Friday Funny 331: For The Weekend...

A little sentiment for my readers:

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Friday Funny 330: Ridiculously Photogenic Guy (Asian Edition)

You guys all remember Ridiculous Photogenic Guy, right? He was the big thing just over a month ago. (Click here if you're not sure what I'm talking about.)

Well, there's a "copycat wanna-be" out there:

And in other news, Ridiculous Photogenic Guy might have a sister:

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Friday Funny 329: Burning Calories While Swimming

Dan makes a good point...

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Friday Funny 328: Catchy Song

You've all heard this catchy song. Here are some things related to that from the internet that make me smile:

(Of COURSE the last guy is Italian)

And on a related "musical" note, you may enjoy this:

And this:

Did you sing this one? I totally did. It makes it better.

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My Current Olympic Triathlon Training

Yeah, it's not great overall. Here's where I'm at:


SWIM: Not great.

I'm just over 10,000 yards FOR THE YEAR!! In 2010 (the year of my 2:15 Oly PR, I'd swam over 50,000 yards at this point in the year (which still ISN'T a lot for many people). And I still haven't had an OWS this year yet. Dang.


BIKE: Also not great. But still half-way decent (for me).

I hit the trainer a decent amount last year, and I didn't do well with that over this past winter. In 2011, I'd biked about 200 miles outside at this point. This year, I'm at 208 miles, so that's comparable. (I had a good March this year.)

Sunday, after Pharmie's triathlon, she watched Henry for a few hours and I went for a long ride. I did a big loop that I knew would be about 32 miles. I threw in three 10 minute intervals (with about 10 minutes of moderate riding between) near the middle of the ride. I picked some challenging areas to do my intervals, so I knew my interval splits wouldn't be the best. My 10:00 intervals averaged 18.7 mph, 21.0 mph, and 19.3 mph. So not super. I finished the ride with an 18.5 mph average.

I'm worried about my speed over a 24.8 mile Oly ride. (Especially one that starts with such a crazy climb!) We'll see what happens in 3 weeks. I'm afraid it won't be pretty.


RUN: Pretty damn stellar. I'm running pretty injury-free, and the MDRA Grand Prix series is treating me well.

I've ran 430 miles so far in 2012 whereas last year I had only ran about 240 miles at this point. (I had a nasty injury in February of last year.) I was really happy that I did the smart thing and DIDN'T race last weekend. My heel was sore for a day or 2 after the New Prague Half Marathon, and I expected that. But it was a little sore for a couple MORE days. So I wore the "night splint" for the majority of last week:

I sleep in this. It's not quite as bad as it seems.

And as I noted last week in this post, I give a lot of credit to Henry for my higher mileage AND my current lack of injury. Our morning "nap time" runs have been great for both of us!


BRICK WORKOUTS: Huh?

I've only done one SHORT duathlon (2 mile, 10 mile, 2 mile), and I only did one SUPER SHORT brick workout before that (16 mile ride with the last 7 at race pace with a 1 mile run-off). I'd like to fit in one longer brick workout before my Oly in 2.5 weeks - maybe a 25-30 mile ride with the last 15 at race pace, followed by about a 4 mile run-off.


STRENGTH / CORE: Surprisingly OK.

Erika made some comment on some post of mine a few months ago, and her thoughts have been spot on. I was noting that I knew my "long burn" workouts at the Y were over. But Erika's comment was something like "Yeah, but you'll be doing shorter, more high-intensity workouts, and that's good for you too. Kinda like 'Crossfit' workouts." (That's not a direct quote, but it's the gist of what she said [or that's at least how I remember it].) And that's been about right. I sometimes do my "PT prescribed" leg exercises while Henry and I are playing with his toys on the floor. I've been known to bust out a quick core workout in my office when my office-mates are away. The workouts have been different, but I really can't say they've been much worse.


FINAL THOUGHTS:

I (of course) wish I had time to do EVERYTHING more - especially swimming and biking - but I can't really complain. I'm pretty happy with the actual amount of training that I'm getting in, but I know I won't be PRing in either of my Olys this summer. And I'm just fine with that. Mainly because of this guy:

Heading out for a quick walk.
(Henry loves to play with / chew on chives from our garden.)

p.s. I'm racing a 5K on Memorial Day! It's part of the MDRA "Grand Prix" series, and I'll be back on Tuesday with a full report.

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Hillfest Bike Race

There's a local cycling event just out of the Metro area that's coming up in just under 2 weeks. It's called Hillfest, and they're offering 3 different distances on a hilly, hilly route (6000 feet of elevation gain on the longest route).

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED, KEEP READING BECAUSE I HAVE A DISCOUNT CODE FOR YOU BELOW!

I wrote an Examiner article about the race 2 weeks ago. There are a lot of good details in that article. They offer fun prizes for the best hill climbers, individual and team races, and 3 distances of 200K, 75K, and 25K (or 124.3, 46.6, and 15.5 miles). I'm THINKING about racing one of the 2 shorter distance races, but it's the day before my lovely wife is planning on racing the Buffalo Triathlon, so I'm not sure how much more we should cram into that weekend. (Hillfest is Sat June 2nd, and Buffalo is Sun June 3rd.)

Here's the big trophy for the best overall team, and this was homemade by one of the race directors!

If you're interested in signing up, use this code to save 10%:

Ilovehillfest

Maybe if I can't race it, I still might be able to spend the morning out there and soak in the atmosphere. It sounds like a fun bike event!

- Click here for the Hillfest website.
- Click here for my Examiner article with more details.
- And remember to use the code Ilovehillfest to save 10%!

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Pharmie at the 'Land Between the Lakes' Triathlon!

My lovely Pharmie raced a sprint triathlon yesterday in Albert Lea. As I noted in my last post, I was going to come along and cheer, but take the weekend off from racing just to let my heel rest after last weekend's 1:20 half marathon - it was a little achy all week.

Transition in the distance.


Pharmie talking with the race director Mark.


Standing around COLD pre-race.

It was CHILLY before the race started. The water was WAY warmer than the air, so many people stayed warm in the lake:

Staying warm or peeing? You decide.


An Instagram photo of Pharmie just before starting!


The men took off!


The ladies followed 3 minutes later.
(That's Pharmie's forearm sticking way out of the water just left-of-center)


Local tri-hunk Sam Janicki was first out of the water.
He held on to that lead then entire race and took the win.


"Tall nice-kid Kyle" was in the lead pack, and he held on for 2nd overall!

SIDE NOTE: You might remember me mentioning "Tall nice-kid Kyle" about a year ago. We ran the first run of the Oakdale Duathlon together, and we chatted a bit. Since then, he's been known to me as "tall nice-kid Kyle." In fact, when I introduced him to my wife at yesterday's race, she actually told him "Yeah, he still refers to you as 'tall nice-kid Kyle.'" He laughed. Or maybe got freaked out a bit.

Soon, Pharmie came busting out of the water:

My wife and her guns.


Starting the ride with a smile!




Old high-school buddy Tim finishing the ride!


Pharmie running back in to rack her bike!

I tried to stay warm and dry while she was on the 4 mile run. It was misting off-and-on all morning, but it started to get heavy while I was waiting for her to finish. When she rounded the corner in the distance, it was "heavily misting" pretty good:

Pharmie in the distance, mist in the air.


Running towards the finish with a smile!




I think that's the race director's son JAMMING out to the finish line music as my wife finishes! Awesome!

CONGRATS PHARMIE!!!

She wasn't sure about doing the race as we were driving to the race after leaving Henry at Grandma's house, but she was all smiles and happy that she did it on the way home! :)

Click here for more photos from the race on my Examiner page.

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Triathlon Today! But Not For Me...

No race for me... but hopefully a great one for my lovely wife! She's going to be doing the "Land Between The Lakes" Triathlon in Albert Lea today, and I'll be cheering her on!

I'm being smart today. Yeah, it's a change, I know. I've raced a lot lately, and my body needs some time to heal. Here's what the last week of April, all of May, and a bit into June looks like for me:

So if I would have done the race today, that'd be FIVE STRAIGHT weekends of racing, 1 weekend off, and then my first Olympic Distance Triathlon of 2012 the next weekend. And being I get injured easily, that just sounds stupid.

I REALLY wanted to do the tri today as a "feeler" for my Oly in 3 weeks (*gulp*.... THREE WEEKS!), but I'll be smart. Instead, I packed my wetsuit so that I can go for a little open water swim pre-race, and then cheer the athletes on during the race. THAT sounds smart!

Keep an eye on my twitter account (and my TwitPics and Instagram accounts too) because I'll be posting photos along with updates on how Pharmie is doing. Check back tomorrow for a full report!

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Instagram of the Day: 4 Henry Pics

OK, OK... these aren't from today, but they are just 4 Instagram photos I want to share from hanging out with Henry this past week. (School is done for me, so I'm hanging out a LOT more with my little dude!)

Henry's learned to climb stairs. He got up his first step about 2 weeks ago with the help of Uncle Jon. Here's a photo from just a few days ago as he ZIPS up Uncle Jon and Auntie Steph's stairs:

Big steps!!


Swinging in our hammock!


Riding an elevator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts yesterday!


Dwarfed by artwork at the MIA.

Look for "stevestenzel" on Instagram if you want need more cute pics of my boy. :)

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Friday Funny 327: Cheering Sign

Nice.

And on the note of "cheering at a race," it looks like Pharmie's going to be doing her first tri of the year this weekend!! I'll be cheering her on and taking photos! Check back Monday for her race report.

Happy weekend!!

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Friday Funny 326: Outlet Placement

Not right.

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Friday Funny 325: Best Teacher Quotes

When the semester ended, I collected my student's "process journals" to grade some of their process work from throughout the semester. On the first page of one of my student's journal, I found "BEST TEACHER QUOTES." I got her permission to post these, and I've blurred out the quotes from other teachers. (I have 7 of the 10 quotes she wrote down - I say some random stuff in my classes.)

See below for a legible interpretation and any back-story.

1. "In a whiney voice, 'Can someone help me? I don't know what to do?"  I was being dramatic with regards to our color solid, and I wanted the students to figure out what I was doing wrong (I was messing up on purpose).

2. "This is a really expensive piece of equipment held together with someones' garter."  As in the sexy thing on your leg to hold your stockings up. Yep. True story.

3. "This is starting to look... atheist or something..."  I remember saying that, but I forget why.

4. "Does this make sense? Does this all taste magically delicious right now?"  I'm pretty proud of that line.

5. "If you don't have good primaries, you probably should be murdered."  Well, it WAS a Color Theory class, so I kinda stand by that line...

6. "Those big TVs that sat on your parents floor and gave off radiation and made Dad sterile."  OK, as I said in the last point, it was a Color Theory class... so... no... I have NO idea how this came up...

7. "What's the opposite of orange?... Tuesday?"  Probably my best quote of the class. Well, either this one or the 'you should be murdered' one.

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