Goals & Objectives

… and activities

Firstly a bit on what I am talking about, a GOAL is a broad statement of what we want to accomplish, in my world this year my GOAL is to race an Ironman PB in Regensburg in Germany this summer and finish before the clock turns 13hours.

To get there I am setting a number of interim OBJECTIVES to achieve this GOAL (which I will come onto in a moment)

ACTIVITIES are the actual things I do in working towards the OBJECTIVES, but it also needs to be noted that OBJECTIVES are not just a bunch of ACTIVITIES, they actually need to challenge in a way that they will help achieve the overall GOAL.

So far I have had a couple interim OBJECTIVES each one month in duration …

THE FIRST was to loose weight, I was weighing in at over 210lbwhich is to heavy for me, so my first objective was to loose weigh, to get back to around 200lb and into a ‘teen’ body fat, this will aid my overall objective by being lighter and in better condition when I race, lighter for the hill climbs and hopefully faster on the bike, Activities for this task involved keeping a food diary, replacing various foods for healthier alternative and training in a way to aid fat loss but maintain muscle

THE SECOND and current, is to improve my consistency in training, and although this is contentious I decided to aim to train every day this month, to use active recovery instead of rest, ensure I slept correctly, maintain a health diet and monitor key indicators of training/overtraining within my body. In the past I have often been guilty of not being consistent enough in training and therefore this kick up the backside will help deliver a more solid base to this years training and therefore i'll be in a better place when i start the build.

NEXT month the objective will be run based, as my Ironman Marathons in the past have always been well below my actual marathon capabilities and I am looking to fix that, I am not sure on the nature of the objective(s) yet, but watch this space

To achieve the GOAL, we need both resolute and flexible. When difficulties and unexpected problems present we need to HTFU and JFDI (see post)and stick to our goals. But always stay flexible with your objectives and activities. If the way you do things now does not work, try another way. Keep trying until you find the one that works.

This approach is probably not for everyone …but I am giving it a go

WW

HTFU & JFDI

This post is based on a thread that I kicked off on one of the forums that I frequent and a thread that resulted in a wide range of feedback.

My point is that we (including me) are all guilty of taking the easy path, and ditching the odd session, when we have a head cold, feeling a bit weary, jaded after a hard day at work. We loose sight of our ultimate goal we look for acknowledgement of our wish to drop a session by posting on forums or face book in the hope that someone comes along and says…

“It’s ok have the day off training. It'll do no harm”

But quite often it’s not ok, it can become a pattern in our training, missing session during base training it can weaken the foundation that we are seeking to build on, missing sessions in later phases could mean that we are not as fast, strong or as sharp as we could have been. 

This is Ironman and it’s not meant to be easy!

Yes if you in bed ill with flu then don’t even think about training if you have gone beyond being tired and are truly on the verge of over training then you body will need to be rested but feeling a bit tired from time to time can be expected, afterall this is Ironman Training, the mental exhaustion from a hard day of work can often be replaced with a feeling of contentment when we get out there and train.

Where our forefathers had highly physical jobs down mines and in shipyards, we largely have it easy with a large proportion of the modern workforce working in offices and similar, we are not as physically exhausted at the end of the day as we think … it is indeed a mental exhaustion that we feel  and misinterpret, get your kit on and get out there, give it a try, ease into it … if then you cant rise to it’ call it a day on the session at least you did HTFU &JFDI afte all a lot if ironman training needs to be in Zones 1 & 2 anyway

As I have said there are often times when we HAVE to miss a session but what I am saying is learn the differences between HAVE and WANT

WW

 

A look back on February

The second month of the year and the shortest at that now done and dusted and I’ve moved the game on from January with increases across all Tri-specific training, which I am pleased at :  -

• SWIM : up 40% by time and 64% by volume
• BIKE : up 53% by time and 48% by volume
• RUN : up 29% by time and 29% by volume

So a good second month of base training

I had a couple of bouts of cold through the month, it’s that time of year but managed to rearrange things so again, I can’t complain too much  and I am beginning to feel fit again :)

I am looking at making March a big month training wise, with the aim of doing ‘something’ every day … well that’s the plan.

The following pie chat shows how my training was split for the month.

This graph shows my monthly training my time (hours)

WW

Run, Run/Walk, Walk

Whichever way you look at it the Ironman marathon is both a challenge and a joy, you will have the swim and the bike behind you and you will be thinking more of the finish line but you will also be hurting, you will be tired and aching and you insides may be doing summersaults (think portaloos).

Unless you are a one of the very speedy types walking will probably pay part of your race. You will see many posts on various forums from those macho types belittling those who walk, but in truth many find themselves walking at sometime during the marathon.

You may have a strategy of run 9 walk 1 or similar or walk the aid stations and ramps and run the rest or you may just be playing it by ear.  In Switzerland I ran the first lap quite fast, then i switched to 9/1 and by the end it was more like 2/1 but I got round in a reasonable time.

The key to this is (IMHO) to know that walking in a race is not a stroll, you need to know how to pace you walk, In my first Ironman in Germany 2006 I walked most the marathon as I'd overcooked it on the bike, but I was passing others who were running and i finished strong. if you think about it, if you walk at 7kph you can cover a marathon in close to 6hrs

A good place to practice pace walking is on a treadmill, maybe as part as an indoor brick session, a typical session may look like ...

• Spinning class
• Then Treadmill set the incline to somewhere between 1% and 5% and start at 5kph
• Each minute up the pace  by  0.5 kph until you are at 7kph 
• then alternate 5min intervals at 7.0kph and 7.5kph for up to 1hour

The purpose of 7.5kph interval is to make the target pace of 7kph feel 'easier'

Also when you're out and about think walk not stroll

All this will hopefully help you not slow down too much in your Ironman marathon when you walk ... remember WALK DON'T STROLL 

WW