Taking This Blog To A New Level In 2015

"Life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings,
 about fire in our bellies and furtive little feelings,
 and the aching amplitudes that set our needles all a-flickering,
 and help us with remembering that the only thing that's left to do is live.
 After all the loving and the losing, the heroes and the pioneers,
 the only thing that's left to do is get another round in at the bar."
Frank Turner
I Knew Prufrock  Before He Got Famous

I am going to be that guy right now.....

I am sure I am not the first & I won't be the last to post their training totals for 2014. Now,  I won't bore you with a race by race breakdown but I can say, other than Ironman Eagleman 70.3, I was very pleased with my 2014 race season. Taking the 70.3 race out, I had 5 podium finishes in all races, either for overall finish or age group finish. Aside from the usual aches, it was a healthy & injury free year! Here are the final numbers for 2014:

Training Totals

Bike - 7429 miles/ 353.18 hours/ 21.03 mph

Run - 1292 miles/ 164.61 hours/ 7:39 per mile

Swim - 114 miles/ 52.25 hours

Total - 8835 miles/ 570.04 hours

Like posting my training totals, I am positive I am not the first or the last to post my goals (resolutions) for 2015. I have goals related to my training & racing, my blog & my coaching business (aside from SU). I guess, in some way all my goals are related to my training & racing. With no further ado:

Goals for 2015

1. Get back to having fun with the blog & making it entertaining. I understand that reading about training, especially base training, is extremely boring. How do I make my blog more entertaining, you may ask? In a humorous way, point out the stupid things that we (myself included) as multisport athletes do, that make us easy targets for ridicule from other athletes.
2. Along the lines of making the blog more entertaining, I feel jumping on my soapbox, when the time warrants, is another way to make the blog a little more readable. For future reference,  things that make for soapbox moments are doping scandals, excessive diet choices, mask that are supposed to stimulate altitude training, so called coaches professing bad training information & media who endorse this bad information. (All have been warned)
3. Put a concerted effort to build my coaching business, Tri It Coaching Service. I have had the linked website for a year now but have not put the effort into building my client list to make money with it. Aside working with runners, I am looking to expand into coaching of multisport athletes. Locally, I will be looking to organize some group workout opportunities & clinics for exposure. How does this goal tie into training & racing? While I enjoy coaching my athletes at the university, I understand I am not going to make millions & with the crazy race entry fees nowadays, I have to be able to afford my addiction! 
4. Race a full Ironman distance race. In a perfect world (no money or time restraints) I will be competing at Ironman Texas on May 16th with the hopes of qualifying for Kona. As much as I want to qualify for Kona, I am set on racing the distance. I do have some backups such as Challenge AC, Ironman Boulder or Ironman Maryland (just to name a few). I am also going to focus more on the 70.3 distance & Ironman distance races. (full race schedule to be set in the coming weeks)
5. Like I finished 2014, I will continue to eat healthier. Now, you won't see me go to any extremes as I need to have my coffee, ice cream & beer to keep me sane with all the training. Plus with all the training that will go into preparing for an Ironman, I can afford to have my coffee, ice cream & beer!
6. Train smarter not harder! My focus will be on quality training & not just training for the sake of padding numbers in my training log. I will be continuing my own personal experiment with MAF Training, as it has been very effective thus far during the early parts of base training.
7. Wear Sunscreen! No more Mohs Surgery procedures for me!

 

More Podium Finishes For 2015