A Look Back

Caution: Times in rear view mirror are slower than they may appear

Swim-Bike-Run:

2008: 117,635 yards - 981 miles - 269:18 hours

2009: 22,800 yards - 853 miles - 88:00 hours

2010: 247,350 yards - 1326 miles - 257:43 hours

2008: was a year full of ups and downs,

primarily downs. I constantly found myself sick and fatigued for weeks at a time. After a May 70.3 the road to Kona was long and pothole/speed bump filled. Much to my amazement there isn't even a road in existance that goes from Chicago to Kona.

2009: may have been quite the beneficial break from triathlon training. Although my bike was as strong as it's ever been the fire academy started in March. Therefore the next 8 months of training consisted of completely useless activities such as: knee benders, push ups, sit ups, 2-4mi jogs at about 10min pace in formation, stretch cords, about 15,000 flights of stairs, jumping jacks, bear crawls, squat jumps, holding pencils and books in the air, chopping wood, dragging hose and tools around, lots of crawling, standing in place, climbing ladders, and friendly activities such as the ones pictured below, etc...

2010: was a year spent trying to accumulate volume... after all, it is free, and with each order of volume comes a bit of free endurance (postage and handling not included). Anyone may acquire asmuch endurance as they so desire, as long as they stay healthy. Since training was primarily aerobic, I consumed a lot of fat, mostly of the plant, nut and seed variety, as well as the occasional firehouse bacon and SAUSAGE fat. Intensity is not a miniature city inside a tent... nor did it show it's ugly face much this year. In '08 I was leading Computrainer classes 5-6 times a week though out the Winter months. It was intense, much like THIS and TABATA. A year ago this time I was logging my low HR hours on the yellow Giant in my friend Mike's condo while watching reruns of Millionaire Matchmaker and Gilmore Girls.

2011: The staying healthy part is however, a bit tricky. After my 4 week IMCOZ hiatus, I decided to create a nice hearty initial layer of training cake. After 10 hours on the bike and 27 miles of hills into my first week back my Achilles said, "Hey Dan, you are an idiot". Achilles was right and refused to cooperate with my stupid plan. The past week has been entirely in the pool, making standing turns like your standard "far lane weirdo". Ten days, a tube of cream, some of Erin's reflexology, and a rehab session later I've been on the bike a bit, putting some puny little pathetic watts into the cranks. I'm hoping back to back years will pay off, I should have lots of cake to deposit into the bank (even though the cake is only acquiring interest at a rate of like .75%). I hope to put a Costco size tub of icing on 2011's cake and make the IMOO course my bit@h.