2012 Race Schedule

Well its not too long now before the 2012 Race Season starts to ramp up.  It feels like just yesterday that the season was winding down and even though I've put in some good work over the past couple months, I still have a few seconds to shave off my 100m time in the pool, a couple minutes get rid of on my Half Marathon time, and a few more watts to find over the next month and a half before things really start.

Banff Olympic Tri 2012 (Relayed the bike)

With the race season in mind though, I thought I'd post what I'm planning on racing this year and hopefully I'll see a few of you out there this season!

• March 17, 2012- St. Patrick's Day Road Race- 10km - This will be a good tune up to see where I'm at with the start of the season.  Last year I ran this one in I think the 43minute range.  Hopefully I can get that around 41 this year
• Calgary Police Half Marathon- April 29, 2012- This is a very good, very competitive race to start the year off.  It was my first half mary and its a route I really enjoy.  Very well organized, looking forward to this one and hoping to get low 1:30's for this one, my third time out for this.
• Velocity Stage Race (Edmonton)- May 5, 6, 2012- I did this bike stage race last year and did awesome at the TT only to be brought back down to earth in the crit and road race.  It was a very challenging day with high winds, I hope to hone my road racing skills for this one and get high on the GC.
• Centaur Subaru Half Marathon (AKA Calgary Half Marathon), May 27, 2012- This will be a B-race for me, a few of the runners from the Lululemon 4th Street Run Club will be out as well and I'm looking forward to putting down a decent half time for this, but more importantly I'll be there to cheer everyone else on.
• Chinook Half Ironman, June 16, 2012- My first triathlon of the season, looking forward to this one. Its a great local half iron. I came in 2nd in my age cat here and 11th overall last year, hoping to improve on that this year!
• 2012 ITU Long Course World Championships, July 29, 2012, Vittoria-Gasteiz, Spain- Goes without saying this is the A Race for the season. Its a slightly different distance, 4km swim, 120km bike, 30km run.  I'll be training for it a bit more like a half iron.  The swim will be like an IM swim, but the 120km bike is well within my comfort zone and should actually be pretty enjoyable, the 30km run, again closer to a half iron especially with the shorter run.
• Sea Wheeze Half Marathon, August 11, 2012, Vancouver, BC (Tentative)- This is a big maybe and will depend on how long I'm in Europe for, and my condition following the ITU Long Course WC, but I'm not counting it out.  The Lululemon family has been a great supporter of mine this part year and if the stars align I'm hoping to be there for this one.
• Ironman Canada, August 26, 2012- Definitely not planning to race this one, I'll be out there tweeting, blogging, volunteering, and supporting my many friends who will be racing including a few of the team from Tri It Multisport, and one of my training partners, Shayne Arsenault.
• Rock and Roll Half Marathon -December, 2012- Probably one of the best excuses I can come up with to get down to Vegas again. 

After that I'll call it a season. Busy enough wouldn't you say?  I'm hoping to do more bike racing this year so some of you may see me at either Tuesday night crits, or Wednesday Night Races.  I'll also probably round off the season with a half marathon, likely the Last Chance Half, but we'll see how it all plays out.  I'd like to be racing more triathlon this season, but with wedding and travel plans I definitely have some more important things to do :-)

Anyways, hope to see you all around and if anyone wants tips or feedback on any of these races, feel free to ask away!