Originally the plan was to swim Windermere next year – so my plans were quite simple: keep swimming. Now, having done it a year early I need to revise those plans, or at least reconsider them.
Windermere was obviously a big thing for me so I’d like to do some significant challenges and not just drift back into my old slobbish ways. That said, training for Windermere took a lot of effort and time and I need to be able to do other things with my time (not least family and work).
The compromise I’ve reached is that I’d like to set myself some big challenges for 2014 and that 2013 will be a bit of a “transition” year. I’m not fully decided on what the 2014 challenges will be yet, but it may be (and please don’t tell anyone just yet) a half ironman triathlon (I’ve done the Olympic distance previously) and another marathon (I’ve done two – London and Dublin – but way back in 2004).
So, to prepare for those, 2013’s challenges look a bit like this:
– More swimming. I want to re-do Bala and Coniston and to beat my times. So I’m aiming for 4hrs 15mins for Bala and sub-3hrs for Coniston. I also want to do the 7 mile Ullswater swim.
– Triathlons – I’d like to do at least three sprint triathlons next year. Luckily for me there are two organised in my village every year (run by One Step Beyond).
– Running – To help me focus on the running a bit more I’ll enter at least two 10k events.
– Cycling – Of a triathlon, it’s the cycling element that I enjoy the least, so rather than ignore it I need to “face the fear”, so I’ll enter at least one long cycling event.
– Three Yorkshire Peaks – on top of all of that I’m going to do the Three Yorkshire Peaks next year. It’s the year I turn 40 and an old mate of mine and I decided a couple of years ago that we’d do something to celebrate this landmark year. What we really wanted was an excuse to have a weekend away drinking beer, but this attempt to prove that we can keep up with the youngsters appeals to us as well.
Hmmm, busy year then 🙂
1000kmstowindermere 
Phew I’m exhausted reading that list 🙂
Good luck
To be fair I haven’t done any of them yet!
I just found your blog. Setting new goals is what it’s all about. I’ve started planning my races for 2013 and my goals are simply to set new PRs in 2013. My stretch goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I know it can be done, it’s just how bad do I want it?
The idea of doing a triathalon has actually crept into my head recently. Ca-razy!
Good luck for the Boston marathon. When you say qualify, do you mean you have a time limit to get under? What is it?
Hi, For my age group, Male 45-49 the qualifying time is 3:25. When I turn 50 it goes to 3:30. My best run so far has been 4:00:46. That means I need to cut over a minute off of my marathon pace. I’m pretty sure I can cut 10-15 minutes this year by training smarter and running smarter. The last 15 minutes are going to be very difficult to take off.
Here is the link to the BAA Qualifying times:
http://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/participant-information/athlete-registration/qualifying-standards.aspx
Wow, that’s pretty quick. I’d still love to do a sub 4hr marathon (my best is 4:10 – but that was many years ago). I guess it’s about doing what you can (ie the first 15 mins) and then consolidating. Once you’re comfortable at 3:45 you may well find that there’s another 15 minutes you can lose. Or maybe just wait until you’re 55 🙂
LOL. I know! If the body will hold up I’ll age into a qualifying time.
And you are right. Once I plateau at 3:45 knocking the other 14 minutes off may not seem so daunting. I just need to get to 3:45.
Gotta have goals!
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