Look Behind You!

It’s pantomime season, so the traditional reply to “Look behind you”, after a slow stage-tip-toed circle is “There’s no-one there, boys & girls!”

However, 2007 is well and truly behind us now, so here’s my twopenn’th on how I think I did . . .

Goals in the bag: Four out of Five:

• Returned for a second season of triathlon after a year out
• Learned to swim front crawl
• Did a triathlon with an open water swim
• Cycled more than 3000 miles.
• FAILED to clock a 10k time of less than 40 minutes

The lesson I’ve taken from this is that goals can be achieved . . . but only if you work for them.  I struggled with the 10k time because I had no clear training objectives to support this goal. So I’m carrying that one over into 2008, but with some clear objectives to support it, and a dedicated window in my training plan where I’ll be able to really focus on the speed work that I need to put in on this.

One of the major contributing factors toward me having such a great year was the Konamoxt / Sweat365 blogging tool & community. That means you, who’ve flattered me by taking the time to read, those who’ve then gone on to comment & inspire, and those of you whose blogs I’ve regularly visited. Seeing what you’ve been doing has kept me on the straight & narrow far better than I could have possibly done by myself.

I’ve never been much of a fan of computers to track performance. Often the stuff you record becomes detached & remote from your efforts - just bits & bytes that hide inside the beige box. But the simplicity, tight integration with a great blogging platform, and seemingly endless permutations of reports & analysis means that the technology behind Sweat365.com is something that the team at Konamoxt can be justifiably proud of. And the rate of release of new features, all of which have become indispensable has been just fantastic. Bearing in mind that I’m an up-tight Brit, this is praise indeed. So a big ‘thank you’ to Brad, Phil, Jeff, Lisa, and the small army of Santa’s Little Helpers who keep the wheels under the Sweat365.com bonnet (that’s ‘hood’ to you) running so smoothly.

This year’s goals are looking like:

• ‘Standard’ distance (1 mile / 40k / 10k) triathlon - May
• 1/2 IronMan (1.2 mile / 56 miles / 13.1 miles) triathlon - July
• Century Ride - August
• 10k in 40 minutes - September
• Annual cycle mileage 3,500.

Filed under: Goals, IronMan?, Motivation