Out With The Old......

"If you do not consciously form good habits, you will unconsciously form bad ones."

The last couple of weeks of December have been busy. The weekend of the 19th, my cycle team had a ride/lunch/white elephant party. We got in around a 25 mile ride. There were a couple of times I let loose as I was on my tri bike, but for the most part we all stayed together. This meant going slower than normal at times for the newer riders, but at least I was getting in time on the bike. The white elephant exchange was kind of fun as well.

Then on the 20th, we had to go out of town for a grandmother's 90th birthday and then come back in town for Dalton's indoor soccer game. Then it was back out of town on the 23rd for Christmas with the in-laws, back on the 24th and Christmas with my family on the 25th. Then back out of town on the 26th with extended family. Luckily, after that we were home for good and I was off work the last week of the year.

During all the craziness, I have continued to work out, even getting in my longest swim session to date - a 2,800 yard workout. I'm excited that I'm at that point and I still have 11 months to go until IMFL.

This week off has been nice, but still busy. One of the guys from my Sunday school class at church put out a resolution challenge. From the 26th - January 1, he challenged people to workout at least 20 minutes a day by walking or running. You get points for time, distance, being outside, and if the outside workout is below freezing. My first workout was the day we had to go out of town, so I got up early to get my run in and it was below freezing. Wahoo!!!! An extra point. Even though I would have worked out every day anyway, this challenge has encouraged me to probably do more than I would have. Thursday was a busy day and I could have easily skipped the workout, but I knew others in the challenge would see a blank day and I wanted points, so I got my run in. Forming that habit of working out every day is what most people need to keep going, so I hope the challenge helped some people.

As I look back on 2009, I feel like it was a good year. I got a PR in the 5K, 10K, and sprint triathlon distances. I ran more than I did last year, and I swam over twice the distance I did in 2008. 2009 totals are:

Bike: 1384.26 miles
Run: 832.73 miles
Swim: 32683.26 yards
Strength: 3 hr 55 min
Massage: 3 hr
Race Volunteering: 4 hr 30 min
Soccer: 30 min
Spin Class: 1 hr
Walking: 15 hr 46 min 30 sec
Wii Fit: 20 min
Yoga: 23 hr

It will be interesting to see 2010 totals at the end of next year after training for the Ironman.

I hope that your 2009 was good to you and that 2010 will be even better. Happy New Year everyone!