Well, I haven’t quite figure  things out yet.

I have a bunch of potentially conflicting objectives that I need to sort out.

Here’s a quick list of the events that I am thinking about competing in.

• January 28th: Northeast Erg Sprints – 2000 meters indoors (trial event for the Crash-Bs)
• February 12th: Crash-Bs – 2000m sprint, indoors
• Mid-May: Essex River Race: 5.5 mile open water race
• Mid June: Festival Sprints – 1000m OTW sprint
• Early July: Cromwell Cup – 1000m OTW Sprint
• Mid July: Blackburn Challenge – 20+ Mile open water race
• Mid-September: CRI Fall Classic – 5k head race
• Early October: Textile River Regatta – 6K head race
• Mid-October: Quinsigamond Snake Race – 4K head race
• Late October: Head of the Charles – 5k head race
• Early November: Merrimack Chase – 5k head race

Now there is absolutely no way that I will have the time to do all of these races.  So, I need to prioritize what is most important to me.  I think the two key events that I want to do are the Blackburn Challenge and the HOCR, everything else is optional.

Training for the Blackburn will require a much different training plan than training for the early summer sprint races, so I suspect that I will either blow them off, or just do the Cromwell without training specifically for it.  Basically just include some starting practice into my workouts in June.

A plan for the Blackburn will have two components.  The first is endurance, since it is longer than 20 miles in a boat that is 15% slower than a flat water single, which is about 15% slower than an erg.  So, we are talking about 3 to 4 hours of rowing depending on the conditions.   To do that, I think I will give the marathon training plan from the ISS site a try.  Dave C. seemed to do really well with it as prep for his OTW marathon this year.  The other component is getting used to rowing in rougher water.  That means as much open water work down on the cape as I can do on weekends over the summer.  The Marathon training plans want a full 26 weeks, which would mean that I would need to start in mid-January.  Since the indoor racing season will finish up in mid-February, I will probably lop the first month off and just pick it up in the second month.

So, that basically sorts out the period from mid-February to Mid-July.  What about now?  I think that there are two options.

• Option 1:  Do a 3 month block periodized plan similar to last year to try to take a run at my 2K PB.
• Option 2:  Do a 3 month block of strength training and base aerobic work and not take a run at my PB.

Each of these options are attractive in different ways.  Option 1 would be highly motivating and I will enjoy pushing hard and having a really challenging goal to get after.  Option 2 is attractive for three reasons.  One, it might be nice to ease up on the competitive pressure a bit.  Two, I am interested to know whether getting a lot stronger would help me get faster in the boat next spring.  Three, I would like to lose weight and I think it might be easier to do that if I am not pushing every workout to the brink.

So, I need to think this through and make some decisions.  Until then, I just keep doing 3 long and easy and 3 hard sessions a week to keep things going.