Committing

About 10 years ago, shortly after finishing my first Ironman I wrote down on a sheet of paper that I wanted to finish as the first amateur at an Ironman race.  On  November 20th, 2011 I made good on that goal.  Twelve days after that I sat in my dining room and hammered out the follow-on goal and what I believed it would take for me to accomplish it.

My goal is simply to be the fastest triathlete I can be, given my life constraints.  Beyond that for 2012 my primary target is to be the amateur champion at Kona.  This is a *very* *very* lofty goal, and well exceeds the desire to simply AG podium, that I walked out of the 2011 awards banquet with.  However, given what I saw at IMAZ – I think that it is not an unreachable target, simply a stretch one.  One that I will have to live up to my goal of being a fast triathlete daily.

For some reason, I never felt comfortable putting this goal out there on my blog or in front of many people.  I think that I have stated this goal to only three people.  There was a lot of fear about putting this out there, as I have with other goals – namely finishing as the first amateur.  It’s one thing to advertise that you want to be the first amateur, but an entirely different thing to put it out there that you want to be the first amateur at Kona – which likely means a low 8:4X time, and top 2X placing.  Talk about opening yourself up to the haters.

I made strong progress towards this goal in 2012, and my results in 2013 were promising in their continued progress.  And then as I pointed out the other day, I’ve basically been treading water since then.  I could spend a lot of words trying to analyze what I have or haven’t done and why I have not made progress towards that goal.  I simply haven’t made progress, and have possibly gone backwards.

Jordan Rapp posted a great post today – Crooked Timber – that served as a reminder to me that in addition to answering the questions I posed yesterday I need to focus on recommit on what it takes to move forward on the path.  Self-discipline.  Eating right.  Training right.  Sleeping right.  Walking the path.  Making it happen.

Thank you Jordan for the reminder.