Staying the course

Just finished up another solid week. 19.5 hours of training. 204 miles on the bike, 21.1 miles running, 7000 yds swimming and 1:50 invested in weight work. Last three week totals are: 54 hours (18/week); 610 miles (203) biking, 53 (18)miles running; and 18.5k (6.2) yds swimming.

Nothing spectacular but very solid and right in my target zone. Beginning to generate some training momentum as I feel the strength building in my body. Also, noticing that the pounds are starting to fall off. Things are definitely heading in the right direction.

I'll continue in the same vein for the first part of this week and then back-off for 4 days as Alex and I are headed to Mammoth Mountain in CA for a little snowboarding. I'll get a lot of boarding work in and plan on hiking a bit to get used to my crampons. Should be a nice change of pace and will allow me to hit it hard again next week.

Hitting my Stride!

Well--I've had quite a litany of excuses:

-back surgery
-real bad case of the flu (twice)
-computrainer broke
-bad reaction to my syn-visc injection...knee swelled up like a greapefruit...had to get the juice sucked out/cortizone shot/stay off of it for 3 days
-Cervelo's fork recalled
etc.

Excuses can just be another name for poor motivation.

Anyways, last two weeks were 15 hours and 19+. Hitting my stride. Feeling stronger in the pool--3100 yds today. fixed my computrainer--ready to kill myself on it! Actually ran close to 30 miles last week....

The focus now is just a steady solid 15-20 hours/week for the next 6 weeks and then I shall be ready.

Just wish the weather didn't always suck. Oops--sounds like another excuse!

Here I come!

2009 Goals

No Ironman so a little different this year:

1. Focus on racing short triathlons--I hope to race 20 triathlons this year with just 1 or 2 H-IMs

2. Training focus will be on speed work--especially running. I will target 1 running speed session/week

3. Win my AG 10 times

4. Climb Mount Rainier

Change of focus this year to include an initial foray into Alpine Mountaineering. Note change of Blog title.

Off we go!

2008 Totals

So the numbers are in. Volume overall was down vs 2007 which is not surprising since I basically shut it down after IMC. Here's the totals:

Swim
2007: 472,000 yds (268 miles)
2008: 303,000 yds (172 miles)
Down 36%

Bike
2007: 8586 miles
2008: 9185 miles
Up 7%

Run:
2007: 1510 miles
2008: 1228 miles
Down 19%

Other:
2007: 69.5 hours
2008: 33 hours
Down 53%

Total:
2007: 934.6 hours
2008: 864.2 hours
Down: 7.5%

good news/bad news

Got the biopsy from my back surgery and all is clear

have to wait another 3 weeks before I can train hard again...no swimming for sure

hammered on my computrainer today....don't tell anyone!

A little change of plans

Had a minor surgery on my back which will knock me out of any serious training for about 2 weeks. so will reset and start in earnest in the latter part of November. anders and I are signing up for the Carlsbad marathon (him) and half-marathon (me) on 1/25.....can't wait.

Back to work

Well I've greatly enjoyed my down time since IMCAN--most needed physically and more importantly, mentally. I'm ready to get back to it.

The last 10 weeks I've exercised whenever and whatever i felt like doing which has worked out to about 10 hours a week of easy stuff. Nothing in the pool.

My forward plan is to use November and December as transition months so that by the time I hit january I'm full bore again. I officially start tomorrow and have teed up a nice 17 hour training week with 3 pool sessions again.

My knee is finally feeling a little better after my last Syn-Visc injections so hopefully it will stand up.

My plan again is to focus on sprints in 2009 and on speed over diatance in my workouts.

That said, I've signed up for 3 races in 2009 (I expect that list to grow to 18-20): Eagleman, Columbia and the Philly Sprint....