The 2015-16 National Triathlon Competition is well under way
and it’s sure keeping me busy! As I’ve stated from my previous entries I have
cut back my running by 40-50% from December to the middle of February to focus more
on my swimming and biking over the winter months. I
pretty much spent all of 2015 focused solely on running and I only got to finish
two triathlons throughout the year. In 2016 I’d like to get a few more tris in and
if all goes as planned with my spring marathon possibly training for another 70.3
event late summer. I know how fast the first quarter of the year flies by so I'm trying to buckle down and create a good base I can build off of throughout the year; especially with my bike as I tend to drop off my miles during the cold months when I'm stuck inside on the trainer. Scott told me about a cool program called "Zwift" last night that works with my speed cadence sensor to live stream data to an interactive course online you can display on the TV, even compete with other riders! I'm excited to try that out when I get my 920XT back on Wednesday (sent in for repair/replacement this week)... but more on that later, lets go over the competition.
So the competition itself is pretty cool, it’s put on by USA Triathlon and they have a nice website and portal to log in our
miles/yards every day. I’m part of the
Dubuque Area Triathlon Club and we compete as a club and as individuals
against other triathletes across the nation. The competition goes from December 1st
to February 29th with total miles counted up on each sport. The miles on running are weighted times 3 and
swimming times 10 to account for the speed and difficulty of the individual
sports. Each month also has a different focus,
December is Swim, January is Bike and
February Running, overall prizes are awarded by the USAT for the top competitors
in each sport.
As a team we have been cranking out some
serious miles this year!... I’m not sure of the exact stats but it sure seems like
the activity is a lot higher compared to last year. It makes it fun to see so many people
participating and I’ve been frequently been seeing a lot of them training at
the Y before and after work; it sure looks to be a good year for the tri club! It’s been very helpful for me this year to
keep me accountable, especially in January as it is bike focus and I’m not known
for my biking skills haha. I'm making it a point to work much harder on my biking this year and hoping it pays off come the spring. If nothing else it certainly has resulted in me getting some good quality sleep lately!
So all this training is leading somewhere and I'm hoping to finalize my Tri race schedule in the next couple weeks. As of now it's looking like I'll hit Pigman Sprint in June, Accel in July, then Monticello and Iowa City in August and if all goes well with my running I'll try and pick up a 70.3 late summer to finish it off! If you have any other suggestions for races let me know as I'll try and get things finalized by the end of the month...
Below are links to the USAT website with some info and stats on the competition if you are curious, I’ll see if I can load a widget on my blog
for live updates while the competition is going.
Current Club
Standings - http://www.racetracker.ca/usat/teamstats.cfm?sessionval=all&clubid=1034
Age Group Standing - http://www.racetracker.ca/usat/standings_agegroups.cfm
Happy Running (and Swimming and Biking)!
Cory
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