2011 Year End Review

2 Jan 2012-

Well 2011 has come to an end, and fortunately I was able to be home for it this year.  I had been planning for quite some time to come home and surprise the family for the holidays.  I hadn't been home for the holidays in 6 years and I figured I would surprise everyone.  I had to tell a few little lies along the way, but in the end my immediate family had no clue.  A few of my cousins were in on the whole thing so thanks to them I was able to pull it off.  Below is the video of all the surprises:

So to say the least 2011 ended on a high note.  A few weeks back I got some exciting news that I was selected as the Osan Air Base Male Athlete of the Year as well as the Pacific Air Force Male Athlete of the Year.  I have not won an athlete of the year award at a Majcom level, so this was something that I was hoping to achieve this year.  I believe the packages are still up at the Air Force level, but have not heard who was selected as the Air Force Athlete of the Year.  A few days after receiving that news I got an email informing me that I was selected to the US Military Cycling Developmental Team.  The Military Team has been around for a few years and is slowly growing, this year being the biggest expansion of the team.  The team is having a camp in the beginning of February in Florida and I will be headed to that to put in a solid 7 days of training and two races.  I am looking forward to this great opportunity and being able to represent the Military during my future cycling endeavour's.

I am focusing on the Tour de Korea which is in April, and have made some changes to my training and coach for this off season.  I am being coached by AF Capt Zach Garrett, a long time cyclist and also a member of the US Military Cycling Team.  Zach is putting a strong influence on my cycling for the next 4 months with a little bit of focus on my swim and run, just trying to maintain.  I will be back with Scott Defilippis come May and we will be back at it with hopefully a focus on Kona.

Looking back on 2011, to sum it up with one word: UNBELIEVABLE.  I sit here and look back on it and still don't comprehend how everything feel into place.  It wasn't because of what I did, it has more to do with who I was surrounded by.  I couldn't of accomplished everything that I accomplished last year without the great group of people that I am surrounded by and supported by.  I trained more than I have ever trained before.  I achieved all of the goals, plus some that I set out to accomplish last year.  I was lead by a great coach and trained with some amazing people.  I had huge support from my supervision at work, and thankfully for their support I was able to travel and race quite a bit this past year.

Below are some random stats from over the year of 2011:

Swim- 260.6 KM's/86h17m- AVG 1h40m a Week
Bike- 7,692.5 miles/409h56m-AVG 7h45m a Week
Run- 1,247.5 miles/158h53m-AVG 23.5 Miles a Week
Total- 9,102 miles/655h7m- AVG 12h20mins a Week
Raced- 2 Running Races/8 Tri's/12 Bike Races Total 22 Races
5 Overall Wins/5 AG Wins/7 Top 5's 

66 Off Days/3 Countries Visited/Crossed the Pacific 6 times via plane/

 Some random thoughts about the above numbers:

If I hadn't raced the TdK, I would of raced a lot less this year than years past.  I biked 3X's as much as last year, and my total training time is almost double from last year.  I only missed the podium for triathlon in my AG at IM Korea and Kona and I finally made the overall podium in a big race.  I actually trained with a goal in mind this year, and stayed focused to accomplish that goal.  All in all I like the above #'s, except this random #, I took OFF 66 days this year.  I have found consistency is huge, and I was a lot more consistent this year, next year I would like to see that 66 # down in the 20ish range.  Someone asked me the other day if I ever "relax", my response was YES, I went out and rode my bike for an hour today.  That is RELAXING to me ;)

All in all I am extremely happy with how 2011 went and I am looking forward to 2012.  I believe it is going to be a breakthrough year for me and things are already starting off on the right foot.  Once again I can't thank everyone enough for all of their support.  All of my family is behind me in my passion for what I do, and everyone else that continues to support me I thank you.  I have been told that I inspire people, but the funny thing is, those are the people that inspire me to keep going and doing what I do.

Here are some photos from the year: