Goals for the Year

In my last post I described some of my more general training goals. But it is time to get more specific. I typically refrain from trying to predict finish times in long races as it is impossible to control the number of variables in the equation. But I do have some very specific goals for the season.

1. Stay injury free
2. Rest and recover properly
3. Clean up my diet
4. Learn to train with more intensity
5. Chattanooga in 2:40
6. Break 1:45 in a half mary
7. Top 10 AG in sprint races
8. Beat my Powerman Alabama time
9. Have fun in a few races
10. Rock Ironman Florida

Some of these goals are race specific and others are out of my control. One of the goals that is 100% in my control is #3. I really want to clean up my diet this year. Last year, at Ironman Coeur d'Alene, I weighed in a 159 lbs and 7.8% body fat. By many standards this is great and I am definitely not complaining. When I step on the scales for Ironman Florida I want to be sub-155 and sub 7% body fat....a lean, mean, endurance machine!

While this isn't a primary goal, it is an important secondary one. I don't necessarily believe in dieting. I tend to follow the notion that I train in part so that I can eat what I want. I just need to make better decisions. I need to ween myself off processed food. Living a bachelor lifestyle makes the microwave and boxed dinners an easy option. That practice needs to end. I have already taken some action this winter to stop purchasing particular foods....some baked foods and chips. This is a start but I still have a ways to go.

I have never been one to think that my diet was bad. Sure there are some things that aren't exactly nutritional but I am not one to often splurge. Most of my snacks are in the healthy range. My diet consists of granola everyday. I don't buy many snacks...no cookies or chocolate. When friends come to stay, I recommend that they go to the store for themselves. However, I need to become more aware of my little guilty pleasures and vices...'no thanks, I will pass on the breakfast brunch for my yogurt.'

My goal is for my diet to become really colorful and lean. That means more salad and fruit. That means more lean meats and whole wheat pasta. The focus will be eating foods that rate low on the glycimic index thus prolonging the fat burning when I workout. It will get expensive at times but it is the right move. I believe that as long as I can clean up my diet and still recover properly, then I will become a better athlete. I will never be one of those who shops exclusively at Whole Foods or is called a food snob. I love pizza, burgers and burritos too much. I won't put down my chips and salsa but I will no longer reach for doritos on a snacking binge. I will still utilize Moe's for post training meals but I will skip the random blue cheese burger (mmmm)

The other part of my diet that needs work is to eat less at meals. I have long loved to eat and eat I do. It goes back to the notion of smaller portions. I know I overeat at meals. I just hate food to go to waste. Dinner is really the only time this happens. I have a very structure diet for breakfast and lunch. And I do snack throughout the day. My goal is to do a better job after workouts to put food back into the body prior to dinner. I believe that if I go into dinner a bit full it will cut down on the calorie consumption and not cause insulin spikes at night.

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The other big goal on the season is to learn to train with more intensity. Last year I plunged into the world of heart rate based training. I learned to listen to my body and taught it to respond accordingly. However, during most of my training sessions I would sit down in z2 and not labor myself. This proved to be a great philosophy as I built a huge running base that was able to take on 15-20 mile runs at a comfortable pace. It served me well last year. But this year has different objectives.

When I learned to live in zone 2, my body was in its comfort zone. I knew that so long as I continued fueling the body that I would remain in the fat burning zone. When the heartrate went up my body started working harder. Zone 4 and I weren't not friends. The HR crept up and the body rejected the notion of working harder.

This proved to be a limiting factor in my races. I feel like I trained with a threshold that I would never bump up against....essentially leaving unrealized potential out there. It was most noticeable on the bike where I could maintain a competitive speed at a reasonable heartrate. The question is, can I train harder on the bike and thus train faster?

Of course this theorem is a double edged sword. The hardest thing to do in a race is to find that threshold on the bike where you can push it 100% and STILL have enough in the tank to run. Too often you see people blow up on the run because they pushed the bike too hard. So part of me thinks I have always held back on the bike in fear of blowing up. And it is a reasonable notion...the race is nearly always won or lost on the run.

The year has already started with a great amount of intensity training. I am hitting my tempo and strength runs. Not shirking them for extra base miles. And I have already seen proven results. My mile repeat times have dropped. My zone 2 base pace has dropped. Hopefully, these are just the beginning of numerous running improvements that will serve me well for the next 11 months.

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So there is it. Two huge goals that I can control. Sounds simple, lol.