I just thought of something while wandering around the grocery store aisles. This is changing my not-so-well-put-together plan for 2014.

I’m going to take a year to forget about going far, and just focus on getting faster.

I’ve heard this idea discussed on the ZenTriathlon podcast pretty often, and it ran through my mind while doing the Tour of Sufferlandria also. It always seemed right, but just not what I wanted to do, so I kind of ignored it.

I like going far.

And fast hurts.

Over the last year, I’ve proven to myself that long isn’t a problem for me. True, still no 140.6 on my resume, but I’ve done the long swim thing, the long run thing, and the ride-the-bike-hard a lot thing.

What I haven’t done (ever) is the fast thing.

And here’s what I realized today…

My ability to go long is not going to be limited by my age. But my ability to go fast is a place where age has probably already caught up with me a bit.

I can always go farther, but I won’t always be able to go faster. So I’m going to go faster this year and keep everything relatively short. That means nothing longer than a half-marathon for runs, nothing longer than an Olympic distance tri, and a lot of time swimming intervals with a masters group.

And more yoga. And more lifting. And more weight loss.