Advice for planning next season's races

New to this myself. I just finished my first season and pretty much had the same question you have.  i asked it awhile ago and here is a link to the thread.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=134567&posts=11#M1709845

 Hope this helps some.  To sum it up, what I learned is that your 'A' races are the ones that you are really focusing on.  These are the races that you will have a full training plan leading up to.  therefore you will only have 2 maybe 3 'A' races per season.  Then you have B and C races which you incorporate the B races into your training, and your C races you train right through.  So pick a couple races that are the most important to you that are spread out in the season and those will be your A races.  As far as how far to spread them out, that depends on your goals for each race and what your body allows. 

 Example.  I am focusing on Half IM and Olympic next year.  I will have 2 A races which will be a Half IM at the beginning of the year, and one more at the end of the year.  then there will be olympics and maybe a sprint or two sprinkled inbetween to check my fitness levels and test my progression leading up to the end of the year Half.  I hope this helps as these are all things I have learned recently and anyone more experienced then I please chime in.   I also just started reading The Triathlete's Training Bible by Joe Friel and he tells you very in depth how to break down a season including races and training.  Might be a book you should check out.  It has helped me to understand a lot and I haven't even finished it yet.

A great starting point would be Joe's book called The Triathlete's Training Bible -- over 175,000 copies sold.  A great read that covers many of your questions.

 What works for me is to limit the # of races that require travel or signing up a year in advance.  Then you have the opportunity to fill-in with local events based on how you are feeling.

 I recommend that you try to race local as much as possible.

 Generally, you'll find that you need more recovery the longer the event.  So (most) will find that the sprint distance leads into the olympic distance more than the other way around.

 gordo