Looking Forward

Here's what I'm thinking for the off -season and beyond

Get over ITBS

I may have finally found the root cause. While in Wilmington I had my gait analyzed at Try Sports and we found that I have a substantial amount of over-pronation in my right foot (the same side as the knee with ITBS). The running world has known for a long time that pronation can be a cause of ITBS because of the ankle's involvement in the kinetic chain of the knee and hip.

My plan for getting rid of ITBS is 3 fold:

• Continue stretching
• Correct the over-pronation with the shoes or orthotics. Since my other foot does not over-pronate, I'm hesitent to go the stability shoe route because of the effect it may have on side with the "good" knee. I've been told by two people now to go see some eccentric guy in Greenville that custom cuts Nike's from a little store called the Run In. I'm going there in the next week or two to get my next pair of shoes. We'll see what he says and then I'll make the call on the orthotics.
• Take 3 weeks off running. My ortho told me to do this 6 weeks ago and I didn't listen. I'm listening now.

Run Speed

With the short-course season coming up I need to get my speed back. This year needs to see sub 6 minute paces off the bike for all my sprint tris. Near that speed for the Olys.

I have a simple plan to get my speed back. I can run a mile at a 5:40 without too much trouble but can't hold it for much longer than that currently. My plan is to simply run that pace (or less) a little longer each week until I can hold 4 miles at sub 6. I'll measure my progress by competing in a few 5ks this winter and a 10k in February. Here's the races I'm targeting:

• Fitness Zone Jingle Bell 5k in Lugoff Dec 13th
• Cold Winter's Day 5k Dec 27th
• Red Nose Run 5k or 10k Jan 17th
• LRAH 10k Feb 27th

Swim Speed

My results showed this season that swimming was actually my weakest of the 3 sports. I typically ranked in the top 20%. Not good. I'm at least two tiers from the front of the pack and need to close the gap. My form needs some tweaking to get me there. My plan to find some swim speed is three fold:

• Find a coach to optimize my form. I may see if I can get some time with Janice Thompson.
• Find a training partner who is faster than me. I have an idea of someone I'd like to ask if we can train together. We'll see if he's willing and our schedules match.
• Swim faster. Now that IM is over it's time to push the pace and up my threshold. It's time to bite the bullet and start suffering in the water again.

Strength training

I need to build and tone all those supporting muscles that don't get targeted by just swimming, cycling and running, especially my core. Cross training and some yoga should help. I'll be looking to get in on some of the group fitness classes here at work this winter to get this done.

Find a coach

I'm seriously considering finding a coach at the moment. I'm pretty serious about triathlon and don't like to leave much to chance.

Build 2009 Tri Schedule

Right now I'm thinking that I'll race as many series events as possible and then do back-to-back 70.3s with the Augusta race and the SC Half the next week. I want to go pretty deep below 5 hours at both races ... around 4:30. That will either lead me into B2B IM again or be the crescendo of my '09 season (unless I somehow qualify for Clearwater at the Augusta race). If I race the B2B IM again I will go below 10 hours.

Beyond 2009

In 2010 I plan on qualifying for Kona. If you got there via Florida in the 35-39 category this year it looks like you needed to finish in the top 8 of the age group and go below 9:30. It looks like you could go as long as 10:40 at Louisville this year and still get there. That's the long term goal. Get there.