Zoom out and plan like an Olympian, whatever your goals.
Where do you see yourself in 3-4 years?
Apologies to any folks flashing back to bad job interviews gone by. While this may be a favorite question of HR departments, it’s also an effective tool for planning out how best to pursue your running goals.
This timeframe started working with athletes preparing for the Olympic Trials marathon, which take place just once every 4 years, with a qualifying window usually that opens 2-3 years prior to race day. Timing out the best opportunities to run a qualifying mark, as well as setting up the rest of the Olympic cycle to grow multiple aspects of fitness that will positively impact both the likelihood of punching your ticket and performing well at the Trials themselves involve taking a very zoomed out, dynamic look at the next 1460 days or so.
Much like super shoes and a new generation of gels, what begins in the labratory of elite athletes has the power to positively impact runners of all ability levels. Especially if your running goals are diverse (chasing both a 5k PR and a Boston Qualifying marathon time), the most important question that follows “what are your goals?” is “when are our best opportunities to pursue each of them?”
Current UNC coach Chris Miltenberg, who has guided athletes like Grant Fisher and Parker Wolfe through their collegiate careers, is said to tell athletes that they can have everything they strive for, just not at the same time. It’s awesome to be excited to pursue your potential at 10k and test the ultra waters with your first 50k, but the demands of the two races are so different that we’re unlikely to overlap being in peak fitness for both distances at the same time. But if we take a broader look at the coming years, we can set up your training so you get specific training and quality race opportunities at each of your goal distances.
If you’ve got one BIG goal over the next 4 years, our cornerstone will be setting up opportunities at that distance. Part of that process is enriched by using portions of the next months & years to develop your potential at races shorter and/or longer than your BIG goal. If you’re chasing a lifelong goal in the 5k, chances are we’d benefit from incorporating a training cycle focused on training for and racing the mile. In addition to having fun and getting in exciting races, the improvement to your running mechanics and speed will likely make goal 5k pace feel more manageable. Likewise, targeting a season of races from 10k to half marathon enables us to add to the nearly unlimited upside of aerobic development through threshold and high-end aerobic training that is a foundation of those training plans. For a more in-depth approach to the physiology of multiyear peaking, check out Robert Lyden’s training book Distance Running.
Timing out bucketlist races and local races on your to-do list also benefits from taking a multiyear approach. Looking for organic fits (“I’ve always wanted to do this 8k in my hometown; that’d make a great tune-up run 3 weeks before my half marathon”) and avoiding forcing (if that local 10 miler is always going be an easy logistical trip, can we look to do it in a future year, rather than doing it the week prior to your goal 5k?) lets us build a racing and training schedule that will helps us look back on the end of a 4 year cycle (or even your career) with a host of great experiences, pride, and hopefully a good number of personal bests.
Just like we try to do in the daily & weekly approaches to training, building in what is going on in the non-running parts of your life is crucial to multiyear planning. Is there a new career opportunity that excites you but will change your relationship with running while you get used to the new responsibilities? Is a growing family part of your vision for the coming years? Setting up your running goals with complementary timing to these life events can be a huge part of your wholistic growth as a human being over the coming Olympiad.
These coming years can provide you unique opportunities to find out what’s possible. So what gets you excited?