2013 is going to be a great year! I am so optimistic about this year. The new mantra is really keeping me motivated already. I haven't had a good mantra since it was Great in 08 and Fine in 09. This year is going to be lean and clean, mind body and soul.
Mind
This year I have to be the leader my family needs me to be. Strong, confident, providing direction and inspiration for the kids and keeping our long term future in today's mindset. At work we call it building technical debt, taking the short term solution for something that will eventually have to be fixed later with interest paid - interest in the form of man-hours working in what should have been done in the first place. My goal for the mind is to prevent any more of this techical debt from creeping into the family.
Body
Go vegan for recovery. Specifically during Ironman training, but Kelley and I are starting Jan 1. I'm going to write a separate post about my approach to Ironman training this time, and why I'm doing this. It's a really cool plan. And for the record:
Current body weight on Jan 1: 186 lbs
Goal body weight: 11% body fat, whatever number that says. 11.9% is also acceptable.
Yep, I'm going to be tracking the MMNW (monday morning naked weight) through Ironman training again. 186 is a bit above my "happy weight" range of 171 to 180, but there is an allowable offseason fluffy factor built in there. Built by cookies & Reece's cups, that is.
Going vegan should provide my body with the best fuel for the hard workouts and the recovery from those workouts. Whole foods vegan is all real foods (nothing out of a box or processed) and no animal products. Lots of fruits and veg, all I can get in fact. And when you only eat foods that contain less than 5% fat, you will also contain less than 5% fat. That's the theory anyway.
But I'm also not going to be a prick about it. Restaurants don't serve much vegan fare, and I would never expect anyone that wants to invite us over to dinner to cook something special just for my crazy ironman nutrition plan. We'll take whatever we can get get when we don't have to cook, but the target is to make as many vegan meals at home whenever possible.
Forks over Knives should be on your Netflix queue.
Spirit
Continue to sing in the church choir, but be a little more diligent about getting to the church on time and on a regular basis. This really keeps me grounded and connected to the church and I absolutely love it. Joining the choir was one of the best things I did in 2012. I smile every time I walk into a rehearsal and smile the whole time I'm in there.
Speed
Keeping it simple after the 2012 speed goal fails.
- 5k race under a 7 minute/mile pace
- See how close I can get to 11 hours at Beach 2 Battleship
Beach 2 Battleship is really a test run for a Kona qualifying spot at the 2015 IMWI. I want to see if this approach to training (volume, speedwork, recovery, vegan) can bring out the results that I'm looking for. If this approach works I can ramp it up again in a couple of years and turn that 11 hour finish into a 10 hour finish.
Long Term
It's time for the Cast Iron Club! The Cast Iron Club totals all of your training and racing distances to add up to 30 ironman distance races over the course of a calendar year. That's a total of 72 miles of swimming, 3360 miles of biking, and 786 miles of running between January and December. I came pretty close (300 bike miles short) during 2011 Ironman training, but this year I'm planning to hit the bike a bit harder. My training plan actually adds up to 5400 miles on the bike and only 852 miles running. I'm kind of hoping to get closer to 1200 miles running this year so I might swap some of those workouts.
After last year's successful 300 yoga workouts this long term goal is really exciting. Takes some serious badass factor to cover 30 ironman distances in one year. Bring it on!
Travel
Destinations online this year:
- Washington DC for Shawn's wedding - can't wait!
- Atlanta just for a social weekend. Atl peeps give me a good race to meetup at! Haven't picked a time of year yet.
- Cincinnati to visit my old buddy Vince one weekend. Really looking forward to that one. We always have a blast and I haven't seen him since before we moved to NC.
That's it! Please comment if you want to meet up when I travel to your city. I'm trying to keep my goals simple this year. Not too many, challenging but still totally achievable.
10 comments:
Happy New Year CJ! Those look like great goals for 2013. I like your mantra.
I think you're crazy, but I also think that works for you. 2013 is going to be made out of awesomesauce for everyone!
I am also going lean & clean, although more carnivorously than you! :)
You have some great goals! I can't wait to follow along with you this year!
You are so focused it makes my hair hurt.
Your goals sound good. And we will have to meet up in ATL, although I'm not doing any crazy ultra runs.
;-)
The best thing about these goals is that you are in control of these yourself. For example, placing in races really are dependent on who else shows up but this is all you.
Go you!
I want to experiment with eating more vegan this year too. Not 100% of the time and I won't be a prick about it (your words ;)) but I do think that eating mostly fruits and veggies is the way to go. I also want to drastically decrease my carb and sugar intake!
Good luck with all your goals!!
What? Minneapolis isn't on your list of cities to visit? I'd suggest Chicago in October but I know that is too close to B2B. I do hope to see you in 2013 or 2014, though!
Good luck with the Vegan thing! When I cut dairy out, I was almost eating like a modified vegan. I could cut out milk, butter, and cheese, but I do not know if I could cut out eggs. I just really love them and they are my go to breakfast. I can't wait to see how this impacts your training, though. I expect great things from you this year, as usual!
My two favorite phrases in this post: Monday Morning Naked Weight...and Allowable Offseason Fluff Factor. Thank you for both of those. Good luck with your goals this year; they sound pretty difficult but I know you can do it!
Love the fluffy factor. So yeah, I started to do my weigh ins on monday morning after the weekend. That is the true test. Good luck with all the other stuff. you can and will do it! Just reading your post makes me so motivated and dissappointed if off track.
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