looking forward

Here is my race report....... this morning I am up too early (hazard of being a triathlete), and I have lots to do today. I am in Florida for one more day, my little end of season gift to myself. Today I have para sailing and kite surfing to do. There are only about 12 hours of daylight and I am at the ocean. The best needs to be made of it!


In my conversation with Jesse (aka: the Wizard) last evening.... I got the layout of how 2010 will go. How fortunate I am to be leaving a race and beginning an off season with mojo for December 7th. Which is our start date. We did a lot in 2009, I am in a place I didn't think I could get back to. Now I get to train an entire season under QT2. As you know it begins with an assessment. In 3 weeks.


But first.... some rest time. We have to do it, many of us hate it. The Off-season is the most important part of the season. We don't want to lose fitness, gain weight, etc. In truth we have to take our seasons in cycles. There has to be down time, even our weight should cycle. If we try to maintain a high level of fitness all of the time we will never achieve our true potential, we risk burnout and we risk injury.

On my 2 weeks off I will just walk. (In fact I just walked the beach). Nothing excessive. I used to coach an athlete who would add 2-3 hour walks into their training day. You know what that spells. Just enough to keep me moving, give me some sanity. I will practice yoga every day, but if you know me you know I have a 20 minute home practice that I do. Just enough.

2010 is going to be an important year. I have the ability to really focus on this goal I have set.

In 2009 I made some important gains. I lost about 18 pounds, I dropped my endurance run pace / e pace / zone 1 (Friel zone 2) pace from 9:00 to an 8:30, I increased my FTP by I think 15 watts, my swim...... I know I know..... a little more effort there. I promise.

Once we have our December assessment I will lay out the exacts of what we need to accomplish. The Wizard says another 10 pounds (I say 20), and I will lay out the performance indicators that we are targeting for the IMFL 2010 Goal. Times, wattages, the whole shabang. I am not one of these runners who "OOps.... how'd I run an 18 minute 5K I haven't run in 8 weeks" (That's me in the pool). I don't care if you know my numbers.

More than knowing my numbers I want you to see that I have improvement, setbacks, struggles. I want you to be encouraged to track your own numbers, to set solid goals. I want you to see that within yourself. When we take on the Ironman we all say "My ultimate goal is to finish...", almost like we are afraid to taunt the gods of Iron in aiming for an actual time or performance.

Let's set that "Finish" goal aside. That's a given. I am shooting for performances that outdo anything I have ever done before in my career, I want you to do the same. I want you to take the reach, with me. I want you to take the risk.

It's funny because as I walk around town and athletes chat about their performances yesterday it seems like every single performance is "Good...... but." But I didn't feel well, but this, but that. Hey my run stunk, and I am capable of better but ask me on the street and I say it was a damn good day. Truthfully the only person who I know that can actually say they had a bad day was Kim. She broke her damn collarbone. She had a bad day.

So let's just put all that story aside. Let's take the risk this season. Put it on the line. set some goals, some real goals. Put it out there. I will put it on my blog, you write it down and post it somewhere that you can see it every single day. Bathroom mirror. Refrigerator. Don't be afraid of it, step up to it. Go toe to toe with it. Whatever that goal might be. Have checkpoints:

By February I will have accomplished this _______ as a stepping stone on the way to that goal.

Set those stepping stones. When we hit them we celebrate, when we have setbacks we accept that yet we keep moving forward. Step by step and day by day. And we will get there. we will get there.

Until then..... I have some para sailing to do, some beach to cover, some coffee to drink, some rays to catch and some shark teeth to find. It's always here at the ocean that I find such strength and inspiration. Like I have been filled up with sunshine rays and that's what I will bring back with me.

They don't call me Mary Sunshine for nothing.