2011 Year in Review

2011 will surely be remembered as the year I became terribly addicted to triathlons, duathlons, and road racing. I don't even want to start adding up how much I spent on race entries, equipment (a new bike, race wheels, ...), the gym, etc. However, I could afford it, it's gotten me into the best shape of my life, and it's been quite rewarding meeting and exceeding goals.
Besides racing, the figurative and literal "high point" of my year was being able to visit so many state highpoints. Almost every trip out of state involved at least one new highpoint. The most extreme, Wyoming's, was four days of trekking through the snow and was far more physically and mentally tough than any race I did. However, I wouldn't have been able to do it in the manner I did if I weren't in as good of shape as I've become as a result of training and racing.

Assessing how I did on my 2011 goals:

• 3M Half Marathon, January 30. Definitely want better than 2:30, my stretch goal would be under 2 hours. Finished in 2:08:54; more recently finished the Decker Half in 1:50:30.
  
• CapTexTri, Olympic distance, May 30 (my 33rd birthday). I don't have a target time yet, I'm just hoping to not drown at this point. Finished in 3:05:13; also did the Austin Tri Olympic distance in 2:43:34.
  
• Any new races/distances, I would just like to do my best and be satisfied with my result. While I was quite disappointed in my run on the Longhorn Half, I exceeded my expectations so many times this year that, on balance, I'm quite satisfied with my "racing season."
  
• Any repeat race and distance, to improve on my previous time. This would pretty much be the Lost Pines Tri and Natural Bridge Caverns Du, and I smashed my 2010 times in both. This could also include the Splash & Dash series, in which I did not have monotonically decreasing times, but I did improve over the season; also the South MoPac TT, in which I did improve a little every time.
  
• Eight state high points, hopefully to include biggies like WY and MT this summer. I did 15 new highpoints, and one repeat. While I didn't get Montana, Idaho and especially Wyoming are major feathers in my cap, so to speak.
  
• At least five state capitols, even if it includes driving and touring capitols I've already photographed the exterior of. The only totally new ones were Georgia and Alabama, but I also toured Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and Florida, all of which I had stopped at previously on my motorbike, but had not been inside.
  
• Be better about writing here than I was in 2010. With 40 posts in 2011 to 9 in 2010, I would say I succeeded.
  

I have only one goal/resolution for 2012: Finish Ironman Louisville in August. I plan to train harder and race less this coming year. I'm still considering getting a coach- I've done pretty well on my own, but this seems like a whole other level. My swim coach has done several Ironman races and has coached others; I plan to talk to him about it in the new year.

I do have other things planned, including the full Austin Marathon, and at least one more 70.3, probably two. Additionally, there are plenty of other things I would like to do in 2012, including: Skiing; Ice climbing; CA, NV, OR, MT highpoints; hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim. However, at this point those are all secondary, and will depend on my work and training/racing schedule.

2011 End-of-Year Bike Odometer Readings:

• Fat Boy: 113116
  
• Night Train: 8069
  
• Secteur: 2162, and it was at 2058 when I set it up in the new trainer in my living room four weeks ago.
  
• Cervélo: 764.7 on CatEye, 383.36 on Garmin. I switched to a GPS computer after I lost the cadence/speed sensor for the CatEye on a Longhorn Half training ride in September.
  
• Looking over my GPS data, it looks like I ran at least 450 miles this year.
  

I'm kind of surprised, adding it up now, that I only cycled about 10% more in 2011 than I did in 2010. I'm also a little surprised that I even rode my motorcycles 4000 miles. Although, considering I did ride 3000 miles one week, it shouldn't be that surprising.