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[Posting on behalf of /u/Percinho who is busy trying on his new tri suit that he got on Black Friday sale]
I know a decent amount of people treat winter as their off season, choosing to do maintenance runs as opposed to rigorous training, perhaps moving indoors to do treadmill work as opposed to braving the elements, etc. I’m curious if anyone out there does the opposite and treats the SUMMER as their off season, putting in their heaviest work in the colder months of the year. As someone who is very anti-warm weather, I think this is the plan I want to go with–keep it light and don’t engage in any running after 9AM from May to September, but go all out with long runs, speed work, etc when Mother Nature isn’t actively trying to burn me alive. Thoughts?
Also on the topic, can anyone point me in the direction towards some late winter/early spring half marathons and marathons I can sign up for someday? I’m not running those distances yet, but it’d be a nice goal to get to in 2025.
I have kind of fallen into doing summer and winter as maintenance. I think my racing days are kind of over though so there’s that. I have tried to stick with running hard during the summer but the 100+ temps just kill me (literally sometimes). During the winter there is snow and ice on the ground (we got 8" of snow this past Sat) so that is not the best time to be working hard either. I’m re-thinking what I’m doing and I think I will be spending the summer/winter in the gym doing strength work. Running is gonna get dialed down to 3-4x a week. Probably no more than 4 miles or so during the week and no more than 8-10 miles on the weekend.
One of my buddies does this, the last few years he’s run a spring marathon and some shorter races then takes the summer off to do longer thru hiking and more casual running when at home
Honestly it seems like a healthier relationship to running than I have stacking race after race after race, and he’s slightly faster than me so it seems like it works!
People take seasons off?
I have a friend who absolutely will not run in the winter. He loves the heat. As in, he’ll go for runs at noon in the middle of the summer. He just won’t run in the winter and will do other things.
Your friend is built different. More power to him because I could never!
Yeah, more power to him. I’m with you. If I can’t get out the door before the sun’s up in the summer, I ain’t running outside. I actually (unintentionally) took most of this summer off and just strength trained and occasionally did some treadmill runs. I lost aerobic fitness, but I feel stronger and like my body can withstand more now. Just have to work up to where I was when I stopped in the spring.
I have no experience with this, but I feel like if you wanted to cut back in the summer, you could maintain your cardiovascular gains by doing other aerobic exercise, like swimming, biking, hiking (although that’s also hot), or exercise in others ways that you enjoy and might not get to do when you’re running more.
I’m planning to do this starting this coming year. I trained for my first marathon in a Maryland summer and I do not recommend. I was so. hot. all. the. time. for several months. Next summer, I’m planning to focus on biking and swimming, and save long runs/marathoning for the winter and spring.
For races: I’m a fan of the rock and roll half in DC in March. There’s also Shamrock in Virginia Beach in mid-March (has both a half and a full option) and SLC in Utah, which also has both a half and a full. I’m planning to run the rock and roll half again in 2024, followed by SLC in April. No clue how the elevation will impact me in slc, but we’ll see!
I was debating if I wanted to sign up for the DC rock n roll. One of my best friend’s is in Alexandria, so I figured I could make a nice 3 day weekend out of it. I’m glad to see it’s recommended. This will be my race to keep me trained and going through the winter when I don’t want to get outside and run.
A while ago I was in a streak of running Boston and had to train in the snow, cold, and ice each year. Since stopping I’ve gone back to summer training and I don’t think I enjoy it as much. I had a terrible time with the humidity this past summer and came close to heat exhaustion a few times. I’d rather run and skate ski a lot through the winter and bike/swim/hike thru the summer.
I hate summer too, but I do appreciate when the weather cools off and all the fitness gains hit you at once. Unfortunately, with a two marathon/year schedule, I kinda have to do both summer and winter training. Mostly, I’m just too lazy to build my base back up after an off season and prefer to keep it relatively high.
I think it depends on where you live. I live down south and it’s 40 degrees now and perfect running weather. Summers are hot and not fun if you don’t get out early. But if I lived in Minnesota I would say the opposite
I love winter running and can’t fathom the idea of a winter off season unless you live somewhere that’s covered in ice all winter! I still run throughout the summer, but I suffer immensely and will never ever sign up for a summer race.
I like to search runningintheusa.com to find races. There are several of various distances near me in December-March!
Austin Half and Full is around that time, so is the Disney World Half and Full which is really fun if you even remotely like Disney.
every year i only run from okt-april 3-4times/week mai-sept you can find me on tennis courts or on rivers kayaking 5-6times/week. 0 runs in 5months
It me.
I don’t handle heat well. I would rather run through the winter for a spring race and mess around in the woods in the summer. Come late August and early September I’m eager to get back to intense training for a late fall race.
I did this growing up in a place with winter. Unfortunately it meant my summer training was not good enough for my cross country season ;)
Depends where you live. My sister lives in a semi topical place so you just described her running schedule, I live in Canada so while I still Run a good volume in the winter it’s simply harder to maintain the volume only running outdoors.
Half fanatics has a list (although not a complete one) of half marathons going on all year round. There is also runners world, which has a pretty extensive list of half’s.
Oh neat! Thanks for the info!
I don’t really train hard enough at any point to have an “off season”, but being in Texas, I enjoy running in the Winter so much more than Summer.