Tuesday, November 1, 2011

2012 Tentative Race Schedule & Week 1

As I mentioned in previous posts I am a planner, so here I am six months out from my first race and I have pretty much planned the whole season. In Carmen’s perfect world I kind of had planned my races a couple of weeks a go, before 2012 race calendars were published, that of course means that now I am forced to move things around and not be able to do some of the races I was looking forward to race next year (i.e. West Point Lake).
I had originally planned to start with NOLA 70.3 like last year, get an Olympic distance race in a couple of weeks later and head to Spain again for a 3 week vacation around Sami’s IM (IM Lanzarote in May).
Last year I did St A’s for a third year in a row, that is probably one of my favorite races but this year they changed the timing and it is only one week after NOLA. That means no St A’s for me, I think I am at a point where I can recover from a HIM in a couple of weeks but one week is way too close.
Looking at my options (and based on last year’s schedule) I thought Peachtree city International would be a great one. I did it a couple of years a go (that was actually my first full Olympic distance tri), it is a very fast course and I could drive there the morning of. Of course you will understand my disappointment when they published the new date: May 19th, great! I am in Spain that weekend, so I had to look for another option.
My only other option was REV3 Knoxville. I kept telling myself how I need to concentrate on bigger things, yes REV3 is not what I wanted but the bigger picture for 2012 is IMFL, REV3 allows me to get one Olympic in before heading home and I know that with the Oly being the bigger race in Knoxville it promises to be a very competitive event.
So that part is set, into the second half of my season. Again I wanted to do an Olympic around June when I got back from Spain, I was hoping to do West Point Lake again but they just changed the date on that one as well, that one really kills me. I have done it two years in a row and I really wanted to do it one more time, specially now that they’ve moved the date (April 29th) which means there wont be any issues with the heat which is always a big factor on this race.
Once again Carmen the planner has to adjust (you see? I told you I was flexible J), and is looking like I will have to look at some of the SETUp races (NC/SC). From the time I get back from Spain til September I am going to concentrate on Olympic distance races, hopefully get in one a month. Augusta 70.3 at the end of the month and after that I will focus on IMFL.

April 22nd - NOLA 70.3
May 6th -  REV3 Knoxville Olympic
June 10th  – Festival of Flowers (SC)
July – Chattanooga Waterfront
August 4th or 5th - Trying to decide between Lake Logan (NC) and Acworth Womens Tri (??)
August -  New PT Solutions Olympic distance (date TBD)
September 8th  – Tugaloo
September 30thAugusta 70.3
November - IMFL

I also have to report that I finally got a plan for this past week. It felt good to be back out there, with a 'purpose', even if is not much. The structure does me well and allows me to focus on other things. Unfortunately my body was not craving a healthy diet as much as I thought J, but overall was a good week.
As I mentioned previously, during the fall training (or off season) we will focus on my run, for me this means we are taking one swim off and leaving just one session a week.
This change has been good so far, it is so hard to get motivated to swim nowadays, unless I have somebody to swim with which is not very often. Since I only have one session a week now it is not as bad, I know I need to get it in if I want to maintain some fitness in the water and knowing I don’t have to get back to it til the following week gives me the extra push to pack my bag and head to the pool.
I am not Haley Chura when it comes to swimming, Elaine Sipos on the bike or Katie June on the run, but for the most part I can count on a solid swim and a strong bike. Running is something that doesn’t come naturally for me (like most swimmers), and even though I made huge improvements last season, it seem as if I still struggle with consistency on longer distance racing. I am hoping this will change with the running I will be doing in the next couple of months.

Week’s Total
Swim -   75min. – 4000m.
Bike -  4 hrs
Run – 4.1 hrs
TOTAL – 9.3 hrs

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