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Planning Your Race Calendar...

Saturday, 05 April 2014 01:10

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By Ryan Turbyfill (usatriathlon.org)

With the 2014 triathlon season quickly approaching, you may have a full race schedule lined up. If not, it’s time to start thinking about your multisport goals and determine which races will best showcase all your hard work. Here are six key concepts to help you choose the best multisport races for you — whether it’s your first event or 100th.

Think about your goals. Before planning out the race schedule, goals need to be determined for the upcoming year. Is it to complete your first half marathon, set a PR in a 10k or qualify for Kona in an Ironman event? These goals will be your “A” races and fill in the racing calendar first. I don’t recommend picking more than two or three “A” races per year. Make sure they are spaced apart for best performances. Secondary “B” races are crucial for a dress rehearsal for the “A” races as well as to keep training fun by competing. These races can fill in between the “A” races.

Set a racing budget. Racing can be very expensive not only with registration fees, but also travel costs. Setting your annual racing budget will help determine if traveling out of the area with airfare and hotels is realistic. This will help decide if you should look at just local races and pick from those or be able to expand the race search.

Find your distance. Lately, it has become even more popular to go longer in distance such as the marathon or Ironman. But don’t get pressured into making these your type of race as some of the best athletes in the world race shorter distances. Take ITU elite triathletes, for example; they compete in Olympic-distance (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run) and are able to run as fast as a sub-30 minute 10k after the bike. Now that is impressive with some serious results. The amount of training time you have available as well as strengths such as endurance or speed will help you determine what distance you excel and have fun at. READ MORE