Looking ahead to 2024 and beyond

 It occurred to me that after 2024, things will be changing. My daughter will be in school starting in
September 2025. The idea of just heading out to some exotic triathlon destination in the Fall 2025 may be difficult. It will at the very least be very different. I would do it alone and/or for a much shorter duration. It will certainly feel a great deal different So I feel very fortunate to have one more year of family trips without the consideration of a school calendar. As I thought through what my actual goals were for 2024, this is where I landed. BLOW IT OUT WITH TRIPS!

My saintly wife knows at this point that whenever we take a trip I may just look for a local triathlon to check out. Now that I have invested in a Buxom case, traveling with bike is almost easy (not really but close). I've already hinted at some races for 2024 and a lot of this is still TBD. But first things first:

Goal 1: Travel as much as possible with family and bike in tow ;)

But where should we go? How about this:

1. Sarasota for the first triathlon of the year in January! Ok this one only kind of counts because I couldn't convince anyone else to join me in Sarasota. So this will be strictly a pop in/pop out race. I love that its the weekend after New Years (I may regret saying that if the weather sucks) to get a race every month!

2. Havana in February! An honest to goodness legal reason to take the family to one of the craziest places on earth. My wife is looking forward to getting back to where she studied. Even my daughter turned to me out of the blue and said "I can't wait to go to Coooba". This will be another perfect Spanish immersion opportunity for my bilingual (except me) family. And it's an international race that as I have learned will show in my World Triathlon profile  but will not show up in any USAT rankings. Oh well. But can't wait!!

3. Austin on Memorial Day! My wife turned to me and said "When is the triathlon in San Antonio?" as if every city has one or many triathlons. We have family there and she knows her husband. I did some research and apparently there is a TRULY MASSIVE triathlon in Austin on Memorial Day Monday. So I calmly said, "Ok, that would be Memorial Day". And it looks like it may just work out! May even be able to count this as Spanish immersion depending on where go too ;)

4. Omaha in June! But what about the World Chamionships in 2025? Well, like I mentioned, I'm kind of thinking this may not be a good fit do to school. But maybe I try to do it because it is a huge massive challenge that would require my absolute best? I'm kind of jonesing to try the mixed relay but want to really go for it. Not that I'm so great but I DID get 4th in the US at Nationals this year and 5th overall for the US in the Worlds. So I don't want to just show up, I want to get some not 5 talent around me. I put my name on a list but we'll see. I love the super sprint by World Triathlon doesn't so might skip that and just do the Sprint. Although frankly doing the Super Sprint didn't hurt me this year at Nationals. What's the point to this again? I'm not sure. This one is up in the air.

5. Malaga in October! Definitely the crown jewel of the year. We are going to do a big 2 week blow out in Southern Spain. I planned on doing Southern Spain after Pontevedra but then they announced Malaga would be the location of the 2025 WTCF and I switched it to Mallorca. I can't wait to plan this one. Probably not possible to top how well things went this year in Galicia but this race has a strong "prolonging the magic" kind of feel. And it's fully Spanish immersion!

6. Florida or Arizona in November? I didn't do the Sun Devil Classic this year and opted to do a family trip to Orlando which was great. I'm intrigued by the draft legal aspect (and a spot on the national team for age group winners). We'll see how this one plays out.

7. Key West in December: Need to defend my crown in 2024. And also it's just so darn awesome being there. Hope I enough family goodwill to pull it off. 

* I may have some "targets of opportunity" in Tennessee and Georgia depending on how things work out. May could fit in triathlons in 9 states and 3 countries all in all. YOLO!

What about other goals!? I feel it would be hard not to thinking about the following so may as well make them goals:

Goal 2: Win NCTS Series

Goal 3: Win SCTS Series

Goal 4: Get All American Status

Goal 5: Even though I may not attend do to Sofia's school schedule, I'd still like to qualify for the 2025 World Championships wherever they decide to have them. 

Super Stretch: Seems unlikely given our top state performer, but - Top ranked triathlete in NC for Age Group.

Keys to the Year

 

Just got back from Key West in what I hope is a grand tradition of winter triathlons and ending the year in style in paradise (that's me and Santa Earnest Hemingway at his family foundation's Rum distillery). The weather was perfect, it was a ton of fun and happened to finish the Sprint in first place this year. It was a perfect way to end what has got to be the most successful year athletically of my life and one that I won't even try to top.

Before I sum up where ended up with my goals, I wanted to document what turned into a major in-season goal for me - podiums. In 18 races last year, I had 6 podiums including 2 out right wins. Now I'm the first to admit that podiums are truly a function of who happened to show up as much as it is about my own personal execution. But it feels good to win and podiums are a good metric. I judge myself on age group wins but let's face it, winning the whole darn thing feels even better. 

In 2023, I participated in 25 races (also a record for triathlons) not to mention 3 running races as well. Of the 3 running races I did well overall, capped with an outright win at the Reindeer Romp 5k the weekend before Key West. Of the 25 triathlons I did, I managed to get a true (not divisional) win for my age group a total of 15 times (fwiw a divisional 1st in AG 21 times). Of the 25 triathlons, I got 8 podiums including my outright win in Key West as the capper. I ended the year podium'ing 7 of my last 10 races! Statically I have podiumed 33% of my races the past 2 years. That shocked me especially since several of these races I've included are the Nationals/Worlds as well as the "mistake races" of wrong turns and other such nightmares. 

Looking at my "in-league" play, I had a better overall average NCTS and SCTS score than I did in 2022. I also had a higher weighted avg (which is what really counts) for SCTS but slightly lower in NCTS (I think mostly due to the Lake Logan debacle and the fact that the Fall White Lake Event was attended to by some heavyweights whereas i was the overall winner in 2022). 

Perhaps the ultimate (and supposedly race neutral) measure of performance is USAT score. If you average all my races from both 2022 and 2023, my average USAT score jumped over 3 points. If you look at my weighted average (average of top 3 races within a year), my average jumped over 4 points to my all time high best USAT score - 98.4880!

Podiums are fun to track and, again, just a function of who shows up so i doubt I'll ever have it as a true goal. But let's review my goals and how I landed:

1. Qualify for Team USA 2024: Status: ACHIEVED! This was my #1 goal when I set out last year. As I've discussed, it was no cake walk. I'd say I barely qualified and it took an absolute career day on the bike, a very competitive swim, perfect transitions, and a run where I gutted out to the end. We have just started to sketch what our trip to Malaga will look like next October but I am absolutely thrilled and shocked beyond belief that we get ANOTHER chance to take my bilingual family to a place that speaks Spanish again. Spending back to back years in Spain during formative years for my daughter has been a blessing and the greatest series of events I could have asked for. 

2. Qualify for Team USA 2023: Status: ACHIEVED! This one snuck up on me. Didn't ever hear of a "super sprint" before but when I heard that there would be slots to go to Spain THIS YEAR, I jumped on it. Again, it took EVERYTHING I had to qualify and I did barely (4th place when top 5 would count). The experience in Pontevedra was beyond my expectation both in terms of the cultural opportunity it was for my family, but also the race itself where I was the 5th fastest American overall and the fastest American in my AG, 9th in the world. Couldn't have scripted that one better.

3. Win NCTS Series: Status: ACHIEVED! I participated in 7 NCTS events this year. One event, Lake Logan, was a disaster as I was in first place overall, was told to take a wrong turn, ended up going an additional 4-5 miles. Made even worse was that they are now no longer doing Lake Logan. So my favorite race of all time went out on a bad note. Of the remaining 6 races, I got a true 1st place AG finish 5 times, but divisionally (which is actually more important for points), I got it all 6 races. Frankly there wasn't a strong field here this year.

4. Win SCTS Series: Status: ACHIEVED! I participated in 5 SCTS events this year. I got a true 1st place AG finish 3 times, but achieved it divisionally all 5 times. Again, I never felt like there was a big group challenging my position this year. 

5. Get All American Status: ACHIEVED! Well, I should say 'should achieve' since all results aren't in USAT rankings yet. Honestly, the website is a mess right now with people with 0 races and a ranking of 144 in 1st place? Anyway, my analysis showed I needed a 92.9 last  year and I would be an all American even for the 40-44 crowd now. So feel pretty good here.

Then there was the stretch goal. 

6. Be the top ranked triathlete in NC for my age group: Missed! Again, the final results aren't in yet but I know for sure I won't finish higher than 2nd. But 2nd here would be a pretty good result and something to build on. It was a stretch for sure and I'm really proud to be in the company of the athletes I see at the top of the rankings.

That sums up 2023! What about 2024? What about goals? Well, I need to think about it. A few things are known for sure. First, I'm doing the very first triathlon of the year in 2024 in Sarasota! My 3rd Florida winter tri! Can't wait. Second, we know we'll be in Malaga for the Sprint in October! Trip planning to commence soon. Really excited about that as a Spanish immersion opportunity. The final thing that is known for 2024 is ANOTHER Spanish immersion. We are doing Cuba in February! It is a legal reason to go to Cuba and will be another way to get immersion for my family. Cannot wait! Other goals to follow soon!