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A Novel Approach

Sunday is the big day. 13.1 miles as fast as my 5-foot frame and short little legs can go. I've trained hard and smart. I feel great and I'm excited to put my Galloway-training to good use. I plan on racing with my experimented version of the Galloway method and I can't wait to continue training with the Galloway method throughout the upcoming year.
Karel and I have talked about the upcoming triathlon year and as of now I am excited to announce that I have decided on two Half Ironman's for the beginning of the year.
1) New Orleans 70.3 - April 17th
2) Rock N' Roll Halfman - June 4th

Looking forward to training and racing in two exciting races before a well-earned 2-week unstructured exercise break after Rock N' Roll. In late June, after I rest my mind and body and create new goals, it will be time to start building a base for the Ironman World Championships (Oct). I don't believe in specifically training for an IM for more than 3-4 months. For IMWI, I only did 5 rides longer than 5 hours and only 2 of them were more than 100 miles. The other 3 long-rides were on rolling courses which meant quality miles, not quantity. Hopefully, I will find a challenging, rolling course (my favorite) for another half ironman in the late summer. I will then take another unstructured exercise break before my last build/peak before a 2-week Kona taper. I will be in Kona on the Tues before the race so this will leave me with 4 days to acclimate to Kona time/temperature before the big day. Wow-time is just flying...I can't believe I am already thinking about Oct 2011!

When I was in Washington DC, I picked up Competitor Mid-Atlantic from a local running store. While riding the metro to DC, I couldn't stop re-reading an article written by John Bingham (AKA the Penguin) titled "A Novel Approach".

I find that many athletes (including myself at one time) go into races over-trained for fear that they won't reach personal goals. While goal setting can be a powerful thing, it is important to be realistic and practical with your goals and to develop a training schedule that allows you to work towards those goals. I require that my athletes fill out a questionnaire, prior to starting coaching w/ me, in order to really understand my athletes (both with athletics and in life). Two questions that I believe are very valuable are "Why are you pursuing your sport of choice?" and
"On a scale of 1-10 (10 being a lot, 1 being a little) how much time, energy and commitment can you give to training so that it doesn't affect other areas of your life (work, family, sleep, friends, etc.)". I find that when athletes can answer these questions, as honest as possible, it allows me to create a balanced and fun training plan to help my athlete reach his/her goals (both in life and in sport) as well as address strengths and weakness's in life and with training.

Tomorrow I will be posting A Novel Approach for your reading. I think you will find it as a good read when approaching marathons and racing in general.

Have a great weekend!