New Blog - 2023 Targets (Triathlon)

This year I have 3 World Championships in Ibiza in May (Aquathlon, Cross Triathlon, Cross Duathlon), European Aquathlon Champs in Menen, Belgium in August, and two as yet unknown Euro Champs (Cross Triathlon and Cross Duathlon).

I also have a bigger adventure plan for the year, that will follow this post in about an hour and which affects some of what is written in here. 

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I am (as always) going to stick with setting mileage targets and then sort of ramble about other things I have planned in this year. Hopefully slightly less as I have broken out anything non-triathlon from this version into a whole separate adventure list.

Some of the numbers are going to look funny as instead of rounding them I have set them to an average per week. The adventure post should make the reasons for that more clear. 

Races 

Obviously my main plan is to go to the Worlds and try and do as well as I did last year. 6th (XDUA), 10th (XTRI) and 12th (AQUA) are going to be tough targets to beat. Especially, further removed from Covid and in a more 'civilised' venue that isn't going to deter competitors from attending. But they are very early in the season and I will have a big chunk of racing to follow on from them.

At the end of summer I have the European Aquathlon in Belgium. I was a bit disappointed with the result of last year's race in Bratislava. The event was great and I ran well, but I should have placed higher. I want to at least get back in to the top-20, especially with this race not (currently) being impacted by other races the same week.

I will also hopefully take part in the Scottish Aquathlon Champs and the Scottish Cross Championships if I can fit them around the rest of the year, but again the dates and venues have not been announced yet. If I can fit them I will put in any other Scottish Champs that fit. 

The only 'local' race I actually know definitively about is Glasgow Aquathlon at the start of March. I had a decent race there last year despite a cracked rib and this time I will need to use it as a sharpener before Ibiza.

And of course I will go to Inverness for the North District Championships to defend my hurdles title, again.

Numbers 

I have written some numbers for the year. 

I have set my stretch distance targets so they are 105% of the base target, but I have moved the base targets, quite markedly. e.g. My base swim target is 12 miles higher than my longest ever swim year.

Swimming 

I keep letting swimming sessions go, and turning planned sessions into lazy miles, but not enough lazy miles to be useful in themselves. In yet another attempt to combat that my plan is to just crank up the number. That will force me to either swim measurably longer on the junk sessions, or to actually do more sensible structured sessions.
I have just rolled over my target race times from 2020, and 2021, and 2022 again. 

Target 156.9 miles. 
Stretch Target 164.7 miles.

Biking

No commuting on the bike (and none planned as my current employer still doesn't have adequate changing facilities) so bike miles will be mostly mountain biking, hopefully some summer riding, and the turbo trainer. I need to get out on the mountain bike, on much more technical mountain bike terrain to prepare for Cross Triathlons and Duathlons. Last year I coped, this year I want to be able to ride them properly at race pace.

I am also going to up the percentage that is mountain bike from 25% to 33%.

I did absolutely nothing on my TT bike last year. I doubt I will ride a TT race this year, but hopefully I can get back on the TT bike for some triathlons at some point. 

Target 2,133.8 miles.
Target 711.3 MTB miles.

Stretch target 2,240.5 miles. 
Stretch target 746.8 MTB miles. 


Running

2020 was silly on the running front. 2021 was slightly less silly, but still 35% over target was nothing like sensible. 2022 was about right, and I was just short of my stretch target despite more shortened runs than I want to admit. 

I am going to have another go at running a marathon distance this year. Possibly not as a race, just for myself, to prove that I can do better than my Edinburgh disaster. In simply adding that preparation to my calendar I am going to aim for 1,128.9 miles. 

My stretch target of 105% comes out at 1,185.3 miles.

I managed my defence of my North District Hurdles streak. And since no-one took it off me again, I am going to stand on the logic that I am still defending champion, and go again in 2023. Whether I can make that 28-year streak will again depend on whether I can even get over a hurdle this year. The injections that I had last year made the world of difference to my hip and if I can get them again this year I fancy my chances of running a decent time.

I no longer want to run my age for 10k as an absolute minimum. Turning 47 this year means that target is now much too soft. I actually want to get that sort of time in before the end of January. I am planning to be back under 40 minutes as well with a good shot at going under 39 if I get a good weather attempt. 

I also want to get under 19 minutes for 5k and ideally I think a sub-18mins might even be possible if I can find the right course / weather / field and injections. 


Triathlon

I managed to win the 2021 Scottish Aquathlon Champs, and I have no good reason to think that I can't defend that. I should be in the medals in that race every year so I have kept that medal as my target for this year and winning as the stretch as there is always a chance of someone moving up from the age-group below. 

I have qualified for the 2023 European Aquathlon Champs in Belgium already. I am in the middle of the age-group this year so finishing about the same as last year is likely, but I want more than that so have moved my target to a top-20 finish, and my stretch to top-18.

I have qualified for the 2023 World Championships in Ibiza for 3 events. I really want to stay in the top-10 for both of the Cross races despite what will undoubtedly be a much tougher field. I also want to stay in the top-15 for the Aquathlon. (Weirdly the Euros is normally harder.)

I have also managed to get selected for European Cross Triathlon and Cross Duathlon) races but the venues and dates for them haven't been announced so I have no idea where they fit in my plan. If I can make them work my stretch target is to get in the top-10 for either race but if they go somewhere cheap/accessible that might be a huge ask. 


Others

Yoga.
I am going to start January again by signing up to 30 consecutive days of Yoga www.yogawithadriene.com, but I know, again, I am not going to stick to that schedule. My base target is to do one session per week for the full year, and to have done all 30 of the YWA 2023 sessions by the first of April. Then for the rest of the year, just one yoga session per week. That gets me to a stretch total of 69 sessions for the year.

Stretching and rollering.
I was fine with these through the year but some of those sessions consisted of 5 or 6 minutes. I am going to keep this as it was at 1/week, but try and make them into 20-30 minutes every week. 

Weights and Core. 
As always I did really well at the start of last year and then faded off as the year progressed. I want to do 52 of each but I recognise that historically that has been unrealistic. I am going to set that as the stretch target, then assume that I will do 12 races through the year and not attempt these sessions in race weeks. So a base target of 40 of each, stretch target of 52. 

Targets by numbers

Represent GBR age-group at multiple international events. 
Qualify for the GBR Age-group team for a 2024 European and a 2024 World Championships.
Finish top-20 at European Aquathlon Champs.
Finish top-15 at World Aquathlon Champs.
Medal at Scottish Aquathlon Champs.

Swim 156.9 miles. 

Swim under 6:15 minutes for 400m.
Swim under 11:45 minutes for 750m.
Swim under 25:30 minutes for 1,500m.


Ride 2,133.8 miles.
MTB 711.3 miles

Run 1,128.9 miles.
Run a 5k in under 19 mins or 10k in under 40 mins. 

>52 Yoga sessions
>40 Stretching and rollering sessions.
>40 Core sessions.
>40 Weights sessions.

>50 Run reps or ‘fast’ sessions. 


Stretch Targets

Qualify for the GBR Age-group team for a second 2024 European Championships.
Qualify for the GBR Age-group team for a second 2024 World Championships.
Win the Scottish Aquathlon Champs. 
Finish top-18 at World Aquathlon Champs.
Finish top-10 at any International Cross race.

Swim 143 miles.

Swim under 6:00 minutes for 400m.
Swim under 11:30 minutes for 750m.
Swim under 24:59 for 1,500m.

Ride 2,240.5 miles. MTB 746.8 miles.

Run 1,185.3 miles.

Run a 5k in under 18 mins or 10k in under 39 mins. 
Run another 5k in under 18:30 or 10k in under 39:30.

>69 Yoga sessions
>52 Stretching and rollering sessions.
>52 Core sessions.
>52 Weights sessions.

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