Off Season Plans

Now that the trail racing season has wrapped up, it's time to start thinking about next year. I have some preliminary races in my head that I want to do for sure: Chippewa, Superior, Afton, Moose Mountain, and Wild Duluth. I'm sure others will fill in, such as Runnin' in the Ruff, Chester Woods, and In Yan Teopa. Before that, however, I need to decide on my goals for the off season, and how they will play into next season's races.

So, from now until mid-January:

R & R - but just for a week or two.
It's been a long, wonderful trail running season and I hope to still get out for an occasional fat ass run. But right now my left heel is still sore (self diagnosis = retrocalcaneal bursitis), so I need to let that heal up. I think I'll also need some new trail shoes, as I suspect that may be most of the culprit for this particular issue. And I need a mental break, so active rest (basically just doing activities for FUN rather than a specific purpose) is on the menu for the next couple of weeks.

Lose 5-10 lbs of fat.
This is actually more vague than it should be: 5 lbs is more realistic, but since I'm not overweight (I just weigh more than I ever have - thank you perimenopause), I will still be at a healthy weight whether I lose 0, 5, or 10 lbs. I will accomplish this by:

a) limiting caloric intake to 1600 +/- 100 calories per day, 5 days per week.
b) engaging in more high intensity cardio intervals (anaerobic 1x/week as well as aerobic 1x/week) to increase exercise post oxygen consumption (EPOC).
c) maintaining strength training 2-3x per week. I may combine some of this with the anerobic intervals.
d) still doing some moderate intensity aerobic exercise including cross training (running, snow shoeing, rowing, biking, stair stepping) 2-3x/week.
e) dropping the bicep curls with Summit Extra Pale Ale from my routine.

Improve flexibility.
I am about as flexible as a redwood. As trees go, redwoods are pretty pliable, but.... I am not a tree. I will accomplish this by:

a) Self myofascial release using a biofoam roller. I have 2 of them, so I can do it in my living room every day if I choose to. No excuses!
b) Yoga sounds more interesting to me than static stretching, but I don't really want to drive to the gym in the evening to get into a class (and the class schedules change frequently). I see myself sticking to this more successfully if I do it in my living room in the evening as a relaxation thing immediately following the self myofascial release. In reality, it will probably be static stretching (or the PNF stretches that I can do myself without a partner) rather than yoga most of the time, but I've gotta start doing something. Preferrably most days of the week.

Correct muscle imbalances.
We've all got 'em and I am no exception. I'll accomlish this by:

a) doing a musculoskeletal assessment on myself to dial things in more precisely and monitor how what I've been doing has been working. Good thing I do this for a living, so I know exactly what I need to do.
b) Now I just have to do it more regularly ;)

Maintain a running base.
...even if it's minimal, so that I can jump in to my planned run training schedule beginning in mid-January in preparation for the Chippewa Moraine 50K in April. Up until then, most of my running will be at an easy pace and probably under 10 miles/run depending on how the heel and knees are feeling. I have a vague idea of what my Chippewa training schedule will be once we get to mid-Jan, but will not solidify it until assessments tell me what my strengths/weaknesses are at that time. Since I am historically weakest with strength endurance, I feel pretty confident that there will be lots of hills in my future.

Enjoy the offseason!

Goal Setting

After spending a great deal of time the last couple of weeks helping my clients with their goals for the upcoming year, I realized: Many folks have a general idea of what they want to accomplish when it comes to setting goals, but they don't go far enough with the planning to actually improve their chances of achieving them.

Most of my clients are familiar with the SMART acronym:

S = Specific. Make your long and short term goals as specific as possible.
M = Measureable. Each goal must have a measureable way of tracking success.
A = Action oriented. What action will you take to achieve your goal?
R = Realistic.
T = Time. Give each goal an appropriate time frame.

This is a great start and they do pretty well up to this point, but it doesn't map out the specific details of how to actually accomplish the task. For example, one plans to run Boston Marathon this year in a sub 3 hour time, and they qualified for Boston by running Twin Cities in 3:02. It's specific, measureable, realistic, and they know the time frame that they have to get ready for the Boston Marathon. The action they plan to take to achieve this goal is to do lots of running. Unfortunately, this is where most people stop when it comes to planning their goals.

Here are a few tips to improve your success rate:

*Know exactly what it is that you are trying to accomplish.

*Know exactly where you are starting from. This comes in the form of some type of assessment that allows you to measure your current strengths and weaknesses.

*Once you know where you are starting from and where you want to go, you'll be able to plan specific steps to get from "point A" to "point B".

*Break larger goals down into smaller and smaller goals, until it becomes a daily "to do" list. Have a specific reason for doing each and every thing on your daily training list. Why are you running this distance at this intensity on this day? This is a biggie!

*Focus on the positive (what you should do rather than shouldn't do).

*Be precise: put in dates, times, distances, goal pace, etc.

*Set priorities: some races will be more important than others, some may serve as supported training runs. Some things in life will be more important than running races.

*Set performance rather than outcome goals. Focus on things that you can control (your performance), and don't worry about things you cannot control (what the other runners are doing).

*Do not set your goals too low, which is just as important as not setting your goals too high. Make your goals challenging, but achievable.

*Be flexible. Have a "Plan B" in your daily training. You may need to adjust your training schedule based on weather, illness, injury, job/family time demands, etc.

*Learn from your experiences, including when you fail to meet a goal. What do you need to improve upon so that you can move closer to meeting this goal next time? Was the goal realistic to begin with? Was the goal irrelevant and you weren't really motivated to pursue it?

*Keep in mind that goals will change over time. If a goal no longer holds an attraction to you, let it go and focus your energy on something that is important to you.

I am in the process of beginning my goal setting for 2008. Currently, my key races are the Superior 25K in May and the Moose Mountain Marathon in September. I plan on running as many of the MN Trail Series races as possible, but the schedule has not been finalized yet. I sent off my registration for the Trail Mix 25K, which will most likely be my first race this year (unless there's an early MN Trail Series race that I don't know about). I've got my daily training plan scheduled out to 5/18/2008, which includes strength training and running based on my current strengths and weaknesses. I have a specific reason for each workout and exercise that I do, whether it's a strength training exercise, running a certain distance, pace, terrain, target heart rate, etc. My daily plans will most likely change somewhat, depending on what my results are as my training progresses. Since I'm new to trail running, I don't really have enough experience to know what realistic times will be for each distance (trails are harder for me to predict than road races since each trail is so different). Based on my Afton result last summer, I hope to beat 3 hours at Trail Mix.

Well, it's a start...