So December was all about consistency and just banking the time required! It started slow with a few early Christmas commitments and parties, as is always traditional this time of year. However as the month rolled & holidays arrived I settled into a solid routine and got it done!
So lets grab a coffee and stop for a quick moment to reflect and review my December training activities, it’s all about celebrating milestones, being grateful for the time and appreciating the sacrifice. In December I trained on 27 out of 31 days, training for a touch over 60 hours for the month, which is well above my desired 10 hours per week, but I am on holidays, so I made hay while the sun shined. During December I entered (and attempted to finish) the following Strava challenges:
Running:
- December Distance Challenge – complete 85km finishing 44,730 of 104,188 participants (this will remain a focus for January)
- December 10k Race – Complete 3 times, my best average pace was 5:03min/km, finishing 26,409 of 110,132 participants
- December Half Marathon Race – Incomplete this month (still battling a niggling Achilles, hopefully January will be a pain free month).
- December Climbing Challenge – 562m/2,000m, finishing 33,982 of 60,699 participants
Cycling:
- December Gran Fondo – 166km was my longest ride finishing 8,238 of 119,096 participants
- December Distance Challenge – complete 1,209km finishing 9,519 of 133,262 participants.
- December Climbing Challenge – 8,636m/7,500m finishing 22,419 of 102,265 participants (this is my best effort in 2016, maybe in December I’ll get the required elevation).
- Rapha Festive 500 – 512km/500km finishing 10,162 of 82,432 participants.
I have loved the freedom of holidays and banked some great kilometers thanks to a supper supportive wife & family. Achieving the Rapha Festive 500 was a highlight this month, closely followed by finally achieving a climbing challenge. I don’t climb mountains and it was a huge achievement to bank over 7,500m of elevation gain in the month.
The following is a summary of activities for December:
The following little chart is from my excel spreadsheet I use to track volumes & hours, it helps me stay on track for my annual goals, also providing a good summary of the monthly totals:
December was the perfect consolidation month, setting me up for an almost perfect launch to Ironman New Zealand in March! Stay tuned for a review of the entire year, looking into total volumes and the plan for 2017. As you can see above all my annual (& revised annual) goals were smashed, in my next blog I will also review of my annual achievements. Running remains my Achilles heal (pun very intended) and I hope to have it sorted in January, if not I will have to struggle through the Ironman and re-assess during the winter months!
If you’re not active at the moment & need some inspiration, follow me on Strava, Instagram and like my facebook page and let’s get back out there swim, bike or running. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss a blog post from me! The biggest regret we can have in life is to not TRI!
Till next time build consistency, keep smiling and live to Tri!
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