What races are you doing this year?

Ah yes, it’s that time of the year, when the most common question heard around triathletes is “What races are you doing this year?” Most experienced triathletes have their race schedule planned out a year in advance, and most newbies are eagerly looking for race suggestions from these experienced veterans. As for me, I have a general idea of what races I’m doing this year. The past couple of years I've done 3-4 Olympic distance races with a half ironman race thrown in at the end as my A-race. (Actually, the Olympic distance races were planned, and then about halfway through each of those summers I decided to go for the half IM). Normally I’ll throw in a couple early and late season run races just for fun.

This year I know I won’t be able to do a half ironman race, just due to the time commitments involved with it. So the focus will be on Olympic distance races, with a couple early and late season run races thrown in. I’m also planning on adding a couple bike races if I can (time trial events). I also wouldn't mind doing a swim-only event like the Big Shoulders swim. I’ll probably have to get back in the pool at some point for that last one though.

So, triathlon-wise, I've signed up for the Galena Tri/Du in May. I've also already signed up for the Chicago Triathlon at the end of August. So those will probably be the bookends to my season. In between I plan on signing up for 1-2 local races as my time and training permit. The ones I have my eyes on are Big Foot, Pleasant Prairie and Bangs Lake. These races are pretty spread out throughout the summer and historically they haven’t sold out. For the run races I’m looking at the Shamrock Shuffle and a couple local 5ks, nothing specific in mind yet. For the bike races I have my eye on a 2-Man TT and a 4-Man TT that are held in the area that a lot of VQ athletes sign up for. I did the 2-Man TT last year and had a blast, so I've already decided I want to do that one again this year. The 4-Man TT will be a new event for me but it looks like a lot of fun.