Happy New Year! 2015 was the quickest year I can remember. Although years seem shorter as we grow older, last year felt particularly brief due to the ~3 months I spent indoors recovering from my injury. Fortunately, I endured two successful recovery cycles last year: my broken foot, and Rio Del Lago 100. After a relaxing November and December that consisted of low volume and unstructured training, I can finally say that I feel fully recovered for the first time in a year.
Christmas Day Trail Run in Marin!
I spent a lot of time thinking about goals and priorities in 2015. Now that I’ve participated in running races and triathlons from sprint/5k up to Ironman/100 miles, I have a good sense of which distances I enjoy, and those where I have a propensity for improvement.
Some early season cross-training: snowshoeing in Tahoe
In 2016, my top priority is getting faster. I want to make incremental improvements to my swimming and cycling while remaining focused on my long term goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. Although I’m realistically 12+ months away from a Boston Qualifying time, I’ve structured my 2016 race calendar to prepare myself for a BQ by May 2017.
Tahoe sunrise
I’ve selected 4 ‘A’ races this year – each is well timed for optimal training/recovery, and each will build on one another:
May 29, 2016: Mountains2Beach Half Marathon* (I’ll race the full if training goes well)
Goal: sub 1:30 half, or sub 3:18 full
July 10, 2016: Vineman 70.3 (round 3!)
Goal: sub 5:18
August 21, 2016: Ironman Mont Tremblant (first full Ironman in 4 years!)
Goal: sub 12:00
December 4th, 2016: California International Marathon (first BQ attempt!)
Goal: sub 3:05
I’ll also add 2-3 ‘B’ and ‘C’ priority races in the build up to Vineman and CIM. In general, I plan on racing much less frequently than I have over the past few years. I also will be making a change to my training: I’ve decided to work with a coach in 2016, and we agreed to both this race schedule and a ~18 month timeframe for a BQ time.
Enjoying some first tracks in Tahoe
Needless to say, I’m stoked. I’m happy to start the year feeling good – mentally and physically. I’m happy to have a long term stretch goal and some short term goals to keep up the momentum. It’ll be a fun season. What’s everyone else racing this year? Who else kicked off tri season this weekend?
