1. Stay out of the med tent.
2. Beat my FOMOP coworkers (tri is like golf in my office).

1. Cervelo P2 w/box rims. I have a decent fit but it could be better. I built this bike 5+ years ago and then promptly abandoned the sport when life got complicated and I went back to school. I need more time in the saddle and a professional bike fit. I can do both those things.
2. Trainer. I hate it and have rollers (with resistance) that will arrive next week. I'm hoping this will help me get the time in the saddle I need when I can't get out for longer rides.
3. HRM/GPS, no power meter. Swim stuff. Running shoes that have worked well.
4. YMCA membership with pools 5 minutes from my house and 5 minutes from my office. No excuses there.

1. Good tires. (Will be running latex tubes but also considering setting up some Schwalbe Pro Ones tubeless). Have also ordered Vittoria Pit Stop and Hutchison Fast Air to see how well they work in training with latex tubes, but haven't gotten a flat yet so just gotta wait to try it.)
2. Wesuit (I can get an industry discount on TYR, so looking at the Hurricane Cat 3).
3. Disc cover (for ~$40 worth of materials and using the plotter at my jobby job I figure I can whip this together).

1. Aero helmet (industry discount on a few brands, so just figure out what works best with my position).
2. Aero front wheel (probably buy a light-bicycle.com rim and lace it to an i9 hub I have laying around).

1. Matching deep profile rear wheel. I figure it will look nice and as it's tubeless ready I have the option of running those Pro Ones tubeless front and rear. But I also think I can get the same benefit by running a disc cover on the rear. I don't have the budget for premium wheels, so this would be another light-bicycle.com purchase (buy the rim, probably stick it on a DT Swiss 350 I have).

Stick to a training plan that does about 3/3/3 of each discipline each week and tapers for my race in late May. First race (baby sprint) in early May will be a shakeout for an olympic in late May. After that a training plan for the half in late September kicks in and I follow that, picking up a couple more sprint/oly along the way. Both of these plans are generic plans I found online (BeginnerTriathlete maybe? I dunno.) I figure at this point it doesn't really matter what I'm doing as long as I'm laying down base, I make the hard days hard, the easy days easy, and I stick to the fucking plan and don't burn out or get injured. I have a hard time with burning out.


Stay motivated.


As the master tech at my shop is fond of telling people as they start to geek out on aero/weight/rolling resistance/etc: "You're not going to win anyway." So I know I'm not going to podium. I tell myself I'm doing this for the lifestyle. I turn 40 this year. On one hand I feel like it's dumb to drop money buying wheels so I can get 139th place instead of 147th, but also I figure if it keeps me motivated, then why not? There's also free speed that I'm pretty focused on (as efficient as possible T1/T2, swim form, etc). I figure if I'm going to invest in the race, I might as well do what I can to finish as well as possible for me. At least that way when I get 139th I'll know I didn't have excuses.