What I really want to do is take the time today to both bridge the gap between my last race report and 2011, as well as offer a hint of what I’ve got cooking for the coming year.

I’ll start with the former.

The Year of 2009

2009 was my first full triathlon season, and it began just after I returned home from Afghanistan. I came home in a fury, ready to take my frustrations of being away from home out on the open road, hoping to both make a dent in my local triathlon circuit and if I was lucky, qualify for some bigger Ironman races.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to achieve my goal of a Clearwater qualifier, or reach the top 10 in my NCTS age group, but to be honest, I achieved much more than I probably deserved. I placed 15th in my AG in the NCTS, even though I refused to taper and raced almost every weekend, and almost broke 5:30:00 in my 2nd 70.3 of the season, which also happened to be my last race of the year, and a 2 hour difference from my first 70.3 in June.

I put everything I had into this season, including a lot of cash for training and equipment, 15-20 hour training weeks, and countless early mornings driving to and from race sites. Thankfully, I was blessed to have my family follow me every step of the way, but even then, in the end, I remember crossing the finish line at Augusta and thinking about how tired I was, and more than that, frustrated at my inability to reach my goals for the season.

Frustration, and Burnout

At that point, I had given all I could give and still came up short. I went through a bit of a lull, where I was half-bummed and half-ready to have my life back. I was also working to get out of the Army and become a full-time entrepreneur, so I had a lot of things on my plate.

I was taking part of the winter season off when suddenly spring hit, and I realized I was behind on my training. So, I tried to get back into it, in between setting up shop for my new business, and trying to get out of the Army. Needless to say, I just wasn’t into it, so I listened to my body and decided to take the year off in order to get my business up and running, with the plan of returning in 2011.

2011

So here I am, in 2011, but things are different now. I forgot to mention that sometime in between all of this, I moved to Tampa Florida, where the weather is perfect for training almost year round, and I’m so close to the ocean that I have no excuse not to bust out the wetsuit and get some open water training in.

And that’s what I plan on doing. I’m currently focusing on a mid-spring return to form, focusing hard now to get my run back, followed by my bike and swim.

I’m really excited to get back on the circuit and back into form, and even more excited to have a new scene to join. Yes, I’m really bummed that they moved the 70.3 Championships from Clearwater to Las Vegas, but hey, I could use another trip to Sin City.

Keep on training, and hopefully, I’ll see you out on the road in the coming months.

I’m expecting my times to improve over the season, so my final ranking should be interesting.

Should be a great time and I look forward to a shorter race than the REV3! In order to rank int he series, I’ll need a few more races, so I expect to sign up for Pinehurst, Wilmington, and Duke.

I’m so grateful to have had the chance to serve my country in Afghanistan, but now that I’m home it is time to kick it up another notch and see just how good my off-season conditioning was. I’m a bit behind schedule for the REV3 prep, but that’s OK, I’m still looking forward to June 7. Shortly after the REV3 Triathlon is the Kure Beach Double Sprint Triathlon in North Carolina, which should be a great time.

I’m planning on using a few 10k’s, half mary’s, and other sprint triathlons to get ready for the 2 big races I have on the agenda, which are Ironman Augusta, and the Outer Banks Marathon, which I plan to use to get a BQ slot.

I haven’t been updating my training calendar lately because I’ve been so busy, but soon I’ll be transferring the data from my Garmin to the online training log so you can check my progress.

This one is actually a Formula 1 style sprint and looks to be a blast. I’ve never done a dual sprint like this before, but I’m sure it will be a nice test. Looking over the times from last year’s results, it seems very competitive. Although my training has waned in the past few months due to an increased workload, I’m going to do my best to give an all-star performance.

It will be 3 weeks after the REV3 Triathlon, on June 28. The Kure Beach Double Sprint looks to be a great time…I hope I see you there!

Well, it is official. Barring injury, tragedy, or both, I will be competing in the 70.3 Ironman at Augusta, Georgia at the end of September.

It looks like my progression is on track and although I didn’t get in some of the NCTS races I wanted to, I will still be able to compete there while attempting 2 half-ironmans and 2 marathons this season.

I’m using the REV3 as a “test” race for the Ironman, so I’m banking everything on September. I honestly can’t wait to get started racing and as much as I love the high altitude training here in A-Stan, I’m ready to get back to business.

This isn’t about me, it is about everyone that is fighting cancer. Every grandfather/grandmother, father and mother, son and daughter, and grandchild. Help me help Jimmy V.