Critique my season plan...am I racing too much?

Paul Hough

Here's my plan for 2011.  I've already committed/paid for 5 multi-sport events...so those are firm.  I've been doing some pre-OS work in Dec and plan to race short distances every weekend in January as a means of working on speed....i.e., race myself back into 5K shape.  In Dec, I started doing some Yoga/Pilates tapes because I felt declining flexibility had become a limiter.  I'm already seeing faster 220 sprint speed on the track.  I've built in a progression to IM Regensburg which is my big focus of the year.  In the three IMs completed so far, I've been 3 to 6 slots from the last roll-down, so I don't expect to KQ in Germany in my last year of the 50-54...but I'm going to try hard.  If Kona doesn't happen then the HalfMax will be top priority because the ITU World Long Course champs will be in Spain in 2012.  I'll probably close out the year with the Clearwater 5150 since it's in my backyard.   This series finale is the local replacement for the 70.3 Champs that moved to Vegas, and it will be interesting to see what WTC for a brand new race.   I would appreciate comments and suggestions from all comers.

	Week Ending	Event		Notes
1	9-Jan-11	5K road race	C		Outseason
2	16-Jan-11	5K road race	C		Transition
3	23-Jan-11	5 mile road race	C		General Prep
4	30-Jan-11	5K road race	C		Race Prep
5	6-Feb-11	5K road race	C		Recovery
6	13-Feb-11	Chilly Willy Sprint Du	C	Entered
7	20-Feb-11	Sara McLarty Swim Camp		1 day camp
8	27-Feb-11	1/2 Marathon road race	B
9	6-Mar-11	Draft Legal Sprint Tri	B	Entered
10	13-Mar-11
11	20-Mar-11	LPC Triathlon Camp		Week long camp
12	27-Mar-11
13	3-Apr-11
14	10-Apr-11
15	17-Apr-11	Escape Sprint Triathlon	B	Entered
16	24-Apr-11
17	1-May-11	St Anthony's 5150	A	Entered
18	8-May-11	Hurricane Man 2.4mi OWS	C
19	15-May-11
20	22-May-11
21	29-May-11
22	5-Jun-11	AquaTerra 10K	C	2K swim/8K run
23	12-Jun-11	Florida Challenge 1/2 IM	B	Clermont, FL
24	19-Jun-11
25	26-Jun-11
26	3-Jul-11	Race Sim
27	10-Jul-11
28	17-Jul-11
29	24-Jul-11	Race Sim
30	31-Jul-11
31	7-Aug-11	Ironman Regensburg	A	Entered
32	14-Aug-11
33	21-Aug-11
34	28-Aug-11
35	4-Sep-11
36	11-Sep-11
37	18-Sep-11
38	25-Sep-11
39	2-Oct-11
40	9-Oct-11	Halfmax Natl Champship	A
41	16-Oct-11
42	23-Oct-11
43	30-Oct-11
44	6-Nov-11
45	13-Nov-11	Clearwater 5150 Finale	B
46	20-Nov-11
47	27-Nov-11
48	4-Dec-11
49	11-Dec-11
50	18-Dec-11
51	25-Dec-11
52	1-Jan-12

 

Mike Hedman

Paul, it looks like an exciting year. The only thing I would question is whether the streak of road races in the beginning of the OS will eclipse the bike work on those weekends. Worst case to me would be that all of the races are on Sunday, and you choose a mini-taper for all of them, resulting in a big chunk of missed Saturdays on the bike. I guess what I'm saying is that I would suggest mentally moving these races to "D" category, and making your OS work your "C" level - to keep things in perspective.

Just my 2 cents,
Mike

Al Truscott

Paul, seeing how you handled last year, with stellar performances in June (despite your swim) and November, there's no question you know how to pace yourself over the course of a long season. Your game plan looks close to what mine would be like usually. The 5Ks at the start, to me, are just a replacement for the weekly Z4 running sessions we do - no need to taper for those, I would think. You just like to do your speed work with others.

The trickiest part will be avoiding injury in your final race - I'd revisit that choice after the half-max champs. A 5150 may not have the same pull for you as IM AZ did this year, so getting mentally up for proper rebound training after this beefy plan may be a bit of a motivational challenge.

kurshing

I second what Mike has said...the road races during the out season may jeapordize a little of the workout structure that is in place. You might dial a few of those back to make sure you really capture the OS work since it really is the foundation for setting up a great season.

GMAN 19030

I love racing and I'm also registered for 6 events so far:

April 3: Gateway to the Bay - Olympic (Kemah, TX)
April 10: Ironman Texas 70.3 (Galveston, TX)
May 21: Ironman Texas (The Woodlands, TX)
July 17: Musselman Half-Iron (Geneva, NY)
August 7: Bridgeland Triathlon - Sprint (Cypress, TX)
September 25: Houston Triathlon - Olympic (Cypress, TX)

I'm thinking of doing another two races, most likely Austin 70.3 on October 23rd and an olympic race in late-August. I was contemplating another HIM race in early-September but four HIM and one IM during a 7 month span might be too much. I did two halfs and a full in 2010 and felt fine.

Paul Hough

@ Mike & Stephen - 4 of the 5 road races starting the year are on Saturdays. My plan is to race in the morning, nap, then hit the bike hard in the afternoon. All five will be day of race entries so I can bag it if I'm not up to it, or maybe skip one or two if I see they impact the bike work too much.

@ Al - you are exactly correct on those starting 5Ks. There's no way I can push myself as hard on my own as I can in a race. I'll be training right through that series, but I know I'll get a lot more quality when I throw down cash and put on a number. I hear you loud and clear on the Clearwater 5150. My guess is that it will not sell out and I can make a late season decision on whether I'm up for it or not. My thought was to finish with a short distance race to set the stage for 2012 when I age up into the 55-59 group. I want to hit a number of sprints/olympics in the first half of the year while I'm the 'youngin' before I gear up for an IM in the fall of 2012.

@ Bob - Looks good to me, although I had a conference at Galveston Island a couple of years ago and would never choose that as a "destination" race...yuck! I'm very interested in Ironman Texas. After you kick butt, please give a detailed RR. Let us know in the RR whether you thought the IM70.3 during the build helped or hurt (EN protocol is that you are giving up valuable training time in the taper & recovery when you do it during the 12 week lead-in). I'm also very curious about the swim venue. Was there enough room for the field at the start, and did it spread out enough before you got to the canal at the end. That canal looks crazy narrow even when I blow it up on satellite view.

GMAN 19030

Paul,

Galveston does suck and it only got worse after Hurricane Ike kicked its ass. It's a nice race though. Not a destination race for me since I'm just 70 miles away in the Houston 'burbs.



I did the Syracuse 70.3 and IMFL with seven weeks turnaround last year. There's a six week break between the two Texas races. I had no issues with the seven week turnaround, There's no way you can go balls out during the 70.3 because you need to make sure you can recover quickly. Definitely needs to be raced like a B race. I more or less did the Syracuse 70.3 at IM pace just for practice sakes. I felt pretty good a couple of days later and did a 90 mile bike ride four days later. I recover very quickly, especially for someone over 40. That's the one genetic gift I have.



There's a sprint race done in Lake Woodlands (the IMTX swim venue) the first Saturday in May. There's like 1000 people that do that race. I believe the two races will start at the same spot. I'm interested in the start area for IMTX because it's not that big an area if it is indeed the same starting spot. That sprint race kind of spreads out for that 500m swim. Granted, that's a wave start and not a mass start but I have no concerns over it being crowded. It's not going to be wetsuit legal so that will also separate the better swimmers quickly.