2005 race plan - too aggressive?

First and foremost...Congratulations on qualifying for Boston. That, in itself, is a great accomplishment.

I'm assuming that running is your "stong" event...so that' being said here's what I would suggest.

Your racing goal is not too aggressive as you are not planning to PR at Boston. An Olympic distance in mid-june is fine, however don't expect this to be a PR race either as you will not have enough time to build-up and taper for this event. You will, however, be able to complete it with little to no change of injury (assuming you stick to your non-PR Boston plan).

If you want to really PR at an Olympic distance you'll need more time and should plan on racing an August Olympic distance . . . but if this is not in the cards, stick to your June schedule.

If you want to do the best you can do with the time you have for this Olympic tri . . . I suggest to use your running strength to your advantage. By this I mean, since your running base is already set (2 marathons already by June time) you should really focus more on your weak "link"

Determine what your weak link is. Is it swimming? Then swim 3-4 times a week. 3 times with masters and 1 time for 30 min just doing drills.

Is yor weak link biking? then bike 3-4 times a week, 1 long Zone 1 ride (weekend maybe), 2 rides zones 2-3...focusing more on zone 3 when may comes to an end), and 1 ride for 45 minutes focusing on drills. A cycling drill ride could be something like 15 minutes easy, 4 x 1 legged pedel for 30 sec each, 15 minutes easy.

As for recovering from an Olympic tri? Ha, you'll be glad to know it's NOTHING like recovering from a marathon. As you know, to fully recover from a marathon (with no risk of injury) it's usually 3-4 weeks depending on fitness, age, and experience at that distance, while an Olympic tri recovery is in the order of 2 weeks (generally speaking).

Thanks Steve for your reply. Although I can go forever in a pool, I am very slow and I had never a good swim in open water (only twice - just on race days...). So, I am taking a lesson this winter and I will definately do open water practice a few times. As for bike, I need to spend some time on a saddle.... I just got a brand-new road bike (my own!) and started riding one hour at a time. Although running is my strong event and I understand I need to spend more time swim/bike, I just can't let go of running to just twice/wk. I still want to run 30mpw or so over the winter/spring. I worked very hard this season and don't want to start all over.. Another reason is, I can be competitive in my age group at local running races (1/2mary and shorter), but there is no way I will be in Tri race. I would like to keep winning AG award in running.

Anyway, I look forward to spending more time on swim/bike and seeing what the tri training does to my running in the next Fall marathon!!!