At some point it was bound to happen. After doing an Olympic tri in both of the last two years, I had a goal this year of going a Half Iron. The half iron distance of 1.3/56/13 is about 2x the distance of an olympic (0.9/26/6). With only a few in this area a year, options were limited. So when I got an email from Sun Multisports last week mentioning the Patriot half iron in June, I thought about it and then decided to sign up. The other half's in this area I'm aware of are in Rhode Island - one in July, one in September. The one in July would probably be rough because of the temperature, plus I believe the swim is in ocean water. So I figured the September would be the likely target one. But I couldn't resist signing up for the one in June. So at the moment, I'm thinking I'll do both the June one and the September one. However, the June one is the day before the Webster sprint tri - so I'll likely be passing on that.
The real complication was that my original plan for this off season was to give myself a rest from running, and build mileage back up slowly starting in the spring. Obviously, having something like a half iron puts a wrench into those plans, so the buildup will be more aggressive than I was planning. However, given that I've figured out that my IT issues are mostly caused by overdoing it intensity (speedwork) wise, I'm hoping I will be able to manage the distance without too much of an issue. I'll probably have to start training earlier than I planned, though. I still want to take the 2 months running rest (at least) - which will likely be December/January with maybe some February mixed in there, but by March I'll have to be running at least 3 times per week. At that point I'll have 4 months to build back up to 13 miles. Actually, I'd like to get a few 15-16 mile runs under my belt before the tri, just to get that extra conditioning to help keep the hips from tightening up during the last couple miles.
I'll also have to dedicate myself to cycling. A big part of that will likely be riding into work a few times a week. That 30 miles a day will be a big portion of weekly mileage, but I'll also have to make sure to start cycling longer distances on weekends. I'm thinking of up to somewhere around 75 miles.
Swimming will actually be the easy part. I'm already conditioned for swimming a mile straight. My time of 30 minutes is ok - not great, but ok. During the winter I'll work on keeping that conditioning for 30-45 minutes of straight swimming, and also hopefully get the times down a little bit.
Ideally, I'd be able to simulate a half iron somewhere around the beginning of June. I'd be ok with taking breaks between activities - no need to put the stress of a race on the body 2-3 weeks before the race - but mostly to get somewhat familiar with the level of exertion both mentally and physically.
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