As I come to my first Ironman, I reflect on the experience and think about triathlon goals I have for this coming year and beyond. Here they are:
CYCLING:
To see how close I can get my fitness/strength/abilities to Lance Armstrong.
My coach laughed when I told him this, because it was exactly his goal too!
Lance is definitely a unique individual. Combination of determination/focus plus superior genetics and training has made him an incredible cycling powerhouse. It is reported that he could maintain 495 watts continuously for 30 min, during a time trial used to predict his Tour De France time.
Now you may not have context to understand what 495 watts means to a cyclist, but when I cycle on my Computrainer, I comfortably sustain about 170-180 watts for long periods, and I know I can get to 200-210 watts for high intensity intervals of 2-2.5 minutes.
So imagine I put out my measly 180 watts going up Mt. Eden, a climb in the foothills of Cupertino. I sustain this in my lowest gear to get up the hill and get to about 8.5 MPH. So here comes Lance. Let’s assume we’re both in the same gear and he’s putting out 495 to my 180 watts. That’s 2.75 times my power! So let’s do some back of the napkin calculations. When I’m doing 8.5 MPH, he’s zooming up at 23.375 MPH! And by the way, I’m generating 70 RPM in revolutions, so in theory he’ll probably be doing 192.5 RPM…? Now that calcuation doesn’t make sense as nobody can do 192 RPM on a bike. So now Lance decides to shift up gears and now he’s going further with every revolution than mine!
Imperfect and probably inaccurate calcuations at best but you get the gist of where Lance is versus me, an amateur intermediate cyclist….But nevertheless I told my coach that’s where I want to go. Check back in a few years!
ETA to Goal: Never (probably).
More Realistic: Do the 112 mile bike leg of an Ironman at average speed of 20 MPH.
ETA to Goal: ~2 years.
More Realistic: Generate 250 watts continuous power on 2-2.5 min intervals by end of 2005.
ETA to Goal: Let’s see by end of this year.
RUNNING:
To run the NYC Marathon in 4 hours.
ETA to Goal: Potentially this year, more likely the next.
To run the marathon leg of an Ironman in under 4 hours.
This one depends on whether or not I will do another Ironman and whether or not I can tackle a straight marathon in under 4 hours.
ETA to Goal: 2-3 years.
To be able to sustain 1:35 400s, 3:30 800s, and 8 minute mile repeats.
Track workouts are key for me to gaining speed. I hope to get another 10 seconds for my 400s and I hope the rest of the intervals follow suit.
ETA to Goal: End of 2005, potentially 2006.
SWIMMING:
To swim and maintain a tempo pace of 1:45/100 meters.
Right now, this speed is at the hairy edge of my sprint pace. I can do it maybe once but I start fading quickly to 1:55/100 meters.
ETA to Goal: End of 2005, perhaps 2006.
To move another lane over in my Master’s swim group.
So far, I moved one lane this year and felt really good about it. It’s still challenging to keep up but that’s what I need to push myself.
ETA to Goal: By mid 2006.
TRIATHLON:
To race my first Ironman in 13 hours or less.
Go Ironman NZ!
ETA to Goal: This year….maybe?
To race Pacific Grove Triathlon in 2:30.
Last year, I busted my butt to get 2:47. I think it may happen this year but more likely the next.
ETA to Goal: Pac Grove Tri 2006.
To race Half Vineman in 5:45.
Last year, I broke 6 hours by a hair. Could I gain a whopping 15 minutes this year…? We’ll see….
ETA to Goal: Most likely Half Vineman 2006.