New blog location

I have moved location and will be posting blogs at.

http://www.taylor-reid.com/

Swing on by and follow along.

Picking Races

As the race season quickly approaches. Some Pros are racing as early as this weekend. I thought I would put up a little post on how I choose my races and what are the biggest factors.

This is my third year of racing the 70.3 circuit as a professional, so I am still finding the perfect balance for myself. Last year I raced too many races to close to each other. So the proper amount of time between races will be the backbone to my choosing my races in 2017. In 2016 I had a couple of races one week apart and too many races two weeks apart. In 2017 I will be making sure I do not have any races one week apart and very few races two weeks apart. I also will be making sure I have large gaps between racing blocks, to get in longer training block. I will be looking to race no more than 10 times this year and probably only 8 of them will be 70.3.

Once I have figured out how many races I want to do and the general spacing. I then look for races that are a little more to my liking. I always want to make sure I am ready to be competitive at any kind of race, flat, hilly, hot or cold. But I do lean a little bit more towards hilly and cooler races. I also really like to pick races in Canada if they are available. Home field advantage ;)

The next deciding factor if there are two or more races around the same date is the cost to get to the race. Then I look at what kind of prize money each race has. It is a fine balance between the cost to get to a race and the amount of prize money offered. If there are two races on the same date with the same amount of prize money I will usually choose the race that will be easier to get to and less expensive. This is when the business side of racing comes into effect.

Lastly I will take into consideration the level of competition I will face at each race. I do not want all the races to be fluff races. I want some to be very competitive so I can race against the best in the world.

Here is what my last two years of racing have looked like and what 2017 may look like.

Race schedule 2015

Mar 15 Los Olas Olympic 2 weeks to next race

Mar 28 California 70.3 4.5 weeks to next race

May 2 St. George north champ 70.3 7 weeks to next race

June 20, Mont-Tremblant 70.3 2 weeks to next race

July 5 Challenge St Andrews 5.5 weeks to next race

Aug 16 Timberman 70.3 2 week to next race

Aug 30 70.3 Worlds Austria 3 weeks to next race

Sept 20 Cozumel 70.3 2 weeks to next race

Oct 4 Silverman 3weeks to next race

Oct 25 Miami 70.3 2 weeks to next race

Nov 8 Austin 70.3

Race schedule 2016

4/2 California Oceanside 2 weeks to next race

4/17 New Orleans 3 weeks to next race

5/7 St George 4 weeks to next race

6/5 Raleigh  1 week to next race

6/12 Victoria  2 weeks to next race

6/26 Mont-Trembalnt 3 weeks to next race

7/17 Racine 3 weeks to next race

8/21 Timberman 2 weeks to next race

9/4 World Champs 70.3 Mooloolaba 3 weeks to next race

9/24 ITU Oklahoma LC Wolds 4 week to next race

10/30 Austin

Possible Race schedule 2017

3/19 Puerto Rico Ironman 70.3 2 week to next race

4/1   Oceanside Ironman 70.3 3 week to next race

4/28 St. Anthony Olympic 6 week to next race

6/4    Victoria Ironman 70.3 3 week to next race

6/25 Mt Tremblat Ironman 70.3 4 week to next race

7/23 Challenge Iceland 7 week to next race

9/9 70.3 Ironman 70.3 World Championships Chattanooga 2 week to next race

9/23 Lake Geneva Escape Olympic 2 week to next race

10/1 New Orleans Escape Olympic

???

It is just January 5.

Now that the New Year is upon us it is time to start putting everything into place for the 2017 season. Picking my races, finalizing sponsors and getting training rolling. For the first part of the year I will be based in Poway California working with the Triathlon Squad. This will be very important to setting up my year and getting all the right pieces in place. But I still need to remember that it is just January 5 and there is a long season ahead of me.

On January 5 I had a very solid day nothing crazy. I save those efforts for race day.

I did a 5300m swim with some pulling and 12x150 on 2:10 to cap it off. I am rolling with a very good group in the water. Everyone is dedicated on going as far as they can and there is no messing around. We all are there to get better and become great athletes. This is something that I really thrive off of. I love the competition.

Soon after the swim I was off to do a nice 50min cruise run to shake out my legs from yesterdays workout, just a few miles in the rain.

After that I spend a little bit of time working on sponsorship contracts and getting everything worked out. I do not mind this kind of work too much it is nice to build up relationships with the companies and people I work with.

Then I am off for a 90min bike ride in the rain.

Nothing to crazy it is just January 5.