Next Up

With the arrival of training camp and the NFL season, my running is typically reduced from training to maintaining fitness. I have done a better job over the last couple of seasons of maintaining my fitness level to at least be able to race a few times between September and December. A lot of the races that I’ve have run have been a struggle, but I’ve at least lined up and been somewhat competitive, which is not something I could have said three years ago.

The last two years I’ve focused on running the XTERRA Georgia races in the fall. Those races have given me goals to shoot for, even if the goal has been to finish, and that’s helped me stay motivated to run five and/or six days a week. It’s funny looking back to when I first moved down to Georgia. That first fall, I probably ran two maybe three times a week and racing was the furthest thing from my mind. Now I’m writing a blog post about my race schedule for that same period. Live and learn I guess.

Goals are the key to getting me through this part of the calendar. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining because I know everyone deals with their own challenges when it comes to finding the time or motivation to train. Goals have been huge for me personally. It’s easy to chalk not training up to not having time, but I’ve found that if you set a goal and that goal is something that is important to you, then it’s easier to stay motivated. It’s not easy and there are still times that it’s a struggle, but at least the goal gives you a reason to push through that.

Okay, after that long winded intro here’s what I actually wanted to get into. What’s up next for me? Once again XTERRA is a goal of mine. I’ve won my age group for the last three years and that’s the goal for me again. The cool thing about the XTERRA series is that is stretches from September to August, so it’s a real test of being able to keep yourself in shape year long. Like I said above, I’m not always in race shape, see Ft. Yargo, Battle at Big Creek, or Thrill in the Hills last year, but it at least I kept myself in good enough shape to run.

XTERRA
The series starts in late September with the Harbins Park 10k and has one race per month (two in December before taking a break until February. This is a fun series, run on some of my favorite course in the area and it’s become something that I really look forward to. I’m hoping to be able to run a little bit faster this year, but I’ll get a little more into that in a bit.

Cross Country
I’ve been itching to run an XC race for the last couple of years. I really miss racing cross and I get super jealous whenever I see anything from the USATF New England XC series. Last year, my buddy Mitch Novy ran a race at a local college, so I looked into that, but none of the races matched up with home weekends for me. Fortunately, this season I’ve found one that doesn’t conflict with XTERRA or football at the University of North Georgia. It’s 20 minutes from my house so even though it’s a road weekend I can (hopefully) rip 8k and then make it down to the airport. The course is pretty familiar, utilizing some of the UNG Dirty Spokes course and I think it actually suits me pretty well so I am starting to get excited to go and rip it up with the college kids.

I’d love to run a few more XC meets, but the only one that would be realistic for me would potentially be the USATF Georgia championship race. Unfortunately, I haven’t been super impressed with them and in the past it’s been 1.5 hours away and only 5k while falling on the same weekend as a XTERRA race. If that trend continues, it probably won’t be worth it to go.

Georgia State Parks Trail Series
The Georgia State Parks series is put on by Dirty Spokes and two of the four races overlap with XTERRA races, so it’s a no brainer to do if I’m able to. I missed the first race due to training camp, but I should be able to make the rest of them, so I’m thinking ‘why not?’ Also, it’s sponsored by Barberitos and if free burritos are on the line then I’m in every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Georgia Cyclocross
I’ve really taken a liking to cyclocross over the last couple of years and I should be able to jump into a few races this fall on home weekends and the weekend after the Thursday Night game (mini bye!!!). My CX goals are really just to finish, not hurt myself, and not look like a total moron. That last one is going to be tricky. The one race I’ve done, I rocked it over the barriers and on the run up, but the whole riding the bike part needs some work. Secretly, I’m hoping to do well enough to justify buying a CX bike and trying a gravel race or two in the spring. We’ll see how that goes.

Atlanta Thanksgiving Half Marathon
It probably seems like I’ve buried the lead a little bit listing this last, but I’m still up in the air about this race. I said at the start of camp that I would see how the month of August went and then make decision about whether or not I’d run it. I feel like this is a race I could do well in. It’s a tougher course, but I’d like to at least test myself and see what I can do. Now that we’re nearly through August, I feel like my training has gone well. I’ve made it to all of the track workouts that we’ve had and they’ve been solid. I could use more long runs if I’m going to train to race a half, but I think that’s one of those things that falls under the whole ‘setting goals’ thing. If my goal is to race and do well, then hopefully I’ll make time.

Right now I’m still up in the air and I should probably just suck it up and register, but I want to give myself a little more time before I sink 100 bucks into it. Hell, I’m not even sure if I can get out of work in the morning to make it to the race. I would like to get a fall half in one way or another though. I’ve got a eye on a marathon in 2016, so I’d like to take real shot a half before I decide to take that leap.

Looking at that list, it sure seems like I have a lot of irons in the proverbial fire this fall. I don’t know what that means right now, but I do know that I am excited to see how it goes. Having all of these different dates circled on the calendar definitely makes it easier for me to get out of bed and get my runs in. It also gives me something to look forward to in my free time, and if you know me, you know I’m all about maximizing every minute of the free time that I have during the football season.