Most of the time, if I’ve planned to participate in a race, I’m *quite aware* of that race’s approach date, and it very much affects how I choose to spend my energy in the weeks just prior.
This week, though—maybe for the first time ever—I’m feeling like race week just snuck up on me!
First, the 20k that I’m participating in this weekend isn’t a “big race” for me.
Second, I think the fact that I had to take ten days off from regular training due to my recent respiratory infection, really threw me off in terms of feeling *ready* to race, or being on top of my race-week checklist.
This isn’t a bad thing. Or I guess I’m choosing to not see it as a bad thing. And to be clear, if this were a “big race” for me, I’d be a lot harder pressed to not see this as a negative!
Let’s pause to define “big race.” There is of course, as in many disciplines, some variance as to the exact definitions of these terms, but in general, the racing community uses the following labels to distinguish between “big races” and “fun runs.”
An A race for ultra runners, is one race—or two—a year that you plan your big training calendar around. This race is the one you want to peak at—to have your best performance if all goes right. You will not only intentionally target training to be your strongest for this race, but you’ll also intentionally reduce training, or taper, prior to this race.
B races are the races you schedule into the A race training plan. You may want to perform well at them, but you know they’re not the ultimate goal. They support your big picture training. You don’t plan an entire season around them, but you are mindful of them, set strategies, and take it easy the week of in preparation for race day. A light taper is totally appropriate.
C races are essentially a part of the training plan, or just for fun. You sign up, you go, you run the race, but you have training goals, not racing goals. Or it’s just for the heck of it—say, because you like the venue, or because you have a bunch of friends going.
As I’ve developed as a trail runner, these distinctions have been really helpful for me. I’ve discovered that honestly, I want every race to be my A race, and that I don’t do C races.
These discoveries are helpful:
It’s okay to perform well in a B race, and to put some energy into being prepared for a B race. So my desire to do well is not totally misplaced. I just can’t expect to be in top shape for every B race. Labeling supporting races as B races helps to get my mindset in the right place: serious, but not too serious. These are great experiences to get me ready for the big race days.
It’s okay to not do C races. If I were in a different stage of life, I could totally be up for C races, actually. But for me, as a mom of three tweens and teens, it’s not a priority to sign up for, pay entrance fees for, and travel for a race that I’m just participating in for fun. For me, that’s not super fun actually. I’d rather just train as usual.
It was the realization that I wanted to pursue big goals, not just race “for fun,” or only train race-to-race, that pushed me to hire a coach last summer. I was ready to put a couple of big A races on the calendar, but as I began to plan for those on my own, I realized that I just didn’t know how to string it all together. Up to that point, using a race-to-race planning strategy, I could glean information from the internet and plan for my next race with free resources as though it were my A race. This was fun, but it didn’t support long term development. In order to plan out much larger training blocks, with A goals always in mind, I either needed to A: do a much deeper dive into training theory, or B: outsource my training plans. I did the latter.
So now I don’t stress about the training plans. I trust my coach to do that. I don’t even stress (too much) if I’m sick or if I unexpectedly need to revamp the plan for days off. I trust my coach to adapt the plan for those scenarios too. I *do* talk with her about those race days, and I *do* work through some race checklists of my own on the logistics side: planning the travel, making sure I have the gear I need, blocking off my calendar, and getting my mind on-line to race.
And this is where I unexpectedly find myself this week. Ooops, I have a 20k this weekend, and I just barely got back to training!
And it’s okay. Jenny has already adapted the plan to account for coming back after sickness and get me appropriately tapered.
The race is local, so there aren’t a lot of logistics needed to get me to the start line on time.
I do need to run a load of laundry to get my favorite kit clean, and clean my hydration pack, but that’s no biggie.
And I do need to stock up on quick running fuel. But Amazon Prime made that easy too; I remembered that I was out of energy gel over the weekend, and put in a quick order Sunday afternoon. My promised Tuesday delivery arrived today, Monday. Check!
I don’t usually write my race mantras until the week of, and I don’t mark them until the day before, so that’s something I’ll start percolating on . . .
Although in an ideal world I give this weekend my best B race effort, the reality is that I just came back from a respiratory infection. I may have to back off a little. I might not too—I’m not sure how I’ll be feeling come the start line.
This is not a reality that I chose or that I had any control over.
So it’s probably best to just trust the process that I’m in, not the one I would have planned.
A few weeks ago, a friend sent me this C.S. Lewis quote. It was fitting to my day, so I transcribed it in my journal. I’ve revisited it a few times since:
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life — the life God is sending one day by day.”
So many arenas that I could use this concept in, but for now, I’ll count it as a win that I’m embracing this philosophy in my running life!
So it’s possible that my B race could end up a C race.
(Or maybe a B minus.)
We’ll see. I’ll be working off the same checklist either way.