Another month is in the books. Lots of distractions and trips limited many of my training options. In fact 15 of the 28 days in February I was out of town with trips to Minnesota and NYC or had other obligations that impacted my training. This had a big impact on my swim and my strength/flexibility training as I did not have access to a pool or gym. None-the-less, I think I was able to put together a pretty solid month of training in spite of the travel.
SWIM (January Grade: A; February Grade: A)
I got in the pool all 13 days that I could and ended up logging 24,500 yds which was consistent with my 20-25k goal for the month. This is much stronger than the 11,250 yds I logged last year when I was fighting a right shoulder problem. At 1,885 yds/session in February, this was a nice step up from the 1,635 yds/session average in January. I had a couple of 2,500 yd sessions so I'm probably already at a level to begin comfortably swimming open water, but this is still 2-3 months away at this point.
So January and February both had more yardage than any month last year and as such I'm off to a great start in 2026. While I have a lot of travel ahead in March as well, I'm going to once again shoot for 20-25k in March. I'm also now going to begin introducing some higher quality interval work. Overall, for both months, I'm giving myself an "A" grade and I'm well positioned to be ready to do a credible job on my early season triathlons in May and June and then my first OWS race in July.
BIKE (January Grade: B; February Grade: C)
I missed 3 biking days in February vs. just 1 in January and none last year. As a result I was limited to 861 miles which was below my target of 900+ miles. This was also quite a bit less than the 1,023 miles I logged in January but this is due to 5 fewer days that I could cycle--both months were around 34 miles/session on average.
My bike is clearly on the back burner and with my travel ahead I'm going to set a March goal of just 800-900 miles. Overall, I gave myself a "C" grade, down from the B in January.
Run/Walk (January Grade: A; February Grade: A)
With a June 29029 as my main "A" goal this year, this training is my main focus for the first half of 2026. I managed to get out and walk/run every day in February, which was just 1 less than the 29 days in January. My total miles went up from 140 in January to 149 in February so my average session increased from 4.8 miles to 5.3 miles. I also begin to extend my longer walks and when I was in Minnesota I walked around our Lake, which was 17.8 miles, most of which was in below zero weather.
Last year I did 127 miles in February and I was shooting for 140-150 miles this month so right on target. I gave myself an "A" grade both months. For March, even with a lot of travel I'm going to aim for 170+ miles and hope to get at least 1 20+ mile walk in as well get down to Shenandoah and log my first VAST (vertical ascent speed test) session as I need to start getting more serious about my run/walk training. I'm also going to begin adding a couple of run sessions each week and see if I can't get ready to run a couple of 5ks in April.
Strength/Flexibility (January Grade: A; February Grade: C)
My gym time was quite impacted by my February schedule and I only logged 11:35 of gym time, which was way below my goal of 20 hours and even below last year's 14:20. Not much to say here, as I just didn't have the access necessary to hit my target. Unfortunately, I need to recognize that March will also be challenging to log a lot of gym time so I'm setting a March goal of 10-15 hours. Less than ideal but given my run/walk priority and my travel, I think this is a realistic goal.
Total Training Time (January Grade: A; February Grade: A)
I was able to log 113:50 in total training time, which works out to just a bit over 4 hours/day. I had no zero days in February, even managing to go for an easy walk the day of my colonoscopy. The February total was down from the 139 hours in January (which was my 2nd highest month in the last 15+ years). I logged almost identical time with 2025: 113:50 vs 113:44--6 minutes more this year.
I was way below my 125+ hour goal, which in retrospect was unrealistic and so despite not reaching my prior stated February goal, I'm inclined to give my self an "A" for total training time in February. Looking ahead to March, I'd like to hit 115+ hours, but this may prove difficult given my schedule.
So overall, my January "GPA" of 3.8 declined to a modest 3.0 in February and my guess is I'll continue to be a "B" student in March. Which means, that I'm going to need April and May to be major training months! Onwards and upwards!
