Swiss life is so exciting. Yesterday, I got down to business planning my triathlon training season. I focused on four key elements: 1. My goals, 2. My strengths and weaknesses, 3. key races, and 4. periodisation.

You can take a look at my season here.

My main goals for 2007 are:
- To run 1:05 in a sprint triathlon. (I did 1:02 in Zug a few years back, but the swim course was only 450m)
- To run 1:24:59 in a half-marathon. It would obviously have to be a flat course, and hope to hit that in October in Lausanne.
- To (finally) go sub 2:10 in an Olympic distance triathlon, either Zug or Geneva this year. I hope to be in the right shape to accomplish this by mid June. This may be an unacheivable goal for 2007, but I like to set the bar high.

My weaknesses are:
- Bike base/pace
- Running well off the bike

Consequently, these are the two things I will be working, focusing on getting in the mileage on the bike, and making sure I am doing at least 1 brick a week.

My key races this year are organised in “Priorities A, B,C, and D”. My main races are Zug and Geneva, with my secondary races being Preverenges and Vallee des Joux. See www.datasport.ch for info on these races.

Finally, I have made an initial attempt at periodising my training with an increasing 3 week structure and then 1 week off. This will coincide with the different phases of my training, categorised as base, strength, race prep and race. (in base training, emphasis is put on miles, and building aerobic capacity. In strength portion, the emphasis is put on building power, and shorter intervals and increasing oxygen consumption. In race, prep, the emphasis is on longer intervals and bricks, and finally, in the race part, its all about working specific areas and maintaining what I have built up since the beginning of the season.

I hope this is encouraging to some of you who might be considering triathlon this year but aren’t sure how to proceed!