2016 Year End Training Totals

- Swim: 46,325 yards (26.32 miles, 1.66 mph ave)
- Bike: 385.46 miles (15.78 mph ave), 164.13 of that pulling my boys on my MTN bike
- Run: 580.22 miles (7:21 / mile ave), 16.4 of that pushing my boys in the double Chariot
- Bike Trainer: 27 hours 24 minutes
- Strength / Core: 226 hours 17 minutes
- Random: Aqua Jogging: 8 hours, 56 mins. Stairclimber: 31 mins.
- Weight: 161.2 start, 162.6 end, 167.8 high (Oct), 157.8 low (Apr), 162.75 yearly average
- Body Fat: (monthly ave) 14.2% high (Aug, Sept, Oct), 13.17% low (Apr), 13.72% yearly average


SOME NOTES ON THOSE YEARLY NUMBERS:
(With a ranking of where these numbers stack up over the last 11 years of racing triathlons.)

- Swim: 9th out of the last 11 years (only less in my first year of triathlons in 2006, and when I focused on running in 2012). Remember, I didn’t start swimming until July this year (and even then, I had to start slow because of shoulder issues), so I’m pretty surprised this isn’t last. I’m OK with this. And 2016 is EASILY the most kicking I've done in a year - I kicked at the end of all except 3 of my swims, for about 6,700 yards of kicking in a year that was only 46,000 yards total.

- Bike: 11th out of 11 years. Last place. (I stopped biking in April because of my lower leg issue.) And I have a super low average speed too, because 98% of these outdoor miles after April were pulling the boys in the Chariot with my mountain bike. The year started out strong with 493.77 combined miles outside and on the trainer over 4 months. I'm pretty sure that's my best stretch of bike training for Jan-April!

- Bike Trainer: 2nd out of 8 years with a trainer! I did a lot on my trainer this past spring when I was TOTALLY ready to kill duathlon season, but then an injury forced me to take the summer off. I’ve gotten back on the trainer this winter a few times, but still need to take it easy as it upsets my lower back issue a bit. Hoping to put up good trainer numbers this year too.

- Run: 8th out of the last 11 years (beating my first 2 years of running, and 2014 when I was coming off an injury and had an ankle sprain that spring). I had a great start to the year, but then that leg injury kept me from running in April, May, and June. And then I started back REAL slowly in July and August. Oh, and it's my 6th year where I've ran more than I've biked (not including trainer time).

- Strength: 1st out of 11 years! Biggest year ever! A lot of this is “easier” physical therapy exercises for all the different parts of me that are broken - I’m not just pumping iron hard 24/7. I’m trying to keep these legs strong to ward off these injuries!

- Weight: 11th out of 11 years. Getting chunkier. Maybe some of this is due to doing so much weight work, but very little. Most years, I "get heavy" when I hit 160. In 2016, I was in the 160s almost the whole year. Dang.

Monthly time spent at swim, bike, run, “sports” (usually bike trainer), and strength.
April has so much “sport” because of 9 hrs of aqua jogging, and some trainer rides.)


Monthly distance totals.


Monthly totals with trainer "distance" added in. (BeginnerTriathlete.com doesn't have a way
to add in trainer time, so I just did a quick, bad Photoshop estimate here.
Used an average of 20 mph in the spring, and 17 mph this fall/winter.)

2016 RACE COUNT:

- Duathlons or Triathlons: 0 (first ZERO since 2005 [before starting to race])
- Time Trials / Bike Races: 0
- Half Marathon: 2
- 8K: 1
- 4 Mile: 1 (first race pushing both my boys!)
- 6K: 1 (cross country)
- 5K: 2 (one as part of a 15K relay, and one pushing my son and nephew)
- 1 Mile: 1
- Donut Mile: 1

From 2012-2015, I averaged around 15 races a year. I was hoping to race a lot in 2016, but my injured body had other plans. So no multisport races, and just 9 running races on the year.


FIVE HIGHLIGHTS:
(Let's count down to the best.)

- FIVE: Being OK with being injured. I survived not running for over 3 months (and not racing for 6 months) just fine. I'm almost proud of how I handled it. Yes, I was SUPER BUMMED to not have a duathlon season after getting a new bike a year ago and putting on lots of solid miles last winter/spring, but I got through without any major issues.

- FOUR: Racing with both boys for the first time. I took both boys to the Lake Johanna 4 Mile race in March where I finished 7th overall pushing both of them.

I love these guys.

- THREE: Doing a unplanned 25K. A volunteer wasn't at her corner at the "Half Fast Half Marathon" this past winter, so a bunch of us ended up racing 15.5 miles. It was oddly fun. And (unofficially) my 2nd 25K.

- TWO: Pushing 2 boys to a first-non-teenager finish. I raced the "Fast Before the Feast" 5K on Thanksgiving morning with lots of family. I pushed my youngest son Charlie and my nephew Wes to a 7th place overall finish out of 600+, and I was the first non-teenage boy. It was only 16 to 19-year-olds in front of me. Really. That was a fun one!

Pre-race at the "Fast Before the Feast" 5K!

- ONE: Finishing the last "Grand Prix" race healthy with a perfect 1000 point score and getting lots of high-fives from my boys along the way. This is the top racing memory of the year. It was at the little "Rocky's Run 6K" cross country meet, and my wife ran over to cheer me on with the boys in tow. I finished 14th overall (1st in my age group) with 1st-6th being all 20-year-old men. The 7 finishers right in front of me and the 7 directly behind me were all female U of M CC runners. I was the first "Grand Prix" racer, so I finished the season with a perfect 1000 points. But best of all, I was able to be healthy enough to race hard at the end of the year WHILE getting 5 high-fives from my dudes along the way:

My final high-five after getting 4 more earlier in the race.

Oh, and if I had to share a non-running "lowlight" and "highlight," I'd have to say my lowlight was when I was in my walking cast and started having testicular pain, so I headed to the ER. Here's a pic from that post:

And my non-running highlight was when I went camping for 3 days with my 5-year-old in northern MN:

LOTS of fun pics in this post! Seriously, probably my best memory of 2016.

GOAL FOR 2017: There's just ONE. This is a broad statement, but it covers about everything: Train as much as I can to get into the best possible multisport shape, but do it smart and take time off when I need to rest an injury or tweek. There you have it. I can't be injury-free. Realistically, I just can't. And I know I probably won't be able to put in the miles like I did on my bike in 2015 when I raced as an elite for the first time because my sacrum would get too upset. I can't swim like I did in 2014 because of my shoulder. And no 1,000 mile year of running like 2012. But that's fine. I'll do all I can in the (injured) body that I have, and I'll be OK with it. And I'll adjust my training if something starts to hurt/ache/bleed too much. As a quick simple example, I was happy that I just took 5 days off from any swim/bike/run when I tweeked my knee a bit - I was really looking forward to having a 4-run week, but that just needed to not happen after some pain.

(I don't feel like I need to stick to these numbers, but I would LIKE to swim around 120,000 yards, bike over 1,500 miles combined on the trainer and outside, and run maybe 700 miles. No pressure though.)


Finally, here's the BEST "year in review" shown through a photo each month from my Instagram posts: (with 3 bonus photos that I couldn't NOT share)

Jan: Trying to ship my boys to Abu Dhabi after a rough day.


Feb.


March: pantless dudes.


April: on an "adventure" with my boys after getting my walking cast off.


May: At his 2-yr checkup.


June: At Henry's 5-yr checkup. Mama came to visit (it's the hospital
where she works), and Charlie wanted to wear a gown too.


Bonus June photo: Charlie helped teach me that wet slides are fast slides.


July: Spent a week at the cabin.


Bonus July photo: Henry's first keeper!


Aug: Finishing a triathlon with Mama!


Sept: Henry's first tooth fell out!


Bonus Sept. photo: first day of school!


Oct.


Bonus Oct. photo: Bow tie buddies at Aunt Annie's wedding.


Nov: Unposed brothers by the Mississippi.


Dec: A post-Christmas matinee with my boys.

Thus ends 2016. Here's to a good 2017!

p.s. 2016 was also the year that our family decided it was best for me to stay a part-time stay-at-home DILF instead of looking for full time work. It's been nice to spend lots of time with my boys while still professor-ing part time.