Coach Mary wanted me to do a couple of practice races—a sprint and a “standard” leading up to Barrelman, but my schedule for the summer means they’re earlier than maybe either of us wanted.
Am I ready to swim 750 m, bike 20 km, and run/walk 5 m. No. Can I? Meh, probably: it meets my 70% threshold for doing anything.
Big concerns?
Haven’t biked outside or on my outside bike since last year
Haven’t swum in open water or in my wetsuit since last year
The coming weekend sucks for training because of some important and unmovable personal things. I’ve otherwise cleared my schedule and asked Mary to redraw the week so I can get my key workouts done.
Mona and I have watched the first two episodes of the British series Dept. Q; it’s darker than we usually watch but we’re compelled to find out what happens next.
This has resulted in my rerereading the first two novellas (All Systems Red and Artificial Condition), which (IMO) make a single good read. I am as far as it’s possible to be from an expert on autism but (based on this 3rd reading) I think Murderbot’s problems (as it itself says) are depression and anxiety—and learning how to be a free agent, choosing for itself.
In Uncategorized on 2025 April 21 Monday at 11:38:30
Three weeks without a substantive blog post. Not good. Not enough accountability. You won’t be surprised to learn it’s because I had a couple of bad weeks in there. No real doubt inserted into my plan, but still not good.
Progress, March 31–April 20
As I write this (April 21) there are 146 days, almost 21 weeks to Barrelman. My Chronic Training Load (TrainingPeaks’ single-number estimate of my fitness) is 14% higher than three weeks ago, 150% higher than at New Year’s. Logged 20 workouts. Covered 49.95 miles (80.39 km, 72% of that virtual). TrainingPeaks gave me a Training Stress Score of 558 (including my heaviest week in what I think is 6½ years) and identified 16 Peak Performances. And I had my longest run (even it it was really a walk/run) in 11 months.
But I also had a bout of non-compliance: 7 red cards and 3 orange. Most of this non-compliance was from my mysterious periods of low energy; I’ve posted a separate blog post about these periods of low energy here; I’d be delighted if someone could read it and tell me what the solution is. 🙂
Long run
A friend says I shouldn’t put “run” in quotes as I’m wont to do. In my defence I will say that I’m really doing a cycle of 2 minutes jogging and 3 briskly walking. My jogging is getting faster. After the Sun Run I’ll work on (amongst many other things!) getting more jogging into the cycle. I expect I will do Barrelman with a lot of programmed walking.
Having said all that, I had my longest, er, run since last year’s Sun Run on April 13. To be frank I was scared, apprehensive. I procrastinated. But I did it. The first, oh, 1½ miles I felt every niggle, every step, and I wondered if I could do it or if I would just turn around and walk slowly home with my metaphorical tail between my legs.
Next thing: I was at 2¾ miles, more than halfway, and I knew, just knew, that the 2/3 cycle would take me all the way home, even on the steep grade out of the East Don River’s ravine, one of the glacial spillways that add spice to running and cycling in Toronto. The funny thing was how the mile and a bit in between just disappeared.
Anyway, now 100% confident about the Sun Run.
Next week!
Zoya and me in 2018 and 2024
On Sunday, Zoya and I are going to run the Vancouver Sun Run. In 2018 and ’24 Zoya and I ran the Mini Sun Run (2.5 km) together and then I did the 10K. This year we’ll both run the 10K. Her mom is talking about giving Zoya escapes every 2.5 km (presumably on mom’s e-bike); my big concern is that she’ll go out ’way too fast, so my strategy is to ask her to stick with me as boring as it will seem—she should easily be able to last 10K on a run 2/walk 3 cycle.
Having said all that—I know she hasn’t been training; we’ll just depend on her (quite high) fitness from all the other things she does. On Friday, when I arrive in town I’ll ask her if she’s still committed. She is so active, so focused (right now on circus school) that I will put zero pressure on her. But if she doesn’t want to do the Sun Run I won’t do it either. I said last year I wouldn’t do it again unless Zoya did it with me. And it’s not like all this fitness will go to waste. 🙂
Still indoors
View from my trainer
Still biking indoors. Like most working triathletes I expect my workweek rides to be on the trainer. Now into mid-May you’d expect my weekend rides to be outside. But it hasn’t happened yet; combination of bad weather on Saturdays, the period of low energy I’ve written about, and a sharp but thankfully short period of depression. I’m now splitting my indoor rides among no fewer than four virtual apps: TrainingPeaks Virtual, Zwift, FulGaz, and Rouvy (as above). Targeting May 10 for my return to the road with my forever bike.
That’s what the internist told me at my first colonoscopy 32 years ago. Every 5 years, more or less, I’ve had one, without incident. So I guess I’ll have another in 2030, if I’m still around (which I fervently hope).
My week has been particularly pleasing precisely because the prep for and recovery from the scope is pretty tough. Thursday, the day after, my HR during my two workouts was awful high. But I did it.
A deliberate red card
I have friends who think you do every workout set. I kind of agree, but not always. My coach had set an easy walk/run two days after my colonoscopy. But Thursday’s workouts left me whacked, so I quite deliberately took TrainingPeaks’ red card so I’d be ready for the weekend—and I was proved right.
“More rides are ruined by bad weather forecasts than by bad weather”
A randonneur told that to me twenty-some years ago, and he was right. We had a horrific weather forecast; we were under a Freezing Rain Warning, with centimetres of accumulation possible. It seemed like my hope and goal of riding outside for the first time in 2025 was not safe for Saturday.
In the event, of course, Saturday was cool and wet, but not scary—until late in the afternoon. Sunday’s early-morning walk saw lots of slipperiness.
Friends can attest that since I finished Ironman Florida in 2009 I’ve wanted to do another. To a certain extent I’ve been unlucky. And here I am, thundering to my 72nd birthday, but, you know, I still want to do another. So here’s my goal beyond my goal. First, let me finish a half-Ironman under the cutoff. Then, let’s push toward a full Ironman, with the goal just to finish under the cutoff.
As I remarked last week I don’t think U.S. events are in my future until the Administration’s attitude to Canada and Canadians improves, and I don’t think an overseas trip is practical. That leaves Ironman Canada, a 5½hr drive from home, in a city I know very well. I haven’t told my coach; she’ll read it here first.
To be very very clear this is the stretchiest of stretch goals. Let’s get through the half-Ironman first. But I can see it, a glittering prize, like a mountain, in the distance.
Next week
5 workouts in 5 days, but the long ride and long run (not so long by others’ standards but still) are the longest yet in this macrocycle. I’m also getting some fillings on my rest day, but my new dentist seems really skillful. Pretty much looking forward to a good week (not to the fillings).
Bit of a story here, but let me be clear: it didn’t work out. Coach Mary had set Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday as:
Tu: easy run/walk 40′
W: intervals on the bike trainer
Th: easy run/walk 30′
F: off
Tuesday was a stressful day. I had a proposal due that day to a prospective client; while everything was under control I was still metaphorically biting my nails until it went in. The weather was spectacular for mid-March in Toronto, so an easy run/walk outside would’ve been wonderful. But those intervals called to me: I wanted something genuinely but quickly hard, where I’d get sweaty and beat up and feel I’d done something. So, without consulting Coach, I altered the order:
Tu: intervals on the bike trainer
W: easy run/walk 40’
Th: off
F: easy run/walk 30’
The bike intervals on Tuesday went great. As usual these days when I’m doing bike intervals I used TrainingPeaks’ newish training platform. Ok, so far so good, right?
Wednesday’s run was meh. Good things: ran outside in shorts and short sleeves!
But I had no energy. My ærobic fitness was fine, but my legs had nothing.
And then, on Friday, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to do the run I’d rescheduled to the day, so I ended up doing brisk walks to/from the local strip mall where I had some things to do.
Bottom line: I was not able to execute the plan, and therefore I didn’t get all the training benefit I could’ve; I didn’t “surrender to the plan”. Basically one run/walk didn’t get enough energy, and one didn’t happen.
Tired
Did my “long ride” (on the trainer, using Rouvy to ride in Taiwan; TBH kind of boring)
Went to a pizza place in the Cliffside neighbourhood
Too tired/low on energy to do the full 24 laps Mary wanted
Got pushed hard by Arden in the gym
Almost fell asleep in the car on the way home
I’d forgotten what heavy-training tiredness tastes like. There’s an added piquancy being older. I kind of like it, to be honest, though it makes getting anything done on Sunday tough.
Vagueness can be good
Stock pic of a management consultant. If he’s drinking with his right hand why is the saucer on his left?
For years I’ve chafed under my old job title, Senior Transit Technology Specialist. So much of my work doesn’t remotely fit under that heading. As of April 1 I’ll be a Senior Management Consultant II—basically I can do almost anything under that title. This comes is a move up a grade in the firm’s system, and a modest raise. After a rough year it’s nice to get some good news.
No back-up plan
If toward August my coach and I decided I wasn’t ready for a half-Ironman, my back-up was Ironman 70.3 Florida in mid-December. The current American administration’s attitude to Canada and Canadians has pushed that right off the table. So we now have no back-up plan.
Next week: no fun
Colonoscopy Wednesday. This is my seventh or eighth (who counts them?). My mother died at age 54 of colon cancer that had spread, so every five years or so I have a routine scope; nothing’s ever been found, so it continues routine. The scope itself I find uneventful; it’s the prep that I hate. Monday and especially Tuesday will suck, and of course blow a hole in my training.
I do have a goal, though: to ride outside on Saturday. Sick of the trainer. I have my “forever bike” to get some miles on.
In Uncategorized on 2025 March 16 Sunday at 12:06:05
TL;DR
Too many red cards (i.e. more than zero)
But … am I back?
Still no swimming
Spring comes to Toronto
Life gets in the way
“You never had control …”
Red cards!
I use TrainingPeaks to receive workouts from my coach, and to log what I do. The workouts are shown as “cards”; in the future they’re white but in the past their colour depends on a couple of things. Red is unequivocal: “Workout was not completed”. As a result of “surrendering to the plan”, these are rare—but the last fortnight has seen 3(!).
Part of my growing up is learning that “bad” workouts don’t exist: they’re good data; are missed workouts also data? In this case, Yes.
For the first time in this (macro)cycle I had one of those periods of fatigue that have bedevilled my training in the past. One workout I started warming up on the treadmill (brisk walk) and just … stepped off. No energy. But all other indicators, particularly my heart rate, were fine. So what had happened?
During that week I’d had a tough session with Phil the physiotherapist; couldn’t work out the next day. Then the day after that I had a tough strength session with Arden; couldn’t work out the next day.
Phil’s thought after I raised this with him is that he and Arden are getting my body to do what it doesn’t want to do and it takes a lot of energy. Is it worth it? Yes; when Phil works on me, needles me, I feel … quicker, lighter, smoother, more relaxed. (Some readers may recognize that mantra.) I remain very hopeful that getting my body “aligned”, top to toe, will allow my muscles, tendons, and skeleton to do what my heart and lungs are capable of. At my age, after a long lifetime of carelessness about my kinetic chain and a propensity to twistedness, this is a big process.
But—and I think this is a key point—if nothing else comes of this quest to do a half-Ironman, being freer and more capable in my body will pay rich dividends to the end of my life.
But … am I back?
Maybe?
Despite the negativity of the foregoing I’ve had 24 Peak Performances over these two weeks. I’ve run the farthest I’ve run in 47 weeks (see above), and in shorts, too. So I’m still progressing.
“For want of a nail …”
On December 19 I had the toenail of my left big toe removed. Until it heals swimming is not permitted. (Everything else is fine.) It “should” take 5 to 6 weeks to heal. It’s been 12½ weeks but still has a scab over about half the old nailbed. Yes, it’s better; yes, it’s no longer swollen or painful; healing is progressing. But probably no swimming until my next appointment with the chiropodist, April 3.
Spring has sprung
The definition of spring used in English-speaking North America (at least) is the period between the March equinox and June solstice. This is dumb, but I’ll save that rant for another time. Meteorological spring began two weeks ago. We haven’t yet had seven consecutive days with mean temperature above freezing, though the seven-day average is now well above. Regardless. In yesterday’s sunny 10°C≈50°F I went for my first run outdoors in Toronto this year in shorts and short sleeves. You will, however, note the snow in the background; the steep path into the ravine behind me was covered with ice.
Planned, if unwanted, holes in my training
The next two weeks see a quartet of fillings, and a colonoscopy. All stuff that can’t be put off to after the half-Ironman so we have to accommodate them in the plan.
“You never had control; all you had was anxiety.”
I am a huge fan of Oliver Burkeman. His long-running column in The Guardian was always interesting and readable, and his books are all edifying; my favourite, which I recommend to everyone, is Four Thousand Weeks. He also does a semimonthly newsletter, The Imperfectionist, which I also strongly recommend.
The March 13 number of The Imperfectionist introduced me to the phrase in the heading, and it resonates strongly to me. He attributes it to Elizabeth Gilbert, and quick googling tells me it’s from Eat, Pray, Love. Everything about that book (e.g. the description in Wikipedia; the trailer of the film) confirms I wouldn’t like it; am I wrong?
Spent most of the week in East Vancouver visiting my daughter and her family. Nothing to do with the journey this blog is about, but being a dad and a grandpa is the most rewarding aspect of my life. Liz and Parnian are the happiest couple and best parents I’ve known; I’m so grateful that they’re an integral part of my life.
2025’s first run out of doors
All my runs this calendar year have been on the treadmill—until this week. The weather was mild and—much more important—there was no ice. Did most of the run along the Central Valley Greenway, which parallels the BNSF Railway’s Grandview Cut. So nice to run in shorts and a short-sleeved T shirt, albeit with a vest.
Sun Run with Zoya!
The Vancouver Sun Run is Canada’s largest running events; Wikipedia lists it 16th worldwide. IIRC 43,000 folks did it last year; I estimated it as 2% of Metro Vancouver’s adult population. I did it last year and said I’d not do it again—unless my then–nine-year-old granddaughter Zoya said she’d do it with me. 10K’s aren’t my thing, and it was just too big; some of my colleagues on our corporate team were texting in Teams that they’d done the race and I was half an hour from starting.
Anyway, on my trip this week Zoya said she wanted to do this year’s with me, which changes things. We did our first “training run” together, a few laps of the very safe loop around Grandview Elementary School, near where she lives. (Not posting the actual trace of the run, to protect her privacy.) I’m hopeful that she’ll be able to do the loop a few times twice a week. I’m not really worried about her finishing 10 km if she takes it at a good pace (tho’ her parents are dubioius); it’s keeping to a “good pace”! Like every tween she wants to go!
Next week (Mar. 3-9)
An athletically quiet week, but catching up on various support appointments.
Seeing my chiropodist: hope to get some good news about my recovery from December’s toenail removal. It’s been frustratingly slow, but it does seem to be getting better—which would see swimming next week!
Going to tax my physiotherapist to treat me like an “athlete”, not just an old fat guy: what do I need to dailyish to be “quick, light, smooth, relaxed” (the old Dead Runner mantra).
Having my monthly chat with a nutritionist. How can I deal with my weird food sensitivities, weird “emptiness”, eat enough to train, but not get any heavier?
And chatting with my mental-conditioning coach; hope to post some results of that chat in my next post.
In Uncategorized on 2025 February 2 Sunday at 16:49:04
Stock photo, of course. Why is there nothing written on her sticky notes?
TL; DR
Signed up for two triathlons
Longest trainer ride in ages
Highest 5-minute power ever?
Unhappy treadmill walk/run
First personal training session in years
Shallow thoughts: craving v. resistance; more surrendering to the plan; trying to stay away from the news
Next week: news about my toe; more personal training; Super Bowl
Signing up
I’ve been resisting signing up for my “A” event; I feel it puts a box around me. I am paying attention to whether it gets close to selling out. I don’t mind paying a higher registration fee not to have that box around me.
But at Coach Mary’s behest I did sign up for a sprint triathlon in June and an Olympic in July.
For June I’m signed up for Rose City, which is in Mona’s hometown. I did this race a few years ago, so I’m familiar with the course. And the swim and transition area are precisely the same as Barrelman’s. We’ve even reserved a room at a semi-skeezy Travelodge next door to a Tim Hortons—which was exactly our arrangement when I did the race before.
I’ll be doing this race a week after we return from our two-week drive to and from Nova Scotia. Doing what I expect to be fairly heavy training during that trip will be a challenge!
Going long
Friday saw my longest trainer ride since (checks TrainingPeaks) Nov. 17. Nothing special but as much as TrainingPeaks Virtual looks like a Zwift copy I rather like it.
I do not look like this guy—in case you were wondering. But that is our treadmill model.
Saturday saw me set out on my longest treadmill workout ever—but my knee wouldn’t let me do it. Sometimes I can soft-walk it out; but it didn’t work. Monday is another go at it, but I was surprised at how much the “bad” run dispirited me.
But there’s no such thing as a “bad” workout, right? Every one is a lesson? I think the lesson here is
Do more deliberate floorwork before a walk/run
Keep at my work with physio and trainer to build flexibility/mobility
I’ve got the power
I was set a short trainer workout on Sunday. Lots of easy riding but 5×(30″ flat out with 30″ easy). For some reason TrainingPeaks asserted I set my all-time record for 5′ power:
Can TrainingPeaks make a mistake? I know to most of my tri friends 152 W over 5 minutes isn’t anything special, but still. (BTW all-time = the 4⅓ years I’ve had a smart trainer.)
Going heavy
Is it even safe to lift 55 lb dumbbells? (25 kg in new money)
First personal trainer session, just getting a measure of how much weight I can handle for 10 to 12 reps. Still left me pretty sore the next day.
I crave ice cream, especially butterscotch ripple with caramel sauce (as pictured). But when I have a bowl I feel bloated and gross.
In the cobra pose—ready to strike
I resist doing floorwork; say to myself, I’ll do it in a minute—but the minute never comes. Yet when I do it I feel great: loose, light, ready.
Why is that? I dunno. It takes a conscious act to remind myself of how I feel afterwards for both the craving and the resistance.
More surrender
Three more steps on this long path of surrender, of leaving overthinking/overcontrol behind:
A few days ago I realized I could close the panel on TrainingPeaks’ calendar that summarizes your training load and gives you TP’s one-number-to-rule-them-all fitness score. I don’t need to know! And if I know it I’ll fuss about whether it’s improving fast enough. That’s my coach’s job.
When Coach Mary suggested I sign up for the Olympic in late July I noted it was right after a two-week motoring trip. She asked if I thought I could do it, and I replied it was up to her. If she thought I it was feasible, it was.
In my daybook (which sort of follows the Bullet Journal methodology) I make each day’s workout a to-do, with very little notation, often not even the length of the workout.
Staying away from the news
The front page of Saturday’s edition of Canada’s largest-circulation newspaper
Especially in Canada the new American administration is imposing a lot of uncertainty. On top of that (as the pic above shows) we’re having a general election at the provincial level (my American friends can think of that as a state election). And at the federal level we’re in a weird interregnum with Parliament prorogued, the unpopular Prime Minister in a lame-duck phase, an intra-party election for his replacement, and a general election a near prospect.
I’ve been a regular news follower for, well, decades. When I was a tween(!) my parents kept their subscription to The Globe and Mail because I read it. But nowadays I dunno. I’m focusing on sports and on triathlon. Not listening to political podcasts, even from my favourite commentators. Staying away from Twitter, er, X, where years of my curation have led to a feed mostly full of happy/interesting things; but now there’s too much unpleasantness and uncertainty. I’m rereading a Poirot novel right now. I guess I’m just … surrendering.
Next week: Feb. 3-9
Looks like a quiet week on all fronts (except the political; see above). Will have my first “real” personal training session, even if I don’t have a black T shirt. Mona and I are going with friends to a concert by the Lightfoot Band, so we’ll hear a lot of Gordon Lightfoot’s music. (Along with my indifference to ice hockey, my not particularly liking Lightfoot’s music does put my Canadianness into question.)
Speaking of not being Canadian, Sunday is the Super Bowl, 6:30 p.m. in my time zone. I will actually watch the game, and do chores during the halftime show. Am looking forward, tho’: not rooting for either team, but hoping for a competitive, well played game.
In Uncategorized on 2025 January 26 Sunday at 14:42:53
Kimberlee tells me that your mantra doesn’t have to make sense to other people. That’s good, because I can’t even explain it to myself. Physio Phil caught sight of my Road ID and asked what SURRENDER TO THE PLAN meant. Been thinking of that question for days; here’s my first cut at at an answer.
I am a planner. Give me a goal and I’m awesome (if I do say so myself) at breaking down the work to the goal into steps, identifying constraints, setting intermediate milestones, and all the guff that got PMP after my name.
The controlled anxiety that lets me be a good (I think) project manager doesn’t seem to work well for my triathlon journey. This year I’m doing something different. I have a coach I trust. She agreed the goal was feasible. She writes the plan. Every week or two she gives me the schedule for the coming weeks. I do what I can to execute. The only “planning” I do is to look at the coming few days and figure out when, where, and how I’ll do the workouts. As I wrote last week I don’t even want to know my training plan for the coming months. I’ll take it one bite at a time and not worry about the coming bites. I am surrendering to the plan.
Bonus Taylor Knibb content: After I wrote the above I watched Bob Babbitt’s post-win interview with Taylor Knibb at the Ironman 70.3 world championships. I loved what she said: “it’s kind of … like Christmas every week when [my coach] puts the training in and then I get to see what I get to do”.
Purely at a technical level—does she use TrainingPeaks? I mean, lots of pros do and I’d like to think we have that (if nothing else!) in common. Seriously, though, does that mean that she doesn’t concern herself with the arc (mesocycles, macrocycles) of her training? Just agrees with her coach and manager and family what races she’ll do, and lets her coach work out the plan and schedule? If so, that’s awesome.
33 weeks to go: Jan. 20-26/25
In response to last week’s blog my friend Tony wrote to me that “eating an elephant is hard”.
This week’s serving of elephant saw my first uses of TrainingPeaks Virtual (formerly IndieVelo). I was going to use Zwift rather than FulGaz, because Coach Mary had sent me a structured workout and I’ve found the real-world courses of FulGaz don’t mesh well with a structured workout. Reading Ray Maker’s articles on TrainingPeaks’ acquisition of IndieVelo and Rouvy’s acquisition of FulGaz made me think that TPV might be pretty good for doing coach-set structured workouts—and so it was. I did a free ride Sunday and that saw me climbing lots of hills; I guess an unscheduled strength workout. But so far I like it.
(As a gratuitous aside I will say that how Ironman handled the sale of FulGaz to Rouvy doesn’t speak well of the new administration’s managerial competence—especially in a company whose core value proposition to customers is operational excellence.)
(Stock photos are so funny.) Big win for me: I actually ran for a few minutes, albeit on a treadmill as breaks during ærobic walks. Didn’t get too dizzy or bored or anything and nothing hurt. Very happy. It does help watching narrative TV, I think:
My injured toe got stepped on early Saturday which messed up my training—didn’t want to put the unhappy toe under the pressure of a shoe, or even my weight more than necessary. Otherwise the toe is still healing slower than expected. After 5 weeks it should be fully healed but here we are, with seepage and sloughing off of skin. Yuck. Except when it’s stepped on it doesn’t stop me from walking, running, cycling on the trainer, or doing strength work (see below)—but no swimming.
Over all I lost a day this week (see paragraph above) but altogether a good week: progress.
After I publish this post looking forward to 7 hours of top-notch NFL football. Who ya got?
Next week: Jan. 27–Feb. 2/25
Finally got the fitness assessment (sic) that was prerequisite to starting strength work. First session with the personal trainer is Thursday at the Pan Am Sports Centre’s gym.
I didn’t think the trainer and I had a thorough enough discussion about my goals, so I emailed this to him afterwards:
I’m interested in a strength programme for two key reasons:
To support my triathlon goals, specifically to do a half-Ironman later this year
To fight back the effects of age, and just generally to be better able to cope with daily life (lifting things etc.)
I don’t think I’m very interested in flexibility, but I am very interested in mobility (strength through range of motion).
I have a triathlon coach who sets me ærobic workouts—swimming, cycling, and walking/running. These are the core disciplines; strength is in support. Right now we’re ramping up; last week I did 3¾hrs of ærobic workouts, but there’ll be more, probably topping out at something like 12hrs weekly in late summer.
I’m not at all interested in addressing weight/body composition in personal training.
To be frank I’m uncomfortable in a gym; I’ve never liked going to a gym by myself; I have no confidence in my competence. In the 40 years I’ve been doing “sport” (I started late) I’ve always done ærobic things, and mostly by myself.
In Uncategorized on 2024 December 21 Saturday at 08:13:54
Like a lot of would-be triathletes, this is my season of planning. Your coach asks (or you ask yourself), “What are your goals next year?” Many of us write down a list of races, ascribe to each of them a grade (A, B, C). One or two will be “A” goals. And your coach, or you yourself, will build a training plan to hit your goals, particularly the A’s. To be clear (indeed, as I’ll make clearer later) this is a great idea: it gives a shape and a point to what you do with your training time.
But I have a lot of problems with goals, especially outcome goals. I sign up for an Ironman and then halfway through the training year realize (or think) it’s out of reach, become demoralized, and then don’t persist in my training.
I was intrigued by something Patrick Delorenzi says in one of his videos about Ironman training: that he trained toward an Ironman, but didn’t register until he was close to ready. This directionality appealed to me.
“Directional” goals for 2025
For two years I’ve been working with Kimberlee Bow on my consistency and self-, well, actualization. We discussed goal-setting a lot. Early on I came to realize (duh) that process goals were more useful than outcome goals; and toward the middle of this year (2024) I came up with the idea of having directional goals. Through November and December as I worked on thinking through “what I wanted to do in 2025” I came up with three.
Before I discuss them, let me say that directional goals are not timebound, so they aren’t classic SMART goals; rather they’re decisionmaking tools, i.e., you ask, Does this activity take me in the direction I want to go?
So my directional goals:
Be fit enough to do a half-Ironman in 8½ hours. When I formulated this I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able actually to do a half-Ironman under the cutoff. What was important was that I’d strive in that direction, and that my workout plan would take me in that direction.
Get back to running. I started running 40 years ago, in early middle age. I love running, however slow I do it. A bunch of injuries, a loss of fitness (a lot of that, of course, age-related) and now I don’t run. I have no pace goal: let’s get me back to an easy jog, programmed walk breaks are ok, and see what we can do with that.
Improve my body composition. I know this is a euphemism, but it’s a useful one. I don’t want to focus on weight; I want to focus on eating about the right amount of the right stuff, and doing things that improve my strength. I’m a mesomorph, kind of chunky even when I was at a good weight, and that’s ok; but let’s try to make the rest of my seventies and (fate willing) my eighties easier on my joints and tendons. (I have a plan, which I’ll post about later.)
Ta da! The “A” goal!
For the first half of December I had an elaborate “goals and intentions” documents, tons of overthinking. Lots of would-like-to-do races. Lots of timebound things. But I kept coming back to my birthday: Friday, September 26, 2025. I’ll be 72 years old. What could I do that would be 72-ish, challenging but feasible, but wouldn’t put me under so much pressure I’d give up hope in July?
Answer: to do a 72-mile self-triathlon on my 72nd birthday:
No time limit, but has to be done more or less without stopping;
Legs are more or less in Ironman proportions, but no leg is shorter than in a half-Ironman
(A “self-triathlon” is my term for a swim-bike-run workout.)
Lots of logistics and decisions to be made, but I’m telling my overthinking brain to let it go, and make decisions closer to when I need to.
Going forward
I’m hoping this is the first of a series of weekly blog posts where I discuss my progress toward that “A” goal.
Today, as I write (Saturday, December 21, 2024, 40 weeks less a day to The Big Day) I’m off my feet because I had a toenail permanently removed on Thursday. The enforced rest is a nice period to what’s come before, and a mental and physical launch pad for what’s to come.
Richard Nelson is a management consultant living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He’s married and has a 46-year-old stepson, a 44-year-old daughter with a PhD in forestry, and three granddaughters, aged 28, 10, and 4. His principal hobby is training for Ironman triathlons, despite his lack of talent: he finished Ironman ... Continue reading →
Road of Iron 