How much is too much?

I was looking at my calendar recently and my mum was wondering when my next race will be, when I realised that between now and November I’m going to be very busy. And the question that arose in my mind, is it too much?

In a space of 3 months I am racing 7 times, with one of those races being ‘4 Peaks’, which has 4 days of back-to-back races. In the space of these 4 months there is an occasion where I am racing 3 weekends IN A ROW. That means I get 1 week to recover, is that enough? I guess the good thing is that 2 of those races are a bit different then usual. I’m participating in the ‘Melbourne Half Marathon’, but I’m not looking at doing a PB; instead I’m going to be a pacer running at a pace that is well below my PB time. I’m also going to be competing in a ‘short’ distance race, the ‘Maffra Mile’ that will be over and done with in under 6 minutes (hopefully).

Another good thing is that the longest race of these 7 is only 23km, which is comparatively short in the world of trail running. This still doesn’t alleviate any of my fears of being injured due to my hectic schedule though; chronic fatigue is well heard of due to over-training but can it be caused due to over-racing? I don’t know, I’ll just have to do my best to properly rest and recover between each race.

All this racing does have an immediate side effect though, it significantly reduces the days I can work behind the bar at a local hotel, and make money. The reason I entered so many races is because I’m moving north to Queensland next year for Uni, and I wanted to enter all the races that sounded good as I don’t know the next time I’ll be able to compete in Victoria. Let’s hope it’s worth it!

Racing Dates for the Rest of the Year:

Rapid Ascent Trail Running Series: Anglesea- September 4 (23km)

Walhalla Wound Up- September 11 (21.5km)

Rapid Ascent Trail Running Series: Studley Park- September 23 (15km)

Melbourne Half Marathon- October 16 (21.5km)

Maffra Mile- October 22 (1.6km)

4 Peaks- Melbourne Cup Long Weekend (>40km over 4 days)

Dinner Plain Half Marathon- November 20 (21.5km)

The TRN