Those 2009 goals

I haven't organized myself enough to write out 2009 goals for myself. I just ordered 3 new calendars from Staples and I'm waiting for them to arrive, probably Friday. I jokingly put out a call on one of my lists to have someone write my goals for me - and I got back a list from Lee C. that was pretty good:

"Here you are, Nancy":

1. Don't do no DNF no mo'
2. Swim: 100,000 yards (~2100 yd/week average/ 48 wks)
3. Bike: 2500 miles (~52 miles/week average/ 48 wks)
4. Run: 1000 miles (~20 miles/week average/ 48 wks)
5. No pukes during races
6. Sub 16 hour Ironman
7. Sub 7 hour half IM
8. PRs at all distances
9. 9 Tequila shots
10. 10 Yummy margaritas

My reaction: Not bad at all for a first stab at it!! That 100,000 yards gives me pause, but the rest looks do-able. Except I don't have any half IMs on the schedule. I do have a marathon which wasn't exactly well-planned... a sub-5-hour marathon would be very speedy for me, so maybe I'll substitute that. I'll post again on this topic in a few days. I think I'm looking at weekly targets of:

Swim: 2112+ yards
Bike: 56+ miles
Run: 13.1+ miles
Weekly speedwork
Weekly weight training

Most of you will recognize those as the half Ironman distances. Good for minimums.

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Outcome goals: I aspire to these performance goals as a result of the training (above), body composition work, and pushing hard on race day:

Sub-16-hour Ironman finish
Sub-5-hour marathon
Sub-2:15 half marathon
Sub-hour 10k

I've come close on all of those, but never quite did it. I believe that I can do better than those times, but let's proceed stepwise.

Let's make it so in 2009.

And oh yeah, I forgot one: NO BRONCHITIS IN 2009!

Those pesky goals (here we go again)

I had a truckload of process goals for 2007. Frankly, way too many to track and pay attention to very well. But things were going along well enough until I had a major computer crash in midsummer and lost the Excel spreadsheet on which I had been keeping my records. I think I have it back now on a rebuilt computer, but the recordkeeping ground to a halt when that happened.

I started just logging my workouts in the sidebar, and totaling them manually, which was such a pain that I developed an enormous backlog of un-summarized records that I still have to clear up. Right now I don't even know how far I swam, ran, or rode in 2007, although I believe my totals ended up lower than the previous couple of years.

I enjoyed my events this year quite a bit, and made lots of progress in my speed and fitness levels - setting a total of TEN PRs while maintaining my body weight. My 2008 season is going to look a lot like 2007, with a few more running events. I plan to complete (carpooling with my training buddy Dave) an 8-race Championship Series put on by one of our local running clubs, Annapolis Striders (at least 7 of the races, that is - I may have at least one date conflict with a triathlon, but 7 races should be enough for me to make the top ten in my age group and work up from there in the 2008 standings).

For right now I'd like to keep my 2008 process goals simple and pegged on simple weekly goals, which seems to keep me on track in continually improving my fitness and performance:

• Log my intake at least 5 days per week, striving for a 500-700 calorie daily deficit until I hit an 8% body fat reduction (from January 1st, 2008).
• Swim at least 2500 yards per week.
• Run at least 12 miles per week.
• Ride at least 25 miles per week.
• Count the weeks for each of the above, striving for 80%+ completion (42 weeks out of 52).

Those swim, bike, and run workouts should include at least one long less-slow distance workout (1+ hour swim, 2+ hour run, 3+ hour bike) and a set of high-intensity intervals (speedwork) every 7-10 days, but I'm not going to quantify that right now, just work it into the routine.

I think I'm going to start this year keeping my Excel workout log on Google docs to crashproof it and keep it in a place that I can get to from any computer.

Looking ahead to a fall marathon

I'm planning on running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC this fall, for my 2nd time. Linae picked up a guaranteed entry form and sent it to me (thanks!!), so I'm IN without dealing with online registration - if I make sure to mail it in by the deadline.

Notice that I said running the marathon. As opposed to walking, walk-running, jogging, shuffling, or simply enduring it. Not that there is anything wrong with any way of getting to the finish line!!! But for my 10th attempt at the distance, I'd like to do something different for me and actually run the sucker and get to the finish line as fast as my legs will carry me.

Now after my sub-2:30 half marathon, I'm having visions of a sub-5:00 finish, too. That should get me below the median finish time for women my age. Last year the median time (216/433) for women in my age group then (50-54) in this particular race was 5:19:40; and the median time (389/779) for women in my current age group (45-49) was 5:03:24. Since it's not a PR course (very crowded, big hills up front, concrete streets, lots of turns), and my longer-distance finish times are always slower than the predictions of the charts, I think in order to do a sub-5:00 I'll have to be prepared to run the equivalent of at least a 4:50 marathon. Which means I need to be running below these times at shorter distances:

5K	0:29:48
5M	0:49:13
10K	1:02:26
10M	1:43:04

Those look like they might be within reach, if I train hard through the summer and lose more weight. Losing a few pounds body weight always seems to yield me a lot more speed than a TON of training.

Ambitious goals are good! If I reach this goal, I could maybe even be a marginally slightly above-average marathon runner! Woot!

We're still 34 weeks out from the marathon, though. Plenty of time to crank it up!