GOAL SETTING 2013

OK, I guess its time to share some of my triathlon goals for this year.  I have found that without some stretching goals, there is not enough "fear" to get me training consistently to prepare for these races.  I usually keep this goal setting close to the vest, family and close friends. Partly because stuff happens.  Partly because failure happens.  Partly because "who cares"?

I started thinking about what to plan for in 2013 back in November 2012.  I had just injured out of the ITU Duathlon World Championships (Nancy, France) and had a sour feeling (but at least I got most of my deposits back).  All that training and no opportunity to see what I could do on an international stage (other than Kona)!

So my initial thinking was to re-qualify for Team USA and target the 2013 ITU Duathlon World Championships, to be held in Ottawa, Canada on August 10-11.  But then USAT plopped the USAT National Tri Championships on the same weekend.  (As the 2011 65-69 age group champion, I had passed up the 2012 USAT TRI Championships to race the ITU Worlds DU, part of the sour I felt when I cancelled Nancy).  It took me until today to recommit to the ITU DU Worlds having qualified by way of being ranked #1 in my age group by USAT.

However, between November and today I also decided to race some 70.3's with the intention of qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 world championships, partly because it's so close to Arizona.  That championship is 4 weeks after the ITU DU, on September 8th.

So, I have set two quite different and not completely compatible goals for 2013.  Notice I only mentioned what  races I am going to target, not my performance goals.  That I'm keeping close to the vest.  And, to encourage you to check back later in the year to see what happened.

Now I'm in the process of filling in the rest of the calendar with modest races to help validate what level of fitness I'm achieving, to remind me of all the preparation it takes for race day events, and to finalize on race gear selection.  Game on.