Awakening from the winter slumber

The goal last fall was to lose weight to improve my performance in 2014's triathlons.  I don't think I lost any weight.

My first triathlon of 2014 will be the "Oh My Goddard" Olympic distance triathlon in Warwick, RI, on June 22.  I have just over a month to, ahem...hone my training from the base I've maintained since last fall. 

There isn't a lot of base training since last November.  Between being at sea for my previous job and temporarily moving to Rhode Island for school I have not established a workout routine.  Since being in Rhode Island in early April, my cardio has improved dramatically, but not with specific goals in mind, nor with sustained effort.  Once I signed up for the June Triathlon, I noticed a small mental shift, and I feel the desire to get back out and ride/run/swim.

This is the first year that I've started out with an Olympic distance, to be fair, last year my first triathlon was a sprint followed the next day by an Olympic distance so it's almost the same timing.  Completing that distance encouraged me to know that I could complete it, and know I can work on improving my times (why didn't you say that this past winter when you were eating lots of candy and cake, hmm?)

I think a 2 hour 30 minutes time is excellent.  I got a 2H 48M in last years Monticelloman, and 18 minutes is a significant jump.  I always stress running as my weakness, my speed on the 10K portion of last years Olympic distance (Monticelloman) was about 10min/mile.  Improving my pace to 9min/mile drops 6 minutes, and improving 8min/mile drops 12 minutes.  I don't know if an 8min/mile is reasonable to achieve by June, maybe 8.5 min/mile, making the reduction 9 minutes.  My "goal" weight for the race is 200 pounds.  A loss of 20 pounds will likely improve my overall bike time by some factor, lets call it 1 mph, the distance is just over 20 miles, a quick swag results in a time reduction of 3 minutes.  I suspect I am going to get the same swim time.  With this unscientific calculation I result in a time of 2 hours and 36 minutes, 6 minutes slower than my goal.

Those 6 minutes will have to come from a combination of magic and hard (smart) work.

49 days until the race! This is easy.

Things I need to accomplish before the race are:

1) Get a Fit Test on my bike.  Sometimes, when I'm in the aero bars, I am very uncomfortable in my core/lower back.  This could be poor positioning, poor core fitness, or a combination of both.  Eliminating the inanimate object as something to blame is step one.  Core fitness is step two.

2) Get a proper tune-up on the bike.  Never done it, probably needs it.  Since buying my awesome aluminum Trek 1000 in 2007 I've replaced several inner tubes, tires, brake pads, tightened the handlebars (head case), and attached removable aero bars. I might be able to crank out .01 mph faster with a good industrial cleaning on the chains.

3) Optest my new tri-shorts.  They are compression type Sugoi 9 inch piston 200 tri shorts.  They are still in the bag I purchased them in.  If they are too small, I will need to promptly acquire another pair.

The two other Triathlon events I have my eyes on for 2014 are the Patriots Half OR Spring, and the Richmond Rox Endurance Triathlon (Half Ironman).  Why the Half Ironman this year Jacob?  I don't know, it's a challenge.