TandemHearts

Someone asked me yesterday  if I made New Year’s Resolutions and the answer is no.  Resolutions are wishes, not goals with a plan.  I make goals.  2011  was a good year; I’ve made my running mileage goal all 12 months.    I had to do an 8.5 mile run today to do it, but I did!  And THAT is what running consistently has done for me.  I can go out and do an 8 mile run and actually enjoy most of it!

I have had 320 training hours this year.  That’s on average more than six hours per week.  Most of that has been running and working out with Shawna, as my cycling miles were very low, fewer than 900.      That’s going to change in 2012.

Goals for 2012

April -  Finish Devil Mountain Double This is an incredible difficult bike ride that I last attempted in 2006. (Click here for that ride report.)  I was certain that year that  I would finish.  I had trained well, was in the best shape I had ever been in…  It all fell apart on the backside of Mt Hamiliton.  When I got to Thom’s rest stop a mile below the summit, I was done.  I did 5 more doubles after that, 2 more in 2006 and 3 in 2007.  But I never really considered doing DMD again until now.   This year, Thom and I are going to ride it together.  Intellectually, I know I am in much better shape than in 2006.  I weigh 12 pounds less; my race bike is at least 8 pounds lighter.  My core strength is amazing.  But this ride deserves respect and terrifies me.   I know just how hard every single one of those climbs is.   I am not going to assume anything until it’s done. I know actually having Thom ride with me will make a huge difference.  We’ve got a lot of grit and determination between the two of us. 

July -  Sub 7 Hour  Barb’s Race I am really going to target the run on this one.  I know my swim will take somewhere between 32 and 40 minutes.  Don’t ask how little time I spent swimming in 2011.  I’d LOVE to see the bike be sub three hours.  But that is not this year’s goal – 3:18 – 3:30 as in past years, is fine.  I want an 11 minute average pace on the run.  That’s a 2:24 half marathon (13.1) miles and will give me that elusive sub 7 hours.

August – Rev 3 Old Orchard Beach Thom and I are doing this as a relay.  I plan to swim hard, but I want to really rock the run.  It looks to be super flat;  we’ll do a little recon in July.  The super stretch goal is a 10 minute pace.  I did 10:40 on  my 8 mile run today.  More realistic is a 10:20 pace.   It’d be really cool to podium in front of our “hometown” crowd, but there’s no way of knowing what our competition will be like.

I’ve got three other races planned.  Two sprints, one of which is Maine and an Olympic distance.  All three of those will be “training” races.  We’ve booked a mountain biking trip to the White Rim in Canyonlands National Park.   That’s been on our “to do” list for a while.  We’ve got time for one other summer vacation.  It’s a tough choice – return to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, last visited in 2009; return to Lassen National Park (1996) or go to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park for the first time.

Whatever happens, 2012 is going to be terrific!