For posterity’s sake, here were my list of Feats that I wrote down back in January 2009. Here’s my end-of-year wrap up if you want to see what happened.
THE 2009 Year Of Amazing Feats
I have never been in bad shape, but conversly I have never been in what you would call great shape. Well, I’m not getting any younger, so this year is going to be the year I get in the best shape of my life. I am going to complete a series of athletic tasks that seem impossible for me now, but with a ton of hard work I think are achievable. In the process I hope to become as stong and as fast as I have ever been and most likely ever will be in my entire life. Then… shoot, I don’t know, I’ll go to the beach and take lots of photos of my abs to show the kids when I am 400 pounds and bonded with the couch.
THE FEATS
1. Place in the top half of my division for the Deschutes Dash Triathlon: To me, this is the one I want to complete the most. In fact, many of the feats I have set for myself were done to make me stronger, faster, and tougher just so I can reach this goal. I had a blast doing this race, but even as I was doing it I could see that I could be doing it so much better. Now that I have a good idea what the race entails, I have twice as long to train as I did last time, and I have a time to race against. I set a pretty aggressive goal for myself here—I’ll need to finish at least 30 minutes better than last year—but it is going to be a blast trying.
For the record, here is the times I got for each leg of the 2008 Deschutes Dash:
Swim- 00:21:20.100
min/100yd- 00:01:25.3
T1- 00:05:32.400
Bike- 01:41:03.500
mph- 14.8
T2- 00:01:21.400
Run- 00:58:30.300
min/mi- 00:09:26.2
Total Time- 03:07:47.7
2. Do three triathlons: After last year’s triathlon I was in pretty good shape, but I just completely stopped working out. I lost motivation, quite honestly. By doing three this year, it will give me one to do as a trial run to the Dash, the main prize of the Dash itself, and then one to keep me motivated through the rest of the summer. The races I am planning on doing are the Pacific Crest in Sunriver on June 28, the Deschutes Dash in Bend on July 19, and the Portland Triathlon in Portland on August 23.
3. Run a half-marathon: I’ve never entered a running race before, and I’ve rarely ever run this far in my life, so this should be interesting. I’m still trying to figure out what race I will do; the temptation is to do it before the triathlons to get in shape, but I don’t know if that will mean I am doing to much run training, leading me to perhaps sacrifice swimming or biking. The other option, and the one I am leaning towards, is to do it after that last tri so that I can both focus on running exclusively and have motivation to keep training. The race I am looking at is the XTERRA Trail Running National Championship in Bend on September 13. It wouldn’t give me too much time to focus on running, but at the same time I should be pretty dialed in on the swim and bike by August so I could probably get enough runs in to make it work.
4. Complete the duathlon under 1:10:00: Last year I competed in the Fresh Air Sports Time Trials/Duathlon Series, which was great training for the race conditions of a tri. The pace, the transitions, the competition… well, the competition, not so much, as I place dead last every single race. This year it would be nice to not be the last guy there. My best time was 1:13:30; that was the last one before the tri, so I was in my best condition, and I left it all on the course, so making up 3.5 minutes is going to be a huge challenge. Quite honestly, I don’t know if even 1:10:00 will even be enough to not be last place, frighteningly enough; the people who compete in this are all quite incredible; hopefully I’ll get a day with some first timers!
5. Run 10K under 50:00: This will be very tough, as I am just not all that fast of a runner. But if I want to get the tri time I want to get, I need to be able to do the run in about this time. The average speed to do this is about 7.2 mph, so that will be the number to look out for.
6. Run a 7:00 mile: This one is just plain bonkers. I plan on doing speed work this year, so as long as I am at the track I figured what the hell. The average speed for this is 8.6 mph. Maybe if I buy a moped I can do this one.
7. Swim 30 laps in 25 minutes: Another one to get the tri time. The average lap length for this is :50, which is absolutely blazing compared to what I am at now, but I think with some lessons and some instruction I can become a much more efficient swimmer. My ultimate goal would be to join the Bend Masters Swim group, but those folks scare the skittles out of me, so I got a ways to go before I can hang with that crowd.
8. Do 100 push ups in a row: What a stupid number of push ups. Why not just say a bajillion? Anyway, this should be a fun one to try and do. I’ll be doing push ups as part of my lifting plan for the first three months; depending on where I am at with them in April, I might switch over to the 100 Push Up Challenge and give them more focus.
9. Do 15 pull ups: What is cooler than pull ups? Nothing. I think I can do like 2 right now. This should be nuts.
10. Bench press my body weight 10 times: I haven’t done bench press in a long time, so this should be fun. This one might take most of the year. Also, what better motivator to keep my weight as low as possible?
11. Land a 360 degree jump on the snowboard: This one could be the toughest, but probably the most fun. I have never done a jump of any kind, as I tend to get freaked out when I try. To do a trick would crazy; if I can manage this I am totally going to try a halfpipe.
