2022 Training Totals

• SWIM: 37,730 yards, Sept-Dec when I had pool access.
• BIKE: 454.61 miles (16.2 mph ave, which is slower from biking with my boys more).
• BIKE TRAINER: 162 hours 17 minutes. (3,082.4 miles calculated at 19 mph.)
• MOUNTAIN BIKE: 4 hrs 0 mins (37.3 miles, or 9.3 mph ave).
• RUN: 1,123.81 miles (7:10 / mile ave).
• STRENGTH / CORE: 473 hours 27 minutes.
• WEIGHT: 158.2 start, 155.4 finish, 161.0 high (April), 153.6 low (Nov), 157.67 monthly average.
• BODY FAT: (monthly average) 13.9% high (June), 12.35% low (Nov), 13.20% average.


SOME NOTES ON THOSE YEARLY NUMBERS:

• SWIM: 4th lowest yearly total ever. But I don't care. 2020 and 2021 were both less - I only swam the opening months of 2020 before the pandemic shut down the gyms, and only the last few months of 2021 when I had access to a pool as I was teaching that fall at the U of M. (And my first year of swimming in 2006 was less as well.) In 2022, I swam much like I did in 2021 when I got access again in the fall. But the difference is that I'm now still swimming in 2023, so hopefully I'll have a higher total this year!

• BIKE: 3rd lowest yearly total ever. Again, I don't care... but for a different reason: check out my trainer time/distance... I just don't care to be out sweating in the sun for hours, so I've been leaning into my bike trainer.

• TRAINER TIME: BIGGEST YEAR EVER! The most trainer time of the last 17 years of multisport! I had a big total in 2021 as well, but before that I didn't hit the trainer much. In fact, I had more trainer time in 2022 than in my first 9 years of having a bike trainer combined!! (2009-2017.) I had 162 hours in 2022 vs 149 in 2021, and those have by far been my biggest 2 years. And in 2022, I had more "workouts" on the trainer whereas in 2020 and 2021 I tended to just do more easy spinning.

Adding up "total" bike miles (normal bike miles, mountain bike miles, and trainer miles from the basement), I get a 3,574.31 miles, which is huge for me.

• RUN: BIGGEST YEAR EVER! This is what a year can look like when I don't get injured! I ran 1,027 miles 10 years ago in 2012 with baby Henry, then I broke that in 2021 with 1,030 miles, and then I SHATTERED that in 2022 with 1,123 miles! This was 3 runs/week unless I had to rest before or after a race. Consistent. May was my lowest month at 80 miles, and that was because I ended April with a race that caused me to skip my long run to start May, and then May ended with a 5K which also caused me to skip a long run. July was my next smallest month at 82 miles because I trained for and then raced a 1 mile race (so I had a lot of shorter track workouts instead of medium-distance runs). All of my "smaller" months were because of racing. Everything was SOOO consistent in 2022!!

Long runs in 2022: only shorter before or after race weeks!
10+ MILES EVERY WEEK if not a race week!


Weekly distance in 2022: 20+ miles every week if not racing. (And that big
spike later in the year was the week of the MPLS Halloween Half Marathon.)

I also slowly upped my distances throughout the year: excluding any shorter weeks because of races, I averaged 22.1 miles/week for the first 15 weeks of 2022. Compare that to 23.4 miles/week on average over the last 23 weeks of 2022 (again, excluding shorter weeks due to races).

• STRENGTH / CORE: BIGGEST YEAR EVER! I thought my 2021 total of 428 hours wasn't going to be broken, but I passed that with 473 hours in 2022. Sure, a lot of that was "easier" leg exercises, but I'm still thrilled with this number.

• WEIGHT: I started averaging over 160 lbs in 2016, and I finally dropped below that in 2021 at 157.21. I gained a LITTLE in 2022 to put my average at 157.67, but still well below the 5 years before 2021. So feeling OK about that.

Monthly weight averages for 2022.

• BODY FAT: This also saw a little gain in 2022 compared to 2021, but I'm still below the 5 years prior to that (just like my weight), so again, feeling OK about that.

Monthly body fat averages for 2022.

Here are my monthly totals according to my training log:

2022 distance. Gained pool access again in Sept, obviously.


2022 time.


2022 distance with trainer time added in at 19 mph, and mountain biking added in as blue.
(Just a quick Photoshop job as BeginnerTriathlete doesn't add these things in.)


2022 just shows that extra consistency (and a bit more volume) over 2021.

TOP ATHLETIC HIGHLIGHTS OF 2022: (counting down from #7 to #1)

• SEVEN: an appropriate mix of race apparel. My wardrobe varied throughout all 6 of my "warm weather" races (not counting the winter fat bike race). The Brian Kraft 5K and the TC 10 Mile had a similar look, but the calf sleeves were different (pics 2 and 5):

• SIX: my first fat bike race! My brother-in-law Matt asked if I'd race a fat bike race with him if he could find a bike for me to ride. We did the race together, but I took a wrong turn near the end and lost a handful of spots. It was a brutal blast riding Minneapolis' "chain of lakes" in the winter.

Official photo (from this post) just after I'd finished and was handed my medal.


Looking out onto Cedar Lake during the race (from this post).


Only 0:37 below zone 4! I was WORKING!!! (As seen in my race report.)

• FIVE: running my 3rd fastest half marathon. There wasn't much "special" about the Minneapolis Halloween Half Marathon for me in 2022, but I just pushed myself well. Out of my 13 half marathons, I've only had a few faster than this one. Just a fun, memorable fall race!

Post race in my car as seen in my race report.

• FOUR: lots of speed work. Years ago, I'd try to hit the track weekly. I thought maybe 10-12 years ago that all the track work was leading to injuries (I don't think it was JUST that now, but it contributed), so I really backed off. That's when I started to enjoy running LONGER and not just HARDER. So for the last 10 years before 2022, I feel like I maybe did 5-10 true speed workouts each year. I looked back through all of 2022, and I had 22 speed workouts! When I look back at posts tagged with "intervals" (and not every "speed workout" is "intervals," so not a TOTALLY fair metric, but still quite relevant), I had 18 posts in 2022. In the 4 years before that (2018-2021), I averaged 12 posts/year labeled with "intervals." And in the 4 years before that (2014-2017), I averaged only 4 posts/year labeled with "intervals." I was happy to have felt good enough (meaning "uninjured enough") to get in so many speed workouts in 2022.

• THREE: mountain biking with my boys for 3 days. We tried mountain biking at Cuyuna State Park a few years ago, and Henry loved that but Charlie wasn't quite ready for it. This past August, the 3 of us spent 3 days up at Cuyuna and the boys had a BLAST. Here's a post about mountain biking up there, a quick video of riding trails, and Garmin maps from our rides.

On the trails!


Selfie at an overlook along the lake (same vantage point as 2.5 years ago with Henry!).


On the favorite "skills loop."

• TWO: a fast 1 mile race with my first "age graded" results in the 80th percentile! I hit the track for a handful of short/brutal workouts to get ready for this, and then I really suffered for those couple of minutes on race day. I was happy with the time I laid down as a 41-year-old. My 4:49 1-mile PR from 12 years ago equated to a 77% age grading. Running 4:55 at 41-years-old recently put me at 81.28%. That was my first race EVER of ANY DISTANCE to be in the 80th percentile! (My 10 mile PR of 59:05 that I'm proud of was only age graded at 74%.)

[And in case you don't know, many people use "age grading" to measure if they are equivalently faster or slower than their younger self, even through their times are probably dropping. It's a way of measuring and comparing the quality of running performances, adjusting for age, sex, and race distance. So an 18-year-old who runs a 16:30 5K isn't as "impressive" as a 50-year-old who can run a 18:30 5K: the 16-year-old was age graded at 77% and the 50-year-old was age graded at nearly 79%. 60%+ is considered "local class," 70%+ is "regional class" (I'm generally in the low to mid-70s), 80%+ is "national class" (which doesn't sound right based on my 1 mile time), 90%+ is "world class," and 100% is the world record time for your specific age.]

Final meters of the 2022 Raspberry Run 1 Mile.
Lots of pain here. (More finishing photos in this post.)

• ONE: uninjured and consistent! This just HAS to be the major highlight! I posted nearly 100 more miles of running than my previous best year, and I simply got in all my workouts every week. Because of that, I had a PR for my running miles, a PR for my trainer time, and a PR for my strength time - ALL IN THE SAME YEAR. Because I was uninjured and consistent. My "training" wasn't always the best - I tend to do the same style of long run every week, but I was just really happy getting in lots of uninjured runs.

An ideal week normally looks like this for me: 3 runs, 3 rides (unless I have pool access like I did last fall in which case I'd ride 2x/week and swim 1x/week), and some form of strength work every day. So that's 13 different training sessions each week, or 676 for 52 weeks, or 677 possible training sessions in 2022. I missed a few days resting up before or after races. But then of all possible workouts outside of that, I missed NINE workouts. Only NINE possible workouts out of 677, meaning I did as much as I deemed I should have done 99% of the year. This includes all workouts missed like family holidays, camping with the boys (a few times), officiating a wedding, and even having Covid for a week! All of that just led to 9 missed workouts! (Only 1 or 2 were "skipped" workouts where I just gave up trying to fit them in - the rest were just not possible.) NONE of those missed workouts were runs - they were about half-and-half strength workouts or rides. (And for what it's worth, there were a few days where I had an extra workout [like going for a run on a day I spent mountain biking with my boys, etc], so I'd actually be close to getting in 677 workouts for 2022).


Thoughts and/or goals for 2023? I want to keep the consistency as much as possible, but also break up my training by training SPECIFICALLY for some races - much like all the short/hard track workouts I did to get ready for the Raspberry Run 1 Mile last summer. Maybe I need to break out some of my old duathlon-specific workouts as well leading up to multisport races.

Second, I'd like to make sure to get in some spring duathlons this year - I missed out on that in 2022 as duathlons tend to sneak up on me and then that season is over so quickly.

Third, I might actually try to SHORTEN some of my strength time. I like doing LONG strength workouts, but I'd like to up the intensity a bit, and therefore cut my training time down. Some "core" days see me doing random sets in front of the TV for over an hour, but I know I could work more intensely and probably get a BETTER workout in 20 minutes or so. I don't want to feel like I'm ONLY training for "time."

And finally, I'd like to try to get in a triathlon BEFORE September. These last 2 years had busy summers (with no pool access) that led to me sneaking in a last-minute triathlon in September. Maybe I'll shoot for an actual summer triathlon this year.


And as I always like to do, here's a quick recap of the year as seen in my Instagram pics:

Jan: a late Christmas party with the "outlaws"
(everyone who marry into or wandered onto my in-laws farm).


A tiny Bruce really loving his new indoor life...


... he was a farm cat who joined us at the end of 2021.


Feb: my first fat bike race with bro-in-law Matt!


Charlie slept in his closet for about 2 months straight.


March: a selfie with some old friends at my first solo exhibition!
(See more in this post, and here's a big wrap-up on my photo blog.)


We added Clark to the mix in March!


April: all 3 cats co-existing! (Old Kermit would end up dying 4 months later.)


May: Charlie's First Communion!


I officiated a super fun wedding!


A group of former students of mine with the bride and groom post-wedding.


Adorbs.


June: our first canoe fishing trip to Bear Head Lake.


That was a fun trip.


July: lots of family fun! Here's me in the water behind Henry!!


... and here's Charlie!


Henry played a LOT of baseball in July.


Henry at bat.


And we had lots of fun with cousins at the lake. LOTS OF FUN.


Aug: the boys LOVED mountain biking in Cuyuna State Park! (Videos here and Garmin maps here.)


A party for my Dad who turned 70!


A second successful crayfish hunt.


Sept: I taught 2 classes at the U of M (1 new to me), and 1 new course at Concordia
University (first time teaching there). My biggest teaching load since Henry was a baby.


The boys' first big concert: The Killers!


Oct: Charlie LOVED the Reptile Show at the Rivercenter.


Nov: the boys tried fencing. (They're still in classes now in Feb!)


Dec: Henry's been really enjoying serving at mass - and doing a LOT of it!


Welcoming Millie!


The boys at their first Viking's game!


Sweet jumps at the snow hill.


The cats finding a way to survive over winter.