Well it's been an interesting few days...gym one day and run 20 minutes the next. A couple of folks I know have mentioned to me that I may not have the athletic talent to even try this. I most likely don't, but nothing ventured, nothing gained I suppose. My best times were done quite a while ago, but for reference they are 20:58 1500 swim (LCM), 1:04 40km ITT (spokes, drop bars, no aero stuff), and 37:12 10km...none of them are particularly stellar, but they are somewhat balanced I suppose.

After sifting through some of the AG results from the various North and South American Ironman races, it is pretty clear to me that I'll need to be in sub-11:00 shape to even have a shot at a roll-down spot in the 50-54 age group. When I do the math, I don't find this impossible...especially since I feel I was in sub-11:30 shape for IM Florida 5 years ago when a distraught lateral collateral ligament in my knee picked the 8 mile mark of the run to go on strike. This led to a 5:47 hobble for the IMF marathon and a 13:30 time. The 7th mile I ran in just over 8 minutes so perhaps I was capable of a better time than 5:47.

Now don't get me wrong...this is certainly no slam dunk goal...but I have never trained more than 3 years in a row for triathlon in my whole life...I managed 3 years in a row before my best Oly time of 2:10 back in 1986. I therefore declare my dream possible.

I have some good resources available to me. I still own my old Computrainer (Nintendo version) and a first generation VASA swim bench. I see no need to replace my ol' Lightspeed from 15 years ago...you may recall the model with the curved seat tube, not unlike the Cervelos of today. I should really do some kind of inventory...dunno how many old wheels, tires, etc I have in the basement.

I have some preliminary thoughts on intermediate goals I would like to accomplish. The three main ones that hit me are a 20km XC-ski race (free technique); a 1/2-marathon in May; and an Olympic-distance triathlon in August. I'm not sure what times are possible yet but at this point, just finishing them sounds good to me.