Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!: 2018 Training Totals

- Swim: 178,577 yards (101.46 miles)
- Bike: 940.39 miles (19.88 mph ave), only a few miles of that pulling my boys on my MTN bike.
- Run: 912.87 miles (7:13 / mile ave), 18.39 miles of that in the single stroller, 151.9 miles of that with the double stroller, for 170.29 "stroller miles" total out of my 912.87.
- Bike Trainer: 56 hours 39 minutes
- Strength / Core: 213 hours 5 minutes
- Aqua Jogging: 1 hours, 45 mins
- Weight: 167.6 start, 158.8 end, 168.6 high (Feb), 157.6 low (Oct), 164.03 yearly average
- Body Fat: (monthly ave) 14.9% high (Mar), 12.9% low (Dec), 14.08% yearly average

SOME NOTES ON THOSE YEARLY NUMBERS:
(With a ranking of where these numbers stack up over the last 13 years of racing triathlons.)

- Swim: Biggest year ever! This totally snuck up on me. But I swam 36,000 yards MORE than my previous best year (2014). I never had any "big" months this last year, but I was just consistent throughout. I was on track for well over 200,000 yards in 2015, but then I got injured and stayed out of the pool for most of the last half of that year. "Consistency" was the word for 2018 in the pool.

- Bike: 5th out of 13 years. We had a long winter in early 2018, and I didn't get out there too quickly in the spring. I spent more time on my trainer than I did out on the road this past year. Add in that trainer time (which is NOT counted in my bike miles above), and my 940.39 miles of biking turns in to 2016.74 miles* total on my bike! That's EASILY my 2nd biggest bike total ever, behind 2,100 miles in 2017. (And in previous years, nothing is close to those numbers: maybe a few years around 1,200 - 1,400 total "miles" counting the trainer.) My trainer time was the most EVER by nearly DOUBLE, but it was a lot of easier spinning.

I didn't train QUITE as hard last year on the bike, and that showed in my triathlon splits. And I just didn't put in as much time as I did in 2017. Here's something I showed last year as well (when I was showing why I was so GOOD on the bike in 2017), and it shows why I was WORSE in 2018:

2015
7 rides of 25-28 miles
14 rides of 28+ miles (6 of those were in Nov after getting my new bike)

2016
2 rides of 25-28 miles
3 rides of 28+ miles

2017
11 rides of 25-28 miles
26 rides of 28+ miles

2018
4 rides of 25-28 miles
15 rides of 28+ miles

* I've been taking it easy on the trainer for the last 18 months or so, so I calculated my "trainer miles" at 19 mph. So that added 1,076.35 "miles" to my bike total.

- Run: 2nd out of 13 years! Only 2012 when I had my biggest year (1,027 miles) as I was running with a colicky baby Henry had more miles! I was able to beat my previous 2nd best year by just over a mile (911.42 miles in 2010 as I had higher miles as Coach Jen trained me to my only sub-60:00 10 mile race).

I really started running FARTHER in the last half of last year. It felt REALLY DRASTIC in my mind, but it wasn't as drastic on paper: 415 miles Jan-June vs. 497 miles July-Dec. And in the last 4 months of the year, I had 12 out of 17 weeks with 20+ miles (as I wrote about here).

- Strength: 3rd out of 13 years. And these last 3 years have all been my biggest (1st was 2017, 2nd was 2016, and 3rd was 2018). Holding steady.

- Weight: 13th out of 13 years. (Meaning my heaviest.) My trend of getting a bit heavier every year is still continuing. Luckily, it's subtle. AND luckily I've been on weight-loss trend over these last few months, so MAYBE I can reverse this for 2019.

UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention is I wonder if some of my recent weight loss is due to not working out as hard. I think I've lost a little muscle, and that could be the reason for the decline in recent months. I don't want to be any heavier, but I also don't want to be losing muscle!

Monthly TIME spent at swim, bike, run, strength, and "sports"
(all trainer time except for 105 mins in April of Aqua Jogging).

Monthly DISTANCE. Note the slow start on the bike, but the consistent swims.

Monthly DISTANCE with poorly Photoshopped trainer miles added in.
(BeginnerTriathlete.com doesn't add that in, but I added those miles at 19 mph.
Could add in 14 miles of running for my aqua jogging in April as well.)

Monthly weight average. Starting higher, but dropping nicely mid-way through the year...

... same could be said for body fat percentage.

It's not surprising to note that my biggest months of training had the fewest races. My "tallest" months on those graphs were April, June, Sept, and Nov. I had a short duathlon at the very end of April, and a sprint tri in the middle of Sept. But that was it for those months. Part of those bigger non-race months is problematic: I've realized that racing helps keep me injury-free. I think my body responds well to easier pre-race weeks, then a hard race, then an easier post-race week. Without those highs and lows, I tend to push the distance maybe a BIT too much. (May, July, and Oct. were the shortest months on those graphs [all months I raced], and 2 of those months 3 months contained multiple races.)

I really swam and ran all I could this past year. My shoulder is still not 100%, so swimming much more is out of the question - 2x/week is ALL I can/should do. And I run as MUCH as I can before getting injured. Those numbers are as high as I could get them. Biking, on the other hand, I could do better at. I've already mentioned I could bike HARDER (especially on the trainer), and I could put in more miles too. I might try to work on that for 2019, but no promises.

HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2018:
(There are 7, so lets count down to #1)

- SEVEN: Laying down a good race at the TC 10 Mile. This is always one of my favorite races each year. I'd built my milage up decently (not amazingly) before this race, and I was ready to try to kill it. I ended up with my 3rd fastest 10 mile (out of 9) in 1:01:41, just 0:01 slower than my "best possible goal."

Just before the finish as seen in my race report.

- SIX: setting a 10K PR in late October. At the Minneapolis Halloween Half 10K, I was coming off a decent TC 10 Mile a few weeks before. I pushed the mileage a bit between those 2 races, and had a decent 10K. I was 2nd overall with a PR by 0:16 (of 36:30). It was a bit short, but it's a PR on paper.

Just feet from the finish.

- FIVE: Racing near the front of "One Last Tri." It wasn't a very memorable (read: "not fast") triathlon season for me, but after the Maple Grove Tri, I hit the bike a bit harder to be ready for One Last Tri. (Maple Grove was SHORTER and slightly FLATTER, and I posted a 21.0 mph average. At the LONGER and slightly HILLIER One Last Tri, I was able to post a 22.0 mph average. And those are my Garmin numbers, not the race's numbers based on measuring a course a bit long or short.) At One Last Tri, I ended up being passed by only 1 cyclist, and then I posted the fastest run split for the day to work my way up to 4th overall. Click here for my race report.

Finishing the ride at One Last Tri.

- FOUR: Racing my slowest 5K in 10 years. This is really sort of a "lowlight," but it helped highlight the fact that if I want to be RACING fast, then I need to be TRAINING fast earlier in the year. I was still basically "base-phase" running when I thought I'd be able to bust out a sub-18 5K. Well, that didn't happen.

Lined up with thousands of my best friends at the TC in Motion "Hot Dash" 5K.

A cute post-race memory.

- THREE: Training hard for the Raspberry Run 1 Mile, and then going 4:54. I hit the track for some 400s and 200s leading up to this race, as I finished the TC 1 Mile two months before this race in 5:02. And I KNEW I could get back under 5 again. So I pushed and hurt really hard and finished substantially sub-5 at the Raspberry Run 1 Mile.

A sufferfest at the Raspberry Run 1 Mile.

- TWO: So many stroller runs with the boys. Sure, in 2017 I had a few more stroller miles with the boys (188 then as opposed to 170 this past year), but that's because I had more "single stroller" runs with just Charlie back then (back when it wasn't uncommon for him to pass out for another short nap). This past year, I ran more with the double stroller: nearly 152 miles with both boys in the double, with 110 of those happening over 3 months of the summer. (The remaining 42 miles of "double stroller" running came mainly from weekends my wife had to work.) I also had my longest double stroller run of 10.74 miles (after a weekend of camping with the fellas).

- ONE: Speaking of "stroller runs," my top memory of the year was racing the MDRA 15K with both boys in the double stroller. It was my longest stroller race ever. And it was my first 15K, so it was an automatic PR. But it was also my slowest pace in a running race ever, so it was also a PW. (My first half marathon in 2008 was at 6:49.5 pace, and this 15K [9.33 miles in 'merica] was at 6:52 pace.) Here's my race report from that race, and here are 2 pics:

Shot from 1-2 miles into the race running through Crosby Farm Park.

SWEATY just before the finish (as seen in this post).

Oh, and 2 "honorable mention" highlights include when I shit myself during a long run (first time THAT happened), and when I tried racing without looking at my Garmin. I also learned back in April that I have bone spurs on top of my left foot, which explains some pain I was (am) having.

GOALS FOR 2019:
(Here are 4, and they're not too dramatic.)

- Train harder. I've been slowly backing off the effort over the last few years. That's not all bad in and of itself. But I want to still be racing as FAST as well. And I can't expect to ease off the effort and then still be as fast. (My effort in the gym as been reduced too - I put in a good amount of TIME doing my exercises, but they aren't as intense as, let's say, 6 years ago. I used to be able to get in a GREAT upper body workout in 40 minutes. And now that's just OK.) I spent a lot of time on my trainer this last year, but I was not fast at the races on my bike because I took it so easy for half of those workouts.

- Keep doing my boring physical therapy exercises. Whenever I let my leg exercises slip, or when I start getting lazier in my core routine, or I stop doing my heel exercises, bad things happen to my body. I need to keep the strength work up.

- Stay consistent, but not at the cost of hurting myself. I fell into a GREAT routine this last semester of doing 2 of my 3 weekly runs between my classes. That set up my week nicely (and probably helped me to have such a higher-milage fall). BUT... I still need to back off when issues arise. Sometimes I get a bit TOO focused on "Oooh look at this nice stretch of workouts! Good for me!" I need to know I can bust those up if something needs a few days (or weeks) of rest.

- As for specific race goals, I have none. I'm not registered for anything. I don't have any specific time goal in any distance of running race. I'm not planning on racing the MDRA "Grand Prix" series, and I'm not even sure I'll race on the USATF YWCA team (I *probably* will, but I'm not 100% sure right now). I'll work myself into shape and grab some races like I did over this last year.

As always, here's my favorite "year in review:" a month-by-month sampling of family shots from my Instagram feed: (With 16 pics instead of 12 because I couldn't narrow it down any better. And this becomes less dramatic every year, because there's more change from an 6-month-old to an 18-month-old over a year, but less change from a 6 to 7-year-old.)