I thought about posting my goals, but for me 2015 is going to be not just setting goals and working to achieve them, but setting goals and challenging myself to push my limits.

 

Let’s start with the easier of my challenges:
Swimming – With everything else going on with the family I will be limited to only two team practices a week until the end of the school year, Tuesdays and Sundays. I’ve set my year-end-distance goal to 400km. It’s not a lot, but in order to get there I will have to really make an effort to make up for missed practices by swimming before work or during lunch. That’s something I do not like doing.  I do not care to swim alone and I hate swimming during open swim hours. We don’t have a fast lane in Växjö, so for me the challenge will be swimming even when it is not convenient.

Biking – Spending more time on a bike is the only way to get better. I have winter tires on my Cross and my tempo bike mounted on a trainer. With no 300km Vätternrundan to look forward to it will be a challenge to get out on the road early this spring. But my cross makes it easier to get out on the trails and my trainer eliminates all excuses for not biking.  I’m raising my  year-end-distance goal to 9000km. If I stay healthy and on my bike this should not be hard to do. I managed just under that in 2014, with little to no biking in September-December.

Running – I just missed my 1200km goal in 2014, but I am going to keep my goal at 1200km 2015.  I am going to try to run more off road this year than I have the past 2 yrs. The reason for keeping this goal, is it will take me awhile to get up into longer distances with my front foot running, and my weight gain will definitely be holding me back from any runs over 90min.

Crossfit – a new and exciting addition to my goal list. With only 13 WoDs in 2014 I am hoping to get to 100 WoDs in 2015. That’s just under 2 WoDs/week. One good thing with Crossfit is I can run to and from the Box for extra training. That will have to be a day by day decision after I see what the WoD is. In addition to the 100 WoDs, my goal is to get up to Rx level on every WoD by Decemeber, not get hurt, and to lift with good technique.

The above challenges have more to do with life, work and motivation. If I can keep those things balanced, I should be able to reach all of my training goals. So let’s look at the harder, more challenging challenges of 2015.

Ironman Kalmar – Last year I held back from the start until the last 3-4km of the running.  I drank way too much on the bike and it cost me with several stops to pee along the bike and along the run. I crossed the finish line in 11:24. Well under 12 hours, but a long long way down to 10 hours. I know now that Sub 10 is not realistic for me. Sub 11 is my goal for 2015 in Kalmar. I know weather will play a big part in my finishing time, if I go slower then I will compare the difference between my time in 2014 to the winners time to the difference in those times from 2015. But to get to Sub 11 will require some work from me. It’s the last long race of the year for me. So I will need to stay focused on my training during the summer vacation. Areas I need to improve on during the race.  I need to swim straighter. I think I lost some time swimming side to side. I need to close my eyes to those around me and swim my own race. I need to get to my comfort speed earlier in the race so that by the time the first wave passes the first turning buoy I am not surrounded by others.  I will need to stay focused on swimming during swimming and not start to wonder what I will eat first after the race. and above all else I need to trust my swimming abilities.  On the bike I need to stop looking at others, I need to bike with feeling and not numbers on a screen. I have decided to eat and drink when needed and not according to a plan. It’s not easy biking with a full bladder and no so fun watching (or hearing) bikers zipp passed you. I need to stay focused on how I feel and not where I am in the race, how many have passed me and how many are coming up from behind.  I need to keep my head down and my knees in and I know I will do well.  During the run I have to have faith that my legs will hold up. I have to trust in my training. I have to keep moving.  Last year after the first loop I still had a good chance at going under 11. After the second loop I knew it would take a miracle, but I walked too much during the end of the second and start of the third loop. But the most important challenge for 2015 Ironman will be holding back during the city center runs.  I had hoped to run around 6min/km, but ran under 5:30 the first 3km with all the supporters lining the streets cheering us along.  The only thing i will be changing for 2015 equipment wise will be my shoes. Here’s looking fwd to Sub 11 in 2015.

And now for the new and exciting challenges of 2015: Not one, but atleast two Swimrun races with my swimrun partner Fredrik Björn as Team TYR Warriors.

First up is the Stockholm Swimrun and then a few weeks later Kustjagaren in Karlskrona. Both races have a roughly a combined 4km swimming and 22km running with 10-12 changes between running and swimming along the way. Both Fredrik and I experienced distance swimmers, and both are new to running and neither of us have done a Swimrun race before. But I think our strong swim background will be a huge benefit.  It should not take us any time to switch from running to swimming.  where some teams will have to slow down their breathing before swimming, I don’t foresee us having to do anything other than pull down our goggles and start swimming. We’ll just have to keep cool on the start of each race when the runners take off and we follow after. If things go well for either of these races, we have even started talking about a third Swimrun here at home, Sjö till Sjö. It’s got less swimming and more running, but as Fredrik said to me a few weeks back. If we can run 22km in May, we should be able to run 30km at the end of Aug. It’s hard to put a time goal on these 2-3 races, but swimming wise we should be able to swim 4km/hr and run 10km/hr and still feel good. that means we should finish under 4 hours. But competing together and having fun along the way is what Swimrun is all about. Thankfully we have two companies that believe in us. TYR Sweden will be supplying us with the equipment we need and Dynamic Training will see to it that we are fit for fight come race day.