Happy to report that I just received official notification that I am indeed entered in the 2009 / 25th Anniversary of the Ultraman World Championships this November in Hawaii.
Not that I didn’t think they would let me in, but receiving the notice just made it all very real. I am so excited. Its exactly the time of year last year when I began to think about doing Ultraman for the first time, and comparing my level of fitness and experience right now to that of last year is a joke. As long as I am able to train consistently, stick to my plan and avoid illness & injury, and barring any major race issues (crashes / bike problems / nutrition problems, etc.), I am very confident that I can perform wildly beyond what I achieved in the 2008 race. My lactate test numbers are already better than they were last August and are only going to improve from here.
Analyzing my 2008 UM performance, there are just so many areas to improve.
CYCLING: Looking at the numbers, cycling is my clear limiter, which means more intense focus on this — miles, miles and more miles. In addition, last year my bike was all wrong, so I’m looking to Lloyd at TriathlonLab to help me get into a proper TT setup that is fast, but more importantly, comfortable. I laugh thinking back to last year, as I was so uncomfortable on my road bike during training that I actually broke a cardinal rule and changed my bike fit 2 days before the race! I truly believe with the experience I have gained, some serious miles, more strength & speed work, and an appropriate bike setup I will be poised for some major time drops on the cycling legs of the race. In fact, I think I probably lost at least 30-40 minutes on the first day and possibly more on the second day due solely to having the wrong bike. Not to mention the fact that I now know the course and can train accordingly for the terrain. One more major area where I can improve on the bike? I really need to learn how to pee without stopping! Man, I lost SERIOUS time last year making WAY too many natural breaks. Guess I’ll have to find some remote areas to practice this sacred art:)
RUNNING: Per my coach Chris Hauth, I adopted the world’s most conservative approach to the Day 3 double marathon. His primary concern was that I finish w/o injury or nutrition / digestion problems. As so the strategy was run 4 miles, walk 1 mile. I admit it paid dividends over the last 20 miles, clocking in at 9 hrs exactly. But I can do so much better. I did a couple 40 & 45 mile runs in training last year and know I can do the distance faster. My goal for ’09? 7:59. I can do it.
SWIMMING: Because swimming is my strength and I knew I could perform well here, I didn’t focus on it too intensely in training last year, swimming only about 3-4 times / week on average. Don’t get me wrong — I was prepared for the 6.2 miles, putting in more than a few 10,000 yard workouts. But swimming only 3-4 times a week doesn’t cut it. Plus I NEVER did any longcourse workouts and not once did I train in the ocean. So with a few simple adjustments, and maybe 1-2 more swim sessions per week (plus coming off last year’s fitness), I will be much faster this year. Last year I was 2nd in the swim to Marty Raymond, who surged on me at about 3K in, opened a gap and held it, coming out of the water about 2 minutes ahead of me. Unfortunately Marty won’t be participating this year, as the Royal Canadian Army is dispatching him to Afganistan this Fall. Marty, you will be missed. So it would appear that this leaves the swim wide open for me to take. But not so fast. This will be the 25th Anniversary of the event, and I’m sure this means some ringers are sure to show who didn’t compete last year — guys like Jonas Colting (super studly former UM Champ) and perhaps Florian Kraft, who set the swim record at UM Canada last year. The list of entrants is not up yet, so I still don’t know who I will be facing, but I have no doubt there will be some fast swimmers.
In any event, my training is coming into focus and I am up and at it with renewed vigor and excitement. I’ll be sure to keep you posted along the journey, and thanks for reading!
