One year and counting...

It's been a while, but I'm back. With exactly one year until Ironman Switzerland it is time to get serious about training, diet and the most importantly the mental game. The race is set for Sunday July 28th 2013 and I plan to be on the starting line. If you want to join me you can find more information here. http://ironmanzurich.com/After many months of frustration with my ankle I decided to have surgery. On May 9th I went under the knife and have been recovering ever since. My training and racing have always provided an outlet for me to not only reduce stress, but to give me something I don't get at work. I don't generally discuss work in my blog and I probably won't after this either. I work for a large private company which doesn't really suit my personality. I am not one for office politics and we have a ton. With triathlon I am able to set goals and make plans to achieve them, in other words I am in control. This has been missing the last few months.
Speaking of goals, the main goal is a lofty one for me. Sub 13 hours. This will be my second attempt at the distance and after the first one, 13:56:34 means I have about 1 hour to make up. My weakest link in that race was the bike, which works out well since improvement on the bike will yeild the biggest time gains. Obviously the ankle surgery will put a damper on my running fitness especially at the beginning, but I have the most confidence in that leg and feel a 5 hour marathon will still be in my grasp. Not sure how the transitions will be setup but looking at the results from last year I don't see very many double digit transitions so I suspect they will be fairly quick. A basic blueprint would be start the bike before 1:30, start the run before 7:45, that will give me 5 hours and 15 minutes for the marathon.
My next few posts I'll be describing what I think I need to do to make that main goal happen and setting some other goals that are all geared to bring about the sub 13. So do I really think I can go sub 13 one year from now? Yes, yes I do.