Goal for June

Ok, so we're almost in June - how time flies. Just been looking at some bike events and I was thinking I should set myself a goal or two for the month. So I've been thinking:

• Cycle 1000km or more in June
• Enter one 10km and one 5km run

For the first goal, I'm hoping to get some longer cycles in and not just my usual cycle to work routine (18km) - I essentially need to double the daily distance, but I'm hoping some longer rides at the weekends will also help clock up the miles.

For the second, it's just an attempt to get back into running - don't care if I end up walking most of the runs, but I'd like to set a time and beat it next month.

So what next?

Over three weeks now since the marathon and I've done pretty much nothing, save for 2/3 runs. Motivation is pretty low and all I want to do is lounge about and eat :( I've probably put on around 7kg since my low a few months back, with about half that being in the last few weeks. I really need to turn that around, so I'm starting to log my weight daily again (111.7kg this morning).

My other goal is to get back into the pool at lunch-times. My gear has been sitting in the car for over a week now, but between being busy at work and the aforementioned motivational issues, I haven't taken a dip.

I might also try and get a 10km or maybe even a half in before the new year, but only if it's extremely convienient. I still haven't officially broken the 10km hour mark (one of my goals at the start of the year), so it'd be nice to get that in the bag to finish off the year.

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
  

10k goals for Monday

Just want to publicly state a few goals for the 10km I'm doing on Monday ...

1. Run the 10km non-stop
2. Run a 10km PB
3. Ideally do a negative split (2nd half of the race faster than the first)
4. Break the hour mark

These are listed in order of likelihood. I've actually run a 10km non-stop in training, which means I can probably mentally and physically do it on Monday. Not going to be easy, especially at the start where there will likely be quite a bit of people to contend with.

The second of of these is also achievable. I've actually trained more up to this point (though not specifically for this race) than I have for any other event in recent times. My previous PB is approx. 1hr 05m which was done using a run\walk strategy. I generally find I'm faster using this approach, but hopefully I should be able to still acheive a PB by going non-stop.

The negative split I think could be tough. The idea behind this is so as not to set out too fast. I'm planning on sticking to a HR limit of 160bpm for the first half of the race as I normally do in training, but might just let that creep up a bit towards the end. I'd hope the last km for instance would be as fast as I can go (non-stop), so hopefully this goal is achievable.

Finally, I'd love to break the hour mark. This was actually a goal I wanted to break before the end of 2007, but obviously didn't achieve that. This is my first 10km race in 2008, so the first crack at it so to speak. Its probably doubtful, given the times I've been posting in training, but we can always hope.

Weight Loss Goal

Right...13 odd weeks until the end of the year. Plan is to lose 9.5kg in that time, which equates to a calorie deficit of about 800kcal per day. Will be making a special effort to include weekends in this. My weight today is 116.7kg, so my target weight on New Years eve is 107.2kg which would be my off season weight about 2-3 years ago!

Also plan to keep my food diary up-to-date.

Goals

Here's a few goals for the future

July

• Do another 10k, beating previous PB by at least 3 mins (i.e. in 1hr 3min or less)
• Get down to 115kg (119.2kg at present)
• Do the London to Cambridge cycle (22/07/07)
• Cycle at least 100km otherwise

August

• Do another 10k in less than 1hr
• Aim to get weight down to 110kg (re-assess goal weight at first of August)
• Cycle at least 100km, with at least one ride of 20km
  

Sept

• Aim to get weight down to 105kg (re-assess goal weight on first of Sept)
  
• Enter the Mens Fitness Rough Tri (Dualthon)
• Do another 10k, beating previous PB
• Cycle at least 100km, with at least one ride of 30km
• Hopefully win the London Junior Championship with St. Anthony's

End of year (2007)

• End of year weight MUST be 102kg or less...no compromise. This is my approx weight in Sept 2005. Ideally it will be lower (considering other goals above).
• Do what it takes to be able to swim 100m non-stop (front-crawl)

2008

• Complete the Reading Half Marathon in less than two hours
• Complete a few multi-sport events
• Re-enter any 10k events completed in 2007
• Ideally drop weight to 90kg
  

First Post

Well, I've been contemplating setting up a blog over the last few weeks, mainly to act as a training log and a place to put some random musings.

I suppose this is probably a good place to put a few goals for my training over the next few weeks\months. Here goes...

• Weight: as of this morning, my weight stands at 121.5kg which is over 19st. Believe it or not, this is not the heaviest I've been! That would have been 126.2kg on 06/04/07, about six weeks ago! Needless to say, this weight loss trend needs to continue, ideally until I reach a target weight of 90kg or so. More on this in subsequent posts.
  
• Swimming: Despite numerous lessons as a kid, and living within half a mile of one of the biggest lakes in Ireland for all my childhood, I cannot swim. I'm currently learning to swim by myself, using the Total Immersion system. Again, I'll post more about this in later posts.
• General Fitness: This is related to the first point. My main approach to losing weight is a mixture of calorie restriction (I'm technically not restricting calorie intake at the moment, just monitoring it) and increased exercise. This increase in exercise mainly involves jogging, playing gaelic football and any other sport that I can get involved in.
• Triathlon: As a long term goal, which again depends on points two and three, I'd like to get through a sprint triathlon. Probably a good few months off this yet (not being able to swim being a major hinderance), but I'd like to set a benchmark by doing one towards the end of the year and hopefully improve on that next year.

I think thats enough for my first post. Hope to follow up soon enough with a few posts on each of the above, describing how I'm going about the process.