2015 Race Calendar (ish)

I'm still in the process of setting up my race plans for 2015. Currently I am registered for two races:

• Disney Princess Half Marathon, February 22, 2015
• Grand Rapids Marathon, October 18, 2015

I know that I will do a couple of 5ks (Shanty 2 Shorts and Run 2 Save Our Youth), but these are very small races and registration information isn't available yet. I also want to do a half marathon that I will actually be racing and I am thinking about trying a 10 mile race.

So this is sort of what I am thinking. I'm also including how much time will be between races. Bold races will be goal races. All races will be ran all out, but goal races will have distance specific training leading up to race day.

• Disney Princess Half Marathon, February 22, 2015
• 11 weeks (10 after I get home from Florida)
• Shanty 2 Shorts 5k, May 9, 2015 (guessing the date)
• 5 weeks
• Run 2 Save Our Youth 5k, June 13, 2015 (another guess)
• 2 weeks
• Charlevoix Half Marathon, June 27, 2015
• 2 weeks
• Dart for Art 1 mile, July 13, 2015
• 6 weeks
• Crim 10 mile,  August 22, 2015
• 8 weeks
• Grand Rapids Marathon, October 18, 2015

All things considered, I think this is a pretty full schedule. Okay, I realize that everyone else is planning like 10+ races, but I prefer to focus on specific training plans and goal races. Racing that frequently just does not do it for me!

So following Disney Princess, I will take 8-10 weeks to train for a 5k. My long term 5k goal is to sub 20:00, but I know that is not a realistic goal for this year. I haven't done a 5k specific training plan since I did Couch to 5k a few years ago. I'm pretty excited to see how this race turns out!

After Shanty 2 Shorts, I will take 7 weeks to sharpen my half marathon paces/endurance. Ideally I'd like 8-10 weeks for a training plan, but I will just have to make do.

After the Charlevoix Half, I will start a 16 week marathon training program. Half way through, I will use the Crim to test my current fitness levels/adjust training paces. Crim is a goal race in that I will taper a bit leading up to it and plan to run it all out, but not necessarily a true goal race since I will not be doing any 10 mile specific training.

I'm working on some pseudo-goals for 2015 as well, but I'm going to save that for another post.