A Weekend of Workout with Henry

FRIDAY morning, Henry and I went on a 14 mile bike ride as I noted in my post on Saturday. I used my "commuter bike" (mountain bike with skinnier tires put on), and it was some work to lug that bike, the Chariot, and Henry up and down the rolling hills along the Mississippi.

We first rode to a park north of downtown Minneapolis to play on some footbridges and chase ducks on the river (click these images to enlarge):

Looking for rocks to throw.


Crossing a footbridge.


"Ducks! Come back!"

(This is part of my loose "The Summer of Two" project that I'm doing with Henry. I just posted a lot of photos on my Photo Blog last week. Check those out.)

Then we hopped back in the Chariot and stopped at a park for over an hour. And during that hour, HENRY HAD A BIG "FIRST!!" HE HAD HIS FIRST POTTY STOP IN A PORTA POTTY!!!

Of course I took a photo. Proud Daddy.

We finished 14 miles with a 12.4 mph average, and I was FINE with that! I had to take it easy, because that night Matt came over for that nasty bike, run, bike, run, bike, run, bike, run workout. Good day.


On SATURDAY, Henry and I hung around the house in the morning, and he "helped" me do some push-ups and back rows.


Then on SUNDAY morning, Henry and I had breakfast and hit the road. He hopped in the stroller for 8 miles with me. But 8 miles STRAIGHT would bore the heck out of Henry, so I did a 2 mile warm-up, then 2x2 mile intervals with 3:00 rest, and finally a 2 mile cool-down.

(Ideally, I would have done a long run because my Wednesday run was a shorter, harder tempo run, and my Friday workout was the duathlon workout that I posted about this weekend, and that had 4 hard 1-mile efforts. But when your wife happens to be working the weekend shift, a workout is a workout! I'll take what I can get!)

A quick bit of sun during an otherwise gloomy run. This was near the end of our warm-up.

Our intervals started near Shriners Hospital, and headed back up the hill into St. Paul, and then back downhill towards the hospital. Here are my half mile, 1 mile, and 2 mile splits from the 2x2 mile workout while pushing Henry:

2:55, 3:02 = 5:57
2:55, 2:54 = 5:49 = 11:46 total

3:00 walking

2:53, 3:01 = 5:54
2:54, 2:54 = 5:48 = 11:42 total

When I got done, I Instagramed these 2 photos:

"2x2 miles with Henry in 11:46 and 11:42. Henry's bored with my lack of speed... :)"


"My view for my 2 mile cooldown...."

Once I finished my last interval but before starting my cool down, I promised Henry we'd stop at the park. So we ran back home and past our front door and went another 3 blocks to the park where Henry played for an hour as I stretched:

Note to self: heading to the park right after a hard run with a 2-year-old was a GREAT idea! I need to do that more often. Henry just ran and played, and I had some time to sit and stretch while watching him. Why have I not done this before?!?


A few links:

- Matt's and my nasty duathlon workout on Friday.
- A Minnesota athlete placed 13th overall and 5th in her age group at the Duathlon World Championship this past weekend!
- My favorite "Friday Funny" from the 3 posted on Friday if you missed it.