Wednesday 24 September 2008

Season Review

With the final race done it is time for a quick look back over the last season of training and racing to review how things have gone, what I need to improve and to set some goals for next year.

Normally the best place to start would be to review my goals, however because I never really got around to it I only have one publicly stated goal. That was to complete an Olympic distance triathlon and I have failed. To be fair I have done the training and I am ready to do the distance, I even entered and turned up at an Olympic distance event in Bournemouth. It is not really my fault that the weather was so bad the swim was cancelled and the bike cut short.

What is my fault is that I only entered one Oly race for the year. Being away in London all week and only being at home with the family at the weekend makes it difficult to enter lots of races. Additionally, a family holiday, the timing of which was controlled by the dates my sister was over from Brunei, took out two weekends that had triathlons that I would otherwise have done. But the fact remains that I did not do anywhere near enough racing this year. So one thing to improve on next year is to enter more races. How this will fit in with the additional training I will need to do to meet my other goals I do not know.

Training wise I have been finding it difficult to fit in as much as I have like to be doing. Again, this is partly due to my living circumstances and partly down to me. I need to be a little bit more selfish at the weekend and make sure I do my longs rides etc and don't just fit in with everyone else. This is going to be a fine balance to strike but it has been going too far the other way recently. One thing I need to do to help this is to plan my training better so I have an actual plan of what I want to do every weekend. That way I will be able to discuss it with she who must be obeyed my darling wife and find the best way to fit it in.

To be able to plan my training I need to set myself some goals for next year. My primary goal for next year, that is going to be the overriding factor for all my training for next year, is to complete an Ironman race. I am planning on this being Ironman UK, wherever that is going to be next year. This is going to be a one shot goal, I think, as I am only going to be able to enter one Ironman distance event, but that is the way it is so there is no point worrying about it.

I need to start looking at my Ironman training plan to come up with some more goals, I need to come up with some goals to aim for to build up to the big one so that I have some steps along the way. Otherwise the big goal of an Ironman will become overwhelming. But I need to do some planning before I come up with them. One thing I would like to do next year is to race more often, however I need to consider how that will fit in with my training and my home life.

Next year is going to be a busy one if I want to achieve my aim of completing Ironman UK 2009 but it is something I am really excited about and I can't wait to get going on my training.

2 comments:

Doris said...

Me again.. there's a couple of v good books with weekly plans in... I'll take a look at what I've got and give you a couple of names if you like. Very worthwhile, friends of mine have followed one good one for full IM and finished well!

MikeyB said...

That would be really helpful thanks. I know I am going to need all the help I can get.