Managing Training with Cancelled Goal Race
Sometimes your goal race gets cancelled, and you are faced with tough training plan decisions. Finish it out? Cut bait now and refocus on Fall goal race? Here are my thoughts on this through the lens of the Lydiard Training Method.
Scenario 1: You are in the last 2-3 weeks before goal race. In this situation its best to finish it out and run a simulated race on goal race day. The thinking here is that you’ve done 90% of the plan and are in great shape. Why not see how good? So on “race day” here’s what I’d recommend: If your race was a full marathon, run a hard 10 miles, half marathon or even 15 miles at race pace. Push it and see what you can do. Prep for it the day before just like it was a real race. You then can use this time to help drive your Fall training plan and there will be important learnings coming out of it to evaluate. If you goal race was a half marathon then either do a 10k, 10 mile or a half. If it was a 10k, then either do a 10k or 5k.
Scenario 2: You are in the last 6 weeks before goal race. This one is more complex. You have a choice to make. One is complete the plan which takes you to early May, run your simulated goal race, recover, then start your Fall cycle. The other choice is to shorten your current cycle, go immediately into one week of integration, then one taper week. Then run a simulated goal race. This would take you to mid-April, then take two weeks of recovery before you start your Fall cycle. The same simulated race guidelines as noted above apply here too.
Scenario 3: You are 6+ weeks out and you feel your goal race has a good shot at not being cancelled. These would be races in late May and into June. My advice here is to continue your plan as scheduled for the time being. You are continuing to build fitness. Best case is your race happens; worst case is you need to shut it down early. In that situation follow the advice noted above in shortening your cycle.
If you would like to learn more about the Lydiard® Method, please email info@runningniche.com or visit our store, Running Niche, and talk with Bob Dyer or Jennifer Henderson, who are both Lydiard® Certified Coaches.