2013 Review

In January of 2013 I had several goals for myself. 

Run	500 miles	Yes
Bike	750 miles	No
Swim	30 miles	No
Presque Isle Tri	1:15:00 or better	No (1:31:09)
Olympic Tri	complete	No

...So what happened?

The Successes

As I look back over the Past year, I am pretty stoked because I did reach my goal of running at least 500 miles.  As of December 2, as a matter of fact, I surpassed the half-century mark.  And for me, that is a major accomplishment.  Also, in the past year I ran several 5K races, a sprint triathlon, a 10K, my first ever half-marathon and first duathlon. 

While doing all of this, I was also raised money for two great charities.  I was able to raise nearly $500 to support Sebastian Riding Associates.  I also signed up with Charity Miles to use my training mileage to raise money for Autism Speaks. 

The Failures

I didn't come anywhere near my goals for riding or swimming.  Why not?  Well, because I didn't put enough priority on those two areas while training.  I greatly improved on my results form 2012 but did not even come close to the goals I set for this past year.  I also didn't improve on my time for the Presque Isle Triathlon.  That I partially attribute to not allowing enough recovery time between the half marathon and the triathlon (they were only a week apart).  And no Olympic distance triathlon for me this year either - didn't even sign up for one. 

So What Did I Learn?

1. I really think I should focus more on the duration of my training not the total distance.  This past year I only spent about 90 hours total doing some form of training (from my workout log on runkeeper.com).  In 2014, I want to at least double that number. 

2. I need a training plan

3. Recovery is critical.

4. I need to learn about nutrition - and not just race time nutrition.

5. The Six step process for reaching your goals really does work.  (I followed this process to reach my running goal - unfortunately I didn't for any other goal.

6. I need to sign up for more races. (See number 5)

Most Inspiring moment of 2013

Hands down this year it was the Im Able Duathlon.  This was such an amazing race for a great cause.  And what an awesome bunch of people too.  The IM Able foundation's goal is to "help all individuals realize the potential to go further and push harder than their preconceived limits".  Let me just say, when you are mid-race and your legs are burning and sweat is running into your eyes, and you start thinking maybe I could just pull out of this race.  I mean who cares, right? - then you see the guy next to you huffing and puffing harder than you because he is doing the same race as you with just his arms - How can you not be inspired?  Any reason you may have had to complain becomes completely irrelevant. 

Goals for 2014

1. Olympic distance triathlon

2. Presque Isle Triathlon (If I do it) 1:15 or better

3. At least 2 more sprint triathlons

4. Ride the complete Great Allegheny Passage Trail

Strategy for 2014

1. Train more consistently (follow a training plan)

2. Focus more on duration and quality of training and less on total distance accumulated

3. Work on nutrition.  Teach body to better metabolize fat for fuel.  Also, work on race day nutrition.

4. Get more experience racing (sign up for more races)

January Progress Report

So far the year has started out pretty well.  I got my goals identified right from the start. Once I defined what it is that I want to accomplish this year, I set out making a plan on how to reach those goals. This year the name of the game is accumulate miles.  I'm still pretty new to the multisport and endurance world and I think this year I need to get my body used to taking on more and more miles.  I need to focus harder on training and figuring out how fit longer workouts into my already hectic schedule.

And, since this year I am setting the bar higher this year than I did last year, I also had to reevaluate my motivation factor for this year.  This boost in motivation is really needed on those cold mornings, when my body is tired and it would much rather stay in bed.  I'll get to that later in this post.

Over the holidays I asked for a bunch of cold weather gear to allow me to train on days like the one this photo.  - 12.2 degrees outside.  That's cold.  And even though I have the gear, It takes a little extra effort to willingly go out for a run on a morning that cold. 


 So lets breakdown this months progress:

Running

Running has gone well. I logged 47 miles in January. That puts me on a pace to get to log about 550 total miles for the year. I'm very happy with that progress. I'm planning on keeping up that kind of pace for a couple months.  I expect that it may drop off somewhat in the summer so I can focus a  harder on the swim and bike.

Biking

I've logged only 55 miles on the bike this month. That pace will only get me a about 650 miles for the year. That's not too far short of my goal. Due to it being January and cold here I've been confined to the stationary bike at the local YMCA. I don't have an indoor bike trainer so riding outside has pretty much been out of the question at this point. Of course, I expect my riding frequency to greatly increase as the weather gets warmer, but this is definitely something I will meet to monitor to make sure I don't get too far behind.

Swimming

I have made great improvements here.  This month I logged 2.1 miles in the pool. Although, at that rate I will only swim about 25 miles for the year, I am confident that my yearly goal will be easily reached. With the help of the Total Immersion Swimming DVD, I have made huge improvements in my swimming already.  Until recently I had to struggle just to complete sprint distances in the pool.  With just a few tweaks in form and technique, my confidence in the water is higher than ever.  This DVD has made such an impact already it's amazing!

Weight
So this years goal is to get my weight down to 190 pounds.  After the holiday feasting, I gained a few pounds and my weight jumped up to 210.  Call it a success (I guess) but I dropped 4 of those pounds and ended the month at 206.  That's about where I was at the beginning of December.  It probably would have been better but I am a fiend for Girl Scout cookies.
** Note to self exercise more cookie self-control in February.**

The Motivation Booster - Giving back
This year I decided to give myself some addition motivation by dedicating my running efforts to Charity.  There are two ways i am giving back this year.  If you want more details on the charities check out my Running For A Cause post.

One way is by gathering sponsors on a per mile basis to raise money for my fund raiser Hannah's Horses which raises money for Sebastian Riding Associates a therapeutic horseback riding charity.



The other way I'm giving back is through the use of Charity Miles . Charity Miles is a GPS tracking APP that is installed on your smart phone. The App records your progress and makes a donation of $0.25 per mile to the charity of your choosing. I have been running for Autism Speaks. To date I am responsible for funding nearly an hour of autism research.

So over all I am pleased with the progress I have made this month.  And I'm looking forward to February being just as successful.  

2012 Progress Report

I have been reflecting a bit lately as I finalize my goals for this year. I have to admit, 2012 was a pretty good year for me. I lost nearly 40 pounds. I ran my first 5k, my first 10k and my first triathlon. Well that may sound great now, but sometimes it's difficult to see the progress we really are making on a day to day basis. That's why it's good to take a look back from time to time and see how far you really have come. So, I checked my Runkeeper log file today to see what kind progress I really have made. On this date, two years ago I weighed nearly 250 pounds. I ran 2 miles in 30:10. That's a pace of 15:05/mile. On this date, one year ago, I weighed 240 pounds and ran 1.5 miles miles in 20:44. That's an average pace of 13:49/mile. The progress was admittedly slow - 10 pounds in a year and a little over a minute off my pace. But it was progress nonetheless. With that, and the added motivation of committing to a race in August, I was really able to turn 2012 into a positive year. As of yesterday, I weigh 206 pounds. My run this morning was 4.3 miles in 35:33 minutes. That's an average pace of 8:13/mile. No only is that farther than I was able to run last year, its a five and a half minute per mile faster pace!And that's the kind of progress I'm hoping to continue on into 2013!

Take a moment and think about how far you have come in the last year. If you are just getting started, think about where you want to be a year from now. Don't get caught thinking "I can only run this far" or "I'll never lose that much weight". It doesn't really matter where you are now. What matters is where will you be. Just remember to take some time to look back once in a while to see how far you have come.

Maybe it's bragging a bit but I actually find it motivating to share my successes with others. I've put a lot of hard work into it and I'm proud of how far I've come. I am also motivated by reading about the successes of others. Feel free to share your progress here.

Lets make this a good year!