Racing During Your Next Base Buildup—An Exception

If you’ve built at least one good long base (e.g., December through March), had a good competitive season, and stayed healthy, you may want to consider some added races in the off-season. This is an exception to the rules discussed earlier. Only consider this if your fitness and health is high, and never if you’re injured, not feeling full of energy, your MAF Tests are down, or if your work, family, or other schedules are busy.

During your next long base period you can race occasionally—perhaps once or twice—without ill effects. Let me repeat the criteria:

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  1. You’ve already built at least one long base period.
  2. You had a good race season.
  3. You were healthy throughout both base and race season. This means you performed well and did not get injured or ill.

If this is the case, competing once or twice during your long winter base (as opposed to the short summer one) should not take away from your health or fitness. And you should be able to race extremely well.

If you’re ready to compete, successfully following proper preparation, implementation, and recovery procedures will ensure you of success. But what if you’re not ready to race? Don’t. You’ll have to sacrifice at least part of the season and get back on track by improving your aerobic system and other aspects of fitness and health. Modify and correct your training, diet or whatever needs improvement, until you are ready.

Steve, a competitive runner, came to see me at age forty-nine, complaining of chronic injuries in the knee and calf, accompanied by a variety of other overtraining symptoms such as extreme fatigue, sleep irregularities, asthma, and feelings of muscle weakness. His running schedule was often over 100 miles a week when not injured, and included track work from spring through fall. In addition, when running at his normal training pace with the heart monitor, his rate was in the high 150s. Steve also went to the company gym two to three times a week for weight training.

Since it was now early May, his main concern was to eliminate his injuries so he could start his racing season. But my consideration was for Steve’s current health and future training and racing. So this particular season, I explained to him, had to be modified. We had to correct his injuries and start building an aerobic base, which would take at least three months. If all went well, the plan was to make a new season starting in July. This was a difficult concept for Steve to accept.

But he had been to a number of health-care professionals over the past two years without success and finally decided to give in and try this approach, citing his worsening performances and diminishing health.

Steve’s physical injuries were corrected by balancing the muscles that caused the knee and calf problem. Changing to a properly fitting running shoe was also important. His first month showed good improvement in his aerobic pace, from 9:20 to 8:40. By the next month, Steve’s energy was very good, with sleeping and breathing problems resolved. By mid-June, I helped Steve plan his race season that would start in late July with an 8K cross-country event, a race he had run each year for the past five. Steve had some of his best racing ever from July through early October, including a personal best in his first 8K event.