Now that the 2012 race season is in the books and you are looking forward to the Holidays………

Get ready for the 2013 race season by planning your races and training calendar.

This might sound like a simple exercise of looking at a calendar and signing up for races.  That is only part of the process to having a successful race season.

The first thing you want to do is make a list of the races you want to do.  Include in this list the total cost of doing the race, reasons for doing the race and the date of the race.  Once you have all the races you are thinking about doing down on paper, start talking with your family and determine which races fit into your schedule.  Make sure you include the schedules of all your family members so you can ensure that everyone feels like there are things on the calendar for them and they will not feel like you are only scheduling your stuff.  Keeping the whole family involved, makes this process go much smoother and makes everyone feel they have a role in the process.  Once your family sees what races you are going to do, they will know what FUN lies ahead for them, what kind of traveling they will be doing and what kind of time you will be putting into training over the next year.

In 2011, our daughter made a list of places she wanted to visit.  One of them was St. Louis, so we arranged our triathlon schedule to include a stop in St. Louis. We had a blast and she got to go to a place she wanted to go! Again, getting everyone in the family involved is KEY!!!

Once you have your races picked out, go to the race website and see if they have a discounted early entry fee.  If they do, invest in the race early and save some $$$.

After you have signed up for the races, now the hard part starts.  It is now time to start training for the races.  The first step is to get a calendar and put all your races on the calendar.  Make note of the time available to train between races and how long you have until your first race.  Once you have the races on the calendar, you can pick which ones are the most important and which ones are just races.  Remember that most triathletes can have 2 to 3 important races per year, depending on the distance.  So, the important races get a full taper and the other races just get some rest.  After you have filled in your taper weeks and rest days….now you are ready to add the MEAT of your training plan.