Race Season is Near

Wow, all I can say is this year is flying by so far!  Student teaching is going well, training is going well, and the weather, I hope, is starting to warm up a bit.  Now that it’s almost mid March I am starting to see the beginning of my race season.  My first race of the year is the Chi-Town Half Marathon March 24th.  Then 3 weeks later I will be running the oldest, most storied marathon in world, well besides the original “marathon”, the Boston Marathon!  I have been wanting to run this race since I started running seriously a few years ago.  I missed out by like :27 seconds last year which was a blessing because I did Ironman Texas instead.  Then my first triathlon will be the 5i50 series race in New Orleans.  I went down to NOLA last year for the 70.3 which turned into a duathlon due to storms.  After that race things really kick into gear with another big race being Muncie 70.3 then the USAT AG Nationals being another biggie.  I have other races planned during the summer but those are the ones I really want to peak at.

I have been thinking about my season goals for a while but with triathlon goals are tough to nail down because times depend on weather and course, and placing depends on who shows up that day.  But here are a few of my goals for the season.

1. Run a 1:19 half marathon- I ran 1:21:17 last year and I am in better shape right now
2. Run a mid 2:50’s marathon- I hope I can do this in Boston and that is the pace I have been using as my marathon pace but with a point to point course weather plays an even bigger role.  Last year was hot, two years ago had a great tailwind (fingers crossed for that again!) but a headwind could wreak havoc on pacing
3. Qualify for the 70.3 World Championships- Not sure if I would actually race the WC but qualifying would mean placing probably top 5 in my AG
4. Race my best race at the USAT AG National Championships
5. Go low 2:00’s in an Olympic Triathlon- Again, course dependent but I went 2:09:xx during Ironman training last year so I should be able to go faster now that my focus is speed

I have other goals that I think about day to day but these are the big ones.  Now time to keep training and stay injury free!