For those who don’t know, I started training for tri’s last August and completed 4 sprint distance races. I had biked for a few years but last fall was the first time I had ever really run or swam since I was a kid. The swimming came along pretty well but running is definitely my biggest weakness (by far). My original goals this year were to move up to the half iron distance with my goal races being Florida 70.3, Vineman 70.3 and Augusta 70.3. This off season I kept up with my cycling very well. I also ran quite a bit (for me) but a few injuries kept me from making the kind of run progress that I think I need to make. So far my longest run has been 5 miles and I just did my fastest 5K last week in 30 min (I’m 5’9" 220 pounds which is definitely slowing me down).
With less than 2 months to go before Florida 70.3 I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be better for me to skip that race and focus on Olympic distance races for the near future. I’m sure I could “survive” Florida 70.3 but I think I would end up walking way too much. I’m not sure that is worth making the trip down given the expenses. There are quite a few Olympic races that I could do locally that I would actually get to race rather than just survive. Even assuming continued run improvement and weight loss I’m not sure if attempting the 70.3 run distance at Florida is realistic for me and might cause more injury risk than good. I decided a few months ago that Vineman wasn’t going to be logistically possible this year (girlfriend doesn’t want to go to Napa again this summer since we’ve been 2 years in a row and the trip would be way expensive for me to just race without it also being a vacation). I’m still definitely doing Augusta 70.3 and that is my “A” race for the year. So would I be better off concentrating on developing speed over the Olympic distance for the next 4-5 months and getting in lots of Sprint/Olympic racing or just doing 70.3 and seeing what happens even though it will mean getting to race fewer times this spring?