I’ve written many times that I’m someone who thrives on having goals. With 10 weeks to go before I complete a life long goal of competing in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, I know what my goals are. Granted, time goals are ultimately influenced by weather conditions, especially in Kona. Nevertheless, I will set goals based on the idea that weather conditions won’t have a major influence on my race. I can now base some reasonable goals on my training and my results at Ironman Boulder and the Santa Rosa 70.3. Why am I doing this? Because, that’s who I am. I’ve always set time goals, so why should I stop now? Fortunately, I know that life goes on if I don’t achieve them, which I rarely have. On the other hand, setting the goals themselves have helped me to accomplish a lot over the years!
The other thing that is probably important is that everyone says it takes racing a few times in Kona to get the hang of it. I wish I had the luxury of that, but this may be my only time racing. So, with all that background, I’m going to set some goals!
The swim. The salt water will help my swim time. I have another 10 weeks to prepare and get stronger on the swim. I seem to be swimming very close to what I used to swim 10 years ago, when most of my ironman swim times were around 1:12. That will be my swim goal, swimming 1:12. Anything faster will be gravy. In the spirit of giving a range, I’d say my range would be 1:10 to 1:15.
Swim to Bike Transition. Having not done the race before, it’s hard to judge, but my friend Robert comfortably had 8 minute transitions. Looking at other 60 year olds last year, I think that 7 minute is reasonable. My range, 6-8 minutes.
The bike. This is the most fascinating. My cycling is as good as it’s been in a long time. At Boulder, I biked a few minutes faster than one of my competitors who biked 5:50 at Kona last year. My bike in Santa Rosa, except for my fiasco with my aero hydration system, was near the top of my age group. My main goal will be to bike under 6 hours. I will go out on limb and give a range of 5:50 to 6:10.
Transition. Looking at last years results, 6 minutes seems to make sense. My range 5-7 minutes.
The run. This is the most problematic, but my run at the Santa Rosa 70.3 has given me some confidence. My ironman run PR is 4:30:39 at the epic 2012 Ironman St. George. My goal has to be to achieve my Ironman run PR in Kona. That would be epic! So, there it is, my goal will be a 4:30 marathon. I’m going to be extremely optimistic and put my range at 4:20 to 4:45.
Adding all the numbers up, it turns out that if I have an ideal day, I would actually achieve an Ironman PR, 11:31. That would be very cool. I didn’t set out to put that number together, it just happened from the above calculations. Also, very cool.
My “reasonable” goal is 11:55. “Reasonable” includes having one of my best ironman runs ever at the age of 60. This would also be my second result ever under 12 hours.
My base goal is 12:25. That would be my fourth best time ever.
The goal that I had originally set for myself when I began this journey was 13 hours. That would definitely be respectable, and if I achieve that, I’ll be happy. Ironically, if my swim and bike go well, I’d need a 5:15 run to achieve my initial goal. So long as I don’t walk the whole course, I know that I can run 5:15.
I’ve always been about setting the bar high. I’ve been training to get back into the best shape of my life. My results would suggest that I’ve actually done that. I’ve now got 10 weeks to prepare and sharpen the knife. As always, it will come down to the run. The irony is that it’s not ultimately my run training that will determine my ability to have a great run. It’s my swim and bike training that will put me in a position to start the run course feeling like I did two days ago in Santa Rosa, and six weeks ago in Boulder. Yes, I’ll need the run training to actually execute a good run. That starts in less than two weeks with my first 20 mile training run.
The other aspect to my preparation will be preparing to tolerate the heat and humidity. I can’t underestimate the importance of this preparation as well. It’s the ultimate equalizer.
My goals are now set. My Kona journey continues.
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