Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

Long Ride: PR for Ascent!!

>> Tuesday, May 19, 2026

The day after I ran some 800s at the track as my first speedwork in 6 weeks, I had an open afternoon, so I went out for a long ride. My only goal was to hit lots of hills and try to break my ascent record of 2400 feet. That PR was on a purposely hilly ride 2.5 years ago. I was aiming for 45+ miles, so a NICE LONG ride finding lots of hills.

I planned to do a pretty "usual" route out to Big Rivers Trail and back which is about 26 miles by itself. I often do that ride and add on some extra little bits to make it 30-some miles. (In fact, I did this usual route 2 weeks ago and added on some extra bits to make it 40+ miles.) But I started this ride going along the river in the OTHER direction to hit a few extra hills and get in 12+ miles before it even felt like I was starting my "usual" route.

When I added on a hill by Hidden Falls, I had to stop on my way up because I came across the biggest snake I've ever seen in the wild! (And in the middle of St. Paul nonetheless!!) A naturalist page I'm a member of on Facebook tells me it's a western fox snake:

Just soaking up the sun!

Pulled forward to get my bike in the shot to "prove" I took the photo.

I was feeling QUITE good for this entire ride! I kept waiting for a BONK, but it was always going well! I didn't bring any food, and there was a 14 mph wind out of the west, but I was doing well! I KNOW that part of the reason I wasn't hurting too much was because I was NOT focused on speed at ALL. I was only focused on riding far, and hitting some hills. I bet if I was trying to keep my average around 20 mph, I could have been hurting. Lesson learned: ease up when wanting to go far and it feels MUCH EASIER.

Long story short, I easily got in 50+ miles! I had no way of knowing my ascent as I was biking, but I felt 95% certain that I had PRed. And when I got home, saved my workout, and opened my Garmin app, it showed me I had done it:

18.3 mph isn't fast, but look at the lower left: 3,291 feet of ascent!

I set a hearty PR!

I wasn't aware of this, but I also set a distance PR with my Garmin!
(I've gone longer in IM [and 70.3] training days years ago, but that was all pre-Garmin.)

So here was my elevation with all the hills:

Map with hills noted...

... and the corresponding hills labeled on my elevation chart.

Here's what hills I hit:

A: Under 35W
B: Up from dam (short)
C: River bottoms to Franklin
D: Up to underneath Washington on the east bank
F: Behind Coffman Union
G: Marshall up from River
H: Marshall up to Merriam Park Library

[All those above were extra... now I was starting my "usual" route.]

I: Down and up Hidden Falls near Hwy 5
J: Down and up Marina Hill along Shepard
K: Across 35E bridge
L: Down and up hill from Yacht Club to 35E
M: Across 35E bridge again (same as K)
N: Long "false flat" uphill on Big River's Trail
O: Up and down around the cemetery
P: Long "false flat" up along Hwy 13 south of I494
Q: Turning around to come up Hwy 13 by Yankee Doodle
R: Big climb on Lone Oak from Hwy 13
S: Big climb up Big Rivers just north of I494
T: Up hill from Yacht Club to 35E (same as L)
U: Long "false flat" along Shepard from 35E

Two things: First, yes, I know I forget "E." My bad. And second, I didn't know what that quick sharp hill was just before P on the map, but then I realized that I went up that nasty hill just north of 494 on Big Rivers (S on the map) an EXTRA time as I was still heading out. Missed that one!

I was in the saddle for all these hills until R: that climb up Lone Oak had me hammering. And then near the top of S as well. And then at T too. My legs were tired of the hills, but I wasn't in a bad mood!

(Also, my chain and/or my shifting cable has been stretching out as I've slowly been having trouble getting into or staying in my large front chain ring. And it kept "skipping" or falling off on this ride, so I did 95% of this ride in my small front chain ring. So I wasn't bombing down hills because I didn't have the gearing to do that.)

L and T on the map: doing the Yacht Club hill an extra time.
(Two times going down it fast, and 2 times coming up it slow.)

I texted a screenshot of my ascent to my 2 cycling brothers-in-law because they had recently done a hilly ride in WI that was around 4000 feet of ascent. One of them sent back a screenshot of their ascent PRs that was 10,331 feet!! I'm glad I don't live in that part of WI with allllllllll those hills! :) I told him that I could consider 4000 feet or even 5000 feet, but 10K was WILD!!!

So that was the most ascent I've had on a bike ride since wearing a Garmin (14 years), and my longest ride since my Ironman and 70.3 days (18 years). I had to look up the Ironman WI bike course, and that has around 5500 feet of elevation change over that 112 mile ride, so that's my true LONGEST ride and MOST ASCENT too. Maaaaaaybe I'll try to beat that ascent some day, but no chance of any century+ rides in my near future.

I FINALLY Ran Intervals!

>> Monday, May 18, 2026

I hurt my calf in early April, and last weekend I shared a timeline of easy runs and skipped hard workouts because of that injury. So FINALLY, after 6 weeks of taking it easy, I ran intervals to end last week!

I wanted to hit the track for 4-6 800s. Four would be if I was being timid, and 6 would be if I was feeling great about life. There was a colleged-aged miliary-training group that showed up as I was starting, so they pushed me with their presense on the backstretch:

About 25 students as they were filing in... there were 60+ a few minutes later!

As I was wrapping up my workout, they were doing warm-ups on the infield. It was WILD to have such a large group doing "strides" across the turf and ending right up to the edge of the track as I was running past!

Normally for 800s, I might start around 2:41 and drop down to 2:34... that would be a "normal" feeling workout. So after not running hard for a while, opening with a 2:41 on Friday felt like a solid start! After the 2nd or 3rd, I told myself that my speed (meaning my "effort") was decent, so I was going to just run 5. I was going to be happy with a QUICK and SNAPPY workout, but didn't want to over-do it.

5x800 meters with 2:00 rest in between:

1:18 + 1:22 = 2:41.5
1:18 + 1:19 = 2:37.5
1:19 + 1:19 = 2:38.7
1:19 + 1:18 = 2:37.6
1:18 + 1:18 = 2:36.3

Ave: 2:38.3

I was happy with that. And EQUALLY happy to not have any extra calf pain later in the day!

A bunch of laps.

Yep, that looks about right.

Back soon with a post about a REALLY NICE (PR) bike ride the day after the intervals!

Broken Cleats

>> Sunday, May 17, 2026

I went on a short ride last weekend, and I tried out the newly paved trail along Shepard Road between 35E and downtown St. Paul:

Smooth trail! I would always ride on the shoulder of the road in this section in the past.

I got home, and my cleat in my right shoe just exploded. It felt weird clipping in and and out the last few times, so clearly something was off.

Luckily, the very next day, my brother in law texted about wanting to send me some old Speedplay cleats and pedals if I wanted them. I DO WANT THEM! I got those a few days ago in the mail:

Thanks Matt!

In the meantime, I did a short ride on Tuesday on my mountain bike in just "normal" shoes. I was afraid that going on a harder ride on my mountain bike is what made my calf issue flare up 2 months ago, so made sure to ride without pushing on my toes (I tired to ride more "flat footed" on the pedals).

I'd been using an old bike shoe on my right foot yet as the left shoe busted a few years back. If you look close between these two photos from this post of race photos from last year's Oakdale Spring Classic Duathlon, you can see my 2 different bike shoes:

New white shoe with 2 straps on my left foot...

... and old silver shoe with 1 big strap on my right foot.

So I got my "other" new shoe ready to go before Thursday's ride. Here you can see the left shoe that's had a few years of wear on it along with the newer right shoe that's barely been used:

Oh, and I did that entire ride with part of my old cleat still stuck on my pedal! I didn't notice this until after the ride:

Oops.

Well, all seems well again. I might try to adjust my new cleat a little more to the "inside" of my foot as the pressure seems a little far to the outside, but it has held up well for 2 rides.