Tuesday, January 31, 2012

January Training Notes

This month my totals look like this


DistanceTime
Swim31,000 yards11 hours
Bike73 miles6:15 hours
Run43.5 miles6:15 hours

Overall
My official training plan started on the 23rd. The rest of the month was gearing up for the plan. Establishing a 'base' if you will. The plan assumed I was not just climbing off the couch. With just over a week under my belt the plan has added a certain amount of structure to the schedule which is a special challenge all it's own. But so far so good.

Swim
Swimming is going well, I'm doing an hour three days a week, averaging about 3k yards a day. I've said it before and I'll say it again, joining a masters team is probably the easiest way to get better at swimming. My sister-in-law who proclaims she had never swam before is already on the verge of moving out of the beginner's lane.


Bike
Last month I said I needed to get my butt ready for the training season (literally - so it wouldn't be sore.) I didn't quite get there, so my little tushy has been sore for a few days here. All of those hours are trainer hours, but it's going well. As I look forward on the schedule I can see that the bike portions are going to get tougher.

Run
Having an abnormally warm winter has been great. I think of all that running I've only done two on the treadmill. One thing about the treadmill - IT MAKES RUNNING A MILLION TIMES HARDER.


Two runs. On the left is outside. On the right inside. Notice how I can run almost as far in 10 fewer minutes


Resolution
This month's resolution was to eat breakfast every morning. It went well, I'll be trying to stick with it, though one sort of tricky part of this is that every couple of weeks I like to try to sleep past when someone would normally eat breakfast and just start at lunch time. I didn't do that this month, but I may in the future :)

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Race schedule

Here are the races I'm hoping to do this year. I have not committed to any of them, but this is the list.


5/5 Chain of Lakes (Sprint)
5/11 Lakes Area Endurance (5k)
5/19 Fargo ½ Marathon (13.1)
6/3 Tri Buffalo (Sprint)
6/9 Liberty (70.3)
6/16 Lake Minnetonka (Sprint)
6/24 Lake Waconia (Sprint)
6/30 MinneMan (Olympic)
7/14 LifeTime (Sprint)
7/22 Chisago (70.3)
7/29 Waseca (Sprint)
Lakefront Days (Sprint)
Green Lake (Olympic)
8/19 Lake Marion (Sprint)
8/30 Maple Grove (Olympic)
Watertown (Sprint)
10/7 Twin Cities Marathon (26.2)

It's got it's own page - you know, so it's easy to find :)

Monday, January 2, 2012

2012 - A Year of Months

It's that time of year when people set goals. I have a bunch of triathlon related goals already established. But I figured that there is a lot of my life that isn't run/bike/swim ... even if it doesn't seem like it.So I came up with a goal a month for 2012

January
Eat breakfast every day. I've heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I skip it a lot because I love sleep and shower wins when I'm in a hurry. I'm going to try to keep this to actual "normal" breakfast foods. So I won't be picking up 30 breakfast bars at the grocery store today :)

February
Stretch every day. This has sort of become the joke between me and people who workout with me. I don't stretch... really ever. And I should. So a month of not skipping.

March 
Make sure I drink the recommended amount of water every day. It's one of those things that people say is part of good diet and being healthy means more playtime with the kids.

April 
Each Lunch. For those of you who spend significant amounts of time with me, you know, food ranks really low on my list of important things. There are many days I only eat one meal a day. So this month I will make a point to each lunch every single day. Again, I'll try to keep this to real food. So I won't be stopping at the store to pick up 30 Powerbars and calling those lunch.

May 
Seven hours of sleep a day (at least.) I like sleeping, but I like being awake at night more. So that usually means I get five hours a night during the week. Not ideal. A month of making sure I get to sleep earlier.

June 
A month of journaling. Since this is my journal, it's a month of blogging. I'm not expecting a masterpiece every day, but I will put something down.

July 
No sweets - I did this in December last year, but it's one of those things that I don't really want to kick totally, so I'll toss it on the list again this year.

August 
Read two books. This may sound like a really easy goal for some. But I haven't sat down to read a book for myself since high school. So two books in May. To prove it, I'll post book reports. I hope you like Ironman training notes :)

September 
No eating out. I did approve this with my wife since this really impacts the whole family. We probably eat out at least once a week, probably more.

October 
No pop. I love pop, I really love Mt. Dew, and when I get stressed pop is my comfort food. A month without, no excuses!

November 
A month of thanks. I will pick something to be thankful every single day and say it out load (or more likely write it down here in the form of a weekly post.)

December
ARK - A month of acts of random kindness. Every single day, choose something that will make someone smile that is beyond the every day niceness (so no cheating by just remembering to say thanks when someone hands me a pen when I ask for it.)

Any help you can give me will  be appreciated. For some things I'll need reminders and kind words and accountability!

December Training Notes

This month my totals look like this


DistanceTime
Swim0 yards0 hours
Bike2.62 miles17 minutes
Run42 miles7 hours

Overall
My original plan was to make it all the way to January just relaxing and not stressing about how many hours or miles or whatever. That didn't work, so this month I've been doing some running. Also my family has really shown up with support of this aspect of my life. The list of Christmas booty only keeps me smiling and removes any excuses not to get going :)

  • Stuff for the bike trainer
  • iPod for all the inside workout hours this winter
  • Bike cleaning stuff
  • TWO books about ironman training
  • transition bag
  • running foot pod
  • Bike training video
  • various race nutrition supplements

Swim
None - I did drop an email to my master's team coach to let him know I plan on getting started here in January. That will be a sort of rough transition, I'm not sure he'll let me ease into it. Last year he moved me up through the ranks way faster than I was anticipating. It seemed like every time I started feeling good with the sets he'd graduate me to the next lane. It's nothing I can't handle, so I'm happy to have him pushing me.

Bike
Hey, a couple of minutes on the trainer! I need to get my butt ready for the season, I think my first week of structure has me in the saddle for a couple of hours, and not split up that much. Sore tushy on the way I think...

Run
The running is coming along, I'm not trying to push myself too much, just get out there and build some sort of base so when the feet need to hit the road I'm not dead after 7 minutes of intervals.