One of my early-January rituals is to look back at the past year and crunch the numbers on my training: miles, time, sessions, race favorites, results, PRs… you get the idea. I’m getting to it a little late this year, but what can I say: January got away from me.
I’ve been busy training for the Boston Marathon… is that an excuse? Maybe. But I did crunch the numbers first thing this month. Then I ran a little 2014-2015 comparison. I love that sort of stuff, don’t you?
How many miles does a triathlete travel by swim, bike and run?
Nearly 4,000! To be precise: 3,988. That includes:
Swim: 150
Bike: 2289
Run: 1548
My overall mileage was lower than last year (4,422), but my running miles are higher (last year I ran roughly 1,300). Makes sense, considering 2014 was a three-70.3 year and in 2015, I only did one 70.3 — then racked the bike for months to train my butt off for a BQ marathon.
Time is on my side, yes it is
The thing with endurance sports is that time is on your side: if you’re consistent and train smartly, you will get better. But, you do have to put in the time.
How much? In 2015, I spent 496 hours swimming, biking or running. That’s nearly 21 full days of training, not including sleep. (Don’t get any ideas, though — sleep is more important to me than food… OK maybe it’s a toss-up.) Oh, and that doesn’t include the time spent putting on cycling gear, foam rolling tight muscles, driving to the pool or the trail; not to mention the travel time to races. Triathlon is quite the (incredible, amazing, empowering, endorphinizing) time suck, isn’t it?
One, two, one-two
My way of saying: how many times a day did I train? The answer is an average 1.7. I did a total of 630 swim, bike or run activities in 2015. A few of these included some bike commute time, so there would be days when I’d log in four bike rides – but hey, everything counts!
If you know triathlon training, you know two-a-days come with the territory, and most solid marathon-training plans have you running twice a day at least a couple of times a week, too.
I will state for the record that I took a total of 15 rest days in 2015 (ha! numbers. love ’em!). Three of those were in the very beginning of the year when I came down with the flu (luckily, I was out for less than a week, thank you immune system!), and the rest were either after big, tough races – or for international (super-long) travel. And before you rule me out as crazy, understand that my training schedule is meticulously planned to involve proper rest after hard workouts – an easy swim after a hard run, or a very short and slow run after a long day on the bike. I survived the year without major injuries — and I did take a solid two months off of structured training, during which I did light, easy activities (swim, bike and run, of course) just for the fun or the social aspect of it, usually both.
Race miles
2015 was a year of quality, not quantity. I raced a grand total of 10 times during the year – not even once a month. And now that I’ve gone both ways — in prior years, I’ve raced anywhere from 14 times (2015) to 24 (2014), I am convinced that if you want to see race results, you have to sacrifice race frequency. I didn’t realize back in 2014 how tough it was on my body to race twice a month – and no, signing up for a half marathon with the excuse that “I’ll use it as a training run” just doesn’t work for me. I show up, I get amped up, I go as fast as I can – which often doesn’t end up very fast because a week isn’t enough to recover from a race in order to race well again.
Total race miles: 229.
That included:
One 5K
One 10K
Two half marathons
One marathon
One sprint-distance triathlon
One Olympic-distance triathlon (sort of; Escape from Alcatraz is in its own category there)
One half Ironman (70.3)
And two overnight relays (The Golden Gate Relay and Ragnar Napa Valley)
Results!
And now, the fun part! I PRed every distance I ran this year, with which I am very satisfied. This was, after all, the whole point. Here are my 2015 PRs:
5K: 21:55 (previous: 23:11 in 2014)
10K: 44:29 (previous: 49:13 in 2014)
Half marathon: 1:42:12 (previous: 1:49:19 in 2014)
Marathon: 3:37:24 (previous: 4:22:43 in 2006 — oh yeah, I was overdue to try).
The knowledge that in your late 30s you are faster than you were in your early 20s — or ever: Priceless.
How was your 2015? What accomplishment are you most proud of — and what are your goals for 2016?
