I’ve done it

My plan for 2015 was to complete 1,600kms – and after this morning’s swim I have crossed that threshold.

The distance isn’t the actual distance travelled during my training and events in 2015 as I use an algorithm to try and equal out the three main activities I partake in – swimming, running and cycling. As I’m mainly a swimmer, it didn’t seem fair on me to compare distances with runners for example. Yet nor did it seem fair to just do lots of cycling to boost the numbers. So the 1,600kms distance is a ‘normalised’ running distance for the year as I multiply any swimming distances by three, and divide any cycling distance by four.

So my totals for the year so far (I plan to do another session tomorrow):

Swimming: actual – 408.66kms; adjusted – 1,225.98kms
Running: actual – 270.17kms
Cycling: actual – 447.27kms; adjusted – 111.82kms
Total: actual – 1,126.10kms; adjusted – 1,607.96kms

I’m pretty pleased with that. Well over 1,000 kilometres in actual distance covered and a whole day to spare in hitting the target. But all of this is with a complete lack of motivation in June and July (after the big swim in May), which meant that to complete the target my top three months (in order) were October, December, November.

Update 31/12/15

After today’s session my final totals are: 1,145.8kms actual and 1,620.56kms adjusted.

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LetJog Update – Nearly There

As I’ve posted about before there is an online support group that has set its members the challenge of completing the distance between Land’s End and John O’Groats in 2015 through their training and events. According to Wikipedia that is a distance of 874 miles (or 1,407kms).

I’m a member of this group and have signed up to this challenge, although I have decided to extend it slightly to 1,600kms – or 1,000 miles. Initially this blog was about me completing 1,000kms of exercise in a year (a target I didn’t hit), but you can see how much fitter I’ve got as my target for 2015 was 60% greater.

There’s actually a fair chance that I’ll hit this target too. I’m currently about 50kms away from John O’Groats, so I should get there before the end of November. Then that gives me December to complete the additional 180kms or so.

There are no rules to the challenge – other than the distance covered – and most of the people in the group are primarily runners, so will have run just about every mile.

I’m primarily a swimmer, but I run and cycle [a bit] too. I didn’t think that I’d manage to swim 1,600kms in a year, but equally I didn’t want to ‘cheat’ and cycle the bulk of the distance, so I follow a simple algorithm:

• All swimming distance is multiplied by 3
• All running distance is counted as is
• All cycling distance is divided by 4

My totals (with adjusted figures) so far are:

• Swimming – 357.46kms (1,072.38)
• Running – 195.07kms (195.07)
• Cycling – 358.77kms (89.69)
• Total – 911.30kms (1,357.14)

As you can see I’ve travelled almost exactly as far in water as I have on a bike – although the adjusted figures are then somewhat different. It’s also a pretty good total given that once I’d completed the big 24 hour swim in May I did almost nothing in June and July (a combined, adjusted total of 107.99kms). Fortunately I caught up a lot of my missed distance with a big October – an adjusted total of 220.43kms.

I’ll need to be dedicated through December, including into the Xmas period, but I expect to hit the 1,600kms target.

 

LetJog Update

We’re now five months into the LetJog challenge and I’ve finally got ahead of a ‘par’ score. Here are my stats:

May

– Swimming – 52.5km actual – 157.5km adjusted
– No running or cycling at all in May

Year to date

– Swimming – 184.26km actual – 552.78km adjusted
– Running – 97.39km – 97.39km
– Cycling – 110.96km – 27.74km
– Total – 677.91km

Of course the May total was helped by swimming 38.4 actual kilometres over the first bank holiday weekend as part of 2Swim4Life (a total of 115.2kms adjusted), but it’s nice to be slightly ahead of the game, for now at least.

LetJog Feb Update

Feb’s included nearly a week of illness, but I’m still doing ok and am only a bit behind the targets for the month.

– Feb total – 115.59kms

– Year to date – 242.86kms

– To target – 23.81kms behind schedule

March should hopefully be a better month, starting with what will hopefully be about a 16km run later today and culminating in the Coniston 14, with of course plenty swimming in the month too.

LetJog15 Update

The goal for this year is to complete 1,600 kms (or 1,000 miles) over the course of the year – that’s all the way from Land’s End to John O’Groats and then just over 100 kms on the way back again. This equates to 133.33 kms per month.

My January numbers are:

– Swimming – (29 actual) – 87 kms amended
– Running – (24.92) – 24.92 kms
– Cycling – (61.37) – 15.34 kms

Total – (115.29) – 127.26 kms

So I’m just under the monthly target, but I’m pretty pleased with that. January is always a tough month and I was nearly there. I’m sure Feb and March might be a bit under the target as well, but once I get properly swimming in the summer I’m sure the numbers will increase.

LetJog14 Done!

This morning I went to the pool and towards the end of my swim set I reached John O’Groats. That means I can take all of the rest of the year off!!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then a group of us on Facebook committed to completing a distance equivalent to travelling from Land’s End to John O’Groats (the two most distant parts of mainland Britain) in out training in 2014.

It was a great idea and I know that it has helped many of us to keep focussed on the important (but often slightly dull and certainly not much fun) training sets when there isn’t an event to aim for. It’s this training that lays the foundations for great performances later on, but equally it is this training that is often missed.

Most of the group are runners, so they have run the distance. I however, as a swimmer, have allowed myself to include swimming miles (multiplied by three to equate to running distance) and cycling miles (divided by four). So my totals for the year are:

– Swimming – 402.37kms = 1,207.10kms
– Running – 128.13kms
– Cycling – 524.27kms = 131.07kms

– Total – 1,466.30kms

There seemed to be a little confusion about the exact distance at the very start of the challenge, so I adopted a distance of 1,400kms. Some others have been aiming for 1,400 or 1,407 I think. If I had gone for 1,407 then I would have hit the target during the first few lengths of my swim on 15th December.

Next Year

Now that the 2014 challenge is done, it’s time to look at 2015. I’m definitely going to sign up for it again, but this time I’m going to increase my target distance to 1,600kms (or 1,000 miles).

I’ve actually managed to complete the 2014 distance even though the last four months have been well below target (fortunately I had built up a surplus over the summer), so I should be able to manage an extra 140kms if I don’t slack off at the end of the year. That said, at the moment my main swimming activity is in technique drills which take longer than just regular swimming, so my swimming distances may be down slightly at the start of the year. Although I could make them back up with one swim alone in May,

And if you want to read more about the challenge, then check out this post by the guy who set it up.