2008 Training Summary

So 2008 ended up being a pretty good year on the training front given work, little kids, a new baby, and some international travel. the second half was more productive than the first in terms of both quality and volume. Here are some stats.

2008 Hours:
Total: 315 hours
Most in a month: Aug - 55
Least in a month: June - 9

2008 Swimming:
Yards: 130,850
Most in a month: Sept - 30,700
Least in a month: June - 0

2008 Biking:
Miles: 2,479
Most in a month: Aug - 528
Least in a month: Dec - 71

2008 Running:
Miles: 641
Most in a month: Oct - 83.5
Least in a month: June - 15.1

Other Stuff:
Races: 6 (Lonestar Qtr, CapTex Tri Oly, Timberman Sprint, Longhorn 70.3, Four Seasons 10K, San Antonio Rock'n Roll Half Marry)
PRs: 4 (Qtr, 70.3, 10K, Half Marry)

I've been tracking my workouts in a similar format since 2002 when I first got into triathlon, and I can tell this is the 4th biggest swimming year by volume over the 7 years I've been tracking, the 2nd biggest biking year (2005), and the biggest running year (by 5 miles over 2005) since 2002. My biggest training week by volume was Sept 1-7 and was 14.9 hours.

If you look at my volume by month, most months were a little light relative to past years, but August and Sept were huge and moved the year forward quite a bit. No wonder I lost a ton of weight over those 10 weeks or so, and picked up some great fitness and speed that I'm slowly eroding away over the winter months here.

Nov-Dec have been more productive than normal years so I shouldn't be starting in as big of a fitness hole in the Spring as is usually the case. The run focus will surely pay benefits next year too. Finally, I've signed up for a tri training camp in Tuscon Arizona this coming February and should get in 16-20 hours of riding over a 5 day period if I can handle it pushing the biking volume forward big time.

When I was swimming competitively in High School and College, I never logged my workouts with an regularity, so I have no stats to draw back on. That is what the coaches were for. But I know that in High School over our Christmas Holiday break, I'd do nothing but train. My team called it Black Xmas and it was miserable most of the time. I was a walking zombie for 2-3 weeks but my family never travelled over the holidays because I didn't dare miss this training. It would set up your entire season. College winter training was intense too, but we'd cap out the NCAA mandated 20 hours per week max pretty easily which limited volume. Anyhow, I know for a fact that we would swim over 100,000 yards a week during Black Xmas. Considering I swam 132,000 yards in 2008, I know there is a lot more I can be doing at least mentally if not physically to maximize my potential.

There are lots of people putting in much longer hours than I am, so I don't kid myself into thinking this is impressive by any means. I've always been a stat and numbers guy, and this is just a way for me to quantify a part of my life which is how I prefer to view things, and is good for motivation which I am regularly short on.

I'm looking forward to 2009 for many reasons. Here is to a healthy and prosperous new year to all of you. May your goals be lofty, and your accomplishments plentiful.

Happy New Year.