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.