2013- What's on my plate?

For many triathletes, race planning begins well before the big ball drops.  I had about 70% of my season planned before Christmas primarily based two things- one I am a Type A guy and if you want to race in an IM race- you need a quick trigger finger as these things sell out fast!  My plan for 2013 is based on peaking for Ironman Lake Placid on July 28, 2013.  To do that I have mapped out a race and training schedule that should have me ready to go long and fast.

My season has started- I have been training significantly starting on 12/1/2012 doing the Spinervals 32 Day challenge.  During the challenge I biked over 860 miles and ran about 50.  Very little swimming, but I did a lot of core and shoulder workouts.  Proof of the effectiveness of the program- my power numbers jumped 23 watts from Early December to Early January.  I have begun now a pre IM training program- which means I am training 10-14 hrs a week including swimming several times.  My formal training build will begin roughly 20 weeks out (early March).  So most of my work between now and then will include a lot of Base building workouts. technique focus, strength training- especially around my core.  I am also slowly getting to race weight- I am about 173 pounds and 10.8% body fat.  I want to get to about 165-168 and about 7% body fat.  I am using a Tanita scale to measure and track- wow it is so freakin cool.  I am also spending time on my skis- with the kids which has been a great diversion from traditional training!

In addition to my IM build I have scheduled a series of races leading to IMLP that are designed to test my fitness, gear changes and nutrition (both of which are tested in training too), provide real race day experiences (nothing beats race day) & have fun (did I mention nothing beats race day).

My first races are Duathlons- primarily since you can du in colder weather since there is no swim. But they are hard! And then before any traditional tris, I am doing an Xterra again this year.

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3/16/13	Prospect park Duathlon
4/6/13	DelValley Duathon
4/28/13	JerseyDevil
5/5/13	DevilMan
5/18/13	JerseyMan
6/2/13	IM Raleigh 70.3
6/20/13	Spinervals LP Camp
7/28/13	IM Lake Placid

I may add 1 or 2 TT's and some 10 milers as well but the schedule above is designed to let me race, but not go so deep into the tank since I only have one 70.3 pre IMLP (the last two years I have schedule several 70.3s as lead in races so this is a bit of a departure).  In addition this year only Raleigh and IMLP are travel races.

More to come in the next week or so on gear changes and nutrition.