Training and racing events by month
2021
January, first Wednesday (6th) - Team monthly social meeting and education: “Selecting the appropriate intensity for your training sessions”. (Coach Cliff)
January - “Go lean challenge” - A team based challenge towards leaning out and weight loss. Yes, after thanksgiving and the holidays this is a great goal! Top prizes for top weight loss for both male and female athletes. (Final weigh in 1/31/21)
January - 21K for 2021; Welcome in a new year and fresh start to the season with this Tristar VR event. (New years day or the day after if you need an extra rest day ;)
February, first Wednesday (3rd) - Team monthly social meeting and education; “How to raise FTP for three sports.”
February - BIG winter base miles team run challenge; Competition for the most miles of running in the month and lowest heart rate for the longest run.
March, first Wednesday (3rd) - Team monthly social meeting and education; “How to use critical pace, power and heart rate to supercharge your training.” (Coach Megan Tobin)
March - Tristar Race-Camp TBD (Redondo Beach CA)
March - “Core is king” Team challenge - most number of core sessions completed in the month of march wins! (Minimum duration per session is 10minutes)
April, first Wednesday (7th) - Team monthly social meeting and education; “Mental toughness and mental freshness.”
April - Spring is sprung bike miles; Team challenge for the most miles ridden in April to May for the top male and female athletes.
April - Tristar Spring Training Camp (Register here)
April - Tristar Half Marathon and 10K virtual event (4/3/21)
April - Team testing day; FTP testing for the bike and run as a team competition! Broadcast live on zoom. (4/3/21)
May, first Wednesday (5th) - Team monthly meeting and coaching education; “Insights using and applying the training peaks dashboard to your data” (Coach Attila Kelemen)
May - Spring is sprung bike miles; continued (Miles completed up to 5/31)
May - Return to local small event racing, < 100 athletes per event with no travel required. Larger events likely to return mid-end 2021.
June, first Wednesday (2nd) - Team monthly meeting and coaching education; “How to know if you should be focusing on heart rate, power, pace or rate of perceived effort?!” And the relationship to zone methods. (Coach Kyle Halloran)
June - Team Century competition and Olympic and Half Ironman competitions. (Weekend of 6/5/21)
July, first Wednesday (7th) - Team monthly social meeting and coaching education; “Understanding Training Stress balance towards peak performance.” (Coach Attila)
August, first Wednesday (4th) - Team monthly social meeting and coaching education; “Racing and training in the heat.” (Coach Megan Tobin)
August - Swim distance challenge - Top prize to the Tristar who swims the most yards in August.
September, first Wednesday (1st) - Team monthly social meeting and coaching education; “Raceday nutrition and fueling” 💧🍞 🧂
September - Large scale race events; Return to social distance racing. (Hopefully much sooner!)
October, first Wednesday (6th) - Team monthly social meeting and coaching education; “Race pacing the bike for triathlons and cycling events” 💨 & 🚴♀️💨....🚴🏻♂️
October - Ironman Hawaii World Championships - Support those Tristars racing in the event and have an excuse to travel to Hawaii ; )
October - Fall Tristar 56-112mi bike event and race. Top prizes for the highest IF by male and female athlete by ability level.
November, first Wednesday (3rd) - Team monthly social meeting and coaching education; “Approaches to the off season to get faster”
November - “Beat 2020” - Take down your PR at the half marathon or marathon distance from 2020. (11/6/21)
December, first Wednesday (1st) - Monthly team social and coaching education. “How to time macro nutrients, shifting for racing and weight goals.” (Coach Kyle Halloran)
Training and racing events by month
2020
September - Tristar Man Olympic to Ironman distance events for Dr’s Without Borders charity. A chance to test your summer training, fitness and keep up your racing.
October - Marathon training season and prep for the Tristar Half Marathon and Marathon. The same weekend of the NYC Marathon 11/1
November - “The most important step for 2021, preparing your off season”, a virtual Tristar team event with our coaches to plan for your upcoming training and racing. This critical time needs to be done right in order to grow. 11/18 5:30 PST
December - Zwift cycling FTP challenge; Team based competition who can raise their FTP the most on a % basis this winter?! Top male and female winners from December 1st to April 1st.
December - “The 10K, 10 day December challenge” - Its all about speed? Or is it speed and pacing? Run 1K a day consecutively for 10 days over the month of December. Fastest by total time wins for male/female and also scored by your FTP/ability.
December - All about nutrition; Join our coaches for an off season guide to eating and fueling for performance. Dec 2nd 5:30 PST.
Last Update: April 22nd, 6:34 am PST
Reframing the season can reveal new opportunities that you didn’t realize existed and even new future races to consider.
As we adjust to a season that is “shifting” in many ways. We are regularly updating the season timeline and framework for you to shift your training and goals as we progress through 2020. Learn about what our athletes and coaches are doing in the physical and virtual world of training and racing!
Learn more about VR race opportunities and what our athletes are doing below
Tristar VR
Virtual racing options
Examples of what our athletes are doing to better themselves today with limited racing
Athlete spotlight: Benjamin Schor has moved towards a run focus and started to develop his speed on the run for the first half of 2020. He recently ran a time trial stand alone PR half marathon at 1:35! Ben will be running in the Tristar VR 10K and upcoming half Marathon in June.
2020 TIMELINE
Last Update: March 1st, 6:34 am PST
April-July- no races and self containment measures.
May - Tristar Atheltes Virtual 10K race opportunity. (Charity event for God’s Love food bank)
June - Tristar Athletes Virtual 13.1 race opportunity. (Charity event for God’s Love food bank)
July to August - Hopeful to see a drop in COVID-19 and return to semi normal outdoor activity. Smaller groups with social distance and training partner opportunities. Open water swims for multisport athletes now an option. Some private pools potentially open.
Ongoing - Ironman Virtual Race series of online racing with opportunities to race at 70.3 Worlds. Over 35 total ironman and half ironman races on the platform.
August-September - COVID-19 like flu in general tends to dissipate. Limited, local and small races only likely short course races. Potentially more pools to open again.
Time trial format; Most races will adopt a time trial format where athletes are launched periodically at the start to keep socially distant during the event. (Expect no expo’s at events)
End of August - Race season “kicks off”, (Think of this as June or early summer racing …a compressed race season now unfolds.)
September to November - Postponed races start to happen, the majority in the October time frame. The fall is going to be a busy race schedule! Many races happening at this time as the season pivots forward.
October to December - Many marathons postponed in the spring would likely be happening in these months. Ironman Hawaii will happen with many Kona legacy athletes stepping in to empty Kona slots.
Restrictions on gatherings could limit the start to the race season by as late as end of early September. Ironman Brazil for instance has been rescheduled for August.
Ironman Updates
Current list of rescheduled or cancelled races.
Most races currently are being postponed to the fall or rescheduled for 2021 with the options to defer to other races in 2020.
Postponement: Registered athletes for events that are postponed due are automatically transferred to the rescheduled date. For those that the new date does not work, you will be allowed to defer into the same event the next year.
Cancellation: Registered athletes for events that are cancelled are automatically deferred to the same race in 2021.
Major Marathons and other foot races
Timeline more uncertain but likely fall time frame best chances for races.
Time trial format; Most races will adopt a time trial format where athletes are launched periodically at the start to keep socially distant during the event.
Due to the density of these types of races and close proximity, expect larger half marathon and marathons to be postponed until later in the year.
Track sessions with small groups would be ideal to maintain training intensity and focus.
Athlete Spotlight; Virtual race to benefit Gods Love Charity - Jeff Schleppy runs 48 miles over two days to raise his run game and money for this awesome charity. “It was more mental than physical” says Schleppy after completing the feat. Whats up next? The Tristar half marathon and small group competitions he plans to organize with local Tristar Athletes in the Northeast.
What this means for our athletes
Those who were peaking April to May
Those athletes who had early season races that were major peaks will return to base phase training and return to FTP work. A new peak and trajectory will be set for postponed races by our coaches and your plans updated accordingly.
For those athletes who have extra “time” on their hands and especially multisport athletes base miles on the bike can help improve the later part of their season. For many longer distance athletes where weekly work and time constraints are present this could be a nice opportunity.
Tristar Athletes Oceanside training camp will now have virtual training opportunity with more details to follow here in the coming weeks. We plan to have our Lake Placid and Palm Springs race camps.
For those multisport athletes who will decide to peak in the fall, a shift towards one sport discipline may be an opportunity rarely seen at this time of the year. Most of the time when the off season occurs during the winter, the training options are more limited. With the “off season” occurring early in the year during warmer months, greater training opportunities exist.
Multi-sport athletes trying to keep up with their swims; Swim fitness will not suffer as much due to the fact that biking and running will preserve cardio with “boomerang fitness”. The strength and grip in the water may dip and this can be supported by swim stretch cords and bands.
Swimming can be ramped up without as much fear of injury when compared to biking and especially running. As the season progresses our coaches will adjust your plans to flex upwards with more swim time.
Additional cycling and running; it is possible to shift to extra cycling and running at this time.
Local group rides may be a good option to gain race intensity for multi sport athletes.
Athlete Spotlight; Lauren Dahlin joined the Tristar virtual training camp. Working with others on the team to boost fitness and training moral.
Those athletes who were peaking for August to November
Less total disruption to the season for these athletes though missing early season races to build fitness. While many early season races will be canceled there are opportunities to do mock races in lieu of actual races.
We encourage our Tristar team to work with their training partners in small-er groups to hold mini “events” that can help prepare them better for races that will be canceled or postponed.
Longer base phases of training now to be better prepared for the second half of 2020
What next?
The stress of change right now can be a major challenge that your training can help to level out. Reducing stress through training is one of the major benefits we enjoy with endurance sports. Regardless of what is happening in the world right now, life will eventually return to normal, races will come back and fitness?…. it waits for no one! Keep the big picture view that what you do today can shape your goals now and in the near future.
One of the things we love about being an endurance athlete is the fact that our training is something we have great control over. Our health is a major priority at Tristar Athletes and we believe right now with no racing there can be opportunity. Reframing the season can reveal new opportunities that you didn’t realize existed and even new races to consider.
Our coaching team will be working together on each of your plans and adjusting to the months ahead. Please reach out to us, we are here to help plan things along the way.
~The Tristar Athletes Coaches
The first team meeting, learning of Covid-19. What we knew then vs now - lots of new training opportunities and a late season of racing.
Tristar Athletes
