Monday, December 20, 2010

This must be it, welcome to the new year

Well maybe I'm jumping ahead just a little bit. BUT last week I got a text that whipped me into the training mood again.

"Can you model for us next week?"

Kind of a nightmare for a triathlete hitting the off-season HARD, like 10+ pounds gained in three weeks. Oops! :) Oh well, I had been putting of planning ahead for next season. Several races are inked on the calendar and paid for. The focus will mostly be on shorter racing (lots of olys, several sprints, and a couple 70.3s), with no Ironmans in the near future. Ultimately, I hope to have a realistic chance at qualifying for Kona during 2012. I'll be looking to have my first A race at the Wildflower long course tri (April 30th). In the meantime, I need to get my base back. I have been planning my off-season goals for years, and I have never followed through with a swim/run focus. I suppose it's time to make it happen. Goals:

  1. Strengthen hips and core, increase flexibility to try to prevent injury. After a year of IT Band Syndrome in 2009, and a year of back problems in 2010 (repeated chiropractor visits since May...), it's time to get to work!.
  2. Finally put in the pool work to get to the FOP in the water. I'm typically near the lead of the chase pack (for age groupers of course). It's time to see if I can make the jump to get to that front group.
  3. Find a way to gain run speed, through a combination of weight loss, technique work, and just plain mileage. Assuming I can jump ahead on the swim and maintain a good position for the ride, I need to hold on during the run. Time to go from 43 ish 10ks off the bike to 40:XX or better.
So, how do I get there? Because these goals are not specific (i.e. swim a sub-XX at Race X, run a sub YY, and have a 22 pack by April 1st), I need some challenges. Feeling inspired by the Slowtwitch 1oo runs in 100 days challenge, I came up with three challenges of my own to tackle these non-specific goals:

  1. P100X. Yes, I'm going to become one of those. I started on Saturday, and will give myself a 10-day buffer to finish. Trying to be realistic about upcoming vacations, fieldwork, and conferences. I might end up having to double-up a few days to make it happen as well. Based on the first two days, I would say my hips/core/back will be ready!
  2. 100 miles in 100 days. Starting today, I will average one mile per day in the pool (1760 short course yards). No rules besides that. Can swim one day per week if I want to (of course that would be 12320 yards of swimming... hahahaha. Not likely.
  3. 100 runs in 100 days with my own rules. Minimum of 20 minutes to count as a "run", can do multiples per day, can take a day off per week if I want to. Don't have to if I feel okay.
So, that's it for now. No requirements for cycling, but I hope to ride three days per week, but no stress if I only get two from time to time. No bonus if I ride five days per week. If I stick to it, P90X will be done on March 27th, swim challenge on March 29th, and run challenge will be done on March 22nd. I'll let you know how it goes!

No comments: