A Race Plan without Goals...?

Last night I dreamed I forgot my bike on my way to the Triathlon. This morning I practiced my transitions on the back porch. (Did I mention "nervous energy" in my previous post?)

I realized I published The Race Plan without including The Goals. All Race Plans include goals. Perhaps I left them out of the previous post on purpose, it takes courage to let others in on your goals - what if you don't achieve them? Everyone will know. And perhaps I'm flattering myself to think that there even is an "everyone". Well, in the spirit of not being such a scared-y cat, (and secretly telling myself no one reads this blog anyway) I've decided to go ahead and make public The Goals.

I learned from my friend and neighbor (who sometimes reads my blog, I think, so Thanks!) the nifty little trick of setting a couple of different goals, it gives you some flexibility with your performance, and it can help to stave off any disappointment if things just don't go your way. I've got three sets of goals for this race - the first is the "things just didn't go my way"goal. Next is the "It was a great day, I had fun, and I can be really proud of these times" goal. And finally there's the "I kicked ass!" goals. Keep in mind "kicking ass!" is relative, it's about putting in a great effort and pushing yourself up to your limits, but not beyond them.

My "things just really didn't go my way" goal is pretty general - I just want to be done before the awards ceremony starts, that gives me just under 2 hours. I don't even care if I'm dead last, that could be funny if I have a sense of humor about it, I want the finisher's medal. And I don't want to fall off my bike.

The "It was a great day..." Goals are more specific, and I think realistic, although you never know for sure until you try, they look like this - Swim 1:15/50 meters, finishing the swim in 7.5 minutes. Bike at an average speed of 13 MPH which means finishing the bike leg in 51 minutes. Run 10:50 miles or finish the run in 21:40. With T1 at 2:30 and T2 at 1:30 my total time would be 1 hour and 24 minutes.

The "I kick ass" Goals look like this - swim 1:00/50 meters which gets me out of the water in 6 minutes. I've beat this time in the pool by 7 seconds more than once, but this isn't the pool, it's a scrum of bodies in open water. Bike at an average speed of 16 MPH which would mean finishing the ride in 42 minutes, hard and aggressive, but possible. Run a 10:20 Mile or finish the run in 20 minutes 40 seconds, this is lofty, I'm not that fast, especially running off the bike. With the same T1 and T2 times I'd be across the finish line in 1 hour 13 minutes.

There, I've done it, I've made public The Goals. All I need to do now is hit the "publish post" button. Until next week...