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2009 Triathlon Goals

Monday, December 8th, 2008

During a nice long slow run tonight, I had some time to clear my head and think about lots of things, including all the plans that are falling into place for next year and everything that has to fall into place between now and then. I had a really good run through Harvard square and Cambridge and along the Charles River. Despite the strong winds and snow/freezing rain that was stinging my face, I got totally in the zone and I think I may have fallen back in love with running. I even got a few strange looks from people confused by my big smile as I trekked through the dark.

I stole this pic from Flickr, but this was pretty much my view for half of my run tonight. I love it.

With some nice slow miles to clear my head, I was able to knock off a few more goals for next season. These will be a work in progress, but I at least wanted to get them out there on the interwebs to keep me honest.

Finish the Hyannis Half Marathon under 2 hours
Be able to race, not just survive, two HIMs
Finish sub 6:00 in at least one HIM (preferably both). Maybe even sub 5:45?
Have a blast whenever I race, no matter what happens.
Upgrade to a tri-specific bike.
Keep the rubber side down = no crashes on the bike. (Unless I have a nice soft pile of mud to crash into. )
Be able to do laundry on my stomach.
Even when I’m beat up, tired and grumpy, still listen to Coach Brett.
Take full advantage of my tri coach and make sure we keep up good lines of communications.
Still maintain a normal social life and not get so engulfed in training that I can’t talk to non-triathletes about anything other than training. (I’ve seen it happen to a lot of other people. It isn’t pretty.)
Break my 1 day long ride record of 127 miles.
Find a way to keep myself from getting mentally/physically burnt out.
DON’T GET INJURED

And on that note, the training is going really well and I’m definitely the fittest that I’ve been in December in a LONG TIME. Granted I’ve never started my tri season in November before, but you get the point. As long as I can ward off either a physical or mental blow up between now and Timberman in August, I’ll be set to rip it up. Here are my weekly swim bike and run time totals:

Swim: 2:05

Bike: 2:55

Run: 3:23

From what it looks like in the training plan, I’ll be holding my Swim/Bike numbers pretty steady and ramping up my running hours/intensity to get ready for the Hyannis Half Marathon in the end of February. Hold tight. More to come.

Tags: training goals, Triathlon | Posted in Training Log, Triathlon | No Comments »

2008 Triathlon Goals: A Recap

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Now that I am in full on base building mode for the ’09 season, I thought it would probably be a good idea to revisit an old post on this year’s goals to see how I did this year before laying down in detail my goals for next year. Here are the goals that I laid out for myself on January 4, 2008.

1) Build up at least a respectable base in running/biking/swimming by the time spring comes around and I can start working out outside.
PASS: But my ’09 base fitness is going to eat my ’08′s base for breakfast! BREAKFAST I Tell You!

2) Work on my core strength (read: get a 6 pack)
FAIL – core strength was better, but I still have a lot of work to do. Maybe this season I’ll be able to do laundry on my abs….

3) Take care of myself and don’t get injured, or at least don’t get hurt doing anything I could have easily avoided.
FAIL – IT band issues had me MIA for a little over a month and made the RI 70.3 a killer just to finish.

4) Actually get up to workout when I set my alarm to go off early, instead of just turning it off and sleeping in.
PASS (well, SOMETIMES)

5) Bike to work more
PASS – I probably did the best on this one. I only filled up my tank twice in both August and September.

6) Finish my first half ironman and do it without feeling miserable or like I under trained
Finish? Done. Miserable? Completely. Under trained? Nope. I’ll have to give myself a big FAIL on this one I guess.

7) Be fast enough on the bike to justify having shaved legs
I’m not sure about “fast enough” but I’ll give myself a PASS since my smooth legs were so damn sexy this summer.

8 ) Finish a self-supported IM under 17 hours with a smile on my face (even if it is makes by a lot of pain).
FAIL. This dropped off the training plan early once I realized the year wasn’t going quite as expected. It was fun to aim high though.

9) Save up for a bike that doesn’t weigh half as much as I do.
PASS, sort of – I’m not quite there yet, but hopefully I’ll be riding a new steed by August. This goal is a work in progress.

10) Smell like chlorine more often.
PASS. I should have included smelling like the water at Walden Pond more often too. I ended up swimming there a lot more than at the pool.

11) Pick more bugs out of my teeth/helmet vents
PASS. And D-licious!

12) Race more, have more fun.
PASS: I didn’t race as much as I wanted to, but I had a f-ing blast whenever I was racing or training, so I am giving myself a pass on this one.

So I ended up passing 8 of my 12 goals. With reaching a little high for some of them, a 75% isn’t too shabby. I even hit some pretty cool milestones that I wasn’t even planning on this year. I hit a new max speed on my bike (57mph) and did the longest one day ride ever (+120 miles). These were on different days obviously.

I’m working on coming up with some new goals to post for next season.

Until then here are some pics of me and my sister on or Thanksgiving afternoon bike ride while the the turkey cooked away. This may have to be annual tradition to work up a nice appetite and feel less guilty about gorging myself a few hours later. She just got her first road bike this year and this was the first time we’ve ever ridden together. It was some nice chilly sibling bonding.