Week 51: Review

With Christmas this week, it was inevitably going to be a difficult one to fit in everything that was planned. Fortunately, largely thanks to an 18K group run on Wednesday I was able to hit both my running and swimming targets. Cycling mileage was pitiful this week, but I'm happy that I was able to get in as much as I could as I didn't have a lot of time to spare this week.

Weather-wise it has actually been pretty good lately, so I've been able to squeeze those longer runs in without any issue. It's certainly been cold, but at this point I'm getting used to it so that's not a huge impediment. As such, I'm hoping to continue ratcheting up my weekly mileage again ahead of the next build phase for the spring races. I'm back up to 15 miles for my long run at this point, so next week I should be back to 16 which I'll hold until I start formally training again.

Week 51 Totals:
Running: 50.2km (31.2mi)
Walking: 0.7km (0.4mi)
Cycling: 15.0km (9.3mi)
Swimming: 8.6km (5.3mi)
Total: 65.5km (40.7mi)

Year to Date:
Running: 2215.8km (1376.8mi)
Walking: 96.8km (60.1mi)
Cycling: 4482.4km (2785.2mi)
Swimming: 340.4km (211.5mi)
Total: 7135.4km (4433.7mi)

The tricky part is figuring out exactly what I want to do this year. My focus has shifted more to triathlon than running lately, but with the threat of Boston modifying their qualifying times I was strongly considering taking a shot at that in the spring. After doing an early May marathon, I could then focus on building up for longer Triathlons over the summer and race in the fall. Splitting my focus isn't ideal, but I'd really like to run Boston at some point and I was worried that this might be my last chance.

Unfortunately, while I had hoped that the BAA would hold the line for at least one more year, it's looking like they'll be making adjustments for the 2012 event. Hitting 3:10 is a possibility with enough work, but I don't think that 3:05 is achievable no matter what I do. As such, there isn't much point in putting in the effort if they're going to horse with that qualifying standard for next year's event and make it unachievable. If that's the case, then I should focus all of my effort on building up to the Ironman 70.3 distance - ideally doing a non-WTC race (just to finish) in June and then race IM Muskoka in September.