August/September/October catch-up

Wow, hard to believe that two months have passed since my last post.  I just finished the NYC marathon and will post a race report over the next day or two.  This post will review Aug-Oct.  First off-here are the training volume updates:

After the Rainier 29029 event, I continued my swim training, as much as time permitted (I had three weddings to attend over the last three months, including one in Spain, and also had trips to Minnesota and Portugal (and my usual work trips to NYC and trips to visit my new grandson).  

While in Minnesota, I swam across our Lake again and managed to take 11+ minutes off of my time in 2024.  I think this is about the 10th time I've done this 3+ mile swim, although several were before I started tracking such swims with my Garmin.  I've done it 7 times since 2014 and you can see how my times have trended over time.  The notable thing about this year is I swam a much straighter course (which is a lot harder than one might think until one is starring across 3+ miles of open water with 1-2 foot waves in front of you!)

In any event, I followed that up with a very solid Cedar Mile Island 5k swim where I beat my main competitor, Dan Fabrizio by 12 seconds as I swam a 68:01 to his 68:13.  This was quite satisfying as he had beaten me by 67 seconds over 1.2 miles earlier this year.  Part of this is I'm more of an endurance swimmer than him (the longer the better) and also my shoulder has been able to handle some pretty good training volume this year--especially compared to last year (up 83%).  This brings my overall H2H OWS record against Dan to 6-3.  I'm 2-0 at 5k and 4-3 at the 1.2-mile swim distance.

I plan to put some modest volume in for the balance of the year--hopefully about 10k/month and then will begin to ramp again in January--my shoulder willing!

My bike training has trended very similar to 2025 as I have focused on swim and run/walk much more the last two years--this was especially true in 2026 when I did no triathlons.

With my 29029 focus as my "A" event, my run/walk volume (mostly the later) continues to be quite strong (post knee replacement, any ways) and I'm currently up about 9% vs. 2025.  Part of this is I continued with higher volume in 2026 the last two months as I still had the NYC Marathon to pursue.  I did run the 7-mile Kerr race on Labor Day and this was my longest continuous run since my knee-replacement.  I did a 74:15 or around 10:30/mile (logged 7.1 miles)

I've started to ramp up by weights/PT training again in October and through the end of the month am about 6% lower than last year.  Overall training time is pretty similar to last year as I'm about 19 hours lower so far in 2026 or about 2%.

I'm now in my transition phase and will begin to craft my 2027 plans over the next few weeks--I have some big plans for next year, when I turn 70!

Onwards and Upwards!

2026 Rainer 29029 Event Report

 

Swim Across Ten Mile Lake

 So, I've been swimming across our beloved Ten Mile Lake, in Minnesota, for a number of years.  I have data on my Garmin for the last 7 times I did it.  I probably did it 3-7 times before that, but don't have the data anywhere that I can find.

The exact distance one swims is a function of how straight a line one swims (and I suppose any variation errors in the Garmin).  My database shows it ranges from 5,598-6,065 yards (3.18-3.45 miles).  It's OWS in a deep (208 feet) fresh water lake that is prone to choppiness out in the middle.

I did the swim again this year on 8/14 and here is the summary:

So I did under 1:51, which I was pleased with because two years ago I went over 2 hours for the first time.  You can see that I was cruising along until between 3,000 and 3,500 yards when I fatigued and my swim stroke began to shorten.  This isn't surprising because I typically only swim about 3,000 yards in any given session since I'm not doing an Ironman this year (more on that later!!!!!).

Here is how that compares to my Garmin swims:

You can see a number of things:

1. I'm slowing down as I get older (really old).

2. I was 12 minutes faster than in 2024, which was the first year I began to struggle with right shoulder problems.  Part of this was much better navigation--which I really focused on this year, and part because I was fitter and dropped 10 sec/100 vs. 2024.

3. Still, I was 17 minutes slower (despite better navigation) then I was 12 years ago when I recorded my best time I know of--1:33.

I'm quite happy with this as I'm still trying to recover from my shoulder issues and I've diverted a lot of my training energy towards 29029.  This is a difficult swim.  All good!

OK--lot's of stuff to catch up on--first up is an update on my training volume through August

I intend to add 4-5 posts over the next week or so to get caught up with a pretty busy couple of months!  Here are the updated training volume totals through the end of August:

                               

Observations:

1. Continuing my much better swim training in 2026 as my shoulder seems pretty stable.  A solid month in August but nothing crazy (although I had two rewarding events which I'll post on shortly).  Last year I essentially shut down my swimming due to my shoulder problems so I'll probably continue to increase the delta from 2025, which is you can see is already about 75,000 yds or about 70%.

2. My bike volume continues to be low by historical standards but has now caught up to and surpassed 2025.  With another year of no triathlons, I continue to pursue a maintenance strategy on my bike.

3. The shortfalls in the run/walk for July/August are primarily a function of the later timing of my 29029 event last year (early August).  Net/net, I'm running slightly higher volume in 2026 and with my NYC Marathon coming up, I suspect that will grow some through the end of the year.

4. I'm still in the low period as far as strength and flexibility work go and am basically running even with last year.

5. I'm running about 3% (26 hours) less total training time so far this year, which might seem surprising given the greens above but my average run/walk speed is quite a bit higher this year (getting more distance on a lot less time) mostly because I've done less longer-distance/poor terrain hikes down in Shenandoah this year and last year I did Hadrian's wall, which a very slow average pace.

Anyways, feeling really good about my progress so far this year!

1.2 Mile Bay Swim: Open Water Swim Race

 Competed in this local OWS race for the 6th time this past weekend.  I had my time at 28:10 and they had it at 28:22.  Some of this is due to when I touch the dock, I stop my clock and to get to the timing mat you have to climb a small ladder (and sometimes wait in line to do so) and go about 5-10 yds to the timing mat.  I would be surprised if this took 12 seconds but we'll just go with their time.  This was the 3rd fastest of my 6 races here--although time is heavily influenced by the tides and they vary significantly from year to year. I had the distance at 2109 yds so pretty much spot on 1.2 miles.

I placed 53rd out of the 134 swimmers and was 12th/30 in the 60-69 YO Age Group and 6th/14 in the 65-69 YO Age Group.  On a %-tile basis, this is the lowest of my six races for all three %-tile metrics. Compared to a couple of guys I track my times through the years against (one--BP is front of the pack and the other, DF-is essentially about the same as I am), I was also slower than past years.  Here is a summary of my 6 races here:

This data pretty much lines up with how the swim felt.  I did not push as hard as I normally due out of a continued conservatism with respect to my right shoulder (still in come-back mode after last year).  I probably left 30 seconds on the table if I had gone for it.  Still, this swim would have been relatively slower (competitively) and that is clearly a reflection of my training status.  I just didn't swim very much in May and June (I already have more in the first 13 days of July than I did in all of May and June) due a variety of things including my 29029 focus and event.

Anyways, a real fun race and very glad I did it.  I feel good about my progress and hope to continue progressing as the summer wears on and I (hopefully) get a lot more swim volume.   all of this is predicated on not overwhelming my right shoulder, which is a continuing area of focus for me.

Onwards and Upwards!

June Training Volume Update

 Above I've updated the my training volume summary through June as compared to 2025.  Take aways:

1. Swim volume well below desired again in June as I focused on 29029 and had lots of life stuff going on.  July will include a big focus on swimming (already have nearly 20k in by 7/13).  also, did my first open water swim race on 7/11 and will report back on that shortly.  Overall, 2026 is a nice rebound from my shoulder problems of 2025.  Looking forward to lots of swimming and several more races over the remainder of 2026.

2. Bike volume was woeful in June--really put it on the back burner.  That has continued until mid-July and now if finally looks like I can get after biking and hope to get my volume up close to 900 miles despite my very slow start to July.

3. Really pleased with my walk/run training volume.  Obviously, my main focus for the first half of the year getting ready for 29029.  Now that's in the rearview I will shift the volume down quite a bit but start to feather in some modest run volume as I gear up for the 11/1 NYC Marathon, which I just got accepted into!

4. Strength/flexibility in the midst of the summer lull but would expect to start building again as we get into the fall.

5. Total training time is pretty consistent with 2025--I would expect July/August volume to moderate a bit (100ish hours) as I pivot away from 29029 training.

Onwards and Upwards!

29029 Rainier 2026 Video

 Here you go--a video recap of the action!

https://youtu.be/CTJlG-oh6EY?si=--xdGXS7y5d-k6wQ