I've thought long and hard about how to set a realistic goal for my race this summer, especially with the setbacks I've had in terms of my weight loss plateau and running goals. Over the last two years I've had to scale back so many goals that turned out to be too aggressive I was afraid to publicly announce any goals for fear I'd lose face when the race report rolled around.
I get now that, no matter what, I need to set a goal for this race or there isn't much point in doing it. And if I'm going to set the goal, I might as well talk about it. That way if it's unrealistic I can hear it from an objective source (I'm counting on you guys!), and if I fail at it then I can get help understanding why so I can make it next time. And if it's not tough enough, y'all can call me on that too.
So with that, here's my goals for the sprint tri I'm racing on June 25. I put up my results from the original race for comparison. I did slightly better in my second sprint tri, but I present this info because it's the same course.
2005 Sprint Tri Results
Overall: 2:47:20
Swim: 23:16
T1: 19:31
Bike: 1:00:14
T2: 7:10
Run: 57:11
2006 Sprint Tri Goals
Overall: sub 2:00
Swim: 20:00
T1: 10:00
Bike: 45:00
T2: 6:00
Run: 45:00
If you do the math, my individual goal times add up to 2:06, more than my actual goal of getting it under 2 hours. I have a problem with that, but maybe it's too much to expect that I'd cut 40 minutes off this race in one year, especially when I've only been able to drop about 10 more pounds. The goal times posted are quite aggressive for me - especially the run goal, which is so aggressive I get psyched out when I look at the number - so I don't know where else I can trim minutes. But I've had this idea in my head of getting it under 2 hours for so long that I hate to give it up. For my second race last summer I set a goal of getting it under 2:30, and I did it in 2:29 (most of which I have to admit I made up in transition). So it's not like I'm attempting to cut 47 minutes in one swoop, I'm really only trying to cut 30 minutes.
Maybe I should set a goal of 2:15. I suppose taking 15 minutes off my sprint is a respectable goal, and it's really taking off 30 from this first race. I just feel so lame doing that. I had no goal for it the first time around other than to finish, and I had no real I idea what kind of times people got. Even though I didn't care about my time, I was a little sad when I learned that even my first-timer friends finished sub-two hours, and I was mortified to learn that the elites can do it in an hour. So I'm been obsessing about getting my time under two hours; until right now I never actually did the math to realize how fast that truly is.
See why I'm conflicted?
2 comments:
I like your goals for the tri. For my tri this year I set three goal levels. Ultimate dream goal, realistic goal and goal if things don't work out well. I broke it down exactly like you did by swim, T1,bike,t2,run. Then as I train I can see my potential move from one goal to the next.
So maybe your goals will be ultimate = under 2:00, realistic 2:15, if things go wrong = PR. Then as you train see if you can move to where the ultimate looks more realistc and the realist seems like if things go wrong.
Just a couple of cents from another rookie. So much math involved in tris.
Thanks for the excellent advice re: tiered goals. Can't believe it never occurred to me!
(I love me some math - it's the one 'leg' of the race in which I truly excel!)
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