How many races do you target in the summer/fall/year? (Read 138 times)

Wondering how many races you target?

I have a 5k in 11.5 weeks, those are my only plans so far really, although there will be a hillier 5k after that in the fall, which I'll probably run, or another / different 5k around that time.

no plans for other races, depending how the training goes, perhaps something else up to 10k, there is a 4 miler on the 4th, which might be something.

oh and there should be a 1 mile race at the end of summer I'm planning to do.

Target or enter and run? I target only 2-3 races a year to peak for optimal performance. Depending on what distances I am focusing on I may race anywhere from 5-6 (HM and up) to 25-35 (800m to 10K) races a year, but I train through most of them and/or use them as quality workouts.

Me too, "targeting" a few, but racing more.  I seem to take the winter and summer off from racing, doing just training runs, except for a couple 5ks, and then I run mostly halves, 2-4 each in the spring and fall, with perhaps one full each year.  But I'm a middle-aged desk jockey who's fairly new to running, and not as avid or experienced a runner as many in this community.

One and that's just to have something to train for. I see numbers like 10/yr and wounder how many of them someone could peak for. Maybe they just enjoy the atmosphere.

I have to say that the race community is so nice regardless of where you go. Everyone has their own level to compete at. It's more of an event then a competition; at least at the local level.

Depends on the distance. 5Ks you can run pretty much every weekend if you want, but your training will suffer because of it.

I know people run more than 2 marathons a year, but I don't think more than 2 is wise.

I'd say if you're training for 10K or less, targeting 6-10 races a year is a pretty good level.

71 races in the last 5 years for me per the reports feature.

Our running club has 13 races per year and I generally run most of those.  They are $5 each unless they are a "t-shirt race" and those are $20.  Most of the time I race them, but sometimes if I'm training specifically for another race I will use them as a training run depending on what I'm supposed to be running that day.  I have a half marathon "race" this Saturday that is really a Marathon Pace Tempo run on my schedule.

I will "target" probably 4 or 5 specific races each year that I will tailor my training schedule specifically for those races.

Over the past couple I've years I've tended to do ~8 half marathons per year with an occasional 10k or 5k thrown in, plus I did a marathon last year, so call it 10 overall.  Part of the reason for that volume of races is that there is a very good half marathon series in my area with 4 races (now 5) between spring and autumn.

Personally I can't race all of the HMs as full efforts (the 5k or 10k are more manageable though as JMac said).  So I pick probably 3 races that will be goal races, and target my preparation and training at those.  The other races I will tend to run at 90-95% effort depending how I'm feeling.

And from my own experience, I would never seriously go at more than 2 marathons a year, I was busted enough after 1!!

I don't know what target means but I have 3 races a year I won't miss. A 4th of July run we've been doing forever, an August run we've been doing since my freind died. It's a fund raiser for the hospice home that took excellent care of him, and the Detroit Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving.

I did the Detroit International Half last year and was contemplating it this year but my daughter is trying to convince me to join her relay team for the full marathon. I think I might do that.

I've got some real issues with both ankles. The left one makes it difficult to walk some days. I have bone spurs on the backs of my heels that damaged the tendons. The left ankle they actually broke off and are causing lots of pain. I can run but the first mile is painful, after that once the tendons stretch out a little I can go for a while but the next morning I can hardly walk when I get out of bed.

Steroid shots give a few weeks of relief but I'm leery of doing it more often so I just deal with the pain. Surgery is an option. They separate the tendon from the bone, remove the spurs, and then reattach the tendon. Couple weeks in a cast and then a couple weeks recovery.

That's a fall project in the next year or two.

In the meantime I'll just keep running until I can't, races and all. I think my days of placing in my age group may be done though.

And then there's the folks who run 9 races/year as part of the 9+1 to get into the NY Marathon.