6 Seasons of Ironman Training

If you click on the image, you will be able to see my training breakdowns for the last 6 seasons.

I officially declared 2005-2006 over at the end of last week. I ended it with a bang, putting in 16.3 hours.

One can glean all sorts of information from the numbers. For one thing, I am consistent. For another, I tend to train what some consider "a lot," but I believe the number of annual training hours I put in is typical for an age grouper who wants to be solidly good (although how to back that up I don't know--suppose I could post on Slowtwitch or something).

How did I do for 2005-2006?

First, the good stuff:

1. I had my second fastest Ironman ever, despite a nasty sinus infection and a rough mental state due to the death of my mother.
2. I ran my first and second fastest marathons--the second one coming the day after a half marathon.
3. I had my second fastest 1/2 Ironman at the end of a whirlwind of 8 weeks of racing that included an Ironman, 2 sprint races and culminated in the 1/2 Ironman.
4. I PR'ed in one sprint race, a half marathon training run and at the 10K distance.
5. I put in 850 miles on my bike during August, managed to get stronger on the bike because (or in spite) of it (including two 200K rides at PR pace), and my running improved.
6. I made a concerted effort to stretch more regularly. I didn't include it in the chart, but on average I stretched almost 2 hours per week.
7. I embellished my core workout and executed it twice weekly almost every single week of the season.
8. I had ZERO down time due to biomechanical issues. Think this has anything to do with #6 and #7? I do!
9. I managed to get an average of 8.5 hours of sleep per night.
10. I dropped 4 lbs. and went down from 12.5% to 10% body fat (and am maintaining that as we speak).
11. I improved my bike Functional Threshold watts a tasty 18.5%, and when you combine my weight loss with higher watts, my power to weight ratio improved by 20.5%! That is significant!
12. I believe I improved my mental focus which enabled me to train better. I'm not saying I didn't have blips in my ego or mental state (I certainly did), but overall I feel better about my mental state (and not just in regards to training) than I ever have.

Now, for the bad stuff:

1. My Mom passed away. But I am healing up mentally. I still miss her terribly, but I find that spending more time with Dad helps us both enjoy our lives more.
2. My swimming sucked. I even got a little slower. I think it was because overall I swam less, and I need more swim volume to keep or increase my speed, and also because I just didn't focus on it; whereas I totally gave myself over to running and biking. My swim endurance hasn't suffered a lick, though.
3. My eating habits could have been better.

Stay tuned as I put together my goals for the 2006-2007 season. While it might be hard to top this past season, I am optimistic I can continue to make gains that will be realized more under racing conditions. If nothing else, I will structure things to ensure that I continue to enjoy training as much as I have these past 6 years!