2009 - Mapping the Course

As 2008 closes, I'm...

Employed and nearly 100% physically. Carrying a decent base of fitness. The usual suspects on the winter work list: flexibility, overall and injury-prevention strength, lots of room for improvement re swim form and fitness, smaller form refinements in the dry sports.

Plans for '09...
Near term: See the usual suspects above. Work hard, and smart, on my swim. Stubborn (stupid?) sob that I am I believe I can get my swimming close to my run and bike level within my AG. Make strength and flexibility work a daily thing. Across the year, I'm baking a two-layered cake, and hope to top it off with tasty Boston Qualifier icing.

Layer One of the '09 cake is training and peaking for a Memorial Day event. Layer Two's flavor is yet to be determined. Some kind of fall target, likely Nation's Tri. Then, if all goes well, the BQ attempt to close the year. I'll indulge in a few no-taper training races along the way.

Currently mulling the best recipe for the months leading up to the Triple T on Mem Day. Whether, which, and how many races to use as training events. Big weekends, and semi-epic personal training events may be better bang for fitness buck, wiser than racing as training. Regardless there will be lots of hills, both running and biking.

I'm money-down for the Triple T and the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler. Another likely suspect is a Richmond Duathlon in late April. That's probably it for racing before TTT, altho one tri would be nice to have one tri under my belt before heading to OH.

THE CALENDAR

Spring possibles:
February 7 - Cross Country race (8K, 12K options, Derwood, MD)

March 1 - B&A Trail Half Mary (Balt)
March 29 - National Half Mary (DC)
April 5 - *Cherry Blossom 10 Miler* (DC) I'm registered.
April 19 - Half iron tri, Lake Anna, VA
April 27 - Duathlon, Richmond, Short Course Nationals (run 10K, bike 40K, run 5K). Qualifier for world's this Fall, in the US, in NC.
May 9 - Half Iron tri, VA

May 23-25 - *Triple T* (OH) TARGET RACE

Weekend of tri. Three days, four races. Signed up to tackle it in '08 but injuries forced me to bump my entry to '09. Not so much racing as pacing and recovery between races in order to survive this beast. As the races get longer, the courses get hillier.

Fri. PM - Sw 250m - Bike 5mi - Run 1mi;
Sat. AM - Sw 1500m - Bike 25mi - Run 6.5mi;
Sat. PM - Bike 25mi - Sw 1500m - Bike 5mi - Run 6.5mi;
Sun. AM - Sw 1.2mi - Bike 55.5mi - Run 13.1mi

2nd Half of '08

Wide open. Lots of A & B level race possibles.

Tri Possibles:

Diamond in Rough Oly 7-11-09
Musselman 7-19

Travel to San Fran?? - August 8 senior games 10K champs

Mograntown Half 8-9-09
Diamondman Half 9-13-09
Nation's Tri 9-13-09
Duathlon Worlds 9-26-09

Marathon Possibles:

Richmond Marathon 11-14-09

North Central Trail Marathon 11-28-09 (Sparks, MD, ~80min drive) This one has appeal. Race day driveable, would allow 8-10 weeks after a September tri, and is allegedly a top ten marathon for percentage of finishers qualifying for The Boston Marathon.

Goals for '09
Stay healthy. Healthy = happy.

Sportswise, Health = consistent training = improved fitness. Consistency trumps all!

• Sub 65mins at Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in April;
  
• top 10 in my AG at the duathlon short course nationals in Richmond and qualify for world's (Concord, NC);
  
• get my 500m TT swim in the 8:30 range by May 1;
  
• survive the training for the Triple T, toe start line healthy;
• top 5 AG at the Nation's Tri in September;
  
• run under 3:20:00 in a fall mary and qualify for Boston.

SWIM note - had a benchmarking swim workout this week: 500meter Time Trial (TT). Final session of the Tue. & Thur. 6a-7a group swim with coach Daniel Brafman I will miss these. Daniel has helped me a great deal.

12-30-08 500m TT- 9mins 22secs (500m) (1:52/100m pace). Not bad por moi, esp with recently limited training. First 100m was 1:44. Had hopes of 9min flat, 9:22 still fastest ever for me. Swimmers in the audience, stop laughing.

Chronology:
12/30/08 - 9:22 500m - (1:52/100m pace) (would be ~8:37 for 500yards)
2/14/08 - 9:08 500yds - (1:49-:50 100yd pace) (would be ~9:52 for 500m)
11/15/07 - 10:29 500yds - (2:06/100yds pace) (overswim 50yds?)

10/16/07 - 9:34 500yds - (1:53/100yds pace) (underswim 50yds?)
9/27/07 - 11:10 500m - (2:14/100m) *Day 1 with Daniel.