Last year, like other years that we’ve done IronMan Lake Placid, we experienced our traditional Panic Sets In moment. That can’t happen this year. It simply can’t. We need to avoid that at all costs.
In 2009, Kathryn wasn’t able to complete IronMan Lake Placid—whether it was her work, or that things needed to get done around the house, or that she just wasn’t that into it, something else always got in the way that prevented her from training. And that hurt, come race day.
I’ve said this before… for some reason, I still have to train much harder than her in order to be able to compete. Yes, I’ve gotten faster than her on the bike. But still, overall, the ROI (return on investment) for her training seems to be much better than mine.
In 2008 I felt that even if I trained for hours and hours and hours, I only ended up slightly faster than her. Maybe I’m just not that good at this. Maybe I can’t get that much better.
But maybe I can be really good at this.
2010 is the year that I’m going to really try. Training is off to a good start. We’re going to swimming regularly, we’ve got our teaching schedule sorted out so that we can get a good mix of teaching RPM classes and 3–4 runs in per week.
The trick will be to sustain it. I need to be sure that I can live these ideals—of training, preparing properly, and having an organized life—so that I don’t become a living contradiction.
Best of luck in 2010 with this Derek. When I was doing tris I recall being hammered at IMC by a buddy who had way more experience then me (several IMs) but way fewer miles for the calendar year. Hopefully having another year of IM experience under the belt will help.
And one thought about the ROI that comes to mind from years of following Gordo Byrn (no idea if this applies but thought I would share nonetheless!): be careful not to make your hard to hard and your easy too easy. You can only go to the well so many times a year and its best to keep that for race day. I share this was me when I blew the marathon at IMC 2001.