Given it’s late January now, and I’m past all the New Year and Inauguration stuffola, it’s time to get on with the new year. Training has resumed back to a normal workload with plenty of harder double-workouts about half the days each week.
So what’s in store? Well, first up is about three months of super-secret training. Ok, so it’s not so secret. But since my first race is about three months since my last, it’ll be like a secret. Like Veep Cheney hidden away at an undisclosed location (remember him?).
Anyway…we begin the year with a little time-trial test. Also known as:
-
National Half Marathon – March 21st, 2009: This will serve as a good benchmark for my running. A loose goal is 1:19 (but that’s not a hard goal). We’ve (the coach and I) shifted what was an initial focus on that race to a focus instead on the race following it. Btw, I never bothered to figure out how fast a sub-1:20 half-marathon is…umm, turns out 6:06 per mile. Yikes! It seemed like a good idea at the time anyway…
-
Escape from Ft. Desoto Triathlon – April 11th, 2009: The Girl is racing this, and after very little convincing on her part – I’ll be racing it as well. This will be my first sprint-tri since my very first triathlon back in July 2007. This will be a blast of a race on a flat, fast course. And I’ll be in the first swim wave – so things will certainly be interesting from the gun…
-
Boston Marathon – April 20th, 2009: Straightforward enough, it’s the Boston Marathon. My goal is to have fun and not set a PR. There will be no sub-3 here, that’s for sure! But re-qual for Boston would be handy (yes, I know I don’t actually need it since my November time works for two years worth of qualifying, but I need at least something to aim for – otherwise I might stop mid-race at an iHop and have breakfast or something).
-
Kinetic Sprint Tri – May 10, 2009: A second sprint tri – who knew? This is mostly a tune-up race more than anything else. I haven’t looked at results yet from previous years to see how this might shake out.
-
Reston 2-mile swim – May 24, 2009: This was the coach’s idea. I’m using it as a brick workout, I’m sure he’ll have some crazy-ass day planned when the time comes. Registration opened up this last weekend and is likely already closed – so if you haven’t registered yet…go quick!
-
Health Net Olympic Triathlon (Connecticut) – June 13, 2009: I needed an oly distance race on a specific weekend as part of the ramp to the 70.3 This was the only one anywhere on this coast on that weekend (seriously, I looked at hundreds of races!). However, rumor is that there might be an age-group race associated with the ITU world cup race here in DC in the May/June timeframe, so I might switch to that (if anyone has deets on the date of this event, I’d greatly appreciate them!)
-
Rhode Island Ironman 70.3 – July 12, 2009: I’m quite simply looking to kick ass at this race. Kick ass is defined as a podium finish, or achieving the time goal below. Last year I had an incredible race at a 4:46 finish time. But I also had serious issues on the run with throwing up and walking, resulting in a less than ideal run time. I think I could easily shave off nearly 15 minutes on my run assuming I actually…run the run. Let alone what I’ll shave off on the bike (I think 5-10 minutes there is possible). I don’t expect a much faster swim, maybe a minute or two. Oh, in case it wasn’t clear: Clearwater is the goal.
-
Ironman Canada – August 30th, 2009: Last year’s first Ironman was a success as a whole. But the run fell apart like a wet paper towel following bad bike nutrition. This year it’s all about a very solid but tempered bike (and nutrition!), followed by a good run time. Assuming I can do both of those (oh, and not drown in the swim), I’ll be on my way to my goal of Kona. Though the cookies at some of the aide stations could prove tempting enough to stop…
-
Nation’s Triathlon (Olympic) – September 13th, 2009: Last year I came in 3rd out of more than 200 folks in my AG. So that was a massive success! I missed the elite qualification cutoff by a few seconds – which is actually fine by me. This year will be a bit trickier with IMC being juts two weeks prior…so I’ll play it by ear.
-
The TBD Races…
-
Kona – Ironman World Championships – October 10th, 2009: Simple enough – either I qualify…or I don’t.
-
Clearwater – Ironman 70.3 World Championships – Nov 14, 2009: Straight forward enough again…
-
Anything after the above will be TBD depending on Kona and Clearwater…so we’ll see.
-
The fall running races. Obviously there won’t be many fall running races if I get into Clearwater or Kona. Save perhaps for another turkey trot…
-
So there ya go – my 2009 racing schedule. It could change of course, but since I’m registered for most of the races, that seems rather unlikely. Should be a fun year!
FOUND THIS POST USEFUL? SUPPORT THE SITE!
Hopefully, you found this post useful. The website is really a labor of love, so please consider becoming a DC RAINMAKER Supporter. This gets you an ad-free experience, and access to our (mostly) bi-monthly behind-the-scenes video series of “Shed Talkin’”.
Support DCRainMaker - Shop on Amazon
Otherwise, perhaps consider using the below link if shopping on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot. It could simply be buying toilet paper, or this pizza oven we use and love.
The weekend of the ITU race is 21st of june at least that what is said on the ITU site and also the on the mid atlantic but I dont trust to much on them, I trust more on the ITU,
nice scheduele the bike was bad because the wind was blowing in my face 1 hour
Hey! I’m going to race kinetic sprint too 🙂 Only, after I do the half the day before… trying my first back to back race. Needless to say, I won’t be racing you to the finish.. I might not be able to move, depending on how the Kinetic Half pans out.
Solid schedule though.
And, for some reason, I thought you were racing Columbia this year?
WOW at to think I was aiming big! I have every confidence that you’ll get each and everyone one of these nailed…so no pressure ok!
I am glad to read that you, as always, have some robust goals. I will be looking forward to following your progress and your journey.
Very nice collection of events to keep you moving all year. I’m already looking forward to your excellent race reports!
Awesome! I know you’re going to rock all of these races.
Woo hoo – Kona and Clearwater here you come! Here’s to less puking and fewer incidents of being t-boned by children and random forest critters. 2009 is your year to go from Fast to Faster McSpeedypants.
Sweet – I totally see Kona in your future. How many minutes and places were you out of a qualifying spot last year? I wouldn’t think you have very far to go, and your star is definitely on the rise. Good luck, and train like hell.
Wow! Great year ahead for you! I can’t wait to follow all your success!
you will be racing at kona..someday..hopefully this year….wow….great schedule!!
You are just bad ass awesome and you know it! We all will be watching you as you make your way to Kona this year!
Good luck with the double secret training, and would love to see a Kona report!
Hey, you know everything about the G305, question: I did a run tonight and I had to stop to replace an MP3 battery, So the unit knows I stopped for about 1.5 minutes. Does it subtract that time out for average pace purposes? Or is it saying “your pace was x:xx including a 1.5 minute stop?”
If you know it would help. Thanks!
Bob D
Hey Bob,
Thanks!
The answer is ‘it depends’. If you set the Garmin to ‘Autopause’, then it will indeed remove that stoppage time for your pace. So instead of being penalized, it will be as if you never stopped. Same goes if you actually press stop on the watch (which is what I do).
However, if you don’t currently have it configured to stop, then you would in effect get penalized for the stoppage time.
For me, I just press the stop button and then start again. It doesn’t reset the lap or anything – it’s just like pressing pause. Fwiw, Sport Tracks will show you stopage time seperately also.
Looks like some great plans for 2009 – you’ll be busy! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you that you kick ass and get your Clearwater and Kona slots!
Got your reply, thanks!
I figured since it knows I am stopped it would be smart enough to stop the clock. Just that if I go into Sport Tracks and view the HR or pace graphs, I can see it was still recording data so I wasn’t sure.
Next time I’ll just hit the stop button, thanks.
That is a pretty full race schedule!
BRING IT!
Looks like a big year again for you. I expect lots of good bike training stories about Yogi and friends along with pictures from your run and swim workouts.
Oh yeah, I will take all those food pictues as well. Don’t leave those out.
Nice schedule, we’ll have to meet up at IMC
Good luck with your Kona aspirations! Unfortunately, I’m not usually in Kona in October. Working on fixing that …
You are miles ahead of me in race planning. LOL. I am about a month behind where I need to be.
One a brighter note–I picked up the new Canon 50D. VERY nice.
Are you seroiusly running two ironmans a month apart from each other? Are you coo-coo for Coco Puffs?
c’mon, is that all ya got??
I’ll see ya at nation’s (well, i won’t actuall SEE you), and national half (again, like not actually SEE the BLUR that is you), but i’ll be rooting for ya from afar, especially for the connecticut (the nutmeg state! my homestate!) race.
you’re one krazy kat.
This schedule is intense. I don’t even have ONE race lined up yet (where will I be living 3 months from now??). Good luck with training! You are a machine.