Reviewing Progress on Season Goals

Looking back I had 1 primary goal for the season, plus a bunch of secondary goals.   I thought I'd do a quick look back and see how I've done so far.  I rate them as either A) On Track to Meet or A2) on track to exceed! B) Meet  C) Exceed  D) Re-evaluate

1) Qualify for 2015 Ironman World Championships - On track! ...  to potentially kill this race on my first attempt.  At this point, I'll be a little disappointed if I don't go under 9:40 and finish top 3. in 35-39.

2) Race IM Kansas & Steelhead - Go under 4:15.  Exceed!  Well I killed that one too wit ha 4:12 at Kansas.  Exceeded my expectation and as I mentioned before by having my best taper and race execution ever.  I mean ever.  I'm thinking all the way back to high school and I've never killed it like that.

3) 70.3 bike split <2:15.   On Track! Obviously this wasn't likely at hilly Kansas.  But Steelhead is a good opportunity even though I won't be as rested.  I think if I can hit the same watts as Kansas, I'll be around 2:13.   As a note:.... Iott rode 2:12 last year and ran 1:20 off it.   Very clear that he gets stronger as the season goes on.  I actually need to hope for rough water to give me a shot at having a good 1 minute gap out of T1.  Even that might not be enough. The long run in transition will help me a little too.

4) Olympic under 2:00.  I fell short of this, and I won't be doing Hyvee.  I think i could have broekn 2 hours there even with the long transitions.   But a 2:03 at Geode in the hot conditions and hilly course, says that sub 2 on a flat course in cooler weather wouldn't be a problem.  So this once may have to wait until next year.  We'll put this as Re-evaluate.

5) Swim 40x100@1:30.   FAIL!   I was on track back in March, but my swimming stalled.  However like my cycling, while my short distance speed isn't that good, I can still hold a solid pace for 1500M, 1.2 and I believe will do well at 2.4mi.   I have the yards in.

6) Run 3hrs @ 7:20.   Re-evaluate.  I've changed my training and this isn't a goal...at all.  I'd like to do 2-1/2 hours under 7:30 comfortably.   That will be my long run next week.  This was a realistic goal before my injury and as I had been progressing at that time.

7) Score over 100 in a Race - Exceed!   101.6 at Geode.   Again, it was a hard course and hard conditions.

8) Raise FTP by 5% - Meet.  I went from about 290 to 305 in the  early season.  I've roughly held there since then, but I really haven't bothered testing it since May.   I might test it this weekend.  But honestly, I'm not optimistic that I can hold over 320 for a 20 minute test.  Especially since I haven't been on the trainer much.  But might be worth trying.


Other Updates ----  AS I alluded to above... guess who is on the bib list for Steelhead?    Yup, Scott Iott.  Obviously just a coincidence, and he tends to race all the midwest events in most seasons.  Especially a KQ year.  I think he, like some others, may do an on/off strategy, and race more in KQ years and race less or more smaller events in Kona years and of course start the season later.  This year he's clearly gunning to win the age group and I'd place him as the clear favorite looking at participant list for IMWI.  It will be fun to race him again.  He's also doing Racine as well.  It looks like he had a great race at Steelhead last year.