What It Takes

So I'm not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing but I decided to read up a little on how the Kona slots are actually divided up at each of the qualifing races. Here is what I found...

• IMWI has 72 slots
• 10% go to Pros - I'll round up to 8
• Each of the 12 AGs get one slot for Men and Women as long as there is someone racing in that AG - 24 slots
• That leaves 40 more slots which are divided based on number of people in each AG
• There are 210 registered in my AG and 2,691 total - 7.8% in my AG
• 7.8% of 40 means my AG gets another 3.12 slots, plus the 1 that all AGs get

Therefore, if everyone takes their slot, I will have to be top 4 to qualify for Kona, or in the top 1.9% of my AG.

I see why it can take years for most people to qualify. I have a long way to go in a short time if I have any chance at making it this year. Based on last years results, I probably have to drop another half hour off my goal time to make it this year.

All I can do is keep training, race my race and see what happens. It's a good thing I like a challenge and can stay focued for more then a year because it may take a few more.

New Bike

Back in junior high when I was into BMX I decide to build up my own bike. I picked each part individually, ordered them over a few months and built the bike up. In fact, I may have enjoyed the process of building the bike almost as much as riding and I am still proud of that bike today.

Now that I have been doing triathlons for a few years, I decided I wanted to build up a new race bike. There is nothing wrong with my current tri bike (a 2005 Felt S22). It has been good to me and still works well, but I've decided I would like a full carbon bike and to built it from scratch on my own. Plus I figure since I put more miles on my bike in a year then my car I should have something I'm proud of.

I've started by buying a 2008 Argon 18 e-112 frameset and now I am in the process of picking out all of the other parts. I went back and forth between the e-112 and a Cervelo P2C. The Cervelo is known for being one of the best bikes for the money and there are always hundreds of them at every race. I was really close to gettin a P2C, but I have always really liked the Argon bikes and was able to get an 2008 model which brough the price down to around the same as the P2C so I went for it.

So far I have the frame and fork, and I also have a base bar and aero bars. I will probably just take all of the dura-ace components off of my current bike, clean them up and move them over to this bike instead of spending money on new components.

2009 Goals

At work I have always hated setting goals and objectives, creating a plan and then having to perform against it all year. I would rather just get my job done. However after years of setting goals setting and measuring results, I have seen the value of it. While I still don't like spending time doing it for work, I have had great success using a similar process for my running and triathlon training.

Each year I set my goals pretty early in the season, however I never share them with others until summer when I have a good idea of how my training has gone (and sometimes I then adjust the goals). This year I figured I would use my new blog to get my goals out there early and see what happens.

I'm only going to focus on 2 races this year, but I'll do a few others for training or fun.

Ironman 70.3 Kansas - 4:40 (0:35, 2:30, 1:30) - I have never seen this course before and I hear it is pretty hilly. However, last year I went 4:40 on a flat course with a 4 minute penalty, so I'm hoping I can still go under 4:40 on a more challenging course.

Ironman Wisconsin - 10:15 (1:10, 5:30, 3:20) - If I hit all of my training, continue to see similar improvements as last year, and stay injury free, I think this is an aggressive but realistic goal.

Here is what I think I need to do to achieve those results

• Bike FTP of 265 Watts or 4.2 watts per kilogram (Currently 227 W, 3.5 w/kg)


• Run VDOT of 61 (Current 58.2)


• Race at 135 pounds (Current 140 on most days)


• Stay injury free


• Focus on good race execution (i.e. pacing and race day nutrition)


• Swim more frequently and faster, no more long easy sets

Summary of 2008

2008 was a great year for me. As I have mentioned before I spent the year focused on running and qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I achieved that goal at the Chicago Marathon and also qualified for guaranteed entry into the New York Marathon. All of the running really helped my triathlons also. I just rode and swam as recovery from the run workouts and did two tris and PR'ed at both. Additionally, I changed my eating habits early in the year and was able to drop about 15 pounds which greatly helped my running.



Race Results:

• Marathon: 2:58:15 @ Chicago Marathon - 342nd out of over 30,000
• Half Marathon: 1:21:50 @ Chicago Half Marathon - 53rd out of 10,483
• Half Marathon: 1:23:10 @ Rockford Half Marathon - 8th out of 692 - 1st in Age Group
• 5k: 17:15 @ Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot - 12th overall
• 5k: 17:51 @ Schaumburg 5k - 7th overall
• Half Ironman (70.3): 4:40:24 @ Spirit of Racine - 116th out of 1921 - 7th in Age Group
• Olympic Tri: 2:15:19 @ Chicago Triathlon - 35th out of 4089 - 7th in Age Group
  
  

Training Totals:

• Swim - 293,230 yards in 87 hours, 4 minutes - 1:47 / 100 yd
• Bike - 4472.2 miles in 244 hours, 45 minutes - 18.27 mph
• Run - 2402.33 miles in 310 hours, 9 minutes - 7:45 minute mile
• Total Hours: 642 Hours or 1.75 hours a day average