Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Bryant Jensen - 2011 Plans & Goals

First off, it really was a great experience to socialize and run with some of the nation’s top distance runners in Houston at the US Half Marathon Championships. The treatment as an elite athlete was amazing! The course was challenging and a bit deceiving. For whatever reason I did not run as well as I would have liked. As it is with running, some days you just don’t have it in you. But also, I am pleased to be in the kind of shape that I am right now this early in the year. 

My training going into the half in Houston was pretty much consistent with what I had done before running the Provo Halloween Half in October (since that race went well I didn’t feel that I should change things up much with the little time that I had to prepare); running usually 60-70 miles a week with two to three quality workouts (tempos and intervals mainly). This is significantly lower mileage than I have been doing for the past several years. The main reasons for the lower mileage were coming off of the ankle injury, the winter, and simply responding to what my body was telling me. It has been a rough adjustment being a post collegiate athlete working full-time and trying to train at a competitive level.

Goals for 2011: I’m going forward with high expectations. I want my mileage back to 90+ miles per week (which means doubling again) and to fine tune my workouts. I am going to change up my weekly workout routine. I plan on doing two 15-25 mile runs per week. One of those long runs will consist of a tempo/power run near the end of it; allowing me to work on my threshold level and also to simulate races (ranging from 4 to 18 miles). My other quality day will be focusing on technique and increasing speed. One workout I plan on doing often for this will be a combo tempo/interval workout. I’ll start with a tempo run (faster pace than in my long run so mileage will probably be in the 3-8 range) and then follow with a speed related interval workout. I’m excited to implement this new focus on quality workouts. I feel that this will improve my marathon experience significantly. An obvious and reasonable goal for me is to reach the Olympic trials standard for the marathon. Below is a tentative list of races I plan on doing this year.


February 19 – Striders Winter Circuit 10k
March 19 – Canyonlands Half
April 2 – Striders Winter Circuit Half
April 23 – Striders Winter Circuit 30k
May 7 – Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon (Santa Ynez, CA)
May 21 – Ogden Marathon Relay
June 11 – Utah Valley Marathon
July 25 – Deseret News 10k
August 27 – Nordic Track Top of Utah Half Marathon
October 9 – Chicago Marathon

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