2021 in review.
After the disaster that was 2020, I'm fairly sure everyone had high hopes for 2021, especially in light of a vaccine being right on the horizon.
And we all know how that went.
Actually it was a reasonably okay year for me.
Trista and I decided to try out an online training program from Envol for Lake James, and we liked it so much, we decided to reach out to Nicolas and ask him to coach us in general for swimrun. That has gone really well, and I feel like my training has been really solid this year. We'll get to totals later, but I felt really good for most of the races we did this year, and at least some of the training. (You can't feel good training during Texas summer.)
As far as races went, we actually did a good chunk of racing, despite the pandemic. With vaccines and masks and the smallness of swimrun races and ability to mostly only interact with strangers outside, it seems to be weathering the pandemic fairly well.
In April, Trista and I went back to our roots and did Swimrun Lake James, the first swimrun we ever did, and the first time we've repeated a swimrun race. I wasn't ready to fly yet, so Matt and I and the dogs piled into the car and made a road trip of it. The whole trip was so much fun, and so was the race, even though it ended up being rainy and cold.
We then tried out Swimrun Knox, which was small but a lot of fun, and had some crazy terrain to navigate.
Once we found out that Rockman was cancelled again for 2021, we decided to make ourselves feel less sad by signing up for Swimrun Mackinac Island, which turned out to be so much fun, and we made some great new friends there.
Next up was the big one for 2021 and one we'd really been looking forward to: Orcas Island! This one looked so challenging, and so beautiful, and it was both. I think it has pulled into the lead as my favorite swimrun now, even though it took us forever and involved a lot of walking. Turns out mountains are hard.
This was another one we turned into a vacation, and Matt and I stayed for a week on the island after the race, just hiking and eating and enjoying.
Finally we ended our season with our second repeat race, Swimrun NC. Unfortunately this year NC and Austin fell on the same day, and since we were already signed up for NC from 2021, it was the obvious winner. We made it into a fun RV adventure, had a blast with so many friends who chose NC over Austin, as well, and even though it was really, really cold water, we kinda rocked it, and it was a great way to close out our 2021 swimrun season.
(We had planned on closing out the season with Catalina, but it was moved to March 2022, which we were actually pretty happy about. Less stress.)
2021 totals:
Swim: 189h 10m 01s - 594961 Yd
Bike: 9h 09m 17s - 123.09 Mi
Run: 279h 10m 31s - 1507.95 Mi
Jump Rope: 05m 08s
Skipping: 41m 22s
My training totals no longer even vaguely resemble those of a triathlete. 9 hours of cycling in 2021, and that was all trainer. And most of that was during Snowpacolypse, which I guess I should mention in a second, too.
Lots of running (though certainly less than 2020, which was my running PR), with added skipping and a very small amount of jumproping. Don't love the skipping, but I understand its purpose, so I will continue to be coachable and do it when assigned.
And then swimming. My previous highest swim total was 383645 yards (218 miles) in 2014 while training for Ultraman. This year was 338 miles of swimming, some of it open water, lots of it in the outdoor pool at 5am, LOTS of pulling with paddles. My arms look pretty good now, actually. Thanks, swimming!
Not a vacation, but a short drive to Round Top to meet up with the Wises for a few hours!
For vacations, I really already mentioned everything. Matt and I went to NC for Lake James, to Orcas Island, and then I guess Snowpacolypse was a staycation of sorts? The whole town was basically immobilized for almost a week. No work. Almost nothing open. Roads closed. Most people didn't have power, but we got super lucky and had power the whole time. It was very surreal. The dogs loved it at first, then the snow turned to ice and they didn't love it as much. On top of a fairly significant, but short, snow event in January, it was a fairly eventful 2021 winter.
Still doing the same languages as last year in duolingo, Swedish, Russian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, and Chinese. 2475 day streak as of today. Hoping to get a chance to use at least one of those languages this year. (intentionally vaaaague.)
Read some really great books in 2021.
Got more family time in this year, with everyone vaccinated and while cases were relatively low.
And finally, as always, dogs and Matt. They're still wonderful. I've gone back to work 3 days a week, work from home 2 days, which has been hard on me, not having them constantly available, but Matt has continued to work from home, and they love having him home all the time.
Oh, one more "vacation". The dogs got to crash out in a hotel for a few days down the street when our AC went out.
And we all know how that went.
Actually it was a reasonably okay year for me.
Trista and I decided to try out an online training program from Envol for Lake James, and we liked it so much, we decided to reach out to Nicolas and ask him to coach us in general for swimrun. That has gone really well, and I feel like my training has been really solid this year. We'll get to totals later, but I felt really good for most of the races we did this year, and at least some of the training. (You can't feel good training during Texas summer.)
As far as races went, we actually did a good chunk of racing, despite the pandemic. With vaccines and masks and the smallness of swimrun races and ability to mostly only interact with strangers outside, it seems to be weathering the pandemic fairly well.
In April, Trista and I went back to our roots and did Swimrun Lake James, the first swimrun we ever did, and the first time we've repeated a swimrun race. I wasn't ready to fly yet, so Matt and I and the dogs piled into the car and made a road trip of it. The whole trip was so much fun, and so was the race, even though it ended up being rainy and cold.
We then tried out Swimrun Knox, which was small but a lot of fun, and had some crazy terrain to navigate.
Once we found out that Rockman was cancelled again for 2021, we decided to make ourselves feel less sad by signing up for Swimrun Mackinac Island, which turned out to be so much fun, and we made some great new friends there.
Next up was the big one for 2021 and one we'd really been looking forward to: Orcas Island! This one looked so challenging, and so beautiful, and it was both. I think it has pulled into the lead as my favorite swimrun now, even though it took us forever and involved a lot of walking. Turns out mountains are hard.
This was another one we turned into a vacation, and Matt and I stayed for a week on the island after the race, just hiking and eating and enjoying.
Finally we ended our season with our second repeat race, Swimrun NC. Unfortunately this year NC and Austin fell on the same day, and since we were already signed up for NC from 2021, it was the obvious winner. We made it into a fun RV adventure, had a blast with so many friends who chose NC over Austin, as well, and even though it was really, really cold water, we kinda rocked it, and it was a great way to close out our 2021 swimrun season.
(We had planned on closing out the season with Catalina, but it was moved to March 2022, which we were actually pretty happy about. Less stress.)
2021 totals:
Swim: 189h 10m 01s - 594961 Yd
Bike: 9h 09m 17s - 123.09 Mi
Run: 279h 10m 31s - 1507.95 Mi
Jump Rope: 05m 08s
Skipping: 41m 22s
My training totals no longer even vaguely resemble those of a triathlete. 9 hours of cycling in 2021, and that was all trainer. And most of that was during Snowpacolypse, which I guess I should mention in a second, too.
Lots of running (though certainly less than 2020, which was my running PR), with added skipping and a very small amount of jumproping. Don't love the skipping, but I understand its purpose, so I will continue to be coachable and do it when assigned.
And then swimming. My previous highest swim total was 383645 yards (218 miles) in 2014 while training for Ultraman. This year was 338 miles of swimming, some of it open water, lots of it in the outdoor pool at 5am, LOTS of pulling with paddles. My arms look pretty good now, actually. Thanks, swimming!
Not a vacation, but a short drive to Round Top to meet up with the Wises for a few hours!
For vacations, I really already mentioned everything. Matt and I went to NC for Lake James, to Orcas Island, and then I guess Snowpacolypse was a staycation of sorts? The whole town was basically immobilized for almost a week. No work. Almost nothing open. Roads closed. Most people didn't have power, but we got super lucky and had power the whole time. It was very surreal. The dogs loved it at first, then the snow turned to ice and they didn't love it as much. On top of a fairly significant, but short, snow event in January, it was a fairly eventful 2021 winter.
Still doing the same languages as last year in duolingo, Swedish, Russian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, and Chinese. 2475 day streak as of today. Hoping to get a chance to use at least one of those languages this year. (intentionally vaaaague.)
Read some really great books in 2021.
Got more family time in this year, with everyone vaccinated and while cases were relatively low.
And finally, as always, dogs and Matt. They're still wonderful. I've gone back to work 3 days a week, work from home 2 days, which has been hard on me, not having them constantly available, but Matt has continued to work from home, and they love having him home all the time.
Oh, one more "vacation". The dogs got to crash out in a hotel for a few days down the street when our AC went out.