Quick Turnarounds

A few weeks ago, I started making up my racing schedule for the end of 2011 and for 2012. For the remainder of this year, I had originally planned to run a 5K on November 19th, another 5K on December 4th, and yet another 5K on January 1st. 3 races, pretty nicely spread out.

 

Things change, though.

 

I registered for the November 5K, The Herndon (VA) Turkey Trot, a few weeks back. I wanted to run a Thanksgiving Day race, but didn't see anything close by that interested me. I had run the Lansdowne (VA) Turkey Trot every year since its inception in 2008 (actually my first ever race), but since moving away, didn't want to drive out there on Thanksgiving this year. 3 times is enough.

 

But I got a call from my sister-in-law last week, asking me if I wanted to join her husband and my niece and nephew for the Virginia Run 5K in Centreville, VA on Thanksgiving Day. It's a pretty popular race, with close to 5,000 runners participating. I had to mull that one over - that's just a 5 day turnaround from my race on the 19th. But I figured, why not? I do speedwork spaced 7 days apart; how different could this be, just 5 days apart?

 

So I signed up for the race. This week's training runs, along with next week's, are all going to be easy runs. I believe I should save my hard runs for the races. No long run this weekend - instead, I'll combine the 3.1 miles on Saturday with a 3-to-4 mile shakedown run on Sunday (it was a no-long-run week for me, anyway). Then, the Sunday after the Thanksgiving race, I can go back to my 10-miler, after a few days of rest.

 

But what I'm also considering is still running the 5K on December 4th, in Reston. That's 10 days after the Thanksgiving race. So, in effect, three 5K races in 16 days. And then another 5K in Reston on New Year's Day. I won't begin my training for the Rock & Roll USA Half-Marathon in Washington, DC until after the new year, anyway, so why not?

 

4 races (5K's) in 45 days. Let's see how that works out.