Where we stand

Right, so the training plan is up and coming at the moment. I've been working on it for the past three days and generated five pages of ramblings. It covers the four stages that seem to be an essential part of a training plan and inserts what I should do, and plan to do in each section.

Included in this I've come up with a list of goals, which has my current standing in each of my disciplines/sports and what to do about getting to the goal standard. So here we go.

Prone

Current: ~ 580(576-582) at 50m

Need: 582 by June (World Uni. Champs)

Want: ~587 by June (Olympic MQS)

This equates, roughly, to a 7 point increase in 6 or so months, which is doable, but difficult.

Areas to focus on: butt of rifle: length; and place in shoulder; eyesight: may need new frames (left the old ones in Ireland in any case...); otherwise need to be more careful when aiming; match planning; taking breaks every 20 shots or so, mainly to check the sling on my upper arm.

Air Rifle

Current: ~545 (542-546)

Need: I'm not sure as data is hard to come by, but I'm going to go with an MQS of 570

This is a totally different kettle of fish, being a 25 point increase, which will not be easy. However, I feel that the points are there, I just need to be careful in how I go about putting that through paper. If I hit this, I'll be very happy with myself. My air rifle has, historically, seen a lot of setbacks, notably a severe sprain two years ago that kept me off the line for three months and ruined a lot of hard work prior to that. The unfocused off-time also generated a lot of bad habits that dragged me back for a year. At least I've tried to keep my head in the game this time round.

Areas to focus on: zero point; balance; relaxation: shoulders; arms; neck; head position; cheekpiece; faster rhythm.

Cycling

Current: I have little idea, as it's been a while since I was on a bike. The few short commuting spins before Christmas felt good, though, so I have hope that my level here hasn't fallen off too much.

Want: 200-300 km sportive at approximately 30 km/hr average by September.

If I follow a solid 12 week plan I should get the kilometerage up to around 165 by simply increasing an endurance spin by 10% each week, which would be good. Now, that's most likely not going to work out, but the goal is there.

Also, my speed is going to have to improve, and I think I have some interval suggestions somewhere that could work well.

Also, I'd like to compete in a cyclocross race, but only if I get reasonably good at both cycling and running. And lose whatever sanity I have left.

Running

Current: Atrocious. Nuff said.

Want: Half marathon (20 km) at two hour pace (10 km/hr) by September.

The plan for this is to run a set distance three or four times per week, working in intervals as well. By increasing the distance by one km a week (which shouldn't be too bad, right?) that should bring me up to what I want, when I want it.

I do have some interval sessions here for this, which will help a lot.

So there you have it, my wildly outlandish targets for the next six to nine months. There are some competition goals for rifle later in the season, in keeping with a full training plan; the ones here are preliminary and will serve to test the validity of my longer term plan.

There's about a one in a million chance that I'll actually hit any of these goals, but, hey, one in a million chances crop up nine times out of ten, right?