Goals for 2009

Following my review for 2008, I guess the next logical step is to define a set of goals for 2009. Where there are multiple goals, I've listed them in order of expectation.

Weight
Continue to keep a comparable level of weight loss as seen in 2008. I've got a new scales, which is weighing me in at around 109kg (based on an average over December 2008), which is unfortunate, but I'm going to use this going forward.

• Goal: Break 100kg

Running (10k)
As mentioned previously, I failed to break the 1 hour mark for a 10km in 2008.

• Goal: Break 1hr (short term)
  
• Goal: Break 55mins (at some stage over the year)

Running (Half Marathon)
I'm doing two half marathons between now and the end of March. I've never run the distance non-stop and best time is around 2hrs 30m.

• Goal: Run both non-stop
• Goal: Break the 2hr mark in one of these races

Cycling
Plan is to focus on the running until just after the second half marathon at the end of April and then I'm going to focus on cycling. The main reason for this is that I believe I can make up a considerable amount of time in this discipline at Gael Force next year.

• Goal: Do at least ten 40km cycles per month from May to August
• Goal: Do at least two 100km cycles in the same period
  
• Goal: Break 30 mins in a 10 mile Time Trial

Gael Force
Plain and simple this one...knock an hour of my 6hrs 15m time. I expect most of this to be on the biking parts, but running and the mountain climbing could do with a lot of improvement. Weight loss and cycling training will be key for this.

• Goal: Completion time for the event of better than 5hrs 15m

Misc
Odds and ends here really. Not too fussed but nice to have

• Goal: Beat my previous best at the F3 duathlons and Rowers Revenge
• Goal: Break 12 mins for 400m swimming and 30mins for 1km
  

Review of 2008

Well it absolutely flew by. Overall, I'd say a successful year, despite missing most of my goals (that I can remember). That said, I still done things I could only dream off the previous year and I'm certainly getting closer to where I want to be (don't really know where that is, but I know I'm going in the right direction).

The following is a brief summary what I think are the important aspects of my quest for fitness in 2008. I'll post over the next few days about goals for 2009 and longer term.

Weight
I entered 2008 weighing 116.01kg and after some ups and downs, left it at 102.39kg. So, that's a 13.6kg loss over the year, which is a little over a kilo a month, which I'm happy with. I'm pretty sure that the goal at the beginning of the year was to break the 100kg mark, but cest la vie.

Looking at the graph below, the main results seemed to happen around July, when I would have been in full training for Gael Force and also gaelic football. As I've mentioned before, I'm a bit dubious about my scales, but these scales have been used for all the readings and so the error should be at least constant.

Running
Another goal for 2008 was to break the 1 hour mark for a 10km run. Truth be told, I think I only actually done two 10km races in 2008, neither of which I achieved my goal. I did however achieve a PB at one of them, coming in at 63 mins in May. That same race I also ran the distance non-stop which was goal at the start of the year. The other race was a complete disaster, which I'm not going to mention any further.

In my defence of the above, I've ran more than I've ever run before in the last year. Distances I'd never imagined I'd be able to do. Some of my training runs have approached the required pace to break the 1 hour mark and I'd like to have a crack at this in the near future. If I'm to do a 2hr half marathon in the next 2 months, it's a milestone that needs reaching.

Gael Force
Another acheivement of 2008 was the completion of Gael Force, just outside my target time of 6 hrs. I'm hoping to be back in 2009 and to ideally knock 1 hour of that time.

Training Totals
Overall in 2008, I covered the following distances which I hope to better in 2009.

Cycling: 940km
Running: 820km
Swimming: At least 33 sessions, 14+hrs, 8.85+km
Other Sessions: No end of gaelic football training sessions over the course of the summer + some gym work earlier in the year.

The Christmas break

Not much at all really. Last post was over two weeks ago, where I was pretty sure I'd be doing nothing over the Christmas. It didn't quite work out like that as it turns out, but I still didn't do that much besides stuff my gob!

One of the days I went out for a quick run around the block, worked out at just over 6km. I was a bit nervous of doing this, as I live in quite a rural place, where I know the neighbours would have been talking! Still, I bit the bullet and was pretty happy with the run. Pity I didn't keep the routine up.

Then on St. Stephen's day (or Boxing Day if you're not Irish) I attempted something I'd been meaning to do for ages...it's called the Tochar Walk and it's a 20 (odd) mile walk from Ballintubber Abbey to Croagh Patrick (a.k.a. The Reek), probably Irelands best known "mountain" (a bit over 7oom). This was the "mountain" that I had to climb during Gael Force last August, so this walk was to double as some training for next years event.

So I set off from home (about 1km from the Abbey) at 9am on the trek. Day was a pretty cold, but fresh morning and a little bit foggy. The terrain was pretty boggy \ marshy in parts and I generally found it tough going.

A couple of hours into the walk I made it to the traditional half way point, the Church in the village of Aughagower. I'd never actually been to the village before and it certainly looked quite quaint and pituresque (it's church has a Round Tower which is not something you see everyday). However, this is the place it all started to go wrong. I lost the track and ended up walking along the a road "aiming" for Croagh Patrick. I was quickly discovering that most of the roads seemed to go perpendicuar to the mountain instead of towards it, which was becoming increasingly frustrating as the km's clocked up.

I managed to get to a main road and proceeded to follow what I assumed would be the shortest route only to find myself at a dead end, 2-3 km from the mountain, with dogs barking wildly at me from a nearby house. At that point, cold, annoyed and dejected, I decided to cut my losses and call my sister for a lift home. A decent effort by all accounts, in which I clocked up 30km in 5hrs 30m.

I subsequently bought an ordinance survey map of the route and it's pretty obvious where I went wrong...I'll probably give it another go the next time I'm home.

Last (guaranteed) run for the next few days

Off home tomorrow and with all the hectic Christmas madness, figured tonight was the only chance that I'd definitely be able to get a run in. Was very slack with the running last week, for one reason or another, so just done the second quality session I missed last week.

This session called for a warmup (I done 10 mins), followed by sets of 5 mins hard followed by 3 mins recovery (I done 30s walk + 2m 30s slow jog). Aim was to do four sets, followed by a warmdown which I'm glad to report that I completed. Wasn't easy, especially getting over the third one.

Made it around for a total of 8.7km in 51m 41s, an average pace of 5m 57s per km. HR averaged at 165bpm and I'm totally wrecked right now.

Long slow run

After slacking off yesterday to go to a gig - Saw Doctors were playing here in Cambridge, I got my second run of the week in tonight. I decided to go for a long slow run, roughly 15km in total and to leave the second JD quality session for this week until tomorrow night.

Set my HR limit at 160bpm and set off. Run was as standard as you can get, pretty much sticking to the HR limit for the most part. Did find the last 2-3 km tough enough though and did my (now) customary thing of speeding up in the last km and all out for the last 200m or so (a.k.a. finishing strong).

Overall, done 15.62km in 1hr 39m 12s (average pace of 6m 21s per km, average HR of 161bpm). Very happy with the pace, it's certainly coming down nicely over the last few weeks (for the same (HR) effort).

Good Day #2

Got back from work late enough (about 8.30pm) and was debating about going for a run, especially considering it was supposed to be a long one. Jack Daniels running formula had me down to do

• 2 mile warmup at easy pace
  
• 2 x 12 min threshold with 3 minute recovery
  
• 1 hour easy

Didn't fancy a run the guts of two hours, so did

• 10 minute warmup
• 2 x 12 min threshold with 90s walking + 90s easy jog
• 30+ minutes of easy running

Big news about this was that I crossed the 10km mark in 1hr 40s...a new PB. I definitely could have broken the hour but was focusing on sticking with the plan. I'm pretty happy with that.

Overall, done 11.92km in 1hr 12m 34s (average pace 6m 5s per km) with an average HR of 164bpm. After the second threshold run, I had done 6.51km in 37 mins (average pace: 5m 41s), which is 2hr half marathon pace. It's a long way to go from there, but at least there's a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

Good Day #1

Went to the pool at lunchtime and managed to pull off 2 x 100m non-stop efforts!!! Major milestone for me, considering last week was the first time I done 50m non-stop. It wasn't exactly pretty, but I'm happy with it.

Finished out the 400m in just over 16 minutes (another PB) and then started doing 25m sprints (approx 35s per length) followed by 60s rest. In total, done 625m in the 30 mins, another PB.