Lara and I spent some time over the holidays working on our 2012 race schedules (her write-up is here). Now that we have most of our travel weekends laid out for us, we can fill in races and see what kind of training and racing schedule is available to us. This year will prove to be exciting for a couple of reasons.

Early Season

This year, Lara and I both signed up to do the Yuengling Shamrock Half Marathon in March. I was planning on making this race an early goal, but I’ve decided to simply focus more on my running and probably racing this with C2 in his jog stroller. I’ll be going off the Team Z schedule with a more run-focused training schedule, with a secondary weight-loss focus to try and get down to what I think is my ideal racing weight. Fun times!

‘A’ Races

Of course, the first monster on my schedule is Ironman Lake Placid. I’ve been signed up for this one since last July, and I’m looking forward to a very different challenge from Ironman Cozumel. Cozumel is dead flat, and Lake Placid is…not. Friends say that the only flat part of the course is the swim, and they would make that hilly if they could find a way. Still, it’s an iconic course, and I’m looking forward to putting in an even better effort (if not a better time due to the hills).

Another goal is to qualify for the 2013 USA Triathlon National Championships. I can do that by finishing in the top third of my age group at The Nation’s Triathlon in DC in 2012. I think that’s do-able, but my concern here will be that the race is about six weeks after IM Lake Placid, so there won’t be much downtime. I craved that after COZ, but am hoping that I can keep pushing through.

Finally, my goal from the last two years has been to qualify for the season end awards in the Virginia Triathlon Series. I need a minimum of five events (not relays) to qualify. Life has just gotten in the way the last two years, but this year I’m signed up for two events at Rumpus in Bumpass, Kinetic and Luray. That should do meet the requirements, so hopefully I’ll be fast for them. Luray is right after IM Lake Placid as well.

National Championships

There are two National Championships that don’t require qualification. I enjoy racing at these, even if I’m not yet as competitive as I would like.

Right now, I’m only signed up for the Long Course Duathlon National Championships in Maryland. Not treating this as an ‘A’ race, but a good training race where I’d like to do OK. The Duathlon format is Run-Bike-Run, so hopefully my focus on running this spring will pay off.

I’m considering the Aquabike National Championships in Richmond (the Deep Creek Gran Fondo and the Syracuse IM 70.3 are also that same weekend). Need to talk with Lara about that one, but the swim-bike format is interesting, and it would mean less travel time and less away-from-the-family time than the other two. But if anyone has other thoughts on this, I’d love to hear them. A 650m swim followed by an 18 mile bike seems pretty decent, and we love staying at the Richmond Westin.

Musselman Sprint

A week before Lake Placid is Musselman. We’ve planned to take that week off and head to upstate New York. This is a beautiful area, and Lara is signed up to do the Musselman Half Ironman (which I have completed my last two years). So, I’ll do the sprint that Lara has traditionally done and we’ll switch places. This is a great Team Z atmosphere, so looking forward to hanging with friends that weekend and revving up my legs for the full distance in a week.

Still Undecided

Not sure if we’re going to include the Mountains of Misery again this year. This is a 128 mile cycling challenge with over 13,000 feet of climbing. It would be good training for Lake Placid, and we really enjoyed staying at Mountain Lake the last time we did this. It’s our anniversary weekend, so it’s basically Lara’s call.

Savageman is another iconic race, and I am really hoping to do this one. Problem is, I have a University of Illinois Alumni Association Board of Directors meeting the day before. If I do this, it will be my last semi-serious race of the year.

In October, I am traveling to the Association of Corporate Counsel meeting in Orlando, FL, and there are a bunch of us who are looking to kick off the weekend with a race. A Disney running race is a possibility, but it looks like they moved the Wine and Dine race to another weekend. We’ll probably find something, but this will just be for fun as my season will be effectively over.

I’m also not sure if we’ll be heading out to the Seagull Century in Salisbury, Maryland. I enjoy this flat, scenic ride (Lara’s first ride over 40 miles), and I may hitch a trailer to the bike and take C2. But since my season should be over by then, it depends on whether I can get the neighbors or my wife interested in this one.

So, take October light and start base building for 2013 in November. Should be interesting, as Lara is hoping she can do her first Iron distance race then. So, looking forward to 2012 and all the challenges it will bring.