What’s next (from 2005)

Note: This is an article that was written in 2005 after I completed my first IM. In hindsight, some of the goals look a bit ambitious, but I’m still thinking in the direction of “Let’s try to get better”. Also the goal of getting to closer to qualify for IM Hawaii is still active. It may just take a little while longer …

Where I’m coming from

In 2001, I was an out-of-shape, overweight (104 kg), middle-age (33 years) man getting married. In 2005, I'm four years older, happily married, and finished my first IM in 12:26h, having lost 18kg of weight. So what's next for me?

A lot of things can happen. I may find a new job that truly excites me again, my wife and I might finally manage to have a kid, but these things are not truly within my control. As I've drawn a lot of satisfaction from my athletic development in the last years, I've decided to set myself a lofty goal in this area. I've decided to call it "Sub-10 in '10" – which should also get me close to being able to qualify for Kona.

As noted above, there are a few things that could make this goal less important, I may not be able to get that fast and I don't want to take things literally (a 9:52 in '11 would be great as well ;-)) but as a reference point, I really like the catchy phrase.

First, a short look at my progression over the last years:

Season	Total (h)	Swim (h/km)	Bike (h/km)	Run (h/km)	A Races
01/02	145h	-	-	145h	Marathon in 4:26
02/03	271h	20h 50	64h 1671	173h 1755	Marathon in 3:52, First Oly (2:38)
03/04	387h	80h 187	116h 3023	174h 1763	Marathon in 3:39, First Half IM (5:04)
04/05	435h	85h 202	173h 4501	149h 1535	First IM in 12:26:57

Sub-10 in ‘10

To go sub-10 means something along the lines of 1hr Swim, 5:20 Bike, 3:30 Run, plus 5 Min in each transition. This year my times were Swim 1:13, T1 7:43, Bike 6:20:39, T2 3:21, Run 4:42:12.

So, what does it take to get me closer to Sub-10?

As last year was close to what was tolerated at home and at work, I don't think I can do more than last 2005. Ultimately, that may limit how fast I can get and I may have to rethink that number along the way, but for now I'd like to try not to break anything by increasing my training load.

I feel the biggest improvement for me will have to be on the bike .. that will require increasing the volume and become much more powerful than I am now. What should I be doing here? "JFT" is my main idea. I'm not sure whether I would benefit from "toys" like a power meter. Upwards of 800$ is a pretty hefty investment if there is not that much of a benefit for me.

The run .. obviously, I will have to improve here as well, but I think at least I know what to do to get there. Run often, and get a bit faster while get fitter and leaner.

Which brings me to the next issue – weight (body composition is the political correct term ;-)). At 1.80m (6ft?) I'm still "a bit" overweight with 86kg (192 lbs?) on race day. I've improved over the last years, but progress has been so slow and even not really there this year that I feel there is a lot to do here.

Swim .. probably the easiest. I've managed a very relaxed 1:13 on two times per week. As I have excellent form I regard the volume I can put in as my main limiter here. I think that I will see huge improvements if I manage to swim 3 times or more per week. If getting to Kona requires me to swim twice in the morning before going to work, I think I can do that. For 2006, I may sacrifice winter swimming for some time in the weight room. I've never done any lifting before and feel that I may need a new stimulus – especially considering my bike focus.

Which leaves .. race execution. I think for my first race, Mitch helped me build a race plan for my capabilities and made me feel comfortable with that plan on race day. I deviated a bit from it (the classic rookie mistakes – started a bit hard on the bike, ran the first loop of the run a bit too fast), but all in all it went pretty good. I think I'm "smart enough" to get to Hawaii – what I don't know is if I can get fit enough.

What should I do in 2006?

The overall volume .. I think I'll shoot for about 400 hours, but I would like to be more consistent than last year when a good week was almost always followed by a week with smaller volume. I'd like to enhance my basic week so that I get in about 8 hours per week almost automatically, so when I do the larger sessions for my marathon or ½ IM prep, I'm almost guaranteed to go over ten hours without any undue stress.

As a gesture to my wife I've decided to have my next IM in 2007, so 2006 should be a base year and mainly about having fun. Training and racing in the last years was a blast. I was setting PRs left and right – let's see how long that continues! So I want to PR in most of my running races, 10k (41:45 – would love to go sub-40), half marathon (1:34:31 – would love to get close to 1:30h) and marathon (3:39:31 – should be able to go sub 3:30). These are my goals for the first part of the year up to March (marathon is end of April). During this time, I should have some minimum weekly time for biking (probably 2 hours per week) and as noted above I'm thinking of doing weights instead of swimming.

The rest of the year I want to focus on biking. Starting during the taper for the marathon, I want to get as many bike-hours in as possible. I've already signed up for "Vätternrondan" in mid-June, the world's largest bike "race", a 300km non-stop loop around a lake in Sweden.

Depending on vacation, I would like to end my season with my A-triathlon, possibly a half IM in late August (with a big PR, as well – 10 to 15 minute improvement over my time from 2004). Leading up to that, I would like to do a few more triathlons and maybe some bike races, too.

After my main triathlon, have some more fun running races to finish the year.