A new beginning

Well, I have my first month of training from Coach Geoff as I set out on a new adventure for the year. It's recovery mode for a few weeks yet, but now that I have completed my first iron-distance race, I am starting to believe in my ability to become more of an athlete.

I have a whole new perspective on training, on my limits (and how my perceptions of what they are have always held me back) and what I might be capable of. In most areas of my life I have always believed that anything is possible if you work hard enough, but never really felt that to be true of my athletic prowess. NOW, I BELIEVE!

This year I have some ambitious goals and I am going to pick them off as the year unfolds:

1) First and foremost I am going to get my weight down to something that is going to allow me to be faster and stronger. That means loosing another 20-25kg so that I am under 80kg - a weight I haven't been since I was about 16 years old. I can't imagine what that will be like, but I know that at very least I will be much faster than I am now.

2) A sub 1:30 half marathon before the end of the year. Given the planned level of weight loss, that should be a breeze (1kg is usually equated to 2-3 sec per km and my PB stands at just under 1:45), but I know that I am still going to have to work hard to achieve this.

3) A 3:40 marathon. This is a conservative target (if I attempt this at my goal weight) but, as I will also be training for Challenge 2012, my guess is it will be hard to fit in too much marathon-specific training. This will be more than 50 minutes off my PB.

4) Top 20 in my age group for Challenge 2012. This will require a more than 3 hour improvement on 2011 and somehow trying to overcome the cramping issues that I faced this year. In fact the cramping should deal with most of the time I need to make up and the weight loss a significant amount more.

None of this is going to be easy, but the rewards will be huge. I love what I have learnt over the last 12 months and I want to use it to become leaner, stronger, faster and more ambitious. I no longer accept that I am a back of the pack athlete for life. This year is all about working hard to move my way through the pack and I have longer term ambitions to make it close to the head of the field. The 'Good-on-ya-big-guy' that people have been encouraging over the last couple of years is going to become someone to be taken a bit more seriously.

Race reports are on the way, but I don't have consistent internet access at the moment and I have been busy with work and catching up on lost family time.