The triathlon season starts soon!

After a long and at times BORING winter training on stationary bikes, running on the treadmill and endless swimming workouts...my real training starts this coming Monday! Ahhh....it will be so good to be back working out with a goal in hand.

I had thought about running the winter marathon in Peterborough again, but with the on again, off again problems with my lower back I figured I would make the most of the off season. I still ran, swam and did my weight routine 3 times a week each, but at times my bike training has taken a back seat. It's hard to sit and stare at the same wall for 90 minutes, 3 times a week FOR THE WHOLE WINTER! Enough said?

This year I am going to do 3 tri's:

1. Guelph Lake Weekend, June 22, 2008 : Olympic Triathlon - Swim 1.5km, Bike 42km, Run 10km
2. Northern Orillia, Aug. 17, 2008: Sprint Triathlon - Swim 750m, Bike 33km, Run 7km
3. Cobourg Triathlon Weekend: Sprint Triathlon - Swim 750m, Bike 20 km, Run 5 km

The Olympic distance will be the BIG challenge for the season and it's the first one, so after that is out of the way I should be able to coast into the Orillia sprint (same one I did last year) and the Cobourg distances are much smaller then the rest. It will be interesting to see how I do in Orillia with a full year of tri traing under my belt and I hope to better my times from last year. The Cobourg tri is small but is only a week after the Orillia. I want to try this one mostly 'cause it is so close to my home.

New for this year:

• Felt S32 tri specific bike-remember I bought it last year off of eBay?

• 19's Riptide Wetsuit- Yes I did buy a wetsuit....but I have a good reason. Since I will be in the water much longer and doubling the swim distance, I want to give myself every advantage possible and the buoyancy a wetsuit provides will be a HUGE advantage over lat year.

• Podium Quest Water bottle- I know, I know...to some it might "just" be a water bottle, but to me it's a spill proof, minute saving, aerodynamic hydration device!

• Experience-...I don't have a link for that, but I have it and it only cost me sweat!

• New Training Program- I have software called Erace Planner that was designed by the best tri coaches in the game today. All I do is punch in my stats ( heart rate, lactic threshold , the races I want to do and the intensity of the program) and the software generates a customizable schedule for the entire race season...even for the winter! It does WAY more then I have time to describe, so if feel free to check it out above. I think of all the "New" things, this one may have the most impact on my overall performance. It forces you to train hard, but not over training which has been a BIG problem for me in the past.
  

It all starts again on Monday folks....where did winter go?

Thanks again for reading and have a great weekend!!!