That’s a picture of my home office door up there. Years ago, after I saw some running shoe ad with bib pasted on a wall, I decided, I can decorate my door. So at the start of the season, I take the old bibs down, and start putting the new ones up. Any bib counts, whether it’s a race or not, as long as it was running, cycling, or triathlon.
At the top, I reserve some space for photos, and the bibs for my anticipated “A” races. Looking at this door, I see I have Nov 20, 2011 as the “start” of my season, represented by Ironman Arizona, I won my AG that day, an I am still at a loss as to how I did so well, considering all I was in the middle of going through. The farther I get from that race, the more it mystifies me. The other A race is Ironman World Championship, aka Kona. That day was my slowest Ironman ever. I’ve also been a little mystified at why I “raced” so poorly at Ironman in 2012, but I’ve concluded that my body was in dire need of some time off from fanatic competition after two years of recovery from a bike accident in Sept 2010, which led me through a bunch of stuff, not the least of which was 2 oral surgeries in 2011 and 4 in 2012. I’m satisfied with just getting through the past two years, and achieving my athletic goals for 2011 and 2012.
2011: Return to IM racing at IM Coeur d’Alene, then race to win in Arizona
2012: Finish healing, and have fun on Hawaii
So it’s on to 2013, and a much needed look forward. I’ve already finished my early season training, with a short ski vacation upcoming, followed by a twelve week focused training block getting ready for a half Ironman in St, George Utah, then a fun duathlon in the Catskills two weeks later. Back home, I’ll spend a few weeks working on some short hard “Get Faster” work, then 2-3 weeks in Colorado with an emphasis on the biking I so much love there. Starting July 1, my Ironman training will return front and center, getting ready for the new Lake Tahoe IM Sept. 22, and a return to IM Arizona 8 weeks later in November.
I like short, snappy, easily repeatable and understood goals, which I can point to as a North Star whenever I doubt what I’m doing all the training for. But they don’t just pop out of nowhere.
Here are some things going through my mind as I consider my racing season for 2013. First off, I will be at the “top” of my age group (60-64), meaning I’ll be older than most of my competitors (I’m 64 now). So expectations for winning races might well take a back seat. Second, I have a new motivation for success after last year’s desultory efforts at racing in Canada and Hawaii. Third, I have finally started the inevitable slowdown. Try as I might, I cannot swim or bike or run as fast as I did 10 years ago. Managing that decline gracefully, without rancor, is harder than it seems. And finally, I love training in Colorado, at my second home in Snowmass. I see the race at Tahoe, which is at 6200” and above, as a chance to leverage that.
So here goes:
Prepare to race at altitude for IM Tahoe, then blast away in Arizona.