December Totals and January Objectives

Here are the totals for December:

Swim: 13,700 yards
Bike: 563 miles
Run: 48 miles
Trek: 27.7 miles
Stretch/Weights: 9:50 elapsed time
Total time: 75:44

I'm very satisfied with these totals given where I started from and the struggles I've had with my knee.  I'm in the midst of a very encouraging week and with the completion of my latest Eflexa cycle my knee seems to be holding up pretty well.

I'm pretty confident I can have a solid month and in considering my plan for January I reviewed my last nine Januarys.  consider these totals:

A little background can help you interpret.  2007 was my strongest year.  I worked with Peter Reid as my coach that year and by November I was definitely fit enough to qualify for Kona, but I didn't.

2008 I was self coached and once again fell short.  In 2009, I decided to take break from long-course and had a mental health year so January was way down.

In 2010 and 2011 I was back at it and managed to qualify in both years for Kona 2010 and 2012.

2012 was biz as usual but I fell short Kona wise.

In 2013 and 2014 (Aconcagua) and 2015 (Vinson) my mountaineering expeditions cut my SBR training way back (2013 did lead to another Kona qualification for 2014).  and 2015 led to my surgeries and other procedures and my year off from triathlon.

So what to do about January 2016 given my modest goals and still fledgling comeback?

Swim:  I'm thinking 30,000 yards plus--I'm ready to start a pretty rigorous 3-month swim block.

Bike:  600-700 miles--I'm going to be cautious here and emphasize a lot of quality computrainer time.

Run: 60+ miles--If I can do more I will but while I've had a nice 5-6 day run and I don't want to get carried away with things--it's quite possible that I'll never run 100 miles in a month again.

Trekking: 2-3 big days in SNP

Weights/stretch: 1-2X/week

Physical therapy: 2X/week

If I get reasonably close to these standards I'll be well on my way for 2016....