Jan & MMNW

January is supposed to be the most winter-like month we get here in North Carolina. This one? pretty mild, gotta say. That groundhog is predicting 6 more weeks of winter today but we're still getting highs in the high 50's. I would love to see some snow fall this year but like always, I'm not hopeful. And now that I've lost every reader in the northern US & all of Canada we can talk about what did actually happen last month!

Swim: 27,950 y, 7 swims
Bike: 13.25 miles, 1 ride
Run: 128.6 miles, 13 runs, 2 races
Strength: 7 times
Yoga: 9 times

The races included the Harbison 50k in SC where I barely finished intact and the Frozen Toes 5k where I took 3rd place overall. If I had managed to get in one more RAM practice I would have broken 30k yards for the month - I have been loving the noon practices m/w/f and getting in as many as possible. After the 50k I had to take some time for recovery, that was kind of expected. That included the only bike ride, an easy 45 minutes to spin out the legs. It was the perfect recovery ride! 128 miles of running is a seriously strong month too.

I've been on a basic pattern of doing yoga m/w/f and strength training t/th before getting ready for work in the morning. I still had to take some recovery time, but those numbers and that pattern are pretty steady.

Moving into February, I need to start making the individual runs longer. Feb 21 is the Frozen Heart 50k and March 28 is my 50 mile pacer job at the Umstead 100, so I've got to get the endurance built up for those. And that takes more than just 20 mile weekends.

Also, I got signed up for the Kiawah Island Marathon for this year on December 12 down in Charleston. Every time I've tried to run that marathon before it has sold out too soon, so I'm grateful to get in this year! It's been on the bucket list for a while now. Very cool.

The MMNW for the week left me at 177.2 lbs and 20.1% bodyfat after reaching a low last week of 174 lbs and 17.2% bodyfat. So what I'm telling you is that we threw one helluva Super Bowl party last night! Ha, well we did have some people over and it was a blast watching the game. And I know that beer bloat is going to be gone by tomorrow. Last monday's naked weight was 178 lbs, so officially I'm down 0.8 lbs this week and I can live with that. My plateau weight is 175, so anytime anyhow anyway that I can get below that is good, and this week is looking pretty good.

Last week's workouts:
M: AM yoga, Noon 2200 swim (had to leave practice early for a meeting)
T: AM strength, PM 7 mile run (mile repeats)
W: AM yoga, noon 3250 swim
Th: AM strength, PM 5 mile run (5k time trial at 8.6 mph on the treadmill [21:50 time] plus w/u & c/d)
F: noon 3500 y swim
Sat: 13 mile run, yardwork
Sun: 13 mile run, house cleaning, super bowl party!

The other notable thing that happened this week was that I shaved my beard! The before pic should explain why:

ok not quite the same but it was a mess!

Regular swimming and running has taken its toll on the old beard. My sweat towels would pull and the pool water got caught a lot and it just got to be more of a mess and hassle than it was worth. Plus I'm feeling much better now about looking forward to springtime so I don't need the winter coat anymore. Like I said, feeling good about this year.

Overall, yes, January took forever to wrap up but it was a very steady, straightforward month where we all kept our heads down and stuck to the routine.