In order to complete the swim, I needed to learn how to swim free style & get comfortable in the water (easier said than done). I started swimming in January and it was tough. It was hard to swim more than a few laps in the beginning, but I was determined to swim on July 4th. There were a few practices in open water to get used to it. The first one was a disaster - I hated it & only lasted a few minutes before I got out. A few weeks later with the help of my friends, I was able to swim the cove at the lake & was a little more comfortable. There was a trip to the quarry for more practice - that was just as terrifying. There were things in that water that scared the shit out of me, but I survived. I was able to swim across the lake easily (turns out it was less than 400 meters) & look forward to making it an annual event. My swimming continued to get stronger & my endurance improved. I am so happy that I was brave enough to jump in the pool & learn to swim. Turns out that all that time in the water added up - I ended up swimming more than 115,700 yards for the year.
For the bike, there wasn't much of a plan other than buy a bike & get comfortable riding on the road. I started spin classes in late 2013. Now a usual week has at least 3 classes. I think I only missed class this year when I was out of town or tapering for a race. It is true that you don't forget how to ride a bike. It had been 20 years or so since I had ridden outside but thanks to the Lifetime Cycle group, I quickly fell in love with riding on the road. They taught me the rules of the road & there were different pace groups so no one was left behind which is great because I am not the fastest rider out there, but I do enjoy it. So far, my longest distance is 54 miles. My favorite ride was on a Friday morning in June - the A group waited for me to catch up & helped me with get comfortable riding in a group. My most challenging ride was in Maryland - the second half was on River Road. I was beyond nervous & took the hills a lot slower than everyone else, but I finished it even though I wanted to pull off & call a friend for a ride (only thing that stopped me is that I knew he would tell me to get back on the bike). I shut down my outdoor riding in September to save my legs for the marathon, so my outdoor season was kind of short. I still have a lot to learn about riding - especially how to handle the hills, but that will come with time on the road. When I combine my indoor & outdoor riding, I rode 3281 miles.
My run plan was pretty simple - keep doing it & get into the Marine Corps Marathon. I also wanted to run my fastest mile ever. In 2012, I ran an 8:13 mile. I wanted to see if I could go sub-8 and beat my high school mile (7:40). In early July, I was doing a longer run & the first mile was 7:45 - holy moly, I went sub-8 & wasn't trying! At the end of July, I went out to run the fastest mile ever. You can read about it here if you want. I did it. Now I want to go faster than that - new goal for 2015! I ran in three Ragnar Relays with some great people & had a blast. Training got serious in August with longer runs for the marathon. There were good runs & bad ones. The toughest was on the Eagleman course in Cambridge, MD. I was supposed to run 14 miles, but once I hit the energy lab portion of the run, I had a tough time & ended up cutting the run short. I had two great training runs. One was twelve miles at the track - yes, 48 laps at the track & it was one of my favorites. The other was the Army 10 Miler. Dave & I ran it together & it was the fastest 10 miles I have ever done plus it was fun to run with a friend! Marine Corps was all that I expected it to be & I would like to run it again - maybe in 2016. I had a goal of 500 miles & ended up crushing that thanks to my marathon training with a total of 623 miles.
This past year was amazing - I swam, I biked & I ran. I ventured into the world of triathlons. Everything I did was better than the last time. I laughed more than I thought possible. I saw myself as a different person. I learned that I am strong & capable of anything I set my mind to. I look forward to 2015. I have my training plan & goals. It's time to step even farther out of my comfort zone - it scares the hell out of me, but I am excited for the future.
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do what makes you happy & be done with all the rest!
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