Saturday, April 30, 2016

April Totals/First Four Months of 2016

Totals for April:

Swim: 18,500 yards  (less than I would have liked but all of it was in last 20 days)
Bike: 667 miles
Run: 67.5 miles  (biggest month this year with back-to-back 20+ weeks...encouraging)
Weights/Stretch: 8:30
Hiking: 20:20
Total time: 91:57 (feels great to get this much volume!)

Here are the averages for the first four months of 2016--I have clearly put in enough work to establish a solid endurance foundation for all of my planned adventures in 2016:

Swim: 20,500 yards
Bike: 655 miles
Run: 53 miles
Hiking: 12 hours
Weights/Stretch: 9.5 hours
Total Time: 81 hours

On the ground in Fredericksburg

staying at a hotel in Fredericksburg in preparation for the Rumpass in Bumpass sprint triathlon tomorrow.  I arrived around 7:30 last night after driving a couple of hours from the Northern District in Shenandoah National Park.

Judy, Dan, Paula and I spent two pretty big days hiking.  The first day was a large loop around the Big Meadows campground, which is where we pitched our tent and camped.  that first hike was pretty challenging as it entailed 14.8 miles and 3,149 feet of elevation gain.  It took us 7 hours and 39 minutes to complete.  Our mile times ranged from 20:12 to 49:14 and the biggest ascent in one mile was 557 feet (so a bit more than 10% grade on average).  The last two miles had 1000 feet of vertical ascent so we were pretty whipped at the end.  That plus 50 degrees and a couple hours of driving rain added to the difficulty.  The rain eventually stopped, we got our fire going and had a nice evening.

Before I left I weighed in at 181.6 pounds, so 14.8 pounds loss in 17 days.  Despite this rapid weight loss I felt very good and the dropped lbs were definitely noticeable--very satisfying hike.  I estimate that I burned about 2725 calories on the hike (this is most likely on the low side--some sites would estimate over 4000 calories.  In any event, my diet was out the window due to the need to feed the engine while backpacking.  Also, we indulged quite a bit around the campfire!

Yesterday, due to a navigation error on my part, ended up at 14.2 miles (we were shooting for 10 or so) and another 2430 feet of elevation gain.  All of this came on the back end of the hike as after six miles we still had less than 100 feet of climbing.  This climb was in the Northern District and its the one I call the Three Cemeteries hike.  Fastest mile was 21:05 and slowest was 38:13.  The total hike took 6:29 and i estimate I burned about 2500 calories.  I ate quite a bit less than the first day and avoided campfire indulgence so I probably had a sizable energy deficit.

I'll post my Garmin downloads when i get back to terra firma.

Today, I'm just hanging out (didn't make sense to drive back to DE and then turn around and drive back today).  I'll probably take my TT bike out for a bit of a test ride a little later.  Not surprisingly I'm quite stiff and sore from the climbing and my legs are a bit thrashed.  My left knee swelled up quite a bit so it's range of motion is a bit suspect.  Not ideal prep for a sprint triathlon but thats the way I roll in 2016!

I'm going to drive down to Lake Anna around dinner time to pick up my race packet.  I know there are 16 guys in my age group--none of whom I've raced against (as far as I can tell).  We'll see how it goes--should be fun.  the weather forecast at race time is 57 degrees with thunderstorms and rain likely.....




Monday, April 25, 2016

Last week and a big week ahead

Another good week of training:

Swim: 6,500 yards
Bike: 184 miles
Run: 21.5 miles
Hike: 90 minutes
Weights/Stretch: 2:30
Total Time:  22:22

Weight wise, I finished my second week of my focused diet regime--my weight has dropped from 196.4 pounds to 184.8 pounds--11.6 pounds loss in 14 days....yeah, I know a lot of weight in a short period of time.  I'm watching it carefully, eating very healthily and feel generally pretty good--a little low on power but so far so good.  My goal is 171 pounds (a 25 pound reduction).

This week, we have a two-day Shenandoah hike--probably 13/14 miles or so the first day and probably 10/11 the next day.  These will be on Th/F.  I'll stay down in Virginia and on Sunday race a Sprint Tri--more on that shortly!

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Hitting the ground running

First full week back in DE and it was a great week--fitness wise anyways!  Training was abundant and of higher quality...

Swim: 6000 yards   Routinizing interval repeats now--my 100s are all in the 1:25-1:29 range going on 2 so not bad but lots of upside over the next 5-6 weeks.

Bike: 204 miles.  Getting outside on my old DE rides, which are very hilly and very good for my fitness!

Run: 20.5 miles--my biggest week since September 2014 (pre Kona/pre-back problems).  I'm running noticeably faster and easier now.  Very happy with the progress this week!

Weights: 2 hours

Hiking: 3:20

Total Time: 24:42  Biggest week since Kona 2014 (not counting my Antarctic climb)

Great week and combined with a rigorous nutrition program I'm on (more on that shortly) I made a ton of progress this week!

Onward and Upward!

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Back in DE!

Three days including 1100 miles on the last day to make the drive back!

Lots of unpacking and reintegrating this week.  Training-wise a light load this week due to the travel but next week we get serious!

I'll talk about my spring program and my race and climbing plans in my next post, early next week....

Friday, April 1, 2016

March totals

Not the biggest of months but it is what it is!

Swim: 15,164 yards
Bike: 602 miles
Run: 44 miles
Hike/Trek: 17 hours
Stretch/weights: 3:15
Total time: 72:30

Upon further review--a change of plans!

Our little dog, Roxy as up last night and suffered through a couple of seizures.  She has had them before and are probably related to her Kidney challenges.  She seems fine now and after consulting with the Vets, I've upped her anti-seizure medicine dosage.

However, given this and the fact that Judy and Anders are back in DE today and tomorrow for a funeral, I've decided to forgo the opportunity to race Oceanside so that I can make sure Roxy is fine.  this is a bit disappointing for sure but I'll survive--lol!  As you know, I'm not in the best of shape anyways and there will be plenty of other races in the days ahead....

Kara is coming by to help with Roxy this morning and I'm going to take advantage of my tampered state to go out and crush (as only I can) a nice run.....

Onward and upward!