2015 Year in Review

2015 was the year I went all in on triathlon. Funnily, I still think of myself as a runner first, despite that possibly being my least favourite of the three sports at the moment. But I think having successfully done five triathlons this year, and training all three sports 3+ times per week, I am officially a real triathlete. I even updated the blog header recently to reflect that change (it was a lot of fun going through the photos from the year, and kind of hard to narrow them down to my favourites.)

The yearly stats from Strava (more or less - not really sure of the accuracy of the bike numbers, since I assume that includes trainer rides and the Zwift ones exaggerate the distance 'traveled' a bit. But it's in the right overall ballpark).

Damn. Should have looked more closely at the swim stats at the beginning of the week, I could have cracked 180k!

That's a whole lot of time on the bike!

Less running than previous years, but I feel like I still got faster and stronger as a runner. Cross training, woo!

Biggest surprise: How much I love swimming.

Building swim endurance was quite a process, but now that I'm capable of knocking out 2000m in a session without thinking about it much, swimming is so satisfying. I thought swimming was going to be a necessary evil to get me to the good part (the bike!), but instead I find myself eagerly anticipating my swim workouts, and especially looking forward to getting back into open water in the spring. It's just fun! Plus it's an area where I have a lot of room for improvement, and it's always nice to see those incremental gains happening.

Favourite race: Barrelman

Ha, like there was going to be any other answer to that. I started 2015 feeling like a half iron was out of the question. Too long, too hard, no way would I be ready. But then by June I knew I could do it, and by race day I knew not only could I finish it, I could finish it strong. It was probably my best executed race ever, and I loved every minute.

Favourite non-race accomplishment: Imperial century ride

This was one of my goals for the year - ride 100 miles. We had a great route, great company, and it was very satisfying to check this one off the list. (Runner up on this one was my first ever 3k open water swim - aka the swim that made me realize that at least the swim portion of a full Ironman someday is totally doable).

Best purchase: Tri club membership

OK, so the tri bike would be the more obvious choice, but since she joined the family late in the year she hasn't had that big an impact yet. Instead, I have to give the nod to joining the Iron Canucks. The club meant I could almost always find a partner for open water swim practice, and I got to meet some amazing people. And there's something pretty awesome about being in team kit at races - you get cheered for by your teammates, and you just feel that much more legit. Memberships now available for 2016!

(honorable mention to my Trainerroad subscription here - it was hard to pick between the two of them, because I wouldn't want to give up either!)

Most satisfying PB: Mississauga 10k

Post race with my favourite running partner, my husband. As the kids get older it gets easier for us to run together! And he now has a bike, so riding together too.

Although I PBd at ATB, in retrospect I don't think I executed that race as well as I could have. Going 50:30 at Mississauga in a well-executed race was a big mental boost going into a summer of hard tri training.

Most fun: Training with the girls on Northshore in the winter

Yeah, we're totally adorable. Me, Nicole, Sam, Ivanka.

"Ugh we need to slow this down." "Yeah, this is too fast." (pace goes from 5:25/km to...5:27/km)

Such good times last winter! I hope I can hit those paces again this winter!

Thing I'm looking forward to the most in 2016: Muskoka 70.3 and going for a course PB at Barrelman

Couldn't pick just one :) And those would be why I'm training like a crazy person right now!

It's been an amazing year - now it's on to 2016 and even bigger and better things.

My year of running (2014)

After two weeks of no exercise, yesterday I got back on the bike and today I cautiously ran 5k. Both went well and my hip feels fine, so my fingers are crossed I've managed to get this thing sorted out. I'll keep things careful for the rest of the week, though, just in case.

Today I'm hooking up with Miss Zippy's year in review, because I want to write a bit about my year and I think the prompts will help me organize my thoughts.

1. Best race experience

Amy and I heading for the finish at Mississauga

For running races, definitely finishing my first marathon. Although the aftermath of that race (months of ongoing hip problems, yay) have soured me a bit on the distance and I'm not planning to repeat it any time soon. But the feeling of crossing that finish line, of successfully running for four damn hours, was pretty awesome.

But there's also the little matter of that duathlon I did. I mean c'mon. I discovered that biking is awesome, I'm surprisingly kind of good at it, and I got a giant shiny medal for an age group place, so that race is pretty damn high on my list for the year. Let's call the marathon 1a and the duathlon 1b, OK?

2. Best run

Any run with this guy. Because our kids are still too little to be left alone, it's rare that we get to run together, so when it does happen it's pretty special.

A close second was finishing my first ever 20 miler. It was a perfect day for running and was a huge confidence boost before the marathon.

3. Best new piece of gear

Is it cheating if my best new piece of gear has nothing to do with running?

Was there any question what my answer would be here? Man I love my bike.

I miss this. I'm enjoying the trainer, but there's nothing like a ride on the roads.

4. Best piece of running advice you received

Cross training can be awesome. Try new things, you might like (or love) them.

5. Most inspirational runner

Honestly, the people who inspire me most are my running friends - the folks who post their workouts on Daily Mile & Strava. I love that when I'm feeling unmotivated all I have to do is check out my online friend's feeds and get totally inspired to see people rocking their workouts. I have fast friends, slow friends, and everything in between, and every single one of them is inspiring.

And there's my #burlingtonskirtbrigade girls, who are always up for a run or a ride, give good advice, commiseration about injuries, and lots and lots of non-running related chat. Love you guys.

And finally my triathlon friends who were pretty instrumental in getting me set up with that whole bike thing, and I owe them many many many thanks for giving good advice and encouragement. I think Irina and Zindine won't rest until everyone has at least tried a tri...

6. If you could sum up your year in just a few words, what would they be?

The year I discovered cycling. And loved it.

So it's been an interesting year - I definitely did a lot of things I was not expecting back at the beginning of the year! Can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for me.