2012 Report Card

I had three goals for 2012 which were revised after injuring my knees.

 

Goal #1 - Go sub-6 at Door County Half Iron July 22nd.

Changed to take in enough nutrition to not visit the med tent. Success though I did throw up afterward. Grade = A.

 

Goal #2 - Go sub 1:45 at the RnR half marathon St. Louis October 21st.

- This one is a real stretch considering my PR is 1:55 and some change.

Changed to "don't get injured trying to be faster. Success, set a 5 minute PR without injury! Grade = A.

 

Goal #3 - Lose 10 pounds by May 20th (Carlyle Oly)

Total failure! I weighed the same on race day as I did January 1st. Grade = F.

 

That puts me at a D for the year (if I did my math right it's 67%) though I'm tempted to bump that to a C since I've traveled 10 weeks in a row and made it through Christmas and Thanksgiving only gaining two pounds and I weigh a couple pounds less than last year at this time.

 

I also managed a 5 minute PR at a Sprint tri, did an Olympic tri a week later and did a Sprint tri in Boston. I also set a distance PR by three miles at Patrick's 12 hour run.

Volume wise I was down from 2011 for swimming and biking and slightly up for running.

2011

Swim = 77,000 yards in 35 hours and 16 minutes

Bike = 2,500 miles in 167 hours

Run = 707 miles in 121 hours and 40 minutes

 

2012

Swim = 52,000 yards in 18 hours and 6 minutes (not as much volume, but way faster)

Bike = 1943 miles in 118 hours and 24 minutes

Run = 832 miles in 140 hours and 43 minutes

All in all it was another good year in the exercise and racing area. I'm not sure what 2013 is going to bring. I'm a planner and usually have most if not all of my races picked out. Things are busy at work and I expect heavy travel and lots of overtime, at least for the next couple of months. We'll see what happens after that.

Happy New Year!

 

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And the winner is.......

Ali Mc from Running With Spatulas

Email me your address and I'll get the goggles out to you.

And yes, I wrote everyone's name on slips of paper and drew from a bowl.

Old school ;-)

 

Thanks for playing everyone :-)

 

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Product Giveaway

Before I get to the product giveaway, I'll answer some questions left in the comments on my blog. I'm never sure whether I should answer them on blog blog, email the commenter or something else.

Jill asked how I get so lucky to get free gear? Well, one of my product reviews generated a lot of traffic so I'm guessing people hope my review generates as much traffic as my Tommie Copper knee sleeve review. It receives 10x more views per day than any of my other posts. To get the knee sleeves I emailed Tommie Copper and asked for some to review. All my other reviews were at the request of the manufacturer. Last week I was contacted about putting advertising on my site and asked me what my terms were. I politely declined.

James asked how we sign up for a giveaway? Read on James, read on :-).

When Steven at Kiefer asked me if I wanted to review some swim gear I jumped at the chance hoping it would help me find my swimming mojo. I hadn't been swimming since my last triathlon which was four months earlier. Well, it took me several weeks to get the motivation to go to the pool so I can't say I found my mojo. I did figure out where I left it though. I left it in Door County!

That was the best swim I have ever had by a long shot. Four years ago, I couldn't even swim 100 yards and here I was swimming 1.2 miles in open water in a 70.3. Not sure how to get it back. Maybe I'll need to go back to Door County and retrieve it :-).

On to the giveaway. I'm giving away one pair of slightly used Kiefer Mach 5 goggles. They have only been worn once :-). To enter, you get one chance for following my blog, following me on twitter @ransick, and following me on instagram @ransick. One entry for each, please leave a comment for each. Yes, Facebook isn't an option because I'm one of at 17 people on eart that don't use it. Some dude named Shivam tried to use my email address to make an account but never was able to activate it.

I'll give them away in my next post, probably over the holidays, maybe sooner, mayber later :-).

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Product Review: Kiefer Mach 5 Goggles

Steven over at Kiefer sent me a note and asked if I would review one of their products. Kiefer makes performance swimwear, so it's obvious Steven hasn't looked up any of my swim times :-). I have a habit of leaving goggles in the shower! so I decided goggles would be the way to go.

The goggles came in a small plastic case with a couple spare nose connectors.

There were protective plastic pieces over each lense.

I tried them on before heading to the pool thinking I would need to adjust them a bit but they fit perfectly right out of the box.

Sporting some hat hair for a goofy picture.... No pool pics, sorry :-).

On to the pool. The goggles fit well again. They fit in the eye socket and the fit reminded me of Speedo Vanquishers. On the first lap I had some minor leakage on the nose side on the left and ear side on the right. A quick press on both goggles quickly corrected that. The goggles were comfortable and didn't fog at all. It wasn't long until I forgot I was even wearing goggles, which is always a good sign with gear.

Kiefer also has goggles with vision correction which would be nice for people that wear glasses. I wear my contacts in the pool, so they weren't for me. Kiefer also makes other swim gear like fins, buoys, paddles and flotation devices. If you are in the market for some swim gear, check them out.

(Disclaimer: I was given Kiefer goggles for free, courtesy of Kiefer. I did not pay for the goggles, receive payment for this review, or agree to give a positive review. Aside from information gleaned from the company website, the opinions are my own.)

 

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