January Totals

This will just be a short post to cover my month of January.

The month marked the beginning of my Ironman training program. As such it meant an increase over my previous "normal" training levels. In January I swam 14.86 miles and ran 103.85 miles. I did not track bike miles due to spending most of my bike time on a trainer or spin bike instead of riding on the road; however based upon the training time I estimate around 325 bike miles during the month. My mileage in each of the swimming, running and biking categories is the most I have done in a single calendar month. All of my hard work did not go unrewarded as I finally dropped under 200 lbs on the scale after 50 months of working towards that goal since I took up running in December 2006.

Finally, I closed out the month by attending the Kickoff Party for the Inaugural Woodlands Marathon, which goes off March 3, 2012. Ryan and Sara Hall were in attendance as part of the official festivities and were very much available to meet and talk with. However, my highlight of the night was not meeting the Halls but was winning a free entry into the race next year! I will be doing the full marathon in March 2012, which will be my 4th or 5th full marathon (counting IMTX in May and maybe Disney 2012 next January).

An unexpected benefit of the Woodlands Marathon kickoff party was seeing some of my local running friends that I had not seen in several months or more. It was strange (in a strange way heartwarming) to not be initially recognized by some of them because of the weight I have lost (although growing out the beard may have had something to do with it as well!).