Back to Reality

The Focus: Short-distance MULTISPORT (sprint and olympic distance).

The Goal: Total body fitness.

That seems easy enough. The next step is breaking out the goal into related short, mid and long term goals.

The long term, (I think) is the total body fitness thing which matches up with the fit-as-can-be-by-age-50 goal.

Mid-term - that would have to be this season - what do I want to do to acheive my long-term goal? Race. Why do I think I have to race to be totally fit? Because it pushes me to my potential, otherwise I'd muddle along at a low HR and never really acheive a higher level of fitness. I'd even start the "oh, I don't feel like it tonight" routine and end up in the garden pulling weeds. (although I like doing that too). Slowly, but surely, I'd lose more and more fitness and end up in a size 14 again. By signing up and paying for multisport races, it forces me to workout, thus, working towards that goal.

And short-term...the weekly training. How much time am I willing to commit to reach the goals? 8-12 hours a week is the aboslute max. Are there time constraints. Yes - work! Yes - my gardens! Are there other obstacles? Yes - I need flexibility in the weekly plan. A canned follow the plan by the rule isn't going to work. If its nice on Tuesday, we're going kayaking and I'll have to switch the Tuesday bike ride to another night. I think this is where my downfall is. I need to come up with a good plan to follow and build fitness, yet allow for as much flexibility from weeknight to weeknight as possible. And we all know most plans are fairly strict... so this is the part I need to think through a bit more.

Are the goals realistic?

Are they measureable?

Are they enjoyable?

Gee whiz, I feel like I'm at work figuring up performance measures and strategies. Yuk.

Next up...a plan to follow. I was using my plan from 2005 doing Xterras, but its just not working out now that paddling is in the mix. Mother nature plays a big role in paddling and she's not following no stinking training plan. So research is underway to develop a flexible, yet fitness-improving training plan.