Scaling back?

I didn't race on Saturday.

Not that I had firm plans to do so, I just kinda wanted to. There's a 5K that takes place 5 minutes from my house and last year I ran it and ran well, finishing just seconds off of my PR for 1st in my age group, and 4th female overall. 

In my head, I figured that if I felt good coming off the half marathon, I'd run the 5K. But then there was the issue of my fall at mile 5 of the half and the fact that my ankle is still not 100%. It is healing well, but it is still a little swollen and I knew that if I raced again less than one week after the half, I'd risk messing up my ankle big time.

And I'm all about running over the long term. I don't need any sort of lingering injuries.

Which was the point of my recent email exchange with my friend, Tami. She ran a marathon the week before my half and went ahead and ran that 5K that I'd been thinking of running. She ran a great race and finished third female overall. But, she'd battled a cold after the marathon and racing the 5K lowered her resistance just enough so that cold came back with a vengeance.

There's Tami with her third place medal! Way to go!!

Discussing our shared desire for PRs and a healthy winter full of running, the subject of winter and spring race plans came up. What are you running next? What are you running this winter? Planning on a spring marathon?

We went back and forth and our discussion eventually led us to conclude that scaling back could be good.

For me, that meant skipping the 5K and rethinking what races I plan to run this winter. For Tami, it meant likely shelving plans for a spring marathon . . . but contemplating a fall ultra (hey, what happened to scaling back?!?!). 

So, now I have some decisions to make. I know I'm going to run a 10K in early November but should I also run the 10K turkey trot on Thanksgiving? And what about December? Our road runners club puts on a great winter series and that kicks off with a 15K on December 9th. And then there's the Hangover Half on January 1st, two other winter series races in January, the Winter Marathon Relay in February . . . and I really would like to run the inaugural Nike Women's Half in DC in April.

Phew!

I need to prioritize. Quality over quantity. I need to make it through the winter healthy and ready to race strong in the spring. So, I need to get my A races lined up, and back-fill from there. I'd also like to focus on cross-training this winter, to head into the spring with a stronger foundation.

Now the question is . . . do I focus on that spring half marathon or full? Hmm . . . 

Do you reduce your running mileage over the winter? Or do you keep up the same level? 

If you reduce, for how long before picking back up?

In other news, I just picked up a stack of running books from the library, including one by Adam Goucher and one by Scott Jurek. Lucky me!

Have a great day, everyone!

~ Felice