April 7- Ironman 70.3 Oceanside
Considered the North American season opener, this race will be ultra competitive. In previous years I have shied away from this event because everyone seems to be in great shape and a serious performance is required to get an early season paycheck. I think this year I am in an entirely different space in terms of my physical and mental preparedness. A hard early season hit out will be a good indication of where I stack up against some of the best as well as help me sort out exactly how I need to prepare for the 70.3 World Championships later in the year.
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| Photo: Tristan Brown |
~6 days after Oceanside, I'll be racing another 70.3 but this time a little bit further away from home. I can't seem to stay away from toeing the line in China! I have raced in China 4x, two of times it has gone great and the other two it went poorly. That being said, I feel like I am starting to understand the China travel and racing dynamic. I had the opportunity from Ironman to come back to this race and with relatively easy travel from LAX, I decided to go for it. I used miles to book a business class ticket (my first business class flight) which I think will make a big difference. I also think there is a huge benefit to racing back to back weekends as it clears out chronic training fatigue while maintaining fitness from the hard race-day effort. I am really looking forward to this one.
May 5- Ironman 70.3 St. George
One of my favorite races on the circuit, driving distance from Boulder and another very competitive event. It will have a similar dynamic to Oceanside and the 70.3 World Championship. I hope to be in really good form after the Oceanside-Liuzhou double and look forward to a return to Utah. I did this race in 2016, skipped it in 2017 and regretted it. The harder the course and conditions, the better it is for me. St. George always delivers a massive challenge so it made a lot of sense for me to give it a crack this year.
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| St. George 2016. Picture: Tristan Brown |
The race on the schedule that is giving me the most amount of motivation in my training. Up until St. George, I am giving 100% of my attention to half-distance preparation. But with my consistently high training volume and intensity, the switch to a short Ironman focus after St. George will not be very different. The minute I started triathlon over 10 years ago, I have wanted to race an Ironman. I have suppressed my urges to race one in the past few years out of fear it will impact my overall career development. I will be 25 on race day which is still relatively young in terms of Ironman racing but my years of consistent and balanced training have me in a spot to be very competitive. I think it takes a very unique athlete to do well at an Ironman and in particular an Ironman at 5500 feet. I check all the boxes to have a strong first attempt at Ironman Boulder and get excited just thinking about this one.
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| Picture: Timothy Carlson/ Slowtwitch |
Thanks for following along and see you at the races.
JM
