2012 will be different. It will be structured, consistent, and stronger. Winter will will give me more miles, up and down long, steep hills. Power will be built; power begets speed and endurance; endurance begets finishes; speed begets podiums, etc.
I'm not going to reveal my 2012 program yet - a couple of folks have it (you know who you are). But it looks a little like this. A couple hard runs per week, one speed, one trail, one long. Hills incorporated into easy runs. Each run will be longer, perhaps 60 minutes or more. I most likely won't do doubles. Long runs will be long. I really benefited last year from the 20+ mile long runs and the 38 mile trail run in the upshot to Superior/Sawtooth 100. The idea for this training structure came from this Running Times article. Basic premise: longer single sessions build more strength, endurance, speed, etc. than two shorter (if staggered) sessions which equal the same time. Throw in some trail-specific work, something to teach speed, and viola! I'll be in better shape as this year rolls through.
My 2012 race schedule is at right. I'm going to hit it right away with Zumbro - a four 25-mile loop course which is sure to produce a faster time than my Superior finish. Sub-30 hours is the tentative (and arbitrary) goal, but I'm going to hold off on that until I see the revamped course and elevation profile.
From there, a couple shorter races thrown in - a seven mile trail race at an appropriately named local park, Afton 50K. I'd like to get a 50 miler in at the end/beginning of July like I did this year, and Sawtooth will be my peak race again. I'll plug a time goal in there as it approaches, but I'll take a finish and a smarter run. So long as I don't nose-dive overnight, I think both of those will be accomplished.
Finally, note on mileage. It looks like I'm going to end up somewhere around the 1700 mark for the year. It's not the ~2K+ goal I set for myself, but it was sufficiently more than my other years (max ~1,100) that I am a much stronger runner for it. Next year's goal is similar, and I'll work harder to achieve that by the date planned (Sawtooth).
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One thing that I've learned is to be careful with too much speedwork. I believe that most folks don't do well in 100s because they don't have the endurance...it has little to do with speed. If you're running 10-minute miles in the 2nd half of a 100-miler, you'll be blowing by people. It takes little to no speedwork to run 10-minute miles late in a 100-miler; it DOES take lots of endurance and strength, however.
Best of luck in 2012! Happy running!
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