So for the most part for a very early on “pro” there doesn’t need to be “pro only” races on your calendar *atleast* in the US. Go race the local events (may or may not have an open wave) that are easy on the budget, if you have a local IM event go race it. Sure you’ll want to race a handful of elite wave 70.3 or IM, (to race the best) but this idea that suddenly you can only race in “pro only” and you must travel for all races, is in fact false. That’s an important narrative to correct because I think very young pros in fact may not even be ready to race “pro only” schedule. They can use local events to test fitness etc and then use the pro wave races to “test how good they are” etc.

So for the most part changing from AG to elite doesn’t have to be this huge change in race schedules, especially for BOP/MOP 1st year pro’s. You can still race local, but you must tell the race to scrub you from an AG specific result, that is one stipulation that is necessary (overall is fine but you can’t count in AG ranks)


Eta: and mind you if you look at the schedule that *some* AG athletes race, they “travel” for as many big races as much as many pros do.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II