November’s numbers…

November was all about race days and keeping it all together in between. As you may have read the Santa Clarita Marathon didn’t go quite to plan, that being said I did PR by 15 minutes with a 3:31 but was 16 minutes short of my goal of 3:15. Somebody suggested to me that a reducing it by 30 minutes was a bit much but if your goals are small your achievements are usually the same…either way I am over it and moving on.

Two weeks later I “re-newed” my ultra passport and had a wet, wild and wonderful time running the PCTR SMM 50k, you can read, well look at the pictures as I did not write a long report here. Recovery in between was as expected and was running 4 days after the marathon, albeit gingerly, and I spent the two weeks really just keep the wheels ticking over. I am a huge fan of compression clothing (during and after), chocolate milk and coconut water and I would say that these all contributed to my recovery…much more so than stretching of which I did none! After the 50k race I stayed out of my running shoes and donned fins and cycling shoes through to the end of the month

So as for the numbers, well down as expected.

• 214 total miles (-174 over October)


• 28:11 time, so about 7 hours a week (around a 3 hour per week loss)


• 86 miles running in 15:26 (September 160/21:26)


• 123 miles cycling in 7:52 ( September 219/13:40)


• 8,350 yards (11,200 in October, 5150 in September)


• Remaining time was stretching, foam rolling, P90X Ab Ripper and a bit of yoga! oops!


• Longest ride 51 miles – 3:21 not the fastest ride but a nice hilly one


• Longest run 31.6 – 7:35!


• Starting weight 168lb ending 171.2b (from 187 at end of April)


• Overall with tapers and recoveries I had 10 rest days, so when you consider that the above is only really for 3 weeks it isn’t quite so bad!

So onto December, as mentioned in a prior post this is a focus on the pool and bike I have a goal of 20,000 yards and 500 miles respectively between now and the end of the year. My first Triathlon is in 93 days!

Wordless Wednesday…yours is not the same?

Really…?

Swim, Bike and Clif Bar winner

All thing considered this was a quiet week…my legs found there way back to normal form around Wednesday after last weeks 50k. I avoided my running shoes and spent some time in the pool; 4000 yards and on the bike 51 miles (only one ride though), my climbing was steady but I need to work on my confidence descending and more importantly I need to get more miles on my Tri bike.

Still it was a pretty good lead into next week and in fact every week between now and the end of the year. I am aiming for 5000 yards in the pool and 125 miles on the bike a week to take me into Tri Training proper…I am still reviewing plans and trying to formulate my whole 2012 strategy but seeing as my weak area is the swim followed by the bike I think this is a sensible course of action, that and the fact that I have pretty much been on a running plan for the last 6 months and my legs need a rest.

I have also mapped out my 2012 races, my critical A race entries are secured; Vineman 70.3 and Ironman AZ and as it stands I have roughly a race every 60 days…but more on that later!

In other news Thomas is the winner of the Clif Bar giveaway, 4 tweets and blog comment gave him 5 out of a possible 6 entries so the odds were in his favor, congrats!