2014 Training Log - Swim, Bike, Run Miles for 2014 Season

Sun is setting on another year. Looking forward to 2015
This is the third year where I have tallied up my training for the year. If you are interested in
other yearly reviews then please see the following posts:

2012 Training Log Review
2013 Training Log Review

2014 was another solid year of racing that saw two more pro podiums at Ironman events. Those included a 2nd at Ironman Louisville, just a few seconds behind winner Chris McDonald, and a 3rd at Ironman Silverman 70.3. It was my 3rd year racing pro and my 7th pro podium.

Overall I was very happy with the season considering that I was injured for the first five months of the year with plantar fasciitis. At one point my roomate jokingly told me I would never race again. In the end I toed the line at 23 races. 5 aquathons, 2 sprints, 3 olympics, 8 half Ironmans, and 5 Ironmans. Off those 23 races I finished 21 and DNFed at Ironman Texas and Ironman Arizona due to injury. To go from not knowing if I would even race in 2014 to completing 21 races was a miracle in itself.

Here are my yearly swimbike, and run totals:

Total: 12,332 Miles / 1,118 hours 

Swim: 678 miles (1,193,280 yards)  / 326 hours
Bike: 9,970, miles / 574 hours
Run: 1,293 miles /  186 hours
Walking: 91 miles / 32 hours

Those numbers come out to an average of 93.16 hours per month, and 21.5 hours per week. Weekly mileage is 13 miles (23,000 yards) swimming, 191 miles biking, and 25 miles running.

For those looking for a little more granular data of Hours Per Month then here you go:

2014 Hours Logged Per Month - All Activities



5 Things I Loved About Flotracks Beer Mile World Championship

2014 Beer Mile World Champion Results
Tonight Austin Texas played host for Flotrack's 2014 Beer Mile World Championships. For those
that are unaware, a beer mile is a race that consists of drinking a beer, running a quarter mile, and then repeating it three more times. In the end you drink four beers and run one mile. Tonight, Corey Gallagher chugged his final beer in 8 seconds and then ran a closing 61 second final quarter mile for a total time 5:00:23 earning him title as 2014 Beer Mile World Champion and put $2,500 into his pocket. It was rather impressive and I felt compelled to write about it so here are some brief thoughts.

First, I will say that truthfully I love everything about the event and there were so many different lessons to learn in some many different disparate areas of life. I won't touch on all of them but here are a couple.

1) Putting an event on the map - Put $10,000 up for grabs, call it a World Championship, and livestream it with acceptable quality and you have a chance to get off the ground. It helps to have an exciting and unique event but this should be a lesson for all race directors out there or anyone in marketing/sales. The stakes DON'T need to be high, but adding some stakes generates more interest. Advertise the stakes, talk about them during the race, present a big check, acknowledge the performances and you will make it bigger deal than it was without doing those things.

2014 Kona Beer Mile Champion AJ Baucco
2) Takings Chances. I love that Under Armour took a chance. Most people never really give thought to how challenging it can be to be public figure/brand/organization, but it is hard. You are never going to make everyone happy so when it comes to throwing money at something you have to be sure it doesn't backfire. I'm not sure if Nike just doesn't want to get involved at this point or maybe the stakes are just too small, but Under Armour took a chance and it looks like they signed a last minute deal. I loved that the company was nimble enough to recognize and bet on Corey Gallagher. As an athlete I know how important every supporter is no matter how big or small. I would like to thank my own apparel sponsor 2XU for taking a chance on me and I'm sure they would have been more than happy to have me represent the brand at this event.

3) Supporting the love of the game - It gives us yet another sport outside of the four big sports. Personally, I gave up on big sports over a decade ago and I prefer to support smaller sports - sports where athletes don't sign $200,000,000 deals. Athletes don't get started in sports for the money, they get involved for the love of the game, but somewhere along that journey many athletes get corrupted and lose sight of why they are really competing. I still want to support athletes, just not the athletes making $200,000,000 and that care more about money then the love of the game.

4) Cut the cord - Truthfully I thought the major cable operators would have been dead by now, but some how they still subsist. Most people cite their reason for not axing the subscription because of the lack of alternatives to live sports. The more options we have to watch live sports online the more opportunities people have to cut the cord.

5) Introducing new people to goals and sports. Maybe there is someone who is just a beer drinker, maybe even an alcoholic, and tonight they were captivated by the event. Maybe it converts one non-exercising beer drinker, into a beer-drinking exerciser and that is a good thing. If the beer mile gets even one person off the couch who otherwise wouldn't have then it is a success in my eyes. People need to be motivated, people need to be challenged. I don't really care what people are trying to accomplish as long they work hard at it, set goals, and have plan for achieving them.

Predictions: Assuming there are no legal hurdles, the beer mile will continue to grow in popularity. My guess is it will explode exponentially in the next couple of years. Although I said I would never do one, my tune is changing. After watching the beer mile in person at Kona for the Ironman World Championships, I can say with 100% confidence that there is another beer mile spectation in my future.

Bike Equipement Weights

For those weight weenies out there who always like to know the weight of their equipment I have some weights. There will always be a natural amount of variance in the manufacturer process so your weights might differ

2014 Zipp Super-9 Carbon Clincher Disc: Matte white decals, 11-speed freehub body.
Manufacturer claim 1175g
Actual weight 1133g

2014 Zipp 808 Firecrest Carbon Clincher Front: Matte white decals, 11-speed freehub body. 88 hub version.  18 spokes.
Manufacturer claim 840g
Actual weight 846g

2012 Zipp 808 Firecrest Carbon Clincher Front: Matte white decals, 11-speed freehub body. 88 Hub version.  16 spokes.
Manufacturer claim ???g
Actual weight 803g

2014 Zipp 404 Firecrest Carbon Clincher Front: Matte white decals, 11-speed freehub body. 88 Hub version.  18 spokes.
Manufacturer claim 740g
Actual weight 723g

2014 Zipp 404 Firecrest Carbon Clincher Rear:  Matte white decals, 11-speed freehub body. 188 hub version 9.  24 spokes.
Manufacturer claim 900g
Actual weight 890g

Shimano Ultegra 6700 Crankset (165mm arms)
Non-drive: 192g
Drive:  346g
Chainrings (53/39):144g
Chainring Bolts: 9g
Cap: 3g
Total: 694g

Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 Crankset (165mm arms)
Non-drive: 176g
Drive:  311g
Chainrings (53/39):140g
Chainring Bolts: 6g
Cap: 3g
Total: 636g

Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 Crankset (165mm arms)
Non-drive: 180g

2016 HED JET+ 6 Front
Notes: Sonic hub straight pull, 18 spokes, no stickers, no rim tape, regular aluminum version (ie non-black)
Actual Weight: 762g