Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Evolution of Goals: Discuss

Since I wrote about how goals evolve in triathlon, I thought I'd share my own personal progression. Or rather what I can remember of it. Because being in the middle of the lifestyle, it's hard to recall what it was like when I couldn't run even 2 miles. I invite everyone to share their own evolution of goals as well; I'd love to read them in the comments, or on your blog.

So without further ado, having looked through old journals, blog entries, and conversations, here are the ambitions that have run through my head since I started this crazy journey (some of these are direct quotes, by the way).

September, 2006: Learn to swim
February, 2006: Finish Shawnee Mission Triathlon short course
April 10, 2006: Work out for 45 minutes straight/begin training program
May 31, 2006: "Swim .5 km under 15 minutes; Bike 20 km in 1 hour; Run 5km under 30 minutes; Short course triathlon in less than 2 hours"
June, 2006: Finish Shawnee Mission long course.
June, 2006: "My goal is to finish my race, but it would be really cool if I could swim 2:00/100, bike 16 MPH, and run 10:00/mile."
August 30, 2006: "I'm hoping to get my mile time under 30. Oh yeah, and hoping to be able to swim a mile :-)"
October, 2007: Commit long-term to triathlon.
March, 2007: Train harder.
April, 2007: Be competitive in my age group.
July, 2007: Finish in the top half of any race.
December, 2007: Run sub-9:00 5K pace; Swim 2 MPH; Bike avg 20 MPH; Improve mental toughness; Break 3 hours on an olympic-distance tri
April, 2008: Win. A lot.
May, 2008: Place in my age group at Shawnee Mission. Run a 24-minute 5k. Swim a 25-minute 1500. Average 20 MPH on the bike. Be a sponsored athlete.

And my #1 goal? Hook up with another triathlete after a race ;-)

How have your goals progressed over the years? Let's hear it in the comments!

1 comment:

  1. The 20MPH on the bike goal is one that's really interesting to me- that's generally my training pace goal- actually to break the 20 mph barrier on the majority of my training rides, whether it's an hour or four hours.

    That pace is one that translates well to almost any race distance.

    If you can average that kind of speed, you'll rule your age group, if you can get off and run afterwards.

    My experience is that if you want to average 20 mph hour on the bike in longer races- I did it at Lake Placid in 2006- you have to do a number of longer training rides (at least 75% of your race distances) holding that pace, and you have to do shorter time-trial efforts at between 22-24 mph- and avoid any mashing.

    Just my thoughts...

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