Marathon Weekend 2024

[FFigawi]

Wait, why isn't it happening?!!!??!?

Nothing has been officially announced yet, but the rumor is that the organizers, who are notoriously poor in general, didn’t coordinate with the government timely and aren’t being given permission to close the roads for the bike leg. The authorities are taking a harder line with road closures these days. The Dubai marathon was forced to change its location and course from in the city on the beach road like usual to out at the Expo 2020 site where road traffic isn’t an issue. They announced this the other day. The race is next Sunday. Seems they didn’t start working with the government in time either.

 

[HangWithMerida]

Today’s Question: How are you managing the “off” season, and if it is not off for you what are you up to?

I’m not “off” just yet. I’m potentially going to try for a HM PR in early March so I’m picking up some speed/pace work for the next few weeks to see if I can be ready to race. It’s a local race so I can put off registration for quite a while.
After that I will find something to do, maybe a trail race or 2 for fun before picking up HM training for a TBD fall race. Those fun races are a little reward for continuing to keep up the running year round.
I’m also trying to get some strength training back in the routine. I’m going later today to my first reformer Pilates class. I do so much better in a scheduled class environment than on my own for these types of things. I’m looking forward to it! I stopped rock climbing a few months ago as marathon training ramped up and I can see the loss of muscle definition in my arms. I was hoping my husband would be game for going back to climbing but he’s been hard to motivate and it’s just not as much fun alone so I’m having a hard time building that habit. I’m hoping the Pilates will work better since it’s a class environment.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

SAFD: Well, I am training for princess but the volume is much lower than I was doing so it does feel somewhat like an off season. Like some of you, I’ve also started incorporating strength and I am also SO SORE. I started using the barbell this week and even without extra weight my legs are dead. Running doesn’t feel too bad but just walking around my hamstrings are so tight. I’m also biking one time per week to build that up again. I PRd a 30 minute Peloton class on Wednesday— 9 miles!

 

[Naomeri]

SAFD: I’m not off yet, I’ve got 3 weeks until Princess, then just a maintenance plan between that and Springtime Surprise. I was off running for most of December due to an Achilles issue and I was kind of going insane, so it’s good to get back to running.

 

[The Expert]

Nothing has been officially announced yet, but the rumor is that the organizers, who are notoriously poor in general, didn’t coordinate with the government timely and aren’t being given permission to close the roads for the bike leg. The authorities are taking a harder line with road closures these days. The Dubai marathon was forced to change its location and course from in the city on the beach road like usual to out at the Expo 2020 site where road traffic isn’t an issue. They announced this the other day. The race is next Sunday. Seems they didn’t start working with the government in time either.

That's disappointing! I'm following the World Marathon Challenge, and they just did the Dubai leg. The course was a one-kilometer out-and-back loop TWENTY ONE times!! I can't even imagine.

 

[FFigawi]

That's disappointing! I'm following the World Marathon Challenge, and they just did the Dubai leg. The course was a one-kilometer out-and-back loop TWENTY ONE times!! I can't even imagine.

Yeah, none of us are sure why they chose such a short loop. The beach track is close to 6km long. They easily could’ve done 10km loops.

 

[The Expert]

SAFD: I took two three weeks off after Dopey and have been sorta kinda doing a super low volume novice Hansen plan to just stay in the routine of running. It's so low volume that I actually keep forgetting to run. I'm also supremely distracted by a massive project at work that culminates in mid-March (thanks, construction delays), and final prep for our 2-week trip to Egypt/Jordan/Istanbul that STARTS NEXT WEEK! Not to mention the ding-dong move of scheduling the start of that trip during the Super Bowl (which my Chiefs are playing in).

I just keep telling myself that six weeks from now, I'll have alllll the time in the world to get back to a running routine, and not to stress about missing runs right now.

On a side note, I do still see my trainer once a week for strength training, which I've been consistent about for 10+ years now (aside from the random vacation). It's actually not that expensive, and having someone else I have to meet at a certain time helps me stick to it. It also helps to have a physiology expert to talk to about my running aches and pains, to know what to adjust in the workout to compliment my current training cycle, and learn recovery tricks from.

 

[PrincessV]

SAFD: I’m not technically in my off season yet - still have Springtime Surprise 10 coming up. But I took 2 weeks off after MW and have been doing significantly reduced mileage since then, so it’s sort of felt like a mini “off” season. It feels wonderful, though! The reduced mileage hasn’t done anything for my chronic pain issue that multiple doctors are trying to figure out, but it’s been really nice to have more time in my schedule not being eaten up by running, and I’m enjoying the runs I do a lot more. I’m struggling a bit with convincing my brain that with no more marathons looming on the horizon and 40-some years of regular endurance training behind me, I can safely skip some runs and have little to no impact on my fitness… that’s surprisingly hard to shake! “Quality over quantity” has become my credo.

 

[marty3d]

SAFD: My “off season” for running is coming to an end. I took 3 weeks off after Dopey and now starting training for a 10k in May that I’d like to PR. This will mean focusing on my pace a lot more than I have after 2 years of Dopey-focused training. like other here I’m going to reincorporate strength training into my routine after taking the last couple of months off.

 

[camaker]

SAFD: I don't really have an off-season, but I've been having a hard time getting back up to speed since Marathon Weekend. I came back from MW with a bad cold, then got a week of light running in before going down with COVID. I lost a week to that and am trying to ease back into things this week while dealing with the residual cough and fatigue. I'm still managing a lower leg muscular issue which is limiting my pace, too.

I've got a 100k coming up at the end of March, so I need to make a decision on whether I'll be ready for it shortly. I had planned to take some time off after that race as a mini-reset, but realized my PoT result may expire prior to MW 2024. I'm watching for updated info on the rD site to find out what the window will be. I may have to ramp things up to get a new PoT in place, if necessary.

TLDR: What's an off season?

 

[corn princess]

I am so happy!!! I secured an Animal Kingdom Lodge Value Studio rental for 6 nights starting January 2nd 2024, which I thought is really hard to get and is cheaper than my last stays at OKW Studio and SSR Studio, hooray! I hope for my 4th dopey challenge after 2018, 2020, 2023 Greetings from Germany.

We're doing the same thing!! I was so happy we got one. We love AKL! we'll he there Jan 1st-8th!

 

[corn princess]

SAFD: my off-season has come to an end. I am currently training for a half marathon in April. Then I'll take a short break and head into the training cycle for a full in November and hopefully goofy in January!

 

[1lilspark]

SAFD: training wise I’ve gone from wine & dine to hot chocolate to Gasparilla to springtime cycles… from late April till Early July I’ll be in a maintenance mode where I may attempt to focus on some non running cardio &/or strength workouts

 

[lookingforsunshine]

I am also in the AKL crew- got a standard studio at Kidani! It ended up being cheaper than POFQ would be, which was my other consideration, so I decided to go for it and try something new.

 

[AZMermaid]

My son broke his wrist rollerblading two weeks ago and it’s made me lose all my running motivation. It’s silly but I just can’t get into running. He had surgery on it a few days after it happened. He’s a swimmer and swim runs on two year cycles. When he was 10, it was Covid now at 12… this. His big meet is in 5 weeks. It just sucks and I’m having a hard time focusing on myself. I’m going to try to run this afternoon.

 

[pluto377]

SAFD: I've dropped from 5 days a week to 4 and I'm using a training peaks 80/20 maintenance plan. Well, mostly- I've made a few little tweaks but the spirit of the workouts is the same. I'm hoping to get back to the gym this week for strength training. The weather has been changing my run days so I keep missing gym days. And I started getting food deliveries from bistroMD in the hope that I will get some of the weight off. Not sure when off season will end as I don't have any races lined up and I don't really feel like signing up for anything right now.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

SAFD: I finally feel like I'm pretty much back to normal after the marathon! And so now I am starting my spring training plan which includes a 5K/10-mile challenge at the beginning of April and a 10K in May. Off-season? What's that?

 

[nekonekoneko]

That's disappointing! I'm following the World Marathon Challenge, and they just did the Dubai leg. The course was a one-kilometer out-and-back loop TWENTY ONE times!! I can't even imagine.

Yikes! Paying all that money for this challenge, and all they can come up with for one course is an overglorified track? Oh I'd be mad.

 

[surfde22]

SAFD: The only "off" season I take is 1-2 weeks post race to recover. If I don't have a next race on the schedule it will become a permanent off season. I try to space out my "A" races so I can build back up and work on gains. I like to have a race ever 12-20 weeks depending on what races are out there.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

My son broke his wrist rollerblading two weeks ago and it’s made me lose all my running motivation. It’s silly but I just can’t get into running. He had surgery on it a few days after it happened. He’s a swimmer and swim runs on two year cycles. When he was 10, it was Covid now at 12… this. His big meet is in 5 weeks. It just sucks and I’m having a hard time focusing on myself. I’m going to try to run this afternoon.

I think that's part of being a mom. Our kids' setbacks absolutely impact our mental space.