Planning the season

2011 looms large and I am going to try a few things differently. Specifically I am going to race a bit more to se if this gets me faster. I plan to use the races to build up my speed and hopefully will see me setting some new PBs.

So my season goes
1oth April Dragonslayer Duathlon
8th May Marshman HIM
28-30th May Tour of Wessex (3days x100miles+)
19th June UK HIM (wimbleball)
3rd July Ironman Austria
31st July Ironman UK

then I will see if I have any desire t race again.

The plan sees a race every 3-4 weeks but each has a role.

The duathlon is really just a run out for my new tri club London Fields Triathlon. I thought about it last year and regretted not registering. It is a challenging race as the bike is 20 laps around Hog Hill race circuit which has a mean little hill every lap. The aim here is to generate some hard bike speed (and a bit of running as an added bonus).

Next comes the Marshman which is a nice flat course and a chance to see where my training is. It will be a controlled race but it will definitely be a race and not an expensive training session. I hope to see a steady bike split sub 2.30 and then a low 1.3* 21 km run.

Next comes the ToW. This year I will try not to dig such a large hole on the first day. The training effect I am after is to develop some serious muscular endurance, the hills will do that, but recognise it usually takes a 4 day reccovery slot after before my training can start up as anything more than recovery.

Once recovered I will have two weeks of peak training culminating in HIMUK and here I am not too sure. I will be exactly 2 weeks before IMa and as such is quite close if I have a bad day and it is not really a course on which you can ever take it easy. the run especially is quite tough. I am hoping that my fitness at this stage will see me having a solid race but may even consider a run walk strategy for the run to avoid trashing my legs oo much. The next two weeks will be a taper/transition hoping to get me to IMA in a race ready state. I think my revoery from HIMUK should see me just peaking at IMA so long as the fatigue I have built up can be shed in the last 14 days.

I know IMA well and it is a course that suits me as long as the sun dont shine too much.

4 weeks later and I will set of for IMUK. The plan for this will be to train through with 3 weeks of steady work (OK some recovery but back on the bike for a long slow) ride the following sunday) and see how I go. I have raced IMs 6 weeks apart and felt great. Not sure how this will go....

.. but I like the plan.