Reflection on the physique (2022)

My sporting goals for the year 2022 were quite diverse. Because I have the goal to finish an iron man before I turn 30 (in 2027), I thought it was a good idea to do training 1) running, 2) cycling, and 3) swimming. Next to that, I also figured I should throw in some random challenges.

The result of having so many different goals was that I ended up sporting much more than I did in the years before! Hurray! That’s awesome!

As you can see in the graph and the table, I did many more activities in 2022. But the average duration of the activities also decreased. This is mostly because I started doing more yoga, mobility workouts, cooling-down runs, and short recovery activities. This ties in with my new holistic approach to sporting (read more about it below).

Anyway… I have put in many more hours of activities this year, yet when I reflect on the goals that I set out to do at the start of the year, it seems like I failed miserably. Yet I feel great about my sporting year… weird stuff. Let’s have a deeper look into how I increased my training load without managing to reach many of my goals.

Why did I not finish most of my goals?

I think there are a few ways to answer that question. I think the first aspect is to acknowledge that each individual goal is not super difficult to accomplish in a year. That is: if you focus fully on that specific goal. All different goals combined might be a bit much. But the thing with goal setting is that you have to be a bit over-ambitious to make sure that you push yourself. If I would have set lower goals (e.g. closer to the actual results that I accomplished this year), I am convinced that I would not have managed to reach the same results.

Aim for the stars, land on the moon

For example: I set the goal to run 1000KM in 2022. In previous years, I ran only a fraction of that (2021 I ran 193.3KM and in 2020 I ran 102.4KM). So it might seem a bit overambitious to aim to run 5x as much as last year. Yet I thought: 20KM a week, that’s not too much, is it? I can do that! And so I started running. I ended up running 650KM this year. More than 3x as far as a ran in 2021 and more than 6x as far as I ran in 2021. To me, that is a huge result. Really cool. I didn’t reach my goal, but I pushed myself and I accomplished something I had never done before. And it makes it easier for me to try again in 2023.

Focus on consistency

One of my key learning points for this year is that I live life in circles of exploration and focus. So I need to have a period in which I explore and try things, followed by a period of consistency and focus on something in particular. This will not come as a surprise to many, because I believe most things/people work like that. It’s just cool to recognise it and acknowledge it. Because once you are aware of it, you can use it to your advantage. And now that I realised it works just like that for my sport-journey, I can utilise that knowledge to design my plan for next year.

Now that I have tried a little of everything, I can see that it would be better for me to build in consistency in my training routine before I dive into all of the different disciplines of triathlon. Therefore, I will focus on building a proper training regime in 2023 that revolves around running.

Why focus on running? Well, this has three reasons:

1. I enjoyed running tremendously this year
2. Cycling is a bit challenging on Malta, I miss the long smooth roads 🙁
3. I’m not super confident at swimming yet
4. Running is very accessible and I can even continue doing it abroad. Easy to build a routine.

So that’s what I will do in 2023. I will focus on running and use cycling and swimming as recovery activities. To break up my week and to keep the training a bit varied.

A holistic training approach

And finally, I learned this year that to be a good athlete, you should be strong in every sense of the word. Of course this is something that is very obvious and many of you know this already. I knew it as well. But I think you don’t fully understand something, until you have your ‘aha-erlebnis’. And I think I had this ‘aha-erlebnis’ this year after the Victoria Lines trail run. The last 5K were pretty tough. But next of my legs getting burned off, I also realised that my form was deteriorating. I felt like my upperbody was just weak.

And especially core strength is quite important to runners, so from that moment I started working on improving it. And the results have been quite satisfying. I feel better and stronger since I have been working out next to my cardio activities. So for next year, I will be focussing on running, but I will do it in a holistic way. That means that I will involve more strength workouts and mobility workouts and stretching.

Running

•  Run minimally 20KM a week. Hit 1000KM at the end of the year
  • ❌ I ran 650KM this year. So just over half of my goal. Disappointing? No, not really. It is by far the most distance I have ever ran in a year. For reference: in 2021 I ran 193.3KM and in 2020 I ran 102.4KM. So by this rate of growth, I will be able to run at least 1000KM next year.
•  Run 2 half marathons.
  • ✅ Valletta Half Marathon
  • ✅ Zurrieq Half Marathon

•  Run 30K in one run
  • ❌ Did not finish this one, but I managed to run the Victoria Lines Trail Run a.k.a. the queen distance of the Maltese trail running competition. I ran this one together with my youngest sister Wies. She flew to Malta specially for this run and it was an awesome experience to share.
•  Run from the South to the North of Malta (full marathon)
  • ❌ I did not finish this one, but I am confident that I'll manage next year.

Swimming

•  Get swimming lessons
  • Becky both signed up for 10 swimming lessons at the National Swimming pool of Malta. We started full excitement, but ended up only going to the first 3 lessons. We skipped a few lessons in a row because we were traveling and after that it was easy to just stop going... I think one of the reasons was because we were a bit intimidated by the swimming sessions. I had been a long time since someone yelled at like that in training haha.'Why did you stop swimming??' 'Because I swallowed water, I had to breath' 'No! You don't stop swimming, you breathe later!'
•  Swim minimally 1000M a week. Hit 50KM at the end of the year.
  • ❌
•  Swim 1K under 2:00/100m
  • ❌
•  Participate in the Malta-Gozo Swim (or Malta-Comino, depending on how the practice goes haha)
  • ❌

Cycling

•  Minimal 40KM a week. Hit 2000KM at the end of the year.
  • ❌
•  Ride the perimeter of Malta in one day.
  • ❌ I did manage to do this. I didn't even attempt it to be honest. I still think it would be a fun activity to do, so I'll probably try it in 2023. I did however, go on a solo bike tour in Sicily in April. During this adventure, I cycled 170KM in one day. This is the longest ride I ever attempted. It's a longer distance than the perimeter of Malta. Not the same activity, but still cool.

Triathlon

No time restrictions on all of these. It’s just about finishing for me now. A decent pace is preferred, but not required.

I have not attempted any of these challenges this year.

•  Finish a sprint triathlon: 750M/20KM/5KM triathlon
  • ❌
•  Finish an olympic triathlon: 1.5KM/40KM/10KM triathlon
  • ❌
•  Finish an half iron man: 1.9KM/90KM/21KM triathlon
  • ❌

Random physical challenges

• Learn how to unicycle
  • End goal: unicycle 5KM over the promenade
    • ❌ Started practicing, but not able to ride a full 5K. Becky has much more talent for this one. But I'm confident I'll manage if I practice a bit more.
• Freediving
  • Hold my breath for 4 minutes
    • ❌ I read a book about this topic and started doing some breathing exercises and practicing holding my breath. I managed to get to 3:03 minutes. Still need to train a little bit more to bet to 4 minutes. But I'm confident I'll manage.
  • Get to 20m deep
    • ❌ Not attempted.
• Be able to do a backflip
  • ❌ Not attempted.
• Kayak around Comino in one day
  • ❌ Not attempted. But still very hyped about this idea. Will probably attempt it in 2023.
• Try rockclimbing in Malta
  • ❌ Not attempted. But still very hyped about this idea. Will probably attempt it in 2023.