2011: The Year of the Rabbit

Now, Aesop (Greek fable author; 620 - 560 B.C.) once said "Slow and steady wins the race" in his rather famous story, The Hare and the Tortoise. While I do greatly appreciate the meaning and purpose of the statement, I respectfully disagree. Speed and Endurance are not mutually exclusive, neither in theory nor practice. That is not to say that harnessing the two simultaneously is a small task by any means. This is my 2011: I am setting out with the goal of increasing my speed across the board while moving from the Sprint distance (approx. 0.5mi/14mi/3mi) to Olympic (1.5K/40K/10K). I won't be strictly racing Oly, as some tune up Sprint races will be key in evaluating where I stand early season and might be a good way to add some races without breaking myself down at all. Additionally, it looks like I will be running a Half Marathon as a running based endurance test and also to test what I'm capable of looking forward to the Half Ironman distance.

I have a full preliminary race schedule set up, as it was necessary in order to apply for a spot on the Personal Best Multisport (PBM) Elite Team for 2011. I'm pretty excited at the opportunity of possibly being on a real triathlon team in only my second year of competitive tri's (technically it will be my third year doing tri's but the 2009 Boston Urban Epic was off almost no training and just for fun: i.e. not competitive). I’m hoping that situation turns out well, especially because over 90% of my training has been self-guided. And while I know a fair amount about running training (up to 10K), I know very little of cycling and swimming. Also, the combination of the three events is a very difficult but very critical aspect of successful triathlon training. Hopefully being on the Cycling team at University of Rochester this spring will develop my understanding of effective cycling training and focusing on different systems. Depending on how everything goes I might be paying for a coach by mid to late spring so I can really get a solid schedule. Training a lot or at high intensity is not my major problem, it is effectively integrating all aspects of triathlon into an optimal schedule. For swimming I’ll hopefully be training a bit with my friend, Mike Hoffman, who was fifth out of the water at IM Lake Placid 2010. He was formerly on the swim team here at UR but is now getting his Ph.D.

All in all, 2011 is looking to be a solid year in competition and also a major year for my growth as a triathlete; physically, intellectually, and by experience.