Feb 1, 2012

2012 Calendar, and some other stuff

2012 Calendar


Finalized my race calendar for 2012. Excluded a lot of races that I really enjoy doing, but with the Memorial Day burnout last year, the lesson that I shouldn't race too much has been learned. A mere three ultras this year, and - yes - three triathlons. Completing an Ironman has long been a bucket-list item for me, and 2012 will be the year I finally do it. But even though it would make an interesting story, it would probably be foolish to have an Ironman be my *first* triathlon, especially since I still don't haven't gotten the swim thing figured out yet.
  • March 31: Umstead 100-miler
  • May 10: Three Days at the Fair 72-hour
  • June 16: Wyckoff/Franklin Lakes Triathlon - 0.5M swim, 17M bike, 5M run
  • September 9: Westchester ToughMan Half - 1.2M swim, 56M bike, 13.1M run
  • September 22: North Coast 24-hour
  • November 13: Ironman Florida - 2.4M swim, 112M bike, 26.2M run
Of course, I'll probably add a couple of races 5K to half-marathon. Perhaps even a full marathon or two. But those six are the main events. And, if you're wondering, I'm not ruling out a third trip to Across The Years on December 29, but I'm not committing to it either.


January Recap


After Across The Years, I spent a couple of weeks nursing my beat up body back to health. Notwithstanding the 17 miles I hobbled after midnight in the last 9 hours of the race, the first week was about nine miles, the second week 11. Mostly just easily jogging my minimum mile per day. By MLK day, I was coming back (especially after that problem toenail fell off), and the last three weeks of the month were 19, 25, and 28 miles, giving me a total of about 104 miles in the month of January.

Regarding that other persistent issue with me, I actually ended up gaining weight in January, despite intentions to the contrary. By the last week of the month, I figured that I'd re-commit for real on Febuary first, and as a result the last few days in Jan resembled Fat Tuesday. I got that out of my system and I'm ready for some serious discipline at this point.

State of the Streak


400th day in a row of running today! There's an organization out there that tracks all known running streaks a year or longer, and as of this writing I'm own the 305th-longest running streak in America (that they know of.) How long will I keep going? Doubtful I'll make the 43.5 years of the #1 longest running streak, but I do plan on keeping this going as long as possible. The streak has kept me consistent, and I have no idea how I'll stay consistent when the streak ends - so I'm putting it off ending it as long as possible.

State of the Blog


Boy, I'm certainly not posting nearly as frequently as I used to, eh? Well, looking at the unpublished drafts, I see reports for Knickerbocker 60K and the MS Bike Ride from September that just need to be published, so I suppose I owe that to you's. But otherwise I can't promise any increased frequency. There will certainly be no blog-publishin' schedule anytime soon - my real-life schedule is busy enough as it is! There will be some things though - I'm sure this triathlon thing will motivate me to write about some insights that I have along the way.

3 comments:

  1. Steve, congrats on ATY and your streak! Question for you (I emailed you but maybe I have the wrong address?) about streaking. Is it hard to run everyday? What about the day after ATY? What constitutes running? I'm asking this because I'm coming up on walking a minimum of one mile a day and thinking about stepping it up to running one mile a day. I'm pretty obsessive so when I decide to do it, I'll be really disappointed if I fail.

    Any words of wisdom?

    Thanks!!!!

    Dusty

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dusty! A streak is whatever you want it to be - but I choose to follow the rules of the US Running Streak Association:

    "..is to run at least one continuous mile (1.61 kilometers) within each calendar day under one's own body power (without the utilization of any type of health or mechanical aid other than prosthetic devices).

    "Running under one's own body power can occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill. Running cannot occur through the use of canes, crutches or banisters, or reliance on pools or aquatic devices to create artificial buoyancy."

    OK, so that's the rule; here's what it means to me: Every day I run at least one continuous mile without a walk break. In compliance, at ATY, my first mile after midnight each day was run continuously. Pretty straightforward.

    Is it hard? Hell yea! January 2 was a bitch! Did the absolute minimum and jogged it out in something like 13 minutes. But it counts because it was a mile and resembled running (as opposed to walking (or crawling)).

    The day after a long ultra notwithstanding, it's not too bad. Lots of my days are just a quick mile on the hamster wheel, perhaps before a group exercise class, perhaps before nothing as a rest day. I often do feel "beat up" after a string of hard days, but at most two consecutive easy days of two miles or so gets me back to normal. It does get easier after a while. I encourage you to do it! The forced consistency has been extremely valuable! I set PRs in every race I ran in 2011 - big ones! 5K went from 29 to 25; marathon from 5:30 to 4:50!

    USRSA's web site is http://www.runeveryday.com/. You'll find me on their active streak list. They also have an active facebook group that's really good.

    Love hearing from you, Dusty! I hope to see you soon!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steve,

    I think I will try it but I'm not starting until February 13th.

    Thanks for the info! I really appreciate you taking the time to collect that info for me.

    I agree with the "forced consistency" bit. Even with walking a mile a day, it makes a difference. Hell, I've done 700 miles in the last two years just because I "had to".

    Thanks again! I'll keep ATY in mind for 2012, maybe we'll see each other there.

    Good luck with the swimming!!!

    Dusty

    ReplyDelete