​This year I ran over 665 miles (according to Strava). While I did not explicitly set a mileage goal for 2018, I was hoping to get over 500 miles and I sailed clear over that.

So to make 2019 more interesting for me, I’m going to now set a goal to run 1000 miles.

One. Thousand. Miles.

Since I already covered 665 miles this year, I’m sure a bunch of you are thinking, “What are you stressing about? That’s just a little more than what you ran in 2018.”

If you’re thinking that, you would be right. In pure mileage terms, it isn’t that much more. For me, the main block is more mental than anything else. I’ve never run that much in my life and who knows that might happen to me or my body in the coming year. It might be easy for some but to me, it’s still a metaphorical mountain.

On top of the unknowns, I’m trying to balance my time with other training such as swimming, cycling, strength training and plyometrics. More importantly, I’m also first a husband and a father. That’s a lot of balls to juggle in the air and more opportunities to drop something.

But then again...

I never ran 665 miles in a single year and I did it this year.

I never ran a half marathon and I did two of them this year.

I never completed a duathlon and I did two of them this year.

I could not swim the length of a pool and now I can swim over 1000 yards without stopping (albeit poorly).

I did this all while being a husband and a father.

This year has been a year of firsts for me and as long as I keep setting goals like this, I’ll keep pushing myself to be a better me.

Thank you 2018, you made me a better person. Let’s do this 2019.

After the Vineyard half marathon, I took a bit of a break from running. The training did a number on my knees and hips and it probably was a good idea to back off from running for a bit at least. However, the thought of going back to a sedimentary lifestyle was terrifying to me so I decided to fill the running void with biking. I dusted off my old road bike and started focusing on riding for a while.

What I didn’t realize is how much i loved being on the bike. Personally, there is a certain freedom while being on it that I don’t get with running. As I put more and more miles on the bike, the thought of a triathlon kept creeping into my mind, except there was one problem...

I FREAKING HATE SWIMMING

Call it an irrational fear, I don’t care; it’s not my thing. I gave it a try and failed. With practice and training, I’m sure I can get over it but I’m not a fan of it right now. So this basically killed any thoughts of a triathlon until i found out that some triathlons also have a duathlon, which is just the running and cycling portion of a triathlon. 

Perfect.

My first attempt at this was on July 29th at the Whaling City Triathlon/Duathlon and let me tell you, it was a blast. The race itself was a ton of fun and it was a beautiful course that went along the coast of New Bedford centering on Fort Tabor. It was well executed and had a ton of friendly volunteers. My two cents; do this race at least once. It’s just a sprint length so none of the legs of the course was overly long. Heck, I even saw an older lady with a RENTAL bike do this. 

As for my thoughts on my first duathlon; overall I felt less prepared for this than I was for my half marathon. The whole running + cycling thing was really just a recent thing I’ve been doing so diving right into an event felt a bit rushed. 

During my training, I focused on running and I focused on cycling but doing them back to back really only happened about 2 weeks before the race itself. These “brick” workouts should have been more of a focus in my training. During the 5k part of the race, which followed the cycling part, my legs felt like jello for about 1.2 miles until they started to feel normal again.

I was also nervous about the transitions (the staging area between events) but I was prepared for that. I read up on all of the USAT rules so i pretty much had that down.

Overall, it was a great event for my first duathlon and I’m pretty hooked now.