Race Ready

Many training programs are centered around building base mileage, working on speed/tempo training, peaking for a certain race, recovering, then starting all over again for the next year. However, our training tends to involve peaking for multiple races throughout the year... more of the "endless season" as promoted in this article. Back in the day, many elite athletes used this approach, and the author of the article suggests that it might not be a bad idea to race every 2-4 weeks (depending upon distance). Not all of these races should be "goal" races, in fact many should just be "for fun" or to see what you need to work on for training. Racing often also teaches you how to race... like how to close a gap to catch a competitor, when to start your finishing kick, etc. In order to stay "race ready" and injury free, you should basically follow coach's workouts (seriously, the training plan discussed starting on page 2 of the article almost exactly mirrors our schedule).