However for me the past year has been good for me but most of all it has been a year I will never forget for numerous reasons. Many significant things have occurred in the past year that have had large impacts on my life, not only for the current time being but also long lasting effects.
In the past year I moved to Dallas, Texas. I started working full time after graduating from college. It was truly the beginning of my adult life. Upon arriving in Dallas I continued to pursue a passion for running and triathlons that had began, unfortunately, too late in my college career. Much lay ahead of me as began living in Dallas. At various times shortly after moving I questioned the move to Dallas and my motives behind it. Now that one year is past, questions of motives are no where to be found.
As the days of orchestrated routine past, I began to notice how I would look forward to the smaller things in life as opposed to the large events like summer vacations or spring breaks. In my eyes this is all very necessary since when working full time your life is dominated by others and doing what you want any time is simply not an option. For me this was time spent with friends, cooking, running, swimming, and riding my bicycle. Many of the 8760 hours of the past year were spent in the pool, on the saddle, and on the pavement. Many goals were sought after and eventually achieved. The initial 2 goals of the last year were to complete my second Olympic Distance Triathlon and run my 3rd half marathon. In my last Olympic Distance Triathlon I finished with a time of 2:55:52. My previous best time in the half marathon was ahcieved in Nashville, TN at the Country Music Half Marathon. I posted a time of 1:48:15, if my memory serves me correctly. Initial expectations for both races were to simply finish and feel stronger than previous and post a time that was still respectable. I set a goal to spend time in the pool and increase and grow my ability as a swimmer. I truly put dedication to this and even though 5am came early I would show up 2 or 3 times a week at the YMCA and swim before work. The time spent was not wasted. As the days past my running ability strengthed. My stride became more efficient, my lungs capacity grew, and my body lost weight. All of this would eventually contribute to a stellar preformance in my 2nd olympic distance triathlon. I finished with a time of 2:37:13. It would take realizing victory over the triathlon before setting my 3rd goal for the year. A television show would be inspiriational in helping me to set my 4th goal for the year. The 3rd and 4th goals of the past year respectively would be to complete a Half Ironman distance triathlon and running a Marathon. They day came and past of running my 3rd half marathon. I finished with time of 1:33:34. Right at the outset of moving to Dallas I had achieved so much and was not ready to stop any time soon. Within the first 4 months of moving I was able to shave 18 minutes off of my Olympic Distance triathlon time and 15 minutes off of my Half Marathon time. At that point in my life, late December, I thought that I could achieve anything if I truly wanted to. Little did I realize that the rest of the year I would have many more exicitng times both with my racing and my life as a whole.
And so the training would begin for my first Marathon and Half Ironman concurrently. Soon after the training began I chose goals 5 and 6. I would register for 2 more HIM races in 2008. I knew at the outset it would be difficult and it would take time before it would feel comfortable. As Lance Armstrong says, you can’t fake a marathon. Anyone who has ever completed a marathon or Half Ironman (HIM) knows that you can’t fake them. No matter who you are or where you are at physically, you have to be prepared to both mentally and physically to race these distances. The biggest change from racing in Olympic distance triathlons and Half Marathons to longer distances is the actual time that the individual spends training each week. The hours increase and can some weeks approach 12 hours of training. This a great deal of time spent each week training. Long runs and rides tax the body and mind. For me I have learned so much about the minds ability to overcome the body’s weakness. The mind harnessed correctly will always win out over the body. I will get to that a little later. For me I felt it a good exercise to take my log book after writing in it for one year and tally the miles.
I swam 97 miles in pools, lakes and oceans
I rode 1,998 miles on bike trainers, roads, and spin bikes
I ran 890 miles on sidewalks, trails, and streets
When put end to end, I covered 2,984 miles.
I did all of this because I can.
To put this in perspective time wise I used some simple average paces as follows:
1:45 / 100m swimming pace
16 mph riding pace
8:30/mi running pace
This works out to the following numbers
45 hours swimming
125 hours biking
130 hours running
For a total of 300 hours of training
or on average 6 hours per week
or an average of 49 minutes of training per day for 365 days.
To me this is amazing and is a testament to the fact that through discipline, desire, and devotion anything is possible. I am Looking forward to tackling my last goal of the year before the big one in 2009, Ironman Wisconsin and looking back on that year after the race is complete and reading this post along with many others and seeing how things have really changed.
So keep swim strokes long and smooth, your pedal cadence high and run stride efficient and you too can achieve anything.
Brett
