Checking in on my goals, and my performance compared to last year at this time

I realized US bank is a mere 10 weeks away. Last year about a month out, i had a panic attack, so i wanted to get my ducks a bit better lined up before this opening of the stair racing season.

Last night i looked though my journal and scraped out a training log from pre-race.  This is from my regular journal, so it's not that detailed, but believing myself to be in better shape than this point last year, i thought it made sense to use those as a baseline.

My notes indicate that i did 18 minutes at 140 steps a minute, but i suspect that was with 4 breaks, as that seems out of reach.  It was also single-stepping which left my legs unprepared for double-stepping the real race.  2 months later, when i was in much better shape, i did 135 for 13 minutes, double stepping, and it was tough.

Nonetheless, i decided i'd go for 140, double stepping, for 13 minutes.  I was also not quite as rested as those workouts.

I was fine for the first 4-5 minutes, barely touching the handrails.  6-8 it stated to feel tough, from 8 on i was gutting it out.  Finally, at 10:30, my side cramped up pretty badly, and i hit stop, breathed and rubbed my side for about 25 seconds, and resumed climbing to get in my 12 minutes.

Base on my intensity guage, i think 135 for 13, my last workout before my best-ever climb, would have been do-able with about the difficulty my journal depicts.  So i think i'm about as fast as my peak last year.

Also, my journal says that 2 weeks out i was weighing in at 188, which is heavier than i thought i was. I'm 180 now, and i have more muscle, so i should be faster for the same fitness level.  Back then, my legs would give out, now my cardio is limiting me.

Based on that, my cardio engine is probably 95% of my peak last year,  10 weeks out from my first race.  If i got it to 100% of last year's, and held my weight at 180, i'd do us bank in 12:30 - 12:45.  But my goal is to reduce my time from 13:20 to 12:00, so there is still a lot of work to be done.  Ten weeks could well be enough time, though!  Instead of obsessing on that goal, i'll focus on doing the right things every day!