Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

I was "up north" with family last week. So I didn't get in my normal upper body work, got in some lesser lower body work, did just a LITTLE core, had pretty normal runs, and REALLY BIKED A LOT. Noteworthy workouts:

• Tues, Aug 5: longest ride in 16 years! I went out to hopefully break 50 miles. I hadn't done that with any of my Garmins - it was "pre Garmin" when I last went over 46 miles! I ended up keeping it above 20 mph for those 50 miles, and then did an extra 4+ miles easier as a cool down!

Bike trail out of Alexandria.

Fields in the middle of nowhere.

Longest ride! Note the 7 mph wind from the SE, and the 20.4 mph ave.

5-mile splits: 10 miles "in town," and then 20 miles to the west, and 20 miles back!

I didn't think there was a breeze out there, and sure didn't expect it to be from the EAST (which is strange in MN). So I was depressed when I hit my turn-around at mile 30 with a 21.0 mph ave and then started working harder into the wind as I was already pooped. I made it back only letting it drop to 20.4 mph overall.

• Thurs, Aug 7: moderate mid-distance ride. I had a saddle sore pop up from that long run at the "base" of my left testicle. So I wasn't going to go nuts (pun intended) on this ride. It was just a "ride." I was also planning a hard run the next day, so I didn't want to be totally fried.

Foggy spots!

There were some fun views in the fog!...

... and some places where I biked into nothingness.

An angry garter snake on my way back.

33 miles of randomness.

• Fri, Aug 8: 4 mile tempo run. This was a bit of a failed workout. I didn't quite make it all 4 miles. I had to put this run off by about 2 hours because a thunderstorm was wrapping up. I'd never seen so many whitecaps on the lake when I took off for my run:

WINDY!

Damp trails.

I did a 1 mile warm-up, and then went straight into 4 hard descending miles. At least, that was the plan. The first 2 miles of those were with the wind, and they were good: 5:59 and 5:58. Then I turned into the breeze and tried to keep it up. Mile 3 was 6:02 which wasn't horrible into the wind, but then the wind hit me more. In the final mile, my first half-mile split was 3:04 (my slowest half-mile split all workout), and then I found myself just stopping when I had 0.23 miles to go. Damn it. I had hit the wall.

Effort started at split #2 (lower right), hit the turn-around at
split #6 (upper left), and PLANNED to get back to that split #2 again.
But stopped my Garmin at split #10 before getting there.

Tempo, ending a bit before it should have.

So that tempo effort was 3.77 miles in 22:37, or 6:01/mile pace. Not the sub-6:00 pace I was hoping for. Oh well.

• Sat, Aug 9: 30 mile bike with 4x4 mile intervals, AND BIKE CRASH. The intervals went fine. There was a slight wind in my face for #1 and #3, so those were a bit slow, and #2 and #4 were a bit fast. I looked at my average half-way into each interval to try to up the pace, and in the end, I was all about what my mph was for each split:

#1: 11:26, 21.0 mph (21.2 halfway)

#2: 10:43, 22.4 mph (22.1 halfway)

#3: 11:14, 21.3 mph (21.2 halfway)

#4: 10:11, 23.6 mph (22.9 halfway)

I was happy with keeping #3 faster than #1, and then really hammering for #4 to get a fast split!

I was cooling down in town, when I turned to cross a road. I didn't see the curb correctly (I thought it was a "ramp" and not a big curb) and tried to correct at the last second - my brain doesn't always work right when it's tired after a hard workout. I ended up skidding out across some asphalt and into the grass when I probably could have just gone the "wrong" way for 50 feet and turned around with no incident, but I was trying to hard to make a corner that I was about to miss. Damn it.

My hand was gushing blood from a deep little wound on the lower middle:

Intervals between spits 8 and 9 on this map...

... with the upper right being where I crashed before "limping" home on my bike.

I was OK. My bike was OK. I showered off to find the extent of my injuries. Afterwards, I documented my scrapes in the bathroom:

Pelvis and thigh - the 2nd sorest part on my body.

Inside left knee. Outside of my knee was beat up too, and
this was the sorest joint. Hoping I didn't really hurt something.

Scuff on my ankle.

Now cleaned puncture on my hand, and a tiny blood blister on my thumb.

Left elbow.

The following afternoon (Sunday), my wife took this photo at home of my pelvis and thigh building some nice bruising:

The GOOD NEWS is that I went for a run yesterday and my knee was fine! I figured it would be, but I was a bit nervous. WHEW!!

After a big bike month last month and having the previous 2 weeks with 100+ bike miles each, I now had a 3rd week in a row with over 100 bike miles! 103.81 miles, 112.31 miles, and now 118.51 miles "up north" on these bike trails!

This week will have fewer miles in the saddle. It's about time for some rest. :)

Here's what July looked like:

The month started with me in Hawaii (family trip) and then in Milwaukee (Henry's sports). Then I was without a car starting on the 15th because of a hit-and-run I was involved in (I was the "hit" and not the "run"). So the 15th was a huge day of intensity minutes according to my Garmin! But that week was cut short because it ended with the Raspberry Run, so I had some pre-race rest days along with some post-race recovery days.

And those last 2 weeks were both big biking weeks, partly because I didn't have a car. But also because I fit in some decent rides.

So July looks like this:

• SWIM: 11,950 yards
• BIKE: 340.74 miles
• RUN: 90.56 miles
• STRENGTH: 56 hours 45 mins

Swimming is pretty standard, biking is BIG (3rd biggest month since IM training in 2007), running is on the smaller side, and strength time might be the 3rd biggest month ever.

Hoping to keep August big in the saddle as well as get in some decent run workouts to prep for the TC 10 Mile!