December 2011 Newsletter - West Australian Marathon Club

Time: Setting Goals Well in Advance
By Jon Kappler
The year is nearly over and hopefully it has delivered
all your goals. Mine began in mid-2010 when a friend
was thinking about doing a marathon, and this planted
the seed for a goal race: the Zurich Marathon. I haven’t
raced for around 8 years, and was keen to run a time
that would satisfy me.
I had around 9 months until race day, which I felt
wouldn’t allow a lot of time for any issues I may
encounter. Having a goal time was more of a vision as
with no recent races, I was going off times from many
years ago, so setting a definitive goal would require
many things to come together.
Firstly I wanted to start to run consistently and see
how my body handled some extra training load. Even
before that, I needed to make sure I had the support
from my family before taking off on what I will describe
as a selfish pursuit in an attempt to get rid of the
marathon demon that I have carried from my first and
only go at the distance back in 1995. This was a race
in which I didn’t just hit the wall but also ran into the
guys building it, which left me without the desire to
revisit the marathon until now.
To achieve goals, it’s important to give yourself
sufficient time to execute your training and pre-race
program. Invariably though, you peak too early or run
out of time. In my case, I didn’t want to run a lot of lead
up races but definitely wanted to test myself in some
shorter races to give me the data that I needed to set
an achievable goal time.
After getting in some regular running, all was going
well but I was still mindful of the need to get plenty
more miles under my belt. I decided to start with some
track races and entered a 3000m.This race reinforced
the intensity of racing and also made me realise the
challenge that lay ahead. Another 3-4 weeks passed
before I jumped back into any races. It was then that I
started to experience some setbacks with some small
calf injuries that took a few weeks to get under control.
That set me back a bit in building the kilometres and
I needed a few more easy weeks prior to getting back
into my program.
Just as the confidence returned, I experienced another
small injury on Boxing Day, which limited running until
the end of January. One minute you have more time
than you need and then all of a sudden the race is just
about upon you! At this point I needed to prioritize the
key training sessions I felt would get me through the
race in a time that may bury my 1995 demon. I was
looking at cramming as much into the next 6 weeks as
possible. Plenty of athletes do run races off a lot less
preparation, but I always strive to go into races with all
the boxes ticked. This wasn’t going to be the case in
Zurich.
Over the next 6 weeks I managed to have no real
dramas other that adapting to the rapid increase in
training load. Short on time before race day, I wanted
to focus on building the Sunday long run. Six months
earlier I was planning on doing a greater cumulative
total and longer single run distances plus the odd
race, but felt with the minor injuries I had experienced
doing more would be pushing my body’s boundaries,
so I settled with 30km being my longest run and chose
doing this over entering another race.
In previous articles I have discussed other issues you
may encounter when travelling overseas to race but
for me I was quite comfortable with all I had ahead of
me other than some doubt about what time I would
be capable of running. Primarily this was because of
the lack of racing in my build up. In the end, the race
worked out okay, and although I missed my target time
by under 10 minutes, it has given me the desire to plan
and race some more in 2012.
Looking at race goals a long way out gave me the time
to adjust and make sure I was relatively comfortable
with all aspects I was attempting to achieve.
As we enter the final stages of 2011, this might be a
good time to map out a plan for next year. Whilst it may
not all happen, it allows you to look at upcoming races,
book accommodation, and consider what nutrition
the race is using and replicate it in your training, and
finally know when to build the kilometres and when to
take it easy.
Are there guarantees? No but it can eliminate issues
and give clarity to a new year of racing.
Give yourself time, not just with respect to your
running, but in life generally.
(Editor’s Note: If you want to improve your times, consider
joining Jon’s Tuesday evening interval sessions at Alderbury St
Reserve, Perry Lakes)
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