AT Update: 10-Miler

 As planned, I managed to work in a longer hike this weekend. I had intended to hike 5 miles along the trail (which is over 7 miles long) and then hike back. However, at somewhere between 3 and 4 miles in I encountered a low water crossing and didn’t want to wade through it. There was a smaller trail continuing on without crossing, so I took that.

I followed the small trail for a while, including an unmarked merge onto another small trail, until it popped out near a commercial building. It appeared to continue on, but I wasn’t sure that it didn’t just loop back on itself, so I decided to just cut my hike short and head back to my car. If I recall correctly, this was just shy of 4 miles in.

On the hike back, I eventually decided that I would add another out-and-back in a different direction for the remaining time I had available. In a confirmation of my scheduling ability, the subsequent timed turnaround resulted in almost exactly 10 miles of total hiking (10.02). Success!

Based on the amount of battery drain the previous 6 mile hike had on my Watch when using it to track the hike, I left it in passive mode this time. Unfortunately, this led to neglecting to start the tracker on my iPhone as well. To somewhat compensate for this lapse, I decided to start tracking at the turnaround so that I could double the result. Of course, once I decided to add a second leg, it was necessary to stop the tracking at the second turnaround to get an accurate half log.

I’ve taken the elevation graph for the half I logged and flipped and expanded the two portions to show the whole 10 miles.  Oh, after the hike I discovered that one of my hiking poles had lost its rubber foot. Bummer.

Advertisement

November Fitness Distance

Running: 10.11 miles
Body Pump: 4 hours

No swimming or biking this month, and not much else, either. I took a couple of days off when Marci was out of town, which led to a full week off followed by Thanksgiving week off. This was compounded by a twisted ankle that led to the rest of the month off.

The cumulative graphs aren’t really worth sharing this month. I hope to do a better job during December, though I’m not very optimistic. I’ve already skipped my Monday morning Body Pump.

October Fitness Distance

Biking: 40.39 miles
Running: 40 miles
Body Pump: 8.75 hours
Swimming: 2.28 miles

New for this month, I’ve added my Body Pump classes to the graph. Since there’s no distance associated, I’m using hours. I’m not sure this is the best choice, but nothing else convenient came to mind. I have something different planned for the full year summary.

I managed to swim even less this month than last week’s low for the year. This month, my ramped up running added to Body Pump in squeezing swimming out of my schedule. Unless I ditch running as the weather cools off — which I’m not planning to do — I doubt swimming will make much of a comeback this year.

Speaking of “year”, here’s the cumulative graph:

For the year so far:

Biking: 448.65 miles
Running: 247.62 miles
Swimming: 94.76 miles
Body Pump: 18.75 hours

And here’s the new combo graph:

September Fitness Distance

36.01 miles Biking, 19.77 miles Running, 3.24 miles Swimming

Biking: 36.01 miles
Running: 19.77 miles
Swimming: 3.24 miles

Abysmal showing for swimming; worst of the year by far, as shown by the combo chart at the bottom. Exact median for both biking and running. I clearly need to step things up for October. As with last month, most of the biking is RPM spin class at the YMCA.

The reduction in swimming distance is definitely attributable to Body Pump taking over its normal time slot. However, starting this week I’m switching one morning back to swimming. I’ll still try to swim in the afternoon on the other Body Pump days. Likewise, I’m going to attempt to attend an early evening Body Pump class on the day I swim in the morning.

Here’s the year so far:

408.26 miles Biking, 207.62 miles Running, 92.48 miles Swimming

Cumulative for the year through September:

Biking: 408.26 miles
Running: 207.62 miles
Swimming: 92.48 miles

And here’s the updated combo graph:

August Fitness Distance

80.28 miles Biking, 8.21 miles Swimming, 3.07 miles Running

Biking: 80.28 miles
Swimming: 8.21 miles
Running: 3.07 miles

The biggest news this month is that I hated the Run from the triathlon so much that I quit running after that. I’m thinking of starting up again this week, but I haven’t made a firm decision yet.

Also, the biking distance includes the RPM spin class I’ve been doing at the YMCA. Most of the workout is low resistance and high speed, so I get more miles than I would on the road. I’m still counting it. 🙂

372.25 miles Biking, 187.85 miles Running, 89.24 miles Swimming

Cumulative for the year through August:

Biking: 372.25 miles
Running: 187.85 miles
Swimming: 89.24 miles

Finally, here’s the updated combo graph from last month:

 

July Fitness Distance

13.65 miles Running, 8.38 miles Biking, 7.76 miles Swimming

Running: 13.65 miles
Biking: 8.38 miles
Swimming: 7.76 miles

I thought my motivation was low last month, but July’s laziness puts June to shame! One very short bike ride the entire month…

291.97 miles Biking, 184.78 miles Running, 81.03 miles Swimming

Cumulative for the year through July:

Biking: 291.97 miles
Running: 184.78 miles
Swimming: 81.03 miles

I’m optimistic for August, though I’ve officially switched from Nitro Swim to YMCA, primarily so that the kids can swim laps also and so that I can take the Body Pump class. It seems likely that with the addition of Body Pump, something else well see a reduction (though probably not from July’s level).

I came up with a new graph that better highlights July’s poor showing:

July is even lower than March, which had the wonderful excuse of a trip to New Zealand!

At least I managed to swim 1800 meters further in July than March, salvaging July from complete ignominy!

June Fitness Distance

84.58 miles Biking, 19.93 miles Running, 10.18 miles Swimming

Biking: 84.58 miles
Running: 19.93 miles
Swimming: 10.18 miles

Summer saps my motivation. The 50 mile ride at the start of the month was very nice, with favorable wind for most of the ride.

283.59 miles Biking, 171.13 miles Running, 73.27 miles Swimming

Cumulative for the year through June:

Biking: 283.59 miles
Running: 171.13 miles
Swimming: 73.27 miles

July is already off to a slow start as I’ve come up with excuses for 100% of the days so far, including tomorrow’s “holiday excuse”.

May Fitness Distance

51.39 miles Running, 11.71 miles Swimming, 87.14 miles Biking

Biking: 87.14 miles
Running: 51.39 miles
Swimming: 11.71 miles

Finally started picking up the biking slack, which is good as I’m doing a 50 mile organized ride tomorrow. Not really ready for it, but I’m optimistic that I can push through.

I decided to take a look at how the above graph would look for year-to-date, rather than what I’ve been using. I very much prefer it. In particular, it shows the two weeks during which running surpassed biking for the year.

151.20 miles Running, 63.09 miles Swimming, 199.01 miles Biking

Cumulative for the year as of May:

Biking: 199.01 miles
Running: 151.20 miles
Swimming: 63.09 miles

Hitting 200 miles for the year at the start of tomorrow’s ride is a nice milestone. Yesterday’s run was a bit tough at the end; perhaps if I’d known I was hitting 150 miles that would have made it better. 🙂

Bun Run

Last Sunday, Hershey and I participated in the 30th annual Bun Run 5K. I had recently completed the Couch-to-5K training program and decided that this would be a good opportunity to make use of that training.

I’ve been training with about a 9:00/mile pace, probably a bit slower. Additionally, since completing the C25K plan, I’ve switched over to a Bridge-to-10K plan that starts off with shorter stretches of running, though more of them. (Three 10-minute runs instead of one 30-minute run, for example.) Because of this, I was a little worried that my stamina would have dropped a bit. Therefore, in preparation for the run, I set my target pace as 8:45-9:45/mile.

A key factor I had not considered was that the presence of the other runners would encourage Hershey to run faster. We ended up with an average pace of 8:35/mile, smashing my previous 5K PR (over 30 minutes) with an official chip time of 26:55! (I just now looked it up and was surprised to see it under 27 minutes; my GPS time was 27:16.) I placed 265/1236 overall and 20/62 in my division.

There was an option to have a chip for your dog as well, but I chose not to, as I expect may have been a common choice. From the results, 27 dogs were timed and 6 of them finished faster than Hershey, though only 1 female was faster! Good job, Hershey!

April Fitness Distance

40.75 miles Running, 20.98 miles Biking, 16.41 miles Swimming

Running: 40.75 miles
Biking: 20.98 miles
Swimming: 16.41 miles

Biking slacking continues. Conveniently, our long May ride has run into a conflict, so I no longer have a specific training target that I’m not meeting.

Cumulative for the year as of April:

Biking: 111.87 miles
Running:  99.81 miles
Swimming:  51.38 miles

Oh, look: I’ll hit 100 miles of running with this Thursday’s run. Checking the data, I see that I hit 50 miles of swimming last Friday. It was also my previous bike ride that took that over the century mark.

Running is on a steeper climb now that I’ve switched over from 5K training to 10K training. In fact, running might overtake Biking this week, though if I bike this weekend, it will be just a blip. Unless I bike tonight, which is vaguely scheduled but yet to be executed.