2011 Follow up

I promised a review of 2011, so here it is. I realized I was just planning on going over my running, but I guess it's worth saying something about my swimming and biking.

Though I planned on racing a half-Ironman, my biking turned out to truly just be a training tool. Just a yearly summary, from my beginnertriathlete.com log, I biked 3098 miles, for 177 hours, 53 minutes. I know some of my cycling was on the trainer, where I can't track mileage, so I don't know how, or if that was factored into that summation. For 2012 I don't really have any cycling goals. It would be nice to hit that stride where I feel ready again to train for a half- or full Ironman, but I'm not holding my breath.

Swimming I completed a total of 472,497 yards (268.5 miles) for 117 h, 41 minutes. I was pretty good about tracking distance AND time together. However, in some of my later workouts it was impractical to match distance to actual swimming time (i.e. excluding rest time on the walls). For races, I completed four open water swims. Three one miles, and one two miles, they were all part of the Triangle Open Water Swim Series. In each I placed first in my age group (though only of about two swimmers). In 2012 I'd like to do as many as possible, but I've already spotted some trail races and obligations that may affect that. Like last year, I'm also keeping my eye open for a convenient marathon swimming event. There were two in October that caught my eye, but my enthusiasm and motivation for cold open water swimming may stand in my way.

Ahh, now to running. There's a discrepancy between my two logs (beginnertriathlete and excel) and I'll defer to my excel spreadsheet.

January - 112.38 miles
February - 207.53
March - 234.62
April - 234.49
May - 0
June - 43.08
July - 187.99
August - 280.24
September - 318.12
October - 259.55
November - 402.65
December - 325.44
Total of 2606.09 miles for 363:48:27, with an average of 8:23 min/mile.

The obvious increase in mileage came from my ultra training. The lack of miles in the spring was when I broke my foot. I should disclose that in the later part of the year, with so much running on the trails, there was a bit of estimation on certain runs, based on my perceived pace or extrapolation from parts of the run I could measure. My average pace was much slower from 2010 (7:36), but my mileage was way up (from 1769), and my training was different. Different focus (ultra running vs. short triathlons) and different terrain (mix with majority trails vs. essentially all road).

2012 is going to be an exciting year and I can't wait to see what it will hold. In the short term I have another local trail race in about two weeks, and a full marathon in February that will involve climbing Mt. Mitchell! Over the horizon, I'm just dying to slug out some ultras. March is looking to include either a 50k or 50 miler. In June, there's the North Face Challenge OR the Chattanooga Stage Race. My big interest is doing the JFK 50 miler in Novemeber, and there may or may not be another race sometime in September or October. Right now the sky's the limit.