Gearing Up for Racing Season
I’ve been following a lot of the other SFM Ambassadors as well as other local friends in the greater Bay Area running community over the last several months as they’ve crushed races, set PRs, and overcome great challenges – a first ultramarathon, overcoming an injury, finding new reasons to run. And I’ve kind of felt like I’ve been on the sidelines – I’ve been working out, running, and so on but it’s been a significant period of time since I safety pinned a race bib on my singlet.
My Half Ironman training officially kicked off today and in the midst of freaking out regarding how on earth I’m going to find three hours on certain days to train, I realized that my own racing season is just around the corner. And I do mean just! In the month of April, I’m signed up for three races in four weekends: first, the inaugural Rock N Roll SF half marathon, which will take us over the Golden Gate like our beloved SFM; next up is my first triathlon (eek!) in Napa, where I’m sure many embarrassing things will happen such as forgetting something important like bike shorts or not being able to get my wetsuit off; and the end of the month will take me to Big Sur for another marathon that’s truly right around the corner.
May brings some shorter races, another triathlon, followed by June, which will see me in yet another triathlon, this time on my birthday IN the San Francisco Bay (one of my greatest fears) and then culminating with SFM. That’s a lot of races! And it’s time to get my butt in gear.
With the upcoming marathons, I need to focus on bumping up mileage – I’ve been running, but mostly ditching the long runs in favor of shorter, faster ones as I concentrate on cross training. Which is beneficial at certain levels, but I do feel like I’ve lost endurance and fitness at distance, so it’s time to get that back, and fast!
I’m also trying to figure out how to plan my training schedule one week – or even one day at a time. Coordinating so many different events is going to take some finesse, and the fact that my work day starts at 6 or 7am more often than not as well as the fact that I may be out of the country multiple times between now and SFM makes it darn hard to stick to a plan religiously. Flexibility will be key!
As my events and races loom, I’m nervous. In a way I haven’t felt recently. Nervous to test my fitness, feeling anxious about not being well enough trained, freaking out about how I can spend hours biking and swimming while simultaneously training for 26.2. but on top of all that – I’m excited. Excited to get back into the swing of things, excited to have real, pressing goals to work towards. Excited to start achieving some new milestones with friends by my side. Bring on the safety pins.
