2012 - Here We Go!!!

With the 2011 triathlon season officially over and as the days fly by, I often find myself reflecting on my season.  2011 was by far a break through season for me but as the story goes, we always want more.  That's human nature.  Even in the eyes of great world champions, there is always that "something more" that we all want.  For example, look at Chris "Macca" McCormack.  You would think that winning a Ironman World Championship not once, but twice would be good enough?  But the Aussie continues to go out there and dream big and has devoted all of his energy towards the chance of one day making the Austrailian Olympic team.  Even if Macca never makes the Olympic team, I am sure that 20 years from now when he reflects back on his life, he'll know that he gave everything he could give.  So why should you and I think any differently?

The bottom line is you have to believe in yourself.  This goes for anything you do in life.  If you believe that you're only good enough to be a middle of the pack racer, guess what, that's all the better you're going to be.  The second you start to believe in yourself, especially in triathlon, things start to happen and the results will soon follow.

This year for me, I believed that I could go sub 9:20 at the Ironman distance.  This kind of thinking did not happen overnight however.  I'd say the initial transformation began just a little over a year ago when I crossed the finish line at Ironman Lake Placid where I finished 2nd in my Age Division with a time of 9 hours and 42 minutes.  I vividly remember walking up on stage, accepting my award and thinking about why couldn't I be standing in first?  Was the guy that beat me really that much better?  Well at the time, the answer was yes.  The guy that had beaten me had raced 24 minutes faster and finished in 9:18.  At that time, I thought that a 9:18 was way out of reach.  Heck, a 9:20 or faster wasn't even on my radar.  Through the remainder of my 2010 season, I would slowly chip away and my times continued to drop and I would round out my 2011 season with a 9:27 at Ironman Arizona.  Half way there I thought and all of the sudden a 9:20 seemed within reach.  The work would pay off soon enough as I would cross the finish line on Alii Drive in 9 hours and 17 minutes just 15 months later.    This has gotten me thinking over the past couple of weeks that there is no reason why I can't go even faster and race with the big boys.  We're talking about the guys that we all read about in the magazines.  The guys that finish an Ironman with a "8" as the lead off number.  All of the sudden, a sub 9 hour Ironman does not seem that far out of reach. 

Breaking the distance down into smaller parts, I know that I have to continue to get faster across all three disciplines to make my new goal(s) a reality.  How hard can it be?  All I have to do is swim faster, bike faster and run faster right?  If only it were that simple.

Thinking back on Ironman Hawaii, I can honestly say that I believe I could have gone faster, especially on the bike.  Maybe it was fear or the lack of confidence since I had never gone sub 5 hours over 112 miles or hadn't even broken into the 9:30's on that course?  Sometimes I believe you have to roll the dice and this time in Kona I probably played it too conservative.  You live and you learn.  That's part of the process!  My goal was to bike a 4:55 in Kona and going in to the race, I believed that this was the fastest I could possibly go.  As I rolled down the Queen K, I was content with my bike pace.  I think back about my frame of mind and for one reason or another, biking faster than a 4:55 never really crossed my mind.  I'm not sure why really especially when earlier this year I biked a 2:13 at half the distance.  Why when I felt great at mile 70 did I decide to simply "maintain my pace"?  Maybe it was the fact that I kept telling myself that I still have 40+ miles to go and I still had to run a marathon? 

Looking back on the race, there is no reason why I couldn't have gone faster on the bike and still run a solid marathon off the bike.  So my new "goal" on the bike is to go faster.  This is still where I can make up the most time.  It will be much easier for me to improve my bike leg by 10 minutes rather than increasing my run leg by 10 minutes.  But who knows, maybe I can have both?  If I were to give my new goal a number, I would have to throw out a 4:45 over 112 miles.  I believe that I am very capable of making this happen.  I also need to continue to get faster on the run.  A 7:30 marathon pace is not going to cut it if I want to have a shot at moving up to the Elite level in 2013.  I saw a big improvement in my marathon from 2010 to 2011 (8 minutes faster in Kona) but the goal this year was to run a 3:05, not a 3:16.  As for my swim, a couple minute improvement would be nice, but it's not necessary.  My next Ironman race will be wetsuit legal, and I know that I'm capable of swimming a 55 min swim with a wetsuit (swam a 56 at IMAZ in 2010) and I know that I've gotten stronger in the pool and another 8 months of training will only make me faster.

With my 2012 race schedule almost set, I have a couple rather big goals I am shooting for.
1.) Ironman CdA - Top 3 Overall Amateur
2.) Ironman Hawaii - Top 10 AG (Podium Dreams)
3.) Ironman Arizona - Top 3 Overall Amateur
4.) ...shall we dare say sub 9 hour Ironman?

Time to hang on and enjoy the ride!!!