PLANS, PLANS, PLANS…
What to do now? 2015 running season has come to an end. Off season recovery is over and I’m slowly getting back to normal training. I need to plan next challenges or otherwise I’ll won’t do any progress. While participating in recent events and talking to other runners, a draft of a plan slowly built up in my head of what to do in the upcoming season.
Unfortunately, while all of the races seem equally attractive, I’m not in a such good shape to start every weekend ;-) Therefore, it was necessary to open an online calendar of polish trail mountain races, and Excell table and decide what to cut and what to leave.
GROUND RULES
Ground rules for 2016:
- I focus further on trail mountain races
- I fell in love with Ultra so I crave for lengthens distances – ideally planned races should be between 70-90 km
- In 2016 I want to improve my trail running results. This year my goal was to reach the finish line, which resulted in the following rankings:
- 35/201 (11/51 in the M30 category) in Szczawnica – Chyża Durbaszka (21 km)
- 135/573 (125/478 in the M category) in Rajcza – Chudy Wawrzyniec (53 km)
- 163/630 (86/249 in the M30 category) in Cisna – Bieszczady Ultra Marathon (53 km)
- I want to test myself in the street marathon again. The record of 03:31:35 starts bothering me and I need to do something with it. This is the biggest problem, as training for a street marathon is totally different than the ultra-endurance mountain training. I would like to begin the spring season with the street marathon, and then change my training plan to only mountain-endurance training.
AND SPECIFICALLY…
So here’s the plan for 2016:
RACE: ZIMOWY MARATON BIESZCZADZKI
TIME: 31.01.2016
TYPE: Trail Mountain Ultramarathon
DISTANCE: 43 km
ELEVATION: +625/-625
GOAL: Finish the ultra race in winter conditions
RACE: WIELKA PREHYBA
TIME: 23.04.2016
TYPE: Trail Mountain Ultramarathon
DISTANCE: 43,3 km
ELEVATION: +1925/-1925
GOAL: Finish the race under 5h
RACE: 15. CRACOVIA MARATON
TIME: 15.05.2016
TYPE: Street Marathon
DISTANCE: 42,195 km
ELEVATION: nie dotyczy
GOAL: Finish the race under 3:15 h
RACE: BIEG RZEŹNIKA
TIME: 27.05.2016
TYPE: Trail Mountain Ultramarathon
DISTANCE: 78 km
ELEVATION: +3235/-3055
GOAL: Key 2016 goal! Finish the race. Run in pairs.
RACE: CHUDY WAWRZYNIEC
TIME: 06.08.2016
TYPE: Trail Mountain Ultramarathon
DISTANCE: 80+ km
ELEVATION: +2220/-2218
GOAL: Key 2016 goal! In 2015 I finished the 50+km track. This time I want to score the 80+.
RACE: BIEG 7 DOLIN – 64 KM
TIME: 10.09.2016
TYPE: Trail Mountain Ultramarathon
DISTANCE: 64 km
ELEVATION: +3070/-2970
GOAL: In 2015 I somehow overlooked this race. I’d like to just take part in Running Festival in Krynica
RACE: 38. PZU MARATON WARSZAWSKI
TIME: 25.09.2016
TYPE: Street Marathon
DISTANCE: 42,195 km
ELEVATION: nie dotyczy
GOAL: Again to take part in marathon, where my running adventure started. WIthout any pressure for results, rather a training before BUT.
RACE: BESKIDY ULTRA TRAIL
TIME: 01.10.2016
TYPE: Trail Mountain Ultramarathon
DISTANCE: 90 km
ELEVATION: +4500/-4500
GOAL: Key 2016 goal! Since last year I dream of participating in BUT. This is the longers distance I planned this year and I just want to finish it.
RACE: ŁEMKOWYNA ULTRA TRAIL
TIME: 22.10.2016
TYPE: Trail Mountain Ultramarathon
DISTANCE: 70 km
ELEVATION: +2520/-2520
GOAL: This race is in my „neighborhood” and this year I followed Kasia from runtheworld.pl (race report part 1 and part 2) and Jakub from 100hrmax.pl (his race report). It’s worth reading them. They enthused me with this run and I’d like to close my 2016 running season with this race.
WHAT SAY YOU?
Isn’t all this a bit too ambitious? There is a long, hard race every month – the only break is during holiday months. Common sense would dictate to further discard something more, but all are equally tempting to me and I would like to participate in each of them.
Another thing is that I may not be able to sign up for all – some will certainly have a draw. Maybe life itself will verify;-)
What do you think? I would be grateful for all your comments, even from those unfamiliar with mountains and ultrarunning. Every opinion will help :-)