Plan your season

The ground may be snow covered and your season is still 5 months away but now is the time to plan your season.  Believe it or not many races have already filled up or will be filling only a few days after registration opens.  However, getting into the right races is not the only reason to plan your season. 

You need to plan your season so you can plan your fitness.  Let’s say you are gearing up for two Olympic distance triathlons this year and you would also like to hop in a few sprint distance races.  There a many ways to plan this type of season but only a few ways will allow you to reach the highest level fitness for your key races.  Ideally you would separate your two key races by 6-8 weeks.   You could then do a couple shorter triathlons 3-5 weeks before your first race to check your fitness. So instead of only racing for the fun of racing, you can now use smaller events before your first race to determine weaknesses, training needs and still have fun.  Because you hold on to your highest fitness for about 3 weeks you could do another sprint triathlon before your 2^nd major race and be in peak shape for it.

Here are some more thoughts on to how organize you’re a successful season:

         1.       Use events to help you prepare – you don’t have

                 to be in the best shape all the time.

         2.       Plan your key workouts way ahead of time so

                 you don’t end up with schedule conflicts.

         3.       Do not plan a race a couple of weeks after a

                 family vacation – the last thing you need to

                 be thinking about is training anxiety when

                 enjoying your family should be the major focus.

         4.       Work from your race backwards when

                 planning important training sessions.

         5.       Evaluate less important races and modify your

                 training to address areas of concern.

         6.       Look back at successful seasons in the past.

Date modified: 1/26/2005