February 2016 is here and my yearly running plan and objectives exist only in my head. It’s time to write it down and commit.
For cumulative distance, 2600 kilometers is the target. That’s 100 more than 2015 and works out to an average of 50 per week. The key to getting there is consistency. If you get behind it’s hard to cram in a lot of kms in the last few weeks of December. It just so happens that I’m already significantly behind at the end of January. More on that later.
For races this year, there are lots of challenges to chose from. Basically, I’m planning on one race per month. Here’s the list.
- Jan 24th: Hivernal at St-Leger-en-Yvelines, 24 km trail
- Feb 21st: Versailles – Rambouillet, 51 km trail
- Mar 20th: Bailly-Noisy half marathon
- Apr 10th: Jouy-en-Josas 50 km trail
- May 22st: Cerfs 50 km trail
- Jun 26th: Marathon de Mont-Blanc
- Aug 25th: OCC, Chamonix, 55 km trail
- Sep 18th: Fontainebleau Imperial trail, 62 km
- Oct 1st: Rosny-sur-Seine, noctutrail, 18 km
- Oct 9th: Adainville trail, 35 km
- Oct 16th: Magny-les-Hameaux trail, 27 km
- Nov 12th: Monfort l’Amaury Flambeaux, night trail, 18 km
That’s an ambitious schedule and based on past years, I probably won’t be doing all those races considering potential injuries, unforeseen events, maybe travel, and ensuring that I get my inscriptions in on time. Sometimes the races are kept small and the available entries are quickly taken.
The race missing from the above, the annual Laurel Highlands Ultra, filled up fast and stopped accepting entries about 2 weeks. I wavered and did not get my entry submitted in time.
So my two major objectives for the year are at Chamonix: the Marathon de Mont-Blanc and the OCC in August. Both races are selective and “sell out” early as well. I have an accepted entry for both. For the OCC, I did not get selected in 2015 so that doubled my chances for this year.
I mentioned earlier that the year got off to a bad start. On 1 Jan I got out of bed, either too quickly, without adequate stretching, without being careful, or maybe it was related to too much partying the night before, but just in getting out of bed I hurt myself. I felt sharp pain in my left heel and hobbled around for about 2 weeks. And then just as I was getting over that my right heel started acting up with the same pain.
Even given those issues I was able to get out and run several times and was healthy enough to knock out my first race of the year, the 24 km Hivernal. Thomas and I ran through a lot of mud and were able to finish without aggravating anything. We are preparing for the 51 km Versailles – Rambouillet which is coming up fast and is very early in the year for such a long run.
Part 2 in a post tomorrow