"already thinking about summer..."

Yup. Up here in the Great White North it's called hibernation.

I'm in Boston, and I've already traded in the Endurox for porter(home brew!) and the Powerbars for Cheezy Puffs.

I noticed that along with it being 30 degrees out, there are WAY more postings this morning than the usual Saturday, so it looks like lots of people are staring out the window longingly.

I'm a relative newbie to tri, having just finished my first season. This being my first year, and my focus being on longer races, I have been doing loads of base training, and not a whole lot of intensity training.

I think that for longer distances, you want to build up your endurance first, and work on your speed second. Opinions can very on this, but most of the training books I have read say the same thing. For Half and IM races, TTB even suggests forgoing Build phases to focus on Base training. You have to be able to finish the race before you can finish it fast.

I rarely ran more than 30-35 miles/week this season, did 2 oly's and 2 half IM's, and my run splits were usually the best part of my race, rankings-wise. In one my run split was in the top 10%, and I am not a great runner.

Good luck!

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