You can see them at the top of my blog.
They are as follows:
1. Have fun training hard during the year
2. Have a good race at Kona
3. Get my Zwift Tron bike
Fun/Train hard
As I've recounted below, 2019 was a return to "normal" training wise after the struggles I've had physically since 2015. I put in the most hours of training that I ever had in 2019 and really enjoyed it. I stayed generally healthy and motivated throughout the year and was able to hit my mountaineering and triathlon goals. It was especially gratifying to do so by executing against a well defined training and racing plan.
I plan to do the same again in 2020 leading up to the center piece of my 2020 year at the IM World Championships in Kona on 10/10/20. I don't have any major climbing goals for the year and really look to narrow my focus on triathlon and see if I can't continue to "roll back the years" a bit in 2020.
Kona
I've had the privilege of racing at Kona three times in 2010, 2012 and 2014. I learned a lot there but one of the most important lessons was the conditions are unpredictable, variable, and can dramatically impact one's finishing time and performance (especially for someone as challenged by heat and humidity as I am). Thus, I've stated my race goal as having a "good" race. This is squishy of course but when I get there I 'll have a good sense of what I'm capable of doing and combined with the actual conditions on race day, I'll be able to judge if I had a "good" race or not.
However, at this point in the year I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a "good" race at Kona for me in 2020 is to set a new PR for Kona. Find below my history at Kona and my early target for Kona 2020:
They are as follows:
1. Have fun training hard during the year
2. Have a good race at Kona
3. Get my Zwift Tron bike
Fun/Train hard
As I've recounted below, 2019 was a return to "normal" training wise after the struggles I've had physically since 2015. I put in the most hours of training that I ever had in 2019 and really enjoyed it. I stayed generally healthy and motivated throughout the year and was able to hit my mountaineering and triathlon goals. It was especially gratifying to do so by executing against a well defined training and racing plan.
I plan to do the same again in 2020 leading up to the center piece of my 2020 year at the IM World Championships in Kona on 10/10/20. I don't have any major climbing goals for the year and really look to narrow my focus on triathlon and see if I can't continue to "roll back the years" a bit in 2020.
Kona
I've had the privilege of racing at Kona three times in 2010, 2012 and 2014. I learned a lot there but one of the most important lessons was the conditions are unpredictable, variable, and can dramatically impact one's finishing time and performance (especially for someone as challenged by heat and humidity as I am). Thus, I've stated my race goal as having a "good" race. This is squishy of course but when I get there I 'll have a good sense of what I'm capable of doing and combined with the actual conditions on race day, I'll be able to judge if I had a "good" race or not.
However, at this point in the year I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a "good" race at Kona for me in 2020 is to set a new PR for Kona. Find below my history at Kona and my early target for Kona 2020:
Several observations on the above:
1. I've never been very fast at Kona. This is driven by 3 main things: a. my lack of talent; b. I don't race well at that distance in those conditions; 3. I've never really approached Kona as a full on hammer-fest but rather as a victory lap of sorts--an experience to be enjoyed. With respect to the 2020 race, all three factors (especially the 3rd) will once again be very much in play.
2. I've narrowly missed swimming sub 80 and indeed swam 76 in the official practice swim in 2014, so I think my goal of 79 minutes this year is quite reasonable.
3. My run goal, especially given the running rally I made down the stretch in 2019 (and my solid run at IMAZ19) I believe is doable, although it will require me getting off the bike in reasonably strong shape, as was my focus in 2019.
4. The crux of this challenge will be hitting the bike goal which is almost 30 minutes faster than my PR there. This is a big goal and a necessary one given the liabilities of my bad knee and poor run today. There isn't really a sound basis to set such an improvement and if its really, really windy (as it was in 10,12, and 14) I'll probably have no chance. I'll probably need some help from Mother Nature.
Still, my "Bike Monster" strategy in 2019 led to a relatively easy 5:34 at IMAZ and with Bike Monster 2020 already underway (did over 300 miles last week) my thought is what the heck--let's give it a shot!
Prior to Kona, I plan on racing several times (I'll publish a calendar shortly) and notably I plan to return to Eagleman70.3 this year in June. I raced Eagleman four consecutive years from 2005 to 2008, which was during the timeframe when I was the fastest triathlete I was ever able to be. For 2020, I've set a "mini-goal" (by that I mean, it's part of my Kona "good" race goal--a means to that end) of beating my last time at Eagleman time back in 2008--12 years ago. I'd take a fair amount of satisfaction in my 62 year old self beating my 50 year old time that year.
Similar to the above for Kona, here is my Eagleman history and my target for 2020:
More on this later as we get closer to the June race.
Zwift Tron bike
If you do Zwift you know what the Tron bike is. I won't go into details other than to say you need to accumulate over 164,000 vertical feet of climbing to earn it. I'm happy to say I did so earlier this month after about 24 months on Zwift (I mostly ride Zwift in the winter).
Onward and Upward!
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