Happy New Year! Goal Setting in 2011

I'm quite excited to see 2010 come to a close from a triathlon standpoint. It was pretty devastating to be derailed by injury and the start of 2011 has me as optimistic as ever. This week was an awesome one. It was my highest volume in a week outside of my training camp 2 summers ago. My total training time was 31 hours. I only had 2 days that were under 4 hours training time and they weren't under by much. For the week I did 21 workouts as planned covering 55 miles running, 255 miles biking, and 20,400 yards swimming. It was my highest totals in all three yet this ye. I had a plan to pour on the volume since I wasn't working. I wanted to find out how well I could recover 8 weeks into training from high volume. It went very well. I had two great interval workouts on the bike and one on the track. I put in a lot of yards over 4 swims with 3 of them being with the Pleasant Valley high school team. Those guys put in a ton of yards over break! In addition to the totals above I lifted weights, did speed drills, strides, push-ups, jump rope, and lunges all three times, plyometrics twice, and core work 10 times. This week was enough to convince me that I'll be ready to race on March 19th in San Juan, Puerto Rico if Jen and I can ever get the trip booked. There are way too many logistical things to figure out to make that an easy plan...airfare, bike shipping, park and fly, hotel in San Juan, registration for the race, rental car...etc. We hope to get it done this week as I'll have some extra time with a recovery week planned to let my body adapt to the big volume. I've built up 4 weeks in a row and it's time to rest up a bit with a much lighter training week and a return to school.

I was thankful to get a massage this week from Laurel Darren and that got my body feeling really recovered so I could put in this kind of volume. I always feel really fresh after the massages from Laurel. I also went through a lot of GU Energy to fuel this kind of volume and I'm thankful to have GU supporting me again in 2011! Owen has noticed my liking to GU and he always goes crazy when I mix up some GU Recovery Brew so I had to fill the bottle with some water for him. It's great to see that Owen is a GU fan at such a young age!!

My favorite workout this week was a bike interval workout on Saturday night. My benchmark workout is 5x5 minutes at the highest wattage I can hold. Last week I did 310 watts and I knew with the volume this week that 320 was going to have to wait a week but I planned a workout to help get me ready to handle 320 watts. I programmed the entire workout into the new Cycleops Powerbeam Pro trainer and it went well. I did 4x 3 minutes at 320 watts followed by 10x 1 minute at 370 watts with a 1 minute easy recovery after each. This workout was my favorite because Jen and I used it as a date night as I moved the trainer right next to the treadmill and she did the same workout on the treadmill running her 3 minute hard periods at 6:00/mile pace and her 1 minute hard periods at 5:40 pace. Having two kids and both being into training a lot this may become a pretty standard date night in the Paul household. Payton didn't want to go to sleep and watched "The Little Mirmaid" from the couch next to us probably thinking that mom and dad were nuts for sweating through this insanity from 9:00-10:30 at night.

I have very high goals for 2011 and I hope all of you reading this blog have thought about your own personal goals. Here is some of the latest research on goal setting:

1. Goals are more likely to be met when they are written down

2. They are even more likely to be met if they are told to other people...hence why I am going to put my goals out there for everyone who cares to see. (If you want to share your goals with me send me an e-mail and I will periodically check in with you throughout the year to see how the progress is going. Seriously, I'd love to do this.) My biggest reason for this journey has turned to inspiring others to do something they never thought possible!

3. Goals are more likely to be met if they are specific and measurable. Simply put...if your goal is to lose weight you are more likely to do it if you are specific about how much weight rather than saying, "I want to lose weight."

4. I read one time that people who are obsessed with their goals are much more likely to achieve them. I'd say I'm in that category. I'm obsessed with reaching these goals in 2011. I think about them every day. I e-mailed them to myself and they will stay in my inbox throughout the entire year. They are posted in my workout book that I carry with me every day.

5. Long-term goals are most likely achieved when they are broken down into short-term goals. This is why I use a weekly goal checklist and list out my mileage/yardage goals every week in addition to all the small things in training I want to accomplish. If someone has a goal to lost 20 lbs. in 2011 it will be better to set a short-term goal in January to lose 3 lbs. than to think of the big picture 20 the entire year. When long-term goals are all people have they tend to lose focus much easier and much quicker.

So...here are my goals for 2011 for the entire world to see...or anyone who stumbles on this blog entry.

1. I will develop the confidence that I belong in the professional races with the best triathletes in the world.

2. I will get my body fat % to 9 or less by May.

3. I will get my race weight to 148 lbs. or less by May 7.

4. I will build my long run to at least 2 hrs. 15 minutes by mid-April

5. I will lift weights 3x a week until March and then 2x a week through the end of the season

6. I will increase weights on leg lifts by 10% over last year

7. I will build my running mileage up to 65 miles/week by mid-April

8. I will "eat to perform" instead of "performing to eat"

9. I will build my "Ironman Swim Day" up to 1 hr. 5 minutes by mid-April

10. I will complete the 5x5 workout on the bike at 340 watts by April 1

11. I will build my long ride to 140 miles by April 10th

12. I will make the podium at a professional race this year

13. I will continue to do all the little things like lunges, push-ups, jump rope...etc. week in and week out knowing those things will make the difference.

That's it. You can check in with me any time to ask my progress on those goals. The only goal in here that I don't have complete control over is making the podium at a pro race. I can't control who shows up for the races that I am doing. It's important to set goals that you can control. I believe by meeting all of the above goals that I can control it will put me in a good position to make the podium in a professional race. Set small goals and if you meet them time after time the big goal will take care of itself. Thanks for reading. Set high goals and tell them to someone...I would love to hear them. DREAM BIG!!