Full or half measure – my 2013 Triathlon decision

Here I set out my tri background and the relevant facts leading me up to making a decision about what I target in 2013.  I hope that by writing it all down it will both clear the murky waters in my mind and others can help me make the decision.

I did my first triathlon in 2007 inspired by a work colleague who was training for his first Ironman.  From then on I’ve been hooked on the long distance, following results avidly and being a keen listener of IMTalk.  However my actual participation has been sporadic at best – a pool based sprint that first year, 2008 and 2009 generally entered running only events, before doing 2-3 sprints a season since then.

The fact was I enjoyed the idea of the sport more than the actual sport itself, I didn’t enjoy cycling particularly – I rode to train and never for fun and I am a really poor swimmer.  I did my first OW swim at Tuska Tri in 2009 and although I completed it and did well enough my experience of the sea swim put me off a lot more than I should have let it given how strong I raced once through T1.  At the end of 2010 I won a place in the VLM and that winter trained harder than I ever have before proving to myself that although overweight I can do endurance training.  I did a couple more Tri’s that year.

Moving on to this year and in trying to get fit I spent some time on the turbo trainer and had the revelation that has reinvigorated my Tri career.  With the Sufferfest training videos urging me to increase my cadence I realised that I’m much more suited to spinning high speeds in easier gears.  The comfort and improved ability I’ve found by pushing an easier gear at 95-100 compared to my previous mid 70 grinding has meant I now enjoy the experience of riding my bike just for the fun of it.  This has obviously meant I train more on the bike and have improved significantly for little effort.

With this in mind I entered Cosmeston Triathlon, another sprint near me with a lake swim.  This was the source of revelation number two.  On a still lake, in a wetsuit I swim much stronger that I do in a pool.  In training my best 750m swim was 23 minutes and I was near exhaustion but in the lake I came out in a better time and feeling pretty fresh.  I’d done no run training at all in the build up but I find I can run a 5K trained in 22 minutes but pretty much always run 24 regardless of condition,

It was with this newfound confidence I entered BRAT Birmingham Triathlon that I completed just over a week ago.  Purely on the basis of the little difference in price I agreed with the organisers that I’d enter the Olympic distance and they’d let me switch to the sprint if I didn’t feel up to the distance.  I continued to cycle more and more but neglected the other two disciplines and 10 days before race day, having not swam a stroke since Cosmeston 9 weeks earlier, I took myself to a late night swim session with a view to attempting a 1000m swim.  If I could complete it I’d go for the Oly.  Complete it I did and after a break I then did another 2 x 250s for a total time of 49 minutes. Slow but I got there.

Birmingham came and I completed the swim feeling good and in only 42 minutes despite taking it very easy.  For the first time in my life I completed a long swim (my longest ever) at a pace that would see me comfortably inside an IM cutoff.  Which means I now have the dilemma I never thought my mediocre swimming would allow me to have.

I’ve always put Ironman out of reach because I just couldn’t swim that far but if I’m honest I wasn’t tired in Birmingham, another 400m would have been comfortable but could I have done it again? It would have taken a while but I could have made it I’m sure. I’ve found a rhythm and pace I can just plod along at.

The triathlon twitter crowd had great things to say about the Cotswold 113 race and it being not too far away from me seemed like a good event to target for 2013.  I was then thinking about backing it up with a genuine 70.3 later in the year in Galway.  Kathryn works for an Irish company and is very keen on us going.

The thing is I didn’t train anything like as hard as I should have for Birmingham but still beat my 3 hour target and if I’m honest although it would be a challenge to do a 70.3 I do believe that with a couple of months decent training and not attempting anything to fast I could complete a 70.3.  I’m not looking to set records, I’m not fast, I’d only really want to complete.

So I find myself now eyeing up the Outlaw.  That would be a massive challenge but the dates make it completely incompatible with 113 as the gap is only 2 weeks – maybe not for a seasoned campaigner but certainly for a beginner.

Kathryn has said she’ll back me if I decide to go for Outlaw and we’ll make time for the training I’ll need to put in.  People have suggested I might be rushing it and a season of half distance will be better for me but I can’t be sure that future years will grant me the same opportunities to train.

Another question I keep asking myself is whether I really believe I can do it, I’m by nature a very pessimistic person, and I know it’ll be as much a mental challenge to get to the start line fully trained if the doubts start to creep in.  I could lose my current vibe for the sport if it once more becomes all about training and not fun.

Below is a list of pros and cons of each but feel free to throw any more at me in the comments section or via twitter.  I really would appreciate the advice and thoughts of those who’ve already been through this journey as I try to make my decision before Outlaw entries open soon. Green is a pro, red a con, blue an observation.