Time to start looking at the next set of races!

The next lot are a bit tricky actually. I have the 7km Bay Run on August 1st, followed by the 14km Sydney City2Surf on August 8th -those go together pretty well. The following weekend I’m considering the Fun Run Pink -there’s a 5km or 10km option (thats August 15th). Then, a month later is the Sydney Running Festival (Sept 19th) at which I’m intending to do my second Half Marathon. Still all do-able.

In October things get a bit messy. The weekend of the 9th & 10th is the Worldwide Festival of Races, and I’m keen to enter the HM for that too. But the very next Saturday (Oct 16th) is Triathlon Pink and on Sunday (Oct 17th) the ~50km Spring Cycle. A fortnight later is the 31st October’s TriNSW All Women’s Triathlon.

So. That’s a lot of events to train for. Two half-marathons, a ~50km ride and two triathlons. Plus my usually crazy mid-week schedule of full-time work and part-time study, and my usually busy social life on the weekends. Am I asking too much? Probably. But the only races in that list that I’d really not be bothered about giving up is the Fun Run Pink. I’m really quite keen on all the others.

For running, none of the races should be too hard -I can mostly focus on running up until the City2Surf, and then I’ll have an excellent base to keep things going for the two HMs after that.

For cycling, well my standard training route is 32km -so I could probably complete Spring Cycle without any additional training, so long as I managed to hit that training route regularly leading up to the day. I wouldn’t be fast at all, but thats ok. I’ve wanted to do the Spring Cycle the last two years and missed it each time, so I’m keen just to do it!

For swimming, well this is my weakest point in triathlons. I’m a terrible swimmer! So I have recently contacted a private swimming teacher and will hopefully start stroke correction classes next month. I’m a bit concerned though, that I might only be able to fit in swimming once a week, and that’s really not ideal. Twice would be better, three times would be great but impossible. The only way I could fit in twice would be if I went on weekends -and realistically, that’s not likely. We’ll see how it goes though -if I really need the extra day in the pool, I might have a to drop a running session (the horror!)

My other concern is brick sessions. You know, the ones where you practice going straight from one sport into another, ie, from swim straight onto the bike, or from the bike straight into a run. These sessions are Hard with a capital H! but infinitely worthwhile on race day. But the real problem is that they take more time than a session of just one sport. And of course, they would have to be done on weekends.

So.. working out a training plan that takes all of that into account? Hmm.. give me a few more days!