2014 Year in Review.
Overall 2014 was definitely The Year of Ultraman for me, but some other stuff probably happened in there, as well. Let's review and look at pictures.
I spent most of January terrified that I wouldn't get in to Ultraman, and even more terrified that I would. My workout volume was low, and everything was just for fun, because I knew I'd have 6 months of intense training ahead of me if I got in.
Huntsville State Park for Matt's Rocky Raccoon 100, aka my birthday weekend, aka the weekend I found out I got into Ultraman
And got in I did! Yikes. And sure enough, the next 6 months was a lot of training. Some good, some really bad, but I did everything that Kelly assigned to me, hoping it would be enough.
Easter Hill Country Tour with Matt, Karen, Betsy and David
HITS Marble Falls half iron, the only triathlon I did in 2014 in preparation for Ultraman
A lot of watching the sun rise from Quarry Lake while Matt paddled at my side
And then, of course, the event itself. 6 months of swimming, cycling, running, eating and some sleeping came down to 3 days, and they were some of the hardest and most rewarding days of my life thus far.
Day 1: Swim 6.2 miles, ride 90 miles
Day 2: Ride 171 miles
Day 3: Run 52.4 miles
And then back to the real world again.
If you were to ask me now, I'd tell you that it seems unlikely that I could do Ultraman, much less that I actually DID it. I'm glad I have the pictures that seem to indicate that I did!
The last 5ish months of the year have mostly been trying to catch up on sleep and socialization. And lots of dog time.
Including the addition of my new dog-niece Sheba!
Fitness-wise, I've.. been eating a lot. I let myself enjoy my post-race celebrations which sorta lasted until they bled into the holidays, and we're just finishing off the last of the cookies today.
I've also been going to Masters swim at UT with variable frequency (0-2 times a week), and running just enough (3-4 times a week) to fake two 50k races without completely wanting to die.
Mud and rain in Warda
And finally we topped off the year with our 2nd Annual Christmas in Concan, which was full of food and joy and 6-humans-and-4-dogs-one-of-whom-is-a-puppy-in-a-tiny-2-room-cabin chaos.
2nd Annual Christmas in Concan!
Numbers
Workout-wise, this was the most working out I've ever done in a year, and also the most swimming, most biking and most running.
Swim: 124h 16m 46s - 383645.97 Yd
Bike: 240h 35m 29s - 3195.18 Mi
Run: 219h 54m 33s - 1319.26 Mi
Total: 584 hours (24 days)
More than 80 hours more than I worked out in 2012. And 218 miles of swimming!
29 books read, like last year alternating between fitness books for bookclub and fiction/sci-fi/fantasy books for notbookclub.
2015
People keep asking me and Matt what's next. We always have a What's Next. But since Ultraman, we really haven't.
I think I've decided that 2015 will be the year I do another marathon (Ironman marathons don't count), and I've targeted the Philadelphia Marathon as my goal race. It's not until late November, so I have some time to decide that for sure. I'd like to BQ, of course, but I've just spent a year running a whole lot of miles really, really, really slowly, so my speed confidence is pretty low right now. Hopefully I haven't lost all speed, and it (and my confidence) will come back when I start marathon training in earnest.
Meanwhile I will counter-intuitively begin that training by.. not running. I've been dealing with some heel pain on one side and hip/hamstring pain on the other since before Ultraman, and just ignoring and running through it. Since I'm not training for anything right now, this seems like the perfect time to actually take some time off. I figure I'll start with a month, and see how things feel at that point. I can't even remember the last time I took a month off running, so we'll see how my sanity holds up. I LIKE running. This'll be hard. But worth it, if I can get back to healthy and hale.
To make up for it, I'll be swimming a lot. And ACTUALLY DOING CORE WORK. I swear. Swimming, core work, eating better. Those are my missions for the next few months. Lose this extra weight, get stronger, feel good about myself. Be confident in who I am so that I don't get in my own way when I start setting goals again.
And grow my damn hair back out. It's a mess right now. Why did I think it would be a good idea to cut my hair? Stop me next time. Thanks.
(Oh, and fine, I might ride my bike. I haven't ridden it outside since Day 2 of Ultraman, and I've ridden it on the trainer maybe.. 20 hours since Ultraman? Maybe. But maybe I want to do Easter Hill Country Tour again, so maybe I need to actually ride my bike. I'm not committing to anything at this time. Check back later.)
Happy New Year to you all, and a happy, healthy 2015 to us all!
Joy!
I spent most of January terrified that I wouldn't get in to Ultraman, and even more terrified that I would. My workout volume was low, and everything was just for fun, because I knew I'd have 6 months of intense training ahead of me if I got in.
Huntsville State Park for Matt's Rocky Raccoon 100, aka my birthday weekend, aka the weekend I found out I got into Ultraman
And got in I did! Yikes. And sure enough, the next 6 months was a lot of training. Some good, some really bad, but I did everything that Kelly assigned to me, hoping it would be enough.
Easter Hill Country Tour with Matt, Karen, Betsy and David
HITS Marble Falls half iron, the only triathlon I did in 2014 in preparation for Ultraman
A lot of watching the sun rise from Quarry Lake while Matt paddled at my side
And then, of course, the event itself. 6 months of swimming, cycling, running, eating and some sleeping came down to 3 days, and they were some of the hardest and most rewarding days of my life thus far.
Day 1: Swim 6.2 miles, ride 90 miles
Day 2: Ride 171 miles
Day 3: Run 52.4 miles
And then back to the real world again.
If you were to ask me now, I'd tell you that it seems unlikely that I could do Ultraman, much less that I actually DID it. I'm glad I have the pictures that seem to indicate that I did!
The last 5ish months of the year have mostly been trying to catch up on sleep and socialization. And lots of dog time.
Including the addition of my new dog-niece Sheba!
Fitness-wise, I've.. been eating a lot. I let myself enjoy my post-race celebrations which sorta lasted until they bled into the holidays, and we're just finishing off the last of the cookies today.
I've also been going to Masters swim at UT with variable frequency (0-2 times a week), and running just enough (3-4 times a week) to fake two 50k races without completely wanting to die.
Mud and rain in Warda
And finally we topped off the year with our 2nd Annual Christmas in Concan, which was full of food and joy and 6-humans-and-4-dogs-one-of-whom-is-a-puppy-in-a-tiny-2-room-cabin chaos.
2nd Annual Christmas in Concan!
Numbers
Workout-wise, this was the most working out I've ever done in a year, and also the most swimming, most biking and most running.
Swim: 124h 16m 46s - 383645.97 Yd
Bike: 240h 35m 29s - 3195.18 Mi
Run: 219h 54m 33s - 1319.26 Mi
Total: 584 hours (24 days)
More than 80 hours more than I worked out in 2012. And 218 miles of swimming!
29 books read, like last year alternating between fitness books for bookclub and fiction/sci-fi/fantasy books for notbookclub.
2015
People keep asking me and Matt what's next. We always have a What's Next. But since Ultraman, we really haven't.
I think I've decided that 2015 will be the year I do another marathon (Ironman marathons don't count), and I've targeted the Philadelphia Marathon as my goal race. It's not until late November, so I have some time to decide that for sure. I'd like to BQ, of course, but I've just spent a year running a whole lot of miles really, really, really slowly, so my speed confidence is pretty low right now. Hopefully I haven't lost all speed, and it (and my confidence) will come back when I start marathon training in earnest.
Meanwhile I will counter-intuitively begin that training by.. not running. I've been dealing with some heel pain on one side and hip/hamstring pain on the other since before Ultraman, and just ignoring and running through it. Since I'm not training for anything right now, this seems like the perfect time to actually take some time off. I figure I'll start with a month, and see how things feel at that point. I can't even remember the last time I took a month off running, so we'll see how my sanity holds up. I LIKE running. This'll be hard. But worth it, if I can get back to healthy and hale.
To make up for it, I'll be swimming a lot. And ACTUALLY DOING CORE WORK. I swear. Swimming, core work, eating better. Those are my missions for the next few months. Lose this extra weight, get stronger, feel good about myself. Be confident in who I am so that I don't get in my own way when I start setting goals again.
And grow my damn hair back out. It's a mess right now. Why did I think it would be a good idea to cut my hair? Stop me next time. Thanks.
(Oh, and fine, I might ride my bike. I haven't ridden it outside since Day 2 of Ultraman, and I've ridden it on the trainer maybe.. 20 hours since Ultraman? Maybe. But maybe I want to do Easter Hill Country Tour again, so maybe I need to actually ride my bike. I'm not committing to anything at this time. Check back later.)
Happy New Year to you all, and a happy, healthy 2015 to us all!
Joy!