Rethought objectives for the year

I’ve been thinking about the objectives I drew up for 2007/08, and have come up with a slightly reordered and extended list:

1. Learn to suffer.

2. Improve my time management, with respect to working out.

2½. Be more consistent. This is a new objective, but I think it may well fall out of No. 2.

3. Get to the weight room twice a week at least. This was No. 4 in my Oct. 28 list; I moved it up because I need to increase my focus on it—I haven’t reached this objective in any seven consecutive days.

4. Improve my technique, in all three disciplines, but especially swimming.

4½. Improve the weaknesses Scott identified. This was in the biomechanical assessment I wrote about here. Especially after I worked with the trainer at my gym, I think that upper-body strength is important—because it’s so lacking!

5. Lose some weight: <170 lb.

6. Maintain a positive mental attitude. This is new, and is derived from an article by Jason R. Karp, “7 Habits of Highly Effective Triathletes”, in Triathlete No. 284 (Dec./07). The “7 Habits” are:

1. Effective training.
2. Consistent training.
3. Adequate recovery.
4. Setting goals.
5. Coaching.
6. Nutrition.
7. Positive mental attitude.

Nos. 1-6 are covered in my objectives. No. 7 intrigues me. All my life I’ve alternated between cheeriness and gloominess. For a variety of reasons, my gloominess has dissipated as I’ve careened into my fifties, and I find that having a “positive mental attitude”, insofar as one can cultivate such a thing, helps a great deal. One example: in the gloomy days, if I lost a work-out, especially through some poor planning or lack of focus or commitment on my part, I was inclined to see it as proof of my unworthiness to aspire to an Ironman, and I would then bag my work-outs for a couple of days. Nowadays I’m much more inclined to shrug, make note of what I could, maybe, have done differently, and move on with my training plan. We’ll see how this goes, but I’m pretty, yes, positive about it.

I’ve also settled on the races I’d like to do:

Feb. 24: YMCA Half Marathon, Peterborough, Ontario

Mar. 30: Around the Bay Road Race (30 km), in the town of my birth, Hamilton, Ontario

May 19: Victoria’s Duathlon, in Waterloo County, Ontario

June 15: Muskoka long-course triathlon (swim 2 km + bike 55 km + run 15 km), in and around the resort town of Huntsville, Ontario

July 6: Peterborough Half Iron Distance Triathlon (swim 2 km + bike 90 km + run 21 km)

Sept. 7: Ford Ironman Wisconsin Triathlon, in Madison and Dane County, Wisconsin

Only Ironman Wisconsin is an “A” race. The rest are really “C's”: I’m doing them for fun, for practice.