I’m relatively new to triathlon and I’m in the process of planning out my races for 2006. How many races do you guys normally do in a season? Last year was my first year and I did 3 races (2 OLY, 1 1/2), and I also ran my first Marathon. This season my A race will be Timberman 1/2 and I will hopefully race the 70.3 champs as well. How many races should I do in addition to these two? What distances? I also plan to run the Boston Marathon in April. Any advice will be appreciated.
FWIW…
1st season - 6 tri’s (Sprint & Olympic)
2nd Season - 5 tri’s (Sprints & HIM)
3rd Season - 3 (1 Olympic, 1 HIM & 1 IM)
2006 Season - I’m thinking of just doing IMLP and not doing any other races.
Some people enjoy racing, some people enjoy training. I enjoy training and only need a race for a goal, I don’t really enjoy the time and money it takes to race.
the question is how fast can YOU recover?
The 3 Tris I did, even the Timberman Half didn’t seem to take too much recovery time. So I think I can handle a decent race load. The marathon however was not a quick recovery…but that was largely due to being undertrained.
1st season (2004) - 4 tris (1 sprint, 2 HIM, 1 IM), 2 marathons (1 spring, 1 fall)
2nd season (2005) - 4 tris (1 Oly, 2 HIM, 1 IM), 2 marathons (2 spring)
I enjoy setting aggressive goals at fewer races…
When I was racing a lot (at about 27-28 years old), I would do as many as I could. Often back to back weekends. These were sprints and oly’s. But 10-12 or so was normal.
Now? Well, it’s just too costly to do that. For next year, though, I’m looking at about 6-8.
I did 15 this year, including two snowshoe and one running. Mostly sprint distance. I like to race often, that way if you have a flat or bad race you get another chance in the next week or two. Had been around 12 or so but have been adding the snowshoe events.
I am a racing fiend. I ran the Boston Marathon, did 12 tris, (including IM Wisconsin, Triple-T, and a 1/2), 1 du, 1 27M mtn. bike race, 1 Turkey Trot, and then 6 cyclocross races just for fun (although I did win the State Championships).
Part of this question must be answered by how convenient races are to where you live. If you live in a place where you can wake up in your own bed, drive with a buddy to a race and then ride home the same morning for your weekly long ride then I would race fairly often.
In my case, races are far and require a lot of logistics, so I lose the entire weekend to training. So now I train more and race less. The positive side effect has been an increase in speed. Before I raced too much and didn’t like to train through races, so after a while I didn’t make any progress.
Sprint tri’s are out of my legs in a couple days, O-distance take 'til mid-week and Half-IM means a week of lower than normal intensity, though generally not lower than normal volume. Since I don’t do any speedwork anymore, races are my speed work, so I schedule a few low key races coming into the big race of the season.
Chad
Just about to finish my first season on the sport (Tinsel Triathlon this weekend), and that will make 12 triathlons and 1 duathlon (Muddy Buddy).
7 sprints
3 Olympic
1 longer than Olympic but shorter than Half Iron
1 Half Iron
1 Muddy Buddy Duathlon
For 2006, I have 3 HIM’s on the schedule, 1 IM, 3 or 4 Olys, and 3 or 4 sprints.
Recovery time for you personally, and perhaps more importantly BUDGET will determine your race volume among other things. For me, I love to race…much more than training, so I’d rather race on a weekend than train.
I like to race. For 2005:
Running races:
1 half marathon
3 10Ks
doing a 12K trail race this Saturday
Open water swim race:
2.4 mile
Triathlons:
Ice Breaker Sprint tri (700y/13mi/4mi)
Tri for Fun Sprint tri (400y/11mi/5K)
1 Olympic distance (San Jose)
3 Half IM (2 finishes, one swim/bike only)
Wildflower (DNF after bike)
Half Vineman
Barb’s Race
4th HIM that became a du (3K/56mi/13.1m) (Auburn International)
IM NZ
IM Hawaii
clm
I feel like a wuss…
I did three last season (my first) 2 sprint and 1 Oly.
2006 looks like 3 Sprints, 2 Oly, and 1 or 2 1/2 IM.
Stay healthy and keep the checking account in the black and you could race every weekend. Sprints are like good training days and Oly can be fun without doing too much damage to yourself. Just listen to you body and don’t be afraid to back out of a race if you are hurtin’. Remember doing one race when you should be recovering could mean that you will be recovering the rest of the season.
Good luck!
Last year was first real season of doing tri’s (I did an Xterra the year before).
I did 3 sprints, 1 off-road, two 10Ks, and 1 24hr MTB race.
This year, my training plan tentatively has 3 half marathons, one 30K, and one 10K, 4 sprint tri’s, one long course tri, and one Ironman (LP). Also planning on doing two more 10Ks in Cot/Nov next year and maybe another half marathon. Basically it works out to about a race every 3 weeks…and most are built as training runs/races (they all fit within my current plan).
In 2001, 2002, 2003 I did between 3-6, 2004 it jumped to 11 in 2004 and this last year did
Tri’s-11-Olympic, 1-1/2IM
Running-6 running races (1 was Muddy Buddy)
Bike-1
Swim-1
So a big jump this year, and the bike, a run and swim were consecutive over memorial day weekend, and two of the oly were in one weekend.
I would look at 1 Oly. a month for people newer to triathlon as a good number, probably 1/2 every other month, and sprints you could do every other week. Then as you gain experience and learn what you can handle increase from there.
Branden
for 2006 I’m doing 6 sprints and 2 olys
also, doing one 10k and a five mile running race and probably one of the local aquathlons
I’ll use some of the sprints as training races (threshold work and practice in transition) to help prepare for my ‘A’ races/peak periods. I plan on having two peak periods, one in April and then again in early November.
As someone mentioned, recovery is a very important factor when considering the number of races to do. Boston will be pretty taxing on your legs, so be sure to recover well from that race (congrats on qualifying by the way)! I would say that throwing some local sprints into your training plan as you enter the build phases would be helpful. They are easy to recover from and should add some fun to the pain of threshold pace training. Maybe one of these at the end each taper week would be useful to measure improvement and improve LT. Although, you won’t be racing at LT for your races so doing an oly during the build periods may also be helpful in improving race specific fitness ala tempo training. Just be sure recover well.
WOW! You guys/gals must have LOTS of T-shirts.
I only did 5 tri’s this year. Probably 5-6 next year.
i did 8 this year, quite a few less than normal. 1-1/2, 1-Int., 6-Sprint or short courses. 3 of those i did pre/post race announcing and went the distance in between, and then announced only at 2 more.
you’ve got to balance your schedule against all the factors involved. the question may not be how many should you do compared to how many can you do? and of those…how many are races and how many are events?
(and don’t pay attention to eric…he’s just an animal on two legs.)
Even when I was younger (30s) I needed two weeks to fully recover my energy level between races. I think it depends how hard you race. I’m always shooting for an age group award so I race hard and am fully spent at the end of the race. If you put less effort into your races, maybe weekly racing won’t tire you out.
I had about 6 or 7 sprints, a couple of centuries and a boatload of local 5/10 km runs lined up for 2005 but then developed a chest infection that sidelined me for over a month at the start of the season. Ended up doing only three sprints and one century towards the end of the season. Hopefully it’ll be better next year. I’ll probably start thinking about going long in 2007.
Thanks for the good feedback. I think I’m going to sign up for 2-OLY and 2-1/2 IMs and have the 70.3 Champs as a possible third half. Then I’ll mix it up and have fun with a few sprint distance races. I feel like I should take advantage of the racing possibilities while living in New England, you could race both days of every weekend around here!!