January is over, and the stats are in: it was one hell of a month to start the ironman year. Just finished my first build period, well, the hard part of it at least with a recovery week to come. One build period left, then peak, then race time!
Overall, I got in 50 hours of training, ~500 miles on the bike, ~100 miles running, and nearly 6 hours in the pool (yes, slacking here). 4 total hours of pilates, and a lot of foam rolling. It was a great start to what I expect to be an awesome year of training and pushing my body to new levels. A few keys to success after an enduring month:
- Balance, balance, balance – training is a hobby, not a profession. If i miss a workout, so be it. I must remain dedicated, but not at the cost of the true values in life
- Recovery weeks – yes, three weeks in a row is tough, but that fourth week makes it worthwhile. As the saying goes, make the hard workouts hard and the easy ones easy. Must stick to this
- The indoor trainer will be key to improving my cycling skills. Yes, the long base workouts help, but hills and intervals will be my path to success
- Swimming sucks – it’s more enjoyable when you mix up the workouts, but I’d rather be running
- I miss running – 3 days a week and a 100 miles is a lot in a month, but I miss the days of the real long weekend runs and 3-4 days in a row during the week. Next year I guess
- It will be tough to keep up this workload when I start traveling for work. Bring the shoes and get some runs in. Don’t get down on travel as it’s critical to success in a global company
- I think my heart rate monitor is broken – it’s giving me reads of over 200 for an entire workout. I feel lost without it and I must get a new one
In case you’re interested, here are the stats:
Surf City next weekend, Palm Springs Century next…will be an awesome few weeks!
