The Next Year

It has been Eleven weeks since the completion of my first Ironman.  In this time I have not followed any training plans or put pressure on myself to train.  The plan was to basically not have a plan and just do what I wanted to do.  This worked out extremely well and both my body and mind are ready to get back to it.

For July the overall volume ended up being pretty low by my standards:

Swim - 7h 23m  -  17,250m
Bike -  12h 10m  -  230mi
Run -   13h 50m  -  92.41mi
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Total -  33h 23m


Total Weight Gained Since IM  - 12lbs!

Yep, I was 150lbs on race day and am currently sitting at 162lbs.   The funny thing is I look fit at 162lbs but 150lbs is a much better racing weight.  I will take my time getting back down to racing weight!


Moving Forward:


I have two more Tri's this year:

- The Half Rev @ Rev3 Cedar Point on September 11th.
- The Olympic @ Rev3 Anderson on October 9th.

Then my schedule becomes extremely run focused.  I am going to use the Advanced Marathoning 18-week 55-75mile per week plan.  The purpose of doing such as high weekly volume plan is twofold: Build up a large running base for Ironman Mont-Tremblant and attempt to Boston Qualify.  Not sure if I can BQ since I have never ran a stand-alone marathon but will use the races listed below to gauge my progress.  It would be cool to BQ on my first marathon attempt but have a feeling my inexperience at the distance make it improbable.  Still going to put myself out there and go for it!

My training program will officially begin on October 31st and I am currently working on building my weekly miles up to the upper 40's.  The first week on my plan calls for 54miles - should be fun!  I will be 36 years old for the marathon and will need a sub - 3h10m time to qualify.  Pretty confident I can do a low 3:20 right now but will need to drop another 15 minutes.

Here is my planned schedule:

- San Antonio RnR 1/2 Marathon on November 12th
- Texas Trail Run 50k on December 10th (tentative)
- Texas 1/2 Marathon on January 1st, 2012.
- The Woodlands Marathon on March 3rd, 2012 (A Race)

After the Woodlands Marathon I will begin Training for Ironman Mont-Tremblant and will do these Tri's in preperation:

- Kemah Olympic Tri on April 15th, 2012
- Rev3 Knoxville Olympic on May 8th, 2012
- Buffalo Spring Lake Tri 70.3 on June 24th, 2012
- Ironman Mont Tremblant on August 19th, 2012 (A Race)


As you can see the schedule is planned for the next year.  It is nice to have it all worked out but the loss of spontaneity sometimes leads to regret!

Since I have decided to focus on running the time dedicated to swimming and cycling is going to have to decrease.  This was a hard decision to make because I really do enjoy both but the reality is in order to put the type of weekly miles into running that is required then something had to change.

This also means that I will be heading into Cedar Point 70.3 and Anderson Olympic under-trained on the swim and bike.  Thanks to IM training I do have a decent base in both the swim and bike so completion is not an issue but I will be slower.  Hopefully all the run training will pay off and carry me through.

Has anyone else started planning for 2012 yet?


Thanks for Reading,

Jeff