November & Annual Numbers

Before I get into the numbers, I want to cover my quest for obtaining more MTB miles than tri miles this year.  On November 11th, I laid out this personal goal and indicated that I only had about 10 - 14 riding days to achieve my goal.  Everything was cruising along fine until November 22nd.  That's when a HUGE winter/rain storm drenched Phoenix/Cave Creek for 3 solid days.  The storm lightened up on the 4th day, but it was still misty out with low temps and muddy trails.  Knowing that time was running out, I got back to said muddy trails on Monday the 25th (despite the suboptimal conditions).  On the 27th, I put in a nice 15.33 mile ride that sealed the deal!  I was able to accomplish my goal of riding more miles on the trails than on my tri bike despite only starting on June 16th.  To be fair, my total miles on the "road" did outnumber my MTB miles if I include the 125.48 miles ridden on my old BH G4 roadie.  Still, if I add up my tri miles, and road miles for the year, I'd only be 92.17 miles shy.  Again, that's not too shabby considering that I only started MTB riding less than 6 months ago.

Let's also talk about the cold, dark, days ahead.  Every single year, around this time, my exercise seems to take a sharp nosedive.  I seem to complain that I feel the lbs creeping up and my fitness level creeping down.  I can see it on the horizon already.  With my time coaching at Sole Swim Solutions, and my coaching football, I have ZERO time to ride, run, or swim in the afternoon...or evening.  I suppose I could lace up my shoes and go for a late night, chilly, run, but why?!?!  I am coming to the conclusion that, if I want to stay in shape, I will absolutely have to do it in the dark/cold mornings.  While I'm fairly excited about riding the trails in pitch dark, I'm also a bit spooked by it too.  Recently I've seen a deer on the trails, I know there are bobcats, coyotes, and javelinas too.  If I were to break down (busted chain, flat, fall, etc) I would have to take care of business alone, in the dark, with all of these critters near by.  Oh, and I also saw a few episodes of Walking Dead this week.  Seriously?!?!  Have you seen this show?  I can't believe they can actually show some of that stuff on regular TV!

Finally, why aren't I talking about swimming?  I can stay in shape by hitting the pool in the AM right?  To be perfectly honest, I haven't thought much about swimming for myself at all and, you know what?  I'm actually enjoying my hiatus.  I can't say that I feel guilty about not swimming, nor can I actually say that I miss it.  I guess that sometimes you just have to take a break.  Enough said.

Remember, my "year" begins in December and ends in November.  So, for example, my data for 2013 is calculated from 12/01/2012 to 11/30/2013.  On to the numbers!

As far as workouts go, my biggest months in terms of swimming, biking, and running for 2013 (12/2012 - 11/2013) were as follows:

SWIM - April (44150 yards = 25.09 miles)
BIKE - August (485.1 miles)
RUN - January (26.89 miles)

NOVEMBER NUMBERS:

NOVEMBER 2010 TOTALS (Includes IMAZ):
SWIM = 21320 yards
BIKE = 226.24 miles  
RUN = 41.1 miles

NOVEMBER 2011 TOTALS:
SWIM = 0 yards  
BIKE = 81.99 miles  
RUN = 107.84 miles

NOVEMBER 2012 TOTALS (Includes IMAZ):
SWIM = 16788 yards
BIKE = 221.67 miles
RUN = 68.59 miles
 
NOVEMBER 2013 TOTALS:
SWIM = 1000 yards
BIKE = 208.17 miles (all MTB)
RUN = 0 Miles

ANNUAL NUMBERS

2010 TOTALS (12/01/2009 - 11/30/2010):
SWIM = 252964 yards (143.73 miles)
BIKE = 5788.37 miles  
RUN = 703.41 miles

2011 TOTALS (12/01/2010 - 11/30/2011):
SWIM = 285396 yards (162.16 miles) 
BIKE = 3670.31 miles  
RUN = 495.13 miles
 
2012 TOTALS (12/01/2011 - 11/30/2012):
SWIM = 275084 yards (156.30 miles)
BIKE = 3984.35 miles
RUN = 548.70 miles
 
2013 TOTALS (12/01/2012 - 11/30/2013):
SWIM = 213450 yards (121.28)
ENDLESS POOL = 490 minutes
BIKE = 2197.93 miles (tri 1019.62 & 1052.83 MTB & 125.48 Road)
RUN = 91.34 miles  

ACCEPTED!

Santa Fe in February?!?!?  YES!!!!

MTB > TRI

While looking at my yearly miles in the saddle, I realized an interesting tidbit about the total miles ridden on my tri bike vs. the total miles ridden on my MTB.  My "year" starts in December, so November is the last month for me to close final numbers out.  The reason that my year starts in December goes back to my first IM in 2010.  Back then, I signed up in November and completely freaked out about what I had just done.  I thought that I needed to start training right away and thus, started keeping data in December and haven't changed it since.

As of today, November 11th, I've amassed 1019.62 miles on my tri bike (since December 2012) and a whopping 930.58 on my MTB (since June 2013).  Always trying to find some kind of goal or milestone to accomplish, I figured out that I can accumulate more MTB miles than tri miles before my "year" is up.  I guess that this is another one of those entries that isn't really ground breaking or Earth shattering, rather it's just a way for me to chronicle my accomplishments and to be accountable for challenges that I present to myself.

The difference between mileage is 89.04.  There are 19 days left in November, but because of football coaching commitments, morning child transportation duties, Thanksgiving, Ironman (I'll be spectating this year and cheering on our athletes), and other unseen items that may pop up, I figure that I have between 10 - 14 days to get it done.  That equates to rides ranging from 9 miles to just over 6.  Lately, I've been going out for an hours worth that nets just under 12 miles.  If I were to keep just doing those same rides, I would only need about 8 days to accomplish my goal.  So, here we go!

USAT Coaching Application

I applied for a USAT Level I coaching clinic today.  USAT only holds 15-18 clinics per year, in various cities across the US, and only 40 people are chosen to attend each.  The application period, for the Santa Fe clinic, is November 6th - November 12th.  The application process isn't terribly difficult, but they are fairly strict as to what needs to be submitted, how it is to be submitted, and when.  I needed to turn in a resume that included things like, any triathlon coaching experience, coaching experience in a related field (swimming), any formal education in sports science, current certifications, any service (volunteering) to the sport, and two references.  The resume had to be in a certain format and would automatically be denied if it wasn't.  Along with the resume, I had to answer 4 application questions (5-6 sentences each), and submit a letter of recommendation from an athlete that I am currently coaching.  Even if I were to submit all of this stuff correctly, but outside of the window mentioned above, I would still automatically be denied.  Once submitted, I can't change anything either.  According to the automated e-mail that I received, I should find out if I've been selected by November 20th.  Fingers Crossed!!!!!