70.3 = 2011

I guess it was kind of inevitable.

I'm going to start planning to do a half Ironman next year. Thinking about it, it only made sense. Despite my occasional (and feeble) attempts at denying it, I am hooked on this stuff. The Sprint triathlons have been (and will continue to be) fun, but I know that there is no way that I will ever talk myself out of pushing it further. And as I've mentioned before, I think the half distance is ultimately the good compromise - a tough enough endeavor for long term bragging rights, but still relatively manageable in terms of training and preparation.

I have not even started researching the right race, but I think late summer/early fall will be best. Maybe Ironman 70.3 Austin? There are a few races to consider in that date range.

I'm going to have to dial in a specific training plan, but not until next year. For this year, I'm planning on racing in a number of regional sprint races. I'm also registered for an Olympic distance in June. Finally, there is an Olympic distance race up in Vancouver this September that I'd like to do.

Come this fall, I'll focus on 1/2 marathon training. My gut tells me I need to get a few 1/2 marathons under my belt before an attempt at a 70.3. I'll do the 1/2 marathons early next year. Then in March, I'll get back into triathlon base training so by May or June I can start on a proper 16-18 week half Ironman training plan.

Truth is, I'm not really worried about the individual events. I could go out tomorrow and pull off any of them individually. It may not be pretty, but I could do it. The challenge is going to be stringing them together and getting a respectable performance out of it.

The question I will have to answer sooner or later, though, is what is "respectable"? Today I'm not sure. My guess is that respectable is going to be somewhere between my current average paces for each discipline in the shorter races and the second to last finisher. Hopefully, I can end up closer to the former. But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself.

My biggest motivator is the progress I've made in getting back in shape. You'll see what I mean below....

Yep, that's me in the MIT t-shirt 3 years ago. You could argue that I'm riding on a tiny train with a two year old and as such, the perspective makes me look huge. That would be nice of you. But it also would not be true. It's me, so I can say this - I look f***in' gross.


Though I'll admit that I picked this comparison picture for it's relative bad-assedness (and have subsequently been over-using it lately), I would argue that there would have been no chance in hell that I could have even faked a photo like this 3 years ago.

...Enough said?

Well that's it for now. I've got to go out of town for a week to Vancouver and Boston. But I now have a 70.3 to plan which should help me get me through the brutally boring hotel gym workouts next week.