Training Totals and a 2021 Recap

• SWIM: 31,380 yards, Sept-Dec when I had pool access.
• BIKE: 374.66 miles (18.07 mph ave). (And this doesn't include 50 mins of mountain biking.)
• RUN: 1,030.58 miles (7:11 / mile ave).
• BIKE TRAINER: 149 hours 36 minutes. (2,692.8 miles calculated at 18 mph.)
• STRENGTH / CORE: 428 hours 20 minutes.
• WEIGHT: 157.4 start, 157.4 finish, 160.0 high (Feb), 154.2 low (June), 157.21 monthly average.
• BODY FAT: (monthly average) 13.5% high (July), 12.7% low (April), 12.94% average.


SOME NOTES ON THOSE YEARLY NUMBERS:

• SWIM: TINY year! I was OK with that and I wasn't really missing the pool, but then I picked up a class for a professor who had to duck out for the semester at the last second at the U of M, so I had access to their pools from September through December. I made the most of it and happily didn't injure my shoulder jumping back into it.

• BIKE: Smallest year ever. I had 374 miles in 2021, and that out-did 2016's injured summer for least miles (when I did 385 that year). I just did NOT care for riding outside all that much. I'm learning more and more that I don't care for the sun and heat, and we had a HOT June. The funny thing is even though my totals are so low, I had my biggest week in the saddle in Aug of 2021 since IM WI in 2007! That week also contained a long ride of 40.22 miles - I biked 41.29 miles back in March on my birthday, and those 2 rides were my longest rides in about 9 years. So a big week and 2 long rides, but still the least overall miles ever.

BUT speaking of cycling, in 2021 I BLEW AWAY MY PREVIOUS BEST FOR TIME ON THE TRAINER!! I noted in my 2020 year in review that 2020 was a PR with 58 hrs and 14 mins on the trainer, which was better than 2018's 56 hrs and 39 mins. Well 2021 was 149 hours and 36 mins! That hardly compares! Nearly 3x more than my previous 2 PR years! AND I worked in some decent efforts in 2021 as well!! (Whereas the previous PR in 2020 was mainly easy spinning.) So if you call my trainer time equivalent to 18 mph outside, then I logged 2,692.8 miles on my trainer, or 3,067.46 miles of outdoor and indoor riding combined! That makes 2021 my biggest year in the saddle EASILY.

My trainer time showed being I was able to hold my own in 2 multisport races in 2021, and my first outdoor ride of the year went better than average because I'd been spending time in the saddle.

• RUN: BIGGEST YEAR EVER!! I posted about this on Jan 3rd: it was only my 2nd time hitting 4 digits of running, beating out 2012 (when I ran half my miles with baby Henry in the stroller) by a few miles: 1,030 miles in 2021 vs 1,027 miles in 2012. My injury in June only let me run 31 miles that month, and then I built to 76 miles in July (even though I didn't feel "back to normal" yet). The other 10 months had 85+ miles. I was able to do my 3 scheduled runs every week of 2021 except for 4 weeks: 3 when I was injured in June, and one in November when I took an extra rest day after a half marathon. Here's a graph of my weekly long runs back through 2021 and all the way back to the virtual TC 10 Mile in October of 2020:

Consistent until my injury, then building to the TC 10 Mile (the 2
back-to-back blue dots), then building MORE to the half marathon.

• STRENGTH / CORE: ANOTHER YEARLY PR!! I noted in 2020's year in review that I can't say "I want to break my strength training time (because I CAN'T!)" in 2021 after I set a PR in 2020 of just under 407 hours. (Breaking 2019's PR of 294 hours.) But in 2021, I hit over 428 hours of strength work! I MAY have had better upper body workout in 2020 when I really was hitting that hard, but a lot of this over the last few years has been "easier" core and leg exercises.

A late Dec selfie at an empty college gym. (Sorry, but not topless like
last year's selfie. Oh, but here's a topless selfie from last summer.)

• WEIGHT and BODY FAT: 2020 saw a consistent drop in both of these, but in 2021 I just "maintained." My average was 5 lb lighter than in 2020, and my body fat percentage was about a full point lower too. I didn't fluctuate much all year:

Weight was pretty consistent all year.


Body fat was pretty stable too.

Here are my monthly totals according to my training log:

2021 by TIME: lots of strength, decent trainer time (red),
and a dip in June when slightly injured.


2021 by DISTANCE.


Distance with trainer time added in at 18 mph.
(Quick Photoshop job as BT doesn't track this.)

In the previous 7 years before 2021, I only had 3 months that cracked "300 miles" without swim miles being counted like on that graph above (2 were in 2020, and 1 was like 5 or 6 years ago). In 2021 as seen directly above, 11 out of 12 months had over "300 miles" of training even if swim miles were taken out over those last few months. That was because of consistent running and lots of time on the trainer.


TOP ATHLETIC HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2021: (counting down from #8 to #1)

• EIGHT: two decent races at the Brian Kraft 5K and TC 10 Mile. Neither of these were AMAZING races, but I was happy with each of my performances at them. (Both races were brutal.) I turned in a 17:32 at the Brian Kraft 5K among all the speedsters, and a (shocking) 4th in my age group in 1:02:00 at the TC 10 Mile:

Final kick at the Brian Kraft 5K and around mile 8 of the TC 10 Mile.

• SEVEN: lots of consistency! As I said above when talking about my running, I only missed my scheduled "3 runs/week" 4 times all year (3 when injured and 1 when taking an extra day of rest after a half marathon). I started the year doing 2 or 3 bike workouts a week, and ended very consistently doing 3/week. I did different strength workouts every day. If I missed a workout, it was because we were out of town, camping, with family, etc. (And many of those days, I still squeezed in a workout.) When we spent 4 days in Grand Marais, I only did nothing on 1 of those days. I fit in strength workouts on every day of our 6 day family vacation last summer (with every-other-day workouts of runs and bikes as well).

Only ONE time all year did I truly "skip" a workout, and it was a weekday that Sarah was home and we were getting a lot of stuff done around the house (and I still did my strength workout, but skipped my bike workout). I NEVER skipped a workout just because I "wasn't feeling it" or was too tired. I found a way to be consistent.

• SIX: hitting the pool again. I'm happy about this for a number of reasons. First, I didn't hurt my shoulders by starting up again. Second, I didn't lose ALL that much swim fitness (I attribute weight lifting to helping that). Third, it was fun to be at a "new" (to me) pool at the U of M being I filled in for another professor for just the semester. (Here's another post about some swims at the U this past fall.)

• FIVE: occasionally getting back to a gym. Back in early February, I stopped by the weight room of one of the colleges where I teach, which was the first time I was in a gym in 11 months. I stopped in off-and-on all spring, hardly during the summer, and then often this past fall. It was nice to be back in the gym especially one that was QUIET as the majority of people using it were at class! :) I'm still doing OK working out at home (even more-so now that we got some adjustable dumbbells last month), but it's nice to use a bench and work a bit harder now and then.

• FOUR: not an "athletic" highlight, but I won't forget hitting out "MN State Park" goal in 2021! The boys and I finished our quest to hit every state park in MN this past October. We had a great trip along the North Shore to hit our final parks. See lots more in this post (which is the first of 2).

On our big trip up north to our last state parks!

• THREE: riding with my boys! Charlie got better on his bike this past year! We went on some fun rides, and want to do a lot more this year.

Riding Big River's trail with my boys.


A shaky selfie over my shoulder mountain biking in Kaplan's Woods.

• TWO: two 2nd place finishes at two multisport races. I was happy to get in a duathlon and a triathlon the year after most races had been canceled. I raced the Oakdale Duathlon and was passed on the bike and never caught the guy who ended up winning. And then I did the Square Lake Triathlon in September with a time trial start, so I just raced my butt off and found out I was 2nd overall well after I had finished:

Oakdale Du and Square Lake Tri.

• ONE: winning my first half marathon. This whole race was a stressful blast! At the Moustache Run Half Marathon in November, I took off in 6th-7th place, but then EVERYONE in front of me turned around to finish the 10K and I found myself suddenly right behind the pace police car. That moment is a LIFETIME top-10 race moment - honestly, that moment was more memorable than winning the race. Then I had to stressfully hang on to win as 2nd place was NOT far behind me - he finished just 0:20 back. Truly an unforgettable race! (And a decent time of 1:22:17!)


As for goals for 2022? Nothing big. Just work on staying injury free, push the miles and effort as much as I can with my running and cycling, and maybe focus a bit more on running. I'm hoping for a few multisport races this year, but I only did the Square Lake Tri this past summer because I got access to a pool earlier that month to try swimming before the race, so who knows if anything will fall into place like that this year. Being I learned about and earned some points in the USATF MN "Runner of the Year" race, I might focus on running some different distances as fast as I can to earn more points. (Not win it, but just see how high I can get.) Who knows.

And finally, here's a quick yearly recap of 2021 showing 20 photos from my Instagram:

Jan: a note from Henry.


Feb: a note that Charlie took to school.


March: Shaving off my best beard ever. (Also seen here)




March: my 40th birthday! (I celebrated with a 40 mile ride.)


March: a spring break trip up along the north shore (our FIRST time up there!).


April: 4 pics of our tree house going up: this was the difference of 48 hours...


... the walls the next weekend and railings the following weekend...


... then siding and "curving" the walls later...


... then a summer of our boys and neighbor kids enjoying it.


May: coming across 2 wolves on an 11 mile run up north!!


June: an EPIC camping trip to South Dakota. This was the view from our tent!


June: Henry started to love baseball this summer! This was
after he hit his first home run and scored his team's only 2 runs!


June: we spent all month at different fields around St. Paul.


July: we had to say goodbye to old Ella.


July: catching LOTS of fish with Charlie...


... and teaching Henry to ski!!


Aug: living room work! After peeling some paint and opening up some
cracked walls, and after lots of patching, texturing, and priming! (Before paint.)


Aug: the final look! (As seen in this post.)


Sept: picking up a last-minute class at the U of M in my biggest classroom ever,
with 5 big whiteboards and TWENTY ONE whiteboard markers!


Oct: a TON of great memories from finishing our quest to hit EVERY State Park in MN!!


Nov: taking my mother-in-law to her first Vikings game.


Nov: WINNING my first half marathon at the Moustache Run Half Marathon!


Dec: bringing home Bruce: a kitten that followed my wife to her car.