Dream The Season

I am a self-admitted backpacker, but in choosing this blog name, I assumed that at some point I would be able to claw my way to the middle of the pack and update it to “midpacker” eventually, or, if I could quit my stupid day job and do some full-time training, maybe even “frontpacker.”

The Scoggins Valley Olympic Distance Triathlon (http://www.racecenter.com/scogginsvalley) this year in September was an unmitigated disaster. For some reason, I thought a weekly bike ride to Multnomah Falls and a few good gym workouts per week would suffice to prepare me to at least perform at a satisfactory level-not DFN (dead fucking last) in my agegroup. I’m here to tell you, I was tragically wrong. I felt slow and I was slow. Even my swim, which I think eventually could be at the front of the pack with the proper training, was three minutes slower than my fastest olympic distance-a lifetime in swimming, and you can’t blame hills, wind or temperature on a lousy swim.

What I do to measure my performance in any given race is to take my overall place and divide it by the total number of competitors. This eliminates particular race factors because every competitor is facing the same challenges I am-if it's windy and cold and I want to whine about it, but 90% of everyone else was faster, that shuts me up. Only finishing first gives me whining rights.

In most of my races, I’ve been in the 91 percent range (91 percent of all competitors finished in front of me). My best was a 77%, which was an olympic distance race. I do quite a bit better when running is the only activity-more in the 50-60% range. Perhaps there’s a lesson there...

I’ve never been thrilled with 91% finishes and I always assumed that my performance would improve incrementally over the years, as I improved my technique, if not my conditioning. Imagine my horror at finishing at 95% at Scoggins. I was mortified, demoralized and just plain disgusted. It was so abominable that I scratched a half ironman one month later (which in retrospect I might have done alright at). Yes, the bike and run was very hilly-but it was hilly for everyone else too. Unacceptable.

A little post race analysis gave me a major revelation and partial explanation for my lack of training focus since my last ironman 4 years ago (yikes, time flies!). I think I need an ironman staring me in the face to motivate me to do the necessary training to be successful. Fear can be a powerful motivator and I’m just not afraid of any race but an ironman (and only nominally afraid of a marathon). I see sprint and olympic distance races as mere distractions and I, for some reason, can’t or won’t take them seriously. Even a half ironman-I think to myself, what’s the point of doing that race if I don’t have a full ironman a month or two afterward-I’m a sucker for the mystique. A half is just a tune-up/wakeup call, not a race to be taken overly seriously.

So now begins the planning for the dream tri season, starting about three weeks ago. A sprint distance (which I’ve never actually done-does that require training?) in May, an olympic in June, a half in July and a full iron in August, give or take a month.

For the next six months, I will focus on my first loves, weightlifting and running. There was a time when I could throw some weight around and run a six minute mile. I’d like to get close to back in that place.

I’ll also work on my swimming-perhaps going so far as to attending a Master’s Swim group (though six AM seems a little ludicrous-why not saturday at 9am in the name of all that is holy?). Throw in a much more concerted nutrition plan, drop 20 pounds and I think I’ll be a lean, (not very) mean tri-ing machine.