Yearly goals 2011/2012

Last year I set a goal to finish a marathon in under 4 hours by my 30th birthday. Not only did I finish well under 4 hours (at 3:50), but I did so almost 2 months before my actual birthday. As I approach my 30th revolution around the sun, knowing that this year is only special because we count in base 10, physically I feel the best I have ever felt in my life. I was a three sport athlete in high school too, and I was a teenager then, but I could open a can of whoopass on myself back then. In hindsight, last year’s goal was a little too easy. This year, I will be making a series of goals that will hopefully be a challenge to make.

Swimming

I want to participate in a swim meet. This is just a participatory goal, meaning all I want to do is show up, race, and finish. We’ll worry about time and podiums later. 🙂

Cycling

I also want to race the Tucson Bicycle Classic as a category 4 racer. The qualifications needed to upgrade from cat 5 (all n00bs) to cat 4 is simply “experience in 10 mass start races.” So upgrading to cat 4 by TBC should be easy as there are at least 16 mass start races before then in the Tucson or Phoenix area. Depending on how I do and how fun it is, next years goal might be to cat up to 3.

I will Ride the Rockies.

Running

That’s it for biking and swimming. As for running, I’d like to complete a marathon in under 3:30. That’s 20 minutes off of this years time, but if I choose a flat course I think it’s possible. I’ll be running the Really Big Free Marathon in Las Vegas in November 2012, and the unofficial course right now looks pretty flat. At least compared to Whiskey Row. I also want to run as many of the Arizona Road Runner races as possible.

Triathlon

I’d like to do an Olympic triathlon. I’d also like to set a time goal for this, but as I haven’t even completed a sprint tri yet, I have no idea what I should set as a goal. I’ll have specific time-based goals for sprint tris after I finish my first one on my birthday. I want to compete in at least 3 sprints next year in addition to the Oly.

Training

In terms of training miles, next year I want to peak my weekly training miles at: 50 miles running, 250 miles biking, and 10 miles swimming with about half of each weeks miles coming from the long swim, bike, or run.