2011

No Kidding. It's tiiiime! I finished my 2010 racing season with a bang at Ironman Wisconsin just 2 weeks ago today and already owe my coach the 2011 Race Schedule. I have 2 weeks of recovery down and only 4 to go before PreSeason. I am not kidding.

I realize my intentions for triathlon are evolving- from surviving to having fun to racing to competing. The first year (one OLY race) was for surviving. The second year (2 OLY races) was for fun. The third year, this year (3 races- OLY, HALF IRONMAN AND IRONMAN) was for racing against myself and next year will be to compete.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again for those of you who dream as I do... I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd be actually competing in triathlon. I have a long way to go before I could even be considered for an Elite team but next year my goal is to be strong enough to place in the top 3 in my age group and go to Nationals.

After Madison, it was time to reflect honestly on the season. Where did I start? How far have I come? Where will I realistically go? A fatal error I made in my race plan for Madison was that I never disclosed "my real goal" to Liz. I didn't want to disappoint and I didn't want to BE disappointed. So, I erred on the side of safety and set up my entire "estimated race plan" for Liz and my family based on much slower, insincere split times that I knew I was actually going to go out on the course and try to blow away. This effort of trying to "protect my ego" very much backfired when I spent the entire 14 hours and 44 minutes of the race having to calculate and recall not one set of times but TWO sets of times the entire day...the "estimated race plan times" and then "my secret real goal times."

Let me tell you- under the pressure of a race, let alone a 14+ hour race, it's a miracle when you can actually recall half of your goal times along the course. When I say I had an "etimated race plan time" and then a secret "my real goal" time, I don't mean there was a difference of only minutes.

There was nearly a difference of an hour.

How could Liz even have an opportunity to set me straight beforehand if she never even knew? I went into that race on a high from the best season of my life and was blinded by the adrenaline of averaging 8:45s for 15+ mile runs the entire season. What I failed to consider was that the Ironman Marathon is after over 2.4 miles of swimming and 112 miles of biking. It turns out most athletes add an hour on to their best open marathon time when finalizing their Ironman race plan. If I was honest with Liz, I would have known better.

I say this, because it was the most important lesson I took from this season. In order to build on the success of this year, I would need to be honest with Liz about my goals for next year, which meant I would have to expose my ego to her personal opinion of me as an athlete. If you've read older posts, you know that Liz doesn't bullshit around. She is a Pro and basically appreciates the fact that there's no time for it, period.

So, a little over one week ago, just days after fudging my Ironman marathon and race plan, it was time to bare it all and ask Liz about 2011. I presented it something like this:

"I'm dying to review my race with you and pick your brain for next season. I want your honest opinion of what you think I can achieve. I will commit to a new bike and whatever training is necessary. This year was a great base, but let's pull this train out of the station."

That was my best attempt at saying, "I want to qualify for Nationals."

Her response was,

"I read your race report. It seems like some off nutrition on the bike got to you on the run. Not a big deal - it WAS your first Ironman, many lessons learned. Bottom line, you finished, you loved it! Done - on to the next thing! If you have any questions about the race, send to me and let's talk about them.

For 2011, here is where I see you growing/going:

1 - Get a new bike. EASY for me to say but this is a HUGE limiter to you getting to that next level (in my opinion).
2 - Stick with short stuff. I actually don't see your strength as "long" races right now, let's put some zip back in the legs and reteach your body how to go hard.
3 - Pick THREE races that you want to go to, show up and ROCK them. We can build the rest of the season around those races.
4 - Would like to see you do some "stand alone" run races (just a few, SHORT ones, NO half marathons).
5 - Masters swim...?
6 - If you want to do a half IM, pick a late season one so you can build up speed to that point and not just lock in more slow blah blah pace training."


Here's what I got out of that...

"Pick THREE races that you want to go to, show up and ROCK them."

SERIOUSLY??!!!

"ROCK THEM??!!!!!!"

YES!

And, so it goes that I did it. I took the first major step in pursuing what will be my first season actually COMPETING in triathlon. I had to bare it all to Liz in order to create a foundation for success. There's no more "race plan time" versus "my secret goal time." In order to make this happen, you must be open and honest and willing to accept defeat. Defeat, in this case, would be the possibility of Liz telling me, "No way. That's not realistic." However, you also take the risk to possibly hear your coach say, "Great. Go there and ROCK IT." The risk of defeat may crush you but it may also reward you in ways you could only imagine.

As Liz told us before Ironman, "There's nothing magical about race day. If you approached your season with honesty and vigor, you will put forth your best training day on a race course."

The last 10 days have been spent researching races, USAT qualifying rules, and results for my division. I can tell you what these courses are like, what names are actually showing up and I know that my competition will now include some of the Elite team. These girls are some of the fastest in the Midwest. Mandy McCarthy. Stacey Izard. Heather O'Brien. Karin Langer. Believe me, I have a LOT of work to do.

I also know that just 3 weeks ago I was throwing out to our Ironman team that we should do some fun races in 2011 like HyVee. Bigfoot. Bangs Lake. After researching these and 12 other races, I realize it's game time, not play time.

Galena 5/21
Elkhart Lake 6/11
Evergreen 7/16

Steelhead Ironman 70.3 7/30

Erika will be joining me on this journey to Nationals and Akemi agreed to share the schedule to keep us all together as well. No matter where this 2011 Race Schedule takes us, I know that we are in it to win it.