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My friend Jo at the starting line

I really wish I didn’t do this to myself. Each spring since turning a certain age I have  signed up for a sprint triathlon with friends as a way to motivate myself to stay fit.  Each spring I find myself feeling like I’m starting back at square one of my training. The thing that I have learned with five sprint triathlons under my belt, is that training really does work.  When I adhere to a training schedule, I find the race to be much more enjoyable. Keep in mind, my personal goal is not to win (not that I ever could!),but my hope is to come in a respectable middle of the pack, and to challenge myself. After our race debacle last year, my friend Jo and I decided to give the Nantucket triathlon another go. The race is now 9 weeks away, which still gives us time to fit in an 8 week training schedule with an extra week to taper.  Here is the schedule that I know will properly prepare me for the day of the race. Keep in mind that I am not a physician or fitness expert of any sort.  Really I just try to spend at least 5 days a week rotating the three legs: swim,bike,run, until I feel confident that I can do each distance individually, and then I do a couple of  “bricks” where I  combine the swim and bike, or bike and swim, to help me think about the transitions. The course we will be doing is  1/3 mile swim, 14 mile bike and  3.4 mile run. So here is my ideal training plan over the next 8 weeks.  I can promise you that I will not do every day on this calendar, in fact I’ve already varied from it, but I can promise you that I will try.