Monday, October 12th, 2009
I know. We still have more than two months left in 2009 but after spending all Saturday watching some amazing athletes battle it out in Kona and I’ve decided that it marked the official end to my triathlon season. I have a fun race next weekend in Newport, RI, but my mind is already on to 2010. Racing, sponsors, base training and more fun times. Before I get ahead of myself with plans for next year, lets take a minute to step back for a second.
In the spirit of my 2008 goal recap, I decided to keep the tradition alive and take another look at how I was able to knock off my 2009 goals and try to give myself an honest grade of how done so far. These are the targets I laid out for myself last December.
1: Finish the Hyannis Half Marathon under 2 hours
DONE! 1:50:29 – Nailed.
2: Be able to race, not just survive, two HIMs
Rev3 was all about surviving the run, but I was able to race up until about half way through Timberman this year. Probably a solid C+ performance. Room for improvement next year. Expect to see this goal come back for 2010.
3: Finish sub 6:00 in at least one HIM (preferably both). Maybe even sub 5:45?
FAIL. I blame this on not being able to completely nail number two. Going sub-6 is definitely in my abilities, it is just a matter of getting all the dominoes to line up perfectly.
4: Have a blast whenever I race, no matter what happens.
DONE! I especially nailed this one at Lobsterman. If I’m not having fun when racing, what is the point. Right?I have some fun ideas planned to make sure that I don’t loose sight of what is important next year. They are top secret for now. Stay tuned.
5: Upgrade to a tri-specific bike.
DONE! I love my Cervelo P2. I have decided to name her Victoria. She is smooth and sexy and I tell her my dirty little secrets when I’m alone on my on my long rides. She is locked down to my trainer for the winter, but I plan on spending plenty of time with her until the weather warms up again.
6: Keep the rubber side down = no crashes on the bike. (Unless I have a nice soft pile of mud to crash into. )
DONE! I had one or two close calls, but no crashes (yet) to report for 2009. Fingers crossed!
7: Be able to do laundry on my stomach.
B+. My core strength is WORLDS better than last year and I somehow managed to lose about 8 pounds since last year. Not laundry on my stomach (just yet). Sorry ladies, no pics.
8: Even when I’m beat up, tired and grumpy, still listen to Coach Brett.
I think I did pretty good at this one. With the exception of missing/rescheduling some workouts when life got in the way, I think I did pretty well. Based on evaluating some mistakes that went down around Rev3, I took a lot of his nutrition tips to heart. I treated Timberman a lot differently and attribute that to being able to PR.
9: Take full advantage of my tri coach and make sure we keep up good lines of communications.
FAIL. Being coached by Brett was great, but this was probably the biggest issue of the year. Having a coach that agreed to train you for free who is also training for his own Ironman is just a recipe for disaster. Without regular communication, the value of having a coach is pretty moot. We started the year with good intentions, but somewhere along the line things broke down. You live. You learn. I’m still super grateful to Brett for all his help this year.
10: 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.)
I had Sam score me on this one since I feel like she has a more honest outlook on my tri-life balance. She gave me an 80% only because of a few times where we had to end a night out with friends early because of a race/training ride early the next morning. 80% isn’t too shabby. I’ll take it.
11: Break my 1 day long ride record of 127 miles.
I did an 80 mile ride and a 90 mile ride, but haven’t gotten past my one day ride record. There is still time left this year, but I may focus on some other goals for the rest of the year.
12: Find a way to keep myself from getting mentally/physically burnt out.
I think I did pretty good. Except for a big post Rev3 slump in June, I made sure I didn’t let things get too monotonous and loose sight of why I’m doing all of this in the first place.
13: DON’T GET INJURED
DONE! I had some mini physical breakdowns, but nothing that a day or two of rest and some TLC couldn’t resolve.
I made pretty decent progress on 9 out of 12 goals for this year. Not too bad. I’m happy with it, but it does set up 2010 pretty nicely. I really want to return to Rev3 with my Team Trakkers crew to address some unfinished business with that course. I’m also toying with the of doing the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Climb. It is pretty Bad Ass. That is all I needed to be sold on it.
Now on to solidifying plans for next year, but that is for its own post. Hold tight.
Tags: mt. washington auto road bicycle climb, trakkers, trakkers gps, triathlon goals | Posted in Cycling, Ironman, Life, Running, Swimming, Training Log, Triathlon | 4 Comments »
