Goals

Last year at Vineman half, I felt pretty good about becoming a reasonably decent triathlete. I had cut 24 minutes off my time from the previous year, with 17 of that coming from the bike and about 4 more coming from the run. I was pretty happy, but at the same time, I felt like I would be physically capable of going faster. I think it was at that point when I mentally committed to putting my energy into improving significantly at long-course triathlon. So, as part of that, I started spending money!

I bought some PowerCranks, a PowerTap, and started looking for a new race bike with race wheels. But arguably, the most important investment was a coach. After working with a coach for 6 months, I *think* I am at a whole new level. I say I *think* because I have no multisport proof. I only have a couple of half-marathons to look at my running improvement. On not a whole lot of speedwork, I cut 6 minutes off my half-marathon time on the same course from one year to the next and cut 4 minutes off my PR. My swimming has improved by 10-15 seconds per 100 yds. I haven't done any races yet, but we'll see how I do in open water. I am not so sure about my biking; I have been doing a LOT of lower body weights and power intervals, etc., and I think, based on my PowerTap, have added about 30-40 watts to my threshold power although I haven't been officially tested since last August. Perhaps I will do that soon to see where I am at.

I think a lot of people that get hooked on triathlon dream of qualifying for Kona. I was certainly one of them. I know I have a tons to learn about doing IronMan triathlons, but I can say that Kona is a goal. Not a dream, but a goal. Reading about this guy qualifying has made me even more committed.

So let's look at that goal using the SMART theory. It is definitely Specific. It is definitely Measurable. Is it Attainable? Is it Realistic? As of now, I definitely have the mental commitment and am willing to put the work in. Based on recent progress I am going to say it is both Attainable and Realistic. Obviously I will see how much more realistic this August in Louisville. And finally, with respect to Timely, if I am going to qualify, I want to do it in my "current" age group, which means I have 5 years.

I am not fooling myself; I know it will take a lot of hard work for quite a while and I don’t expect it to be this year. I am not the most naturally gifted endurance athlete. I think I have a decent foundation of running from years of soccer, but I have only been cycling for a couple of years and swimming is an issue for me. Having said all that, I am willing to work hard to shoot for goals and I think over the long term, you only hit what you aim at so you should aim high.

To get there, I figure I’ve got to swim ~1:05, bike ~5:20 and run ~3:20. I think it’s physically possible and the thing that I can wrap my head around is that it’s roughly double my time at Vineman 70.3 last year. For the swim, I’ve already taken ~10-15 seconds per 100 off my pace, but I figure I need to get down to the 1:20 per 100 yd range in my sets to be able to swim 1:30-1:35 comfortably for an hour or so. So I need to take another 5-10 seconds off my 100 yd pace. For the bike, last year at Vineman, I averaged 21.0 for 56 miles, so I figure I’ve eventually got to get to that speed for the Ironman distance, but I know that will take a LOT of hard work on the bike. For the half-iron distance, I can go hard on the bike and still survive the run, but for the full-Iron distance, I need to be able to do that pace on the bike with an easy-modest effort. I will have to turn myself into a strong cyclist! For the run, I did a 1:39 at Vineman last year, but I think my running is as good as it has ever been (1:22 half marathon) on only 35-40 miles per week (so far, but that will obviously increase over time). We’ll see what I can do on triathlong runs this year at the various distances on various courses, but I don’t think a sub-3:30 Ironman marathon (eventually) is out of the question with some more hard work. I know I will have to learn to run tough in the last 10 miles, but it’s something I can at least imagine doing.

So after all that, there you have it. Kona is a goal.