After watching the Ironman telecast yesterday I realized now is the time to get my plan for training and racing for 2011 solidified.  Key goals for the year (and please share your goals with me as well, I would love to hear what you have in store):

1.  Break 13 hours at Ironman Lake Placid.  From what I hear this is a tough course and breaking 13 hours would be a good effort.  This is my A race for the year.

2.  Increase the number of states I have finished a marathon to more than 10.  Right now I have seven, so with two Ironmans I need to find a couple of marathons.

3.  Stay healthy - this is an obvious one but not being healthy makes me a very frustrated boy.

4.  Be a better tourist when I travel for races.  I need to seek out more of the history of the towns that I visit.  Visit a state capital, look for war history, etc.

5.  Make nutrition an advantage, a key ingredient if I may use that pun, to help me live, race and recover better than I ever have.

6.  Volunteer a two races.  It is time to give back to the races that have helped me.

That is it for now.  Let me know what you have in store for the year ahead.

This morning was a quick swim to try to get back to triathlon training.  I have been spending more time on running this month, it was my theme.  Next month (July) will be a cycling theme.

Getting back in the pool this morning was good and I really believe this a great way to recover.  As you may or may not know, my run this weekend did not go well so I woke up this morning with the mindset that I am going to make a 100% commitment to doing exactly what I should be doing each day to achieve my best results in my races.  I have had a few holes in my past and I will share more of this in the future but today I just want to get committed to 100%.  

Lance Armstrong has a great print ad that says, “whatever your 100% looks like, give it.”  Today is the beginning for me, do you want to come along?  Let me know what your 100% will look like.

This weekend I signed up for the Running with the Devil marathon (www.calicoracing.com).  Just a quick 26.2 miles through the Mojave Desert at the end of June.  Last year the temperature was 112 degrees.  You have to love a race in that kind of heat that does not start until 10 am.  Do you think they are really testing you?

I signed up for a couple of reasons - 1 to get a race in and 2 to see what kind of suffering I can tolerate.

#1 - I am the type of person that needs races, i.e. goals and timelines.  My diet and workout schedule goes to hell if I don’t.  I heard a great expression some time ago that says “dates drive discipline” and I know it to be true.  Once I was thinking about this race my training picked up, the intensity of my workouts and my focus. All good things so I am going to adopt the Bob Babbitt philosophy of triathlon - Race more, train less.

#2 - I am starting to have a mental mindshift of not being satisfied with finishing races such as Ironman.  I believe I am starting to go down the road of testing myself in more extreme ways.  Hopefully it won’t kill me.

Stay tuned for more details and pictures.  The race is June 26th so it will be here soon!