Process Goals

New Year brings with it a flurry of resolutions, targets and goals. I have made the classic mistake of having a goal outcome for Ironman Switzerland which is time based. I might as well share that with you now, although I had blogged about it before and that's a sub 11 time. Sub 10 is seen as being the kind of gold standard for a good age-group athlete, with sub 11 being a more modest but yet tough goal for most of the rest of us. It's one of those things that once you have a goal like this in mind it's really difficult to un-think it, but that's what I'm trying to do.

What if it's a non-westsuit swim, like last year? What if it's 35 degrees? What if I get a mechanical? What if I'm injured in the run-up to the race? There are plenty of other scenarios which could conspire to make it very difficult or even impossible for me to attain this goal and what if I have an amazing race and end up finishing in 11:00:01, is that failure? If I use this rather arbitrary and subjective time goal, then probably yes. Does anyone else on the planet really care if I do 10:59:59 compared to 11:00:01? The only person this will make any difference to will be me, so really, why worry or even bother with a time goal? Why not just hit the process as well as possible and see what that leads to? So I've used this new year with its enforced new beginnings to refocus on my process and defining what success will mean in those terms, rather than a time some point in the future. So here are my process goals for the next six months;

1. Eat right. I've tipped the scales in the new year at 76.6kg, which, for me, is pretty heavy. I've got a few hilly time trials coming up, a couple of half marathons and then the big one, which has a couple of tasty hills in the bike course. Some weight loss will make all of this a lot easier and is genuine free speed. I'm like a labrador, in that I'm a very greedy, quick eater. I just eat, really quickly, so I'm often on my second plate of food before the first one has hardly hit my stomach, so I overeat and then feel really full and bloated. So my process goal here is to eat much more slowly, eat consciously, i.e. be aware of what I'm eating and don't have seconds. I've cut out crisps and other crap and I aim to eat a lot more fruit and vegetables. With my IM training this should help a few kilos come off, ideally down to around 72kg, which for me, is a healthy weight. I was also reminded of the need to eat right when I did a turbo session last week and had to bail after 15 minutes.

2. Change the time when I train. Wheezy Junior is taking his GCSE exams this summer and as a teacher, this is usually my really busy time too and I want to be around in the evenings to support Junior and do my own work. I have traditionally trained in the evening as I have warmed up and don't mind burning the midnight oil to get the sessions done, but for the foreseeable future this is going to be much more difficult. Therefore I need to move my training sessions to the mornings. This is going to be a really big change for me because I'm a night owl rather than an early bird and I'm going to have to go to bed earlier, ideally by 10pm at the latest. While my turbo has been set up in the shed, it's a really uninviting environment to train in, particularly on a very cold winter's morning. Instead I will be cycling straight to the gym and will do a pool session or get on the wattbike (I've found I can sync my Trainrerroad sessions to the wattbike so I can still use my TR account; result). this means that I will be training once a day and during the working week if I haven't got my session done in the morning, then it's very unlikely to get done. I feel a lot more happy with this, to keep the family wheels turning smoothly over the next few stressful months.

3. Be consistent. I'm nailing this one already, but my basic goal for consistency is 2 sessions per week in each discipline, ensuring that I get my long bike and long run in every week (although currently, my long run isn't very, err, long)

4. Be triathlon focused. I get bored and distracted really easily which means when I have a longer term goal, I can very quickly find myself doing things that are not going to help, so I will need to keep my eye on the prize. I have already broken this one a little bit by entering LWL and WCW, but as long as I treat them as fun days out to get plently of base miles then they will work. A casualty of this goal is going to be my club Sunday ride with KPRC. Over the last few months I've really enjoyed the companionship and banter of the Sunday group, but I'm going to need to do some really hard and long miles in the next 5 months if I am to pace the bike leg well and run even better at the end. That started yesterday with a 65 mile smashfest,  trying to keep Simon and Dale in sight as we hurtled down the A24 and back. Simon was on his beautiful Canyon Speedmax TT bike, cruising easily at 20mph, and Dale, well, he's just Dale, pumping out a stupid amount of watts almost effortlessly. I was turning myself inside out while my mudguards clattered against the Van Nic's frame, chewing my stem to get as aero as possible. I ended up doing 65 miles at around 18mph, so a very useful ride, but I think it's time to get the Argon out of the shed and start getting some proper TT miles under my belt.