20K

Some may think of my constant use of my altimeter watch to be obsessively geeky and others may even wish to consider me a "stat whore" for constantly tracking my mileage and elevation gain when I go riding or running. That's fine, I'm both those things and more. But there is some good that comes out of constantly tracking one's workouts in that being a periodic slave to the numbers can push you to go further and harder than you otherwise might.

Today is a perfect example of how this can be a good thing. I was going to go for a ride on my road bike today, and was all set to repeat the same 43 mile route I did earlier in the month. However, I thought it would be cool to hit 20,000 feet of elevation gain for the month of March and the 43 mile route would have left me a few hundred feet short. So, because of my fondness for nice round numbers I decided to tackle the climb on Tolt Hill Road (about 470 feet in 1.1 miles) twice. I then added the Tokul to Mill Pond loop to get a little more climbing in so as to not leave any doubt about hitting the mark. Wound up riding 50.2 miles with a total of 2,550 feet of climbing. The extra climbing was good for my training and really didn't even hurt that much, and I hit my non-important nice round number.

March Statistics

Running - 53.1 miles
Mountain Biking - 124.2 miles
Road Biking - 159.0 miles
Total Time in Motion - 33 hours, 28 minutes
Total Elevation Gain - 20,070 feet
Worked Out 24 of 31 Days in March

Nearly all of the running was done on trails. Roughly 30 miles of the road bike mileage was done on a trainer on account of the weather. Time in Motion is exactly what it says and does not account for time spent milling around and waiting for people during group runs and rides.

In short, March went well. It was my first full month back in training (only worked out about 9 times in February) and it feels good to be easing back into things with a bit more seriousness. Also, what feels great, is that I'm down to 186 pounds. I've been hovering around 194 pounds for most of the past 3 years and want to get back to 178 ultimately. So far so good.

Heading out to Whidbey Island to go mountain biking and camping over the weekend. Hopefully this nice weather holds. Gotta keep this momentum going forward. Have a good weekend!