roads again 🙂 That can evolve from regular
running to orienteering, snowshoe running, etc.

Quoted message said:

That is being sucked into the dark side. Run Luke RUN!!!

Hey, what can I say 🙂

From a news article today about trying to revive a
competitive road 10k amidst the growing number of charity
5k's as well as mountain runs:

"Participation numbers in the Heart Run and Run for Women,
two of Anchorage's most popular road races, have declined
recently while mountain running seems to be growing in terms
of number of events and participation levels."

adn.com5238276p 5173316c.htmlOpen ↗

I should add at this time of year (mid-May to late June, and
also in August), there are so many events (at least relative
to rest of year), that there's usually conflicts. So one
event changing the day it's run can affect it's numbers or
that of competing runs. So whether the drop in road race
numbers is significant or not is hard to tell.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd
Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

Seems like the charities might want to get into the trail running business.
"Dot" <dot.h@#att.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sam said:

"Dot" <dot.h@#att.net> wrote in message news:i0iDc.141454$Gx4.75898@bgtnsc04-
news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

Quoted message said:

One caution: if you start with trail races, you may
never want to run on roads again 🙂 That can evolve from
regular running to orienteering, snowshoe running, etc.

Quoted message said:

That is being sucked into the dark side. Run Luke RUN!!!

Hey, what can I say 🙂

From a news article today about trying to revive a
competitive road 10k amidst the growing number of charity
5k's as well as mountain runs:

"Participation numbers in the Heart Run and Run for Women,
two of Anchorage's most popular road races, have declined
recently while mountain running seems to be growing in
terms of number of events and participation levels."

adn.com5238276p 5173316c.htmlOpen ↗

I should add at this time of year (mid-May to late June,
and also in August), there are so many events (at least
relative to rest of year), that there's usually conflicts.
So one event changing the day it's run can affect it's
numbers or that of competing runs. So whether the drop in
road race numbers is significant or not is hard to tell.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd
Heinrich in Racing the Antelope