2012 Recap (1/3) : A year in numbers

You thought I was dead, didn't you? Well, not this time, I survived the Mayan Apocalypse (complete and utter fail, by the way), our family trip to Disney World and Philadelphia, and a business week in Las Vegas. Not too shabby, and I am back with numbers, photos, stories and resolutions (just a few, I promise), which I am going to spread over a few posts because, let's face it, too much of it at once hurts. And because everything that happened over these past weeks has already been too much for me to even sit down and write any type of intelligible sentences, I chose to start off with numbers as they are mostly speaking for themselves. 3... 2... 1... Go! (thank you Runkeeper for crunching the numbers for me and to the Prt Sc key and IrfanView for allowing me to make them visual).

Overall

(this includes Running, Walking, Hiking, Cycling, Swimming, Elliptical, Snowboarding, Skating, Rowing and Yoga). I can't believe I did all that, but if I could sum it up in a few words, this year has been fucking fantastic! (sorry, me bad).

The different colored segments represent each sport, but I haven't figured out which one is which, so let's move on... (I suspect blue is cycling, green is running, red is walking and purple is swimming). No surprises here, the overall peak was just before my Olympic Triathlon in July, with most of the running happening before my 3 marathons in April/May and October.

Not sure whether I want to set an overall target in 2013, but it would be nice if I could reach 5000km. Take notes, you may want to check back on those and see how far off I was next year at the same time.

Running

The bars got significantly taller before the marathons thanks to all the Sunday long runs that took me passed the finish line, every single time. According to the numbers above, the longest race in distance was the Paris Marathon, the fastest race was the Toronto Street 10k (a week after the Paris marathon, go figure) and the longest (and most painful) in time was the Scotiabank Toronto Marathon. It also looks like the fastest most consistent month was April, but after that I started training for the triathlon and coach turned on the HR training at MAF and all records went down from there... If there is ONE resolution that I would like to keep this year is NOT to get so damn stressed out because of slow numbers. There IS a reason to this madness, but I think I will only see it once I finish my first Ironman. Until then, I need to keep fighting the urge to go faster, to want to beat personal records and keep up with hubbs (that's probably the hardest one). 

Oh and I reached my 1000km goal in September after running my longest training run ever, in Paris, nonetheless, so I gave myself a 1000miles (1609km) goal for 2013. Go me!!

Cycling

If you've followed me this year, the summer months were spent mostly on the bike in preparation for my first ever triathlon, the Toronto Triathlon Festival (Olympic). On the opposite, I completely snubbed the bike the months when I raced marathons (May/October). I suspect that 2013 is going to change all this since I'll be focusing on triathlons and so far, the longest running race that I'm being signed for is Around the Bay 30k in March, but my A-race will be Ironman Muskoka 70.3 in September.

As for the records, the farthest I've been on my bike was 75km in August, in a group ride with the Falcons, which was also the longest ride to date, but not the fastest. I am planning to do at least one Century ride in 2013, so stay tuned for that ;-).

Swimming

Slow but steady has been my mantra in swimming. I only started this year, trying to teach myself proper technique and still going through the frustrating phase of not being able to go long without the pull-buoy aka my water boyfriend or the wetsuit aka my full-body protection. Good news is that I can make the cut off times and I am not afraid of making contact with other swimmers, ducks, algae or fish. The long swims I did in 2012 with the Falcons at the Professor's Lake in Brampton were the best ever!! I feel totally at peace when I put my head down in the clear, peaceful waters of this lake and go in loops until the time is out. Is summer here yet?

I may not be ready for Masters yet, but at least I am looking forward to the time spent in the water.  To much more in 2013, the year when I will master the bow wave and not drink half of the pool while trying to breathe with a goggle in.

Last but not least...

Weight

With all those calories burned, I hoped I'd get down to 130, but I will take sub-135 too. The lowest I reached was 131, just around my triathlon, if not the day of (July 22), after which I started to put some weight back on, of course, by removing the bike volume from the equation. Despite what others may tell you, running only will not make you lose weight, at least not those pesky last 10 pounds, but biking does help a lot. This year my goal is to go down to 125, which means 12lb less than today. I am starting tomorrow! (no kidding). As to the body fat, I am not sure whether I trust my Withings scale with those numbers, but as a reference, I'll make a point of staying sub-20 if possible.

Alright, first recap post out of three is done and my head is about to explode. Will follow up with "A year in races" and "A year in photos" (ideas stolen from Katie, thank you!), sometime this week, if I find some computer-me-time. In the meantime, keep track of those goals as I'm gonna do a quiz at the end and you may even win something! *wink wink*

Happy New Year!!