So the USA, the country I live in, made it's choices yesterday about how to handle the challenges of the next 4 years. Being too foreign to vote here, I found myself wanting to make choices about something and my mind naturally drifted to my new challenges.
2012 saw a lot of challenges faced... this year I had cataract surgery, on both eyes. I've spent much of the year with decent vision in only one eye. I've been dealing with the effects of drugs to suppress my immune system. The biggest challenge of the year took up most of my time, which was racing at Ironman Wales. Training for the challenge of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run takes time - a lot of time. Knowing that the course in Wales is one of the hardest out there certainly provided motivation. Best of all, I got to use this challenge to raise money for Olivia's Vision; they're a UK-based charity that provide support for sufferers of uveitis (many of whom are children), they also provide specialist training for doctors and support research.
So what now?
Well, first of all, I've been sufficiently lazy since the Ironman that I have to do something. Fortunately the girl has stepped in with a plan for the winter! She wants to run her first marathon in early March; she has the race picked out and is starting her training. Oh, and she wants me to do it too.
So I'm running my first stand-alone marathon in March and I get to finish and cheer the girl over the line for her first marathon, which takes care of the next 16 weeks of training. Along the way I'm going to try to throw some snowshoeing and snowboarding in as cross-training.
From March 2013 onward I still have a blank calendar. I still want to race triathlon, and I'm looking forward to improving my ranking - both in the New Mexico open water tri series and in the USAT age group rankings. There's a choice to make about the Tour de Los Alamos too. I've won my age group in the Citizens category for the last 3 years, improving my overall position from 8th to 2nd. Do I man up and cat up, as the race director tells me I should, racing with a USAC license in the Category 4/5 Men's race? I want to do another half-Ironman too, so I've choices to make there.
None of this seems like a BIG challenge. I've done all of this before, to some degree. Well, after Boulder 70.3 I think I can improve to the point where qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas is possible! I covered the distance in under 5 hours at Boulder and I know I could have been faster. All it needed was a taper into the race and not sandbagging the run because I was "training for Wales". Can I get over 20 minutes faster? How about 30 minutes? That's the sort of improvement I'll need to get to Vegas. Now that's a challenge.
It probably won't happen this year, though I think I can get close. The other thing that's missing is a cause. Sure, endurance racing is kinda selfish and I do get a lot out of it, but I want to have something to race for too. I'll still support Olivia's Vision, but since everything will be in the US this year I want to do something here. Stay tuned for an update - I have a good idea about who I want to support, and when I have a plan I'll put it in words so there's nowhere for me to hide.
What are you challenging yourself with?
- Steve
