what are realistic goals for next year?

You will definately need to build you base over the winter but I think your goals are realistic.  IMO, an oly is not that much more difficult than a sprint, depending on the length of the sprint.  I would look into some races you are considering and even post them with dates on BT and see what people think.  You could always build base over the winter and then find an olympic as your "A" race and then find a sprint about 4 weeks out.  Maybe find a half mary a few months after your "A" race and continue your running from what you built of for your oly.  I know when I trained for my oly my longest run was around 10 miles so not far off from a half-mary.

Okay, sorry if these are dumb questions, but I'm just trying to figure this all out!

1. How do you know how far apart to plan the different races?
2. When you said to plan for the Oly as my "A" race, then find a Sprint about 4 weeks out, does that mean I would be doing all the training for an Oly with the Sprint, basically as part of the training?
3. Also- what kind of base training will I have to do to be able to do the Oly? I was thinking of the winter maintenance programs on here, but not sure if they are enough??
4. Another one... what kind of training time will I need just for the Oly? I know there are so many different lengths of programs?

I hope this isn't too many questions. I really do need to still lose some weight from baby too, so this is another great reason to keep this all up, and I absolutely love the training!!

Thanks again for your help!
~Rachelle

Hi Rachelle, welcome to BT (And congrats on the baby!)

I am no expert on all this tri-stuff, but I actually have similar goals to yours! (I have a 1/2 mary planned for this October, and am hoping to bump up to an Oly next year sometime after having completed 4 sprints). Anyway, I have no specific answers to your original post, but I did have a thought - recommend some books! This was one thing I found on my own that was really interesting, helpful and motivating! My two favorite tri books are below:

I would recommend "Slow Fat Triathlete" by Jayne Williams. She chronicals her journey from an overweight woman to a triathlete! Though the information in her book isn't super technical, its a nice light look at triathlon training and was really funny! (Plus, a great motivator when you are trying to lose some weight)

For more technical answers about training plans, workouts, some help with goals, and questions like "how to do this" and "what the heck is that," I would check out Joe Friel's The Triathlete's Training Bible. It gets pretty technical (and I haven't needed all the information in it by any means), but he has some good information in there about training and how to build a plan, peak for races, manage basic nutrition, etc.

I'm sure you could find either book on Amazon.ca or Chapters.ca (I think I got my TTB -triathletes training bible- from chapters.ca.) Of course, the wonderful BT community will help you out as much as they can, so you're in good hands without the books. But these are just suggestions of where else you might find some information.

Nice to see another Canadian around here Take care!


Megz

Edited by brmorris 2007-09-02 1:11 PM

Hi there! Thanks for your advice!! I love books, so will check these out right away- maybe even this afternoon!! Also- where are you from?

~Rachelle (sorry about above- I'm not totally familiar with all the tools and way things work with quotes, editing, etc....)

Edited by brmorris 2007-09-02 1:12 PM

I'm from BC - Victoria and Nanaimo to be exact I am a book lover as well - sounds like we have lots in common!