Mid-year training update

My Endurance Films Racing teammate Nick did a mid-year training volume report and it got me a bit curious. Here's what my numbers look like for the first six months of 2012:

Biking

1536 miles
89 hours

Running
402 miles
56 hours

Swimming
44 hours

Gym-ing
50 hours


That's a total of 239 hours, an average of 9.2 hours per week. I'm not saying this is good or bad, high or low.  It's such an individual thing, but this is what works for me, my goals, and my circumstances.

That said, it looks like each week I bike about 59 miles and run about 20 (I took 6 weeks off) plus swim about 4500-7000 yards (I don't record exact yardages but probably should). 

For the same time period in 2011, I biked 842 miles and ran 238 but I started the year off injured and not doing either of those things for much of January and February.

I/we don't set yearly volume/mileage goals, but if I got to December 31 saw I was at 2,952 miles of biking, you'd better believe I'd head out for a 48 mile bike ride or sit on the trainer for three hours to get to a nice round number!!

That pretty much tells you why I/we don't set specific volume/mileage goals, lol.

Training Peaks is fabulous for so many things including their reporting features. The data junkie in me appreciates this stuff :-)

It's racetime again on Sunday at Colonial Beach, Virginia with a swim in the Potomac. It's my first Olympic of the year, and with Nationals five (yikes!) weeks off, I need it!

I'm different now.

Two of my now-graduated students, Bryce and Steven, were in town this week and they joined me and the family to watch the fireworks on the 4th. They were in our pilot Earth Sustainability program here at VT that required a 2-year commitment so I saw this group of students a LOT, we really got to know each other well, and we stay in contact.

As we caught up, Bryce turned to me and said, "You've changed a LOT in 6 years." Wait...wasn't I supposed to say that to them? He's a mover and shaker in the Sierra Club, and Steven is in pharmacy school. I'm a grown adult (at least according to my birth certificate haha) still here doing my thing.

He said I seemed more mellow. Different somehow.

Yeah, I would say I am. I think triathlon, probably any sport/passion, can change a person, at any age! It's taught me a lot of lessons in a different way, that's for sure.

Perseverance. Resiliency. Trust. Work. Courage. Humility.

The rewards have far exceeded anything I could have imagined. I don't mean race "bling" and hardware. I mean self-discovery.

I have learned that I love to spend hours in the brain-quieting solitude of training. I discovered my capacity to work and the happiness that comes from pushing myself physically. I am grounded by the structure and challenges that training provides. I am competitive :-) Who knew?  How else would I have known?

I AM different now. I'm pretty sure my brain is even biochemically different than four years ago, and not just because my eating has done a 180, but from four years of being bathed in endorphins that leave me feeling happier than I have ever been.

I think sport changes us, alters the course of our development and personality. Maybe it's not always for the better but I think/hope for the most part it is.

I shudder to think of where I would be, of who I would be, had I not taken that first step over four years ago.

This change is a big reason that I blog and share openly. I don't think we are done growing up and finding ourselves at 20, or 30, or 40, or 50, or beyond. It's an ongoing developmental process....if you don't shut yourself off to it. Sport is one avenue for continual self-discovery and a great antidote to personal stagnation.

No matter your age, step away from the status quo. 

Take a chance. Shake things up. Discover.

Bryce is and has been doing that since I have known him. I do have one piece of advice for Bryce though -- just don't grow up ALL the way ;-)  Always leave a little room there for the kid in you!

Bryce and I three years ago when he won a major service learning award!!

Back on the grid!

Power was finally restored on Thursday so the kids and I rushed home and did some quick unpacking before Spencer and I headed off to a swim meet. I set up at my little "station" where I got to do my favorite volunteer job of averaging the data from the two timers in each lane. I don't get enough opportunities for mental math like this. I watched Spencer swim 50 butterfly and 100 free and he watched me do 100 free and then we went home and simply enjoyed being home.

Life is returning to normal. Look...the light comes on in the refrigerator again! 

I dropped almost $300 at Kroger yesterday and the refrigerator is beginning to fill again. My mom and I always joke that there are two kinds of people - those who like to see their refrigerator full, and those who like it empty. I tend more toward empty - simple, clean, fewer choices, minimal waste. But this is extreme even for me. Trust me, it's filling again. Take mustard. We had a family discussion about our individual mustard "needs" after I tossed at least five kinds of it last week. It seems we cannot get by on any fewer than three kinds - yellow, spicy brown, and stone-ground.

Today is a day off for me, and much needed. I've been hard at it. Despite the chaos of the last week, I achieved some new firsts in the swim and bike and met one long-standing goal I have had on the run. I'm feeling good!!

I'd better be feeling good -- we are 6 weeks out from Nationals, I can't believe that!! I am signed up for both races in Burlington, plus I have two races between now and then. That's four races in six weeks and next weekend is my first Olympic distance race of the year. I'm headed to Colonial Beach to swim in the Potomac. That will be my first time at that venue.

Have a great weekend!

Home: Family "Transition" area

Happy almost 4th of July!! This is our flag in front of our house...our house which has been relegated to a "transition area"

Day four of no power. Or water.

We are among the 10,000 households in the county still without and now "they" (Appalachian Power) are saying it could be Friday before we are back up. I have yet to see an Ap Co truck anywhere and am still driving over fallen lines in the street.

Fortunately, the main parts of town (and our pool) have power and water now. So, other than the fact that the kids and I are not currently living at our house (only the hubs; I think it's a "guy" thing), life is fairly normal. This is a community that knows how to come together and support one another in challenging times.

I've made my peace by thinking of the house as our "transition" area. The bike comes in, the guitar goes out. The mail comes in, the karate uniform goes out. We don't stay there long. It's our storage unit. With a guard dog and cats! We have moved in with Oma. Thank you Oma!

Training is providing much needed structure and focus. Today I had a brick ride-run and a swim on the schedule and knocked them all out in a row first thing. It was nearly two hours of quality workouts. Coach Jim is turning the screws so I had to step up and dig a bit deeper than usual on the bike and swim. I was happy to oblige :-)

After the morning's workouts, I was thinking about writing a blog post called "You CAN get faster after 40". Then I came home to find that Joanna Zeiger who blogs at Fast at Forty had written a post called "Age related declines in performance". LOL! It's a good read, and my favorite part is the quote about fitness being like a ladder and how even though we lose the top-most rungs as we age, most of us are still far below the top of our own ladder and have plenty of room to improve! I say, even if VO2 Max is in decline, we can still get smarter, tougher, and more tactical.

Another good read today was Tony Gentilcore's Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss post. The classic line from that one? "You can't out train a poor diet."

I will conclude by saying thanks/sorry to whoever has unwittingly let me hop on their WiFi connection here from Oma's.....desperate times call for desperate measures.

Tri training: no electricity or running water required!

As my father likes to say, it's "hotter than the hubs of he**" around here.  On day two of no power or running water the house has become our storage unit and the kids and I are sleeping at my mother-in-law's house or friend's houses in town and Robert stayed home with the dog. We are hearing it could be as late as Saturday before we have power again. Our swim club is without power and closed so my swim workouts will move to open water. Coach Jim is in the same situation and coming into town to find Internet and keep tabs on all his athletes.

No excuses....just do what you have to.

I came home this morning to get the bike and head out on a long (50 mile) bike ride but did not start early enough to beat the heat. With no body-temp-lowering shower option at the house afterward, the cool concrete of the garage was the next best thing -- right there by the chainsaw and gas can, yes, it is a glamorous life! Trixie thought it was a good idea and joined me.

Heading out, I was a little concerned about road debris and although I saw SO many downed trees and power lines, most things were at least pushed off the road. My Clif bar and 2nd Surge Gel ended up being not enough nutrition, so I kept my eyes out for wineberries that grow wild around here and are just about at their delicious peak. Twice I stopped and ate my fill!

You never know what you will see on these rural rides. I turned around to snap this photo -- 3.1 bathrooms?! LOL!

Mostly what I saw were horses, cows, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, some deer, a vulture, very few cars, and ZERO traffic lights from my doorstep to the turnaround and back. This area offers great riding.

After I cooled down, we cleaned OUT the fridge and freezer. I "outsourced" some stuff yesterday (see Solar Connexion below), but much of it got the heave-ho. It was very sad. I do not like waste.

Despite this being a super-weird week, training wise it was pretty hefty - 13 total hours:

• 3:05 swim (4x)
• 5:15 bike (3x - 98 miles total)
• 2:28 run (3x - 19 miles total)
• 2:15 gym (2x)

That's all from here. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!

---

Thanks to Bryan Walsh of Solar Connexion for storing a bunch of my freezer stuff since his solar arrays and battery bank allow he and his family to function pretty normally even with the power company down. They still have hot and cold running (well) water, A/C, freezer, refrigerator, Internet, etc. (see recent video of his house) For anyone thinking of solar....do it! I suspect power disruptions will only become more common and widespread. We need to work toward energy independence through efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy options like solar.  After this experience, you'd better believe I will be.....

End.soapbox.