Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: Lake Vermilion Recap Video

>> Wednesday, June 17, 2026

I love this video.

Here's a 2 minute video of our trip up to Lake Vermilion 10 days ago with my boys, niece, and nephew:

Direct Link: youtube.com/shorts/WGzHH0bwoEA

Three Hard Workouts: Tempo Ride, Track Intervals, Bike Intervals

>> Monday, June 15, 2026

My boys and I got back from a few days up north on Tuesday. Wednesday was a pretty normal day of workouts.

Thursday I got out for a 34 mile ride with the first 20 as a hard tempo effort. Nothing fancy, but a good hard workout after a week away from my bike. I rode hard until split #4, when I ended 20 miles at 21.2 mph:

Speed and heart rate dropping after 20 miles (the arrow).

Friday I hit the track for 4x800 then 4x400. The week before (RIGHT before leaving town on our trip up north), I did 4x(800 then 400), and I forgot how HARD that workout is compared to this 4x800 then 4x400. Now that days are super long, the last half of my workout was in the sun even though I was out early:

T-shirt and water bottle in the sun after my last interval.

2:00 rest between 800s, 90 sec rest between 400s

1:20 + 1:19 = 2:40.3
1:17 + 1:19 = 2:36.9
1:18 + 1:17 = 2:36.2
1:17 + 1:18 = 3:35.8

1:14.9
1:13.6
1:13.5
1:11.9

A PERFECT DESCEND!! The week before, my 800s were 2:43 down to just 1 that was 2:36. This workout was faster! But then my 400s on this workout were about the same speed as the week before.

Lots of laps, and then wandering around between trying not to die.

Finally, on Saturday I hit the Greenway Trail for some bike intervals: 5x4 mile efforts. I usually do 5 mile intervals (usually 3 or 4), but I didn't want to contend with "issues" on either end of the Greenway Trail, so skipped the "edges" and did 4 mile intervals in the middle instead. And I don't think I've ever done FIVE efforts on a bike ride like this.

15 mph wind from the west - slow heading "out," fast coming "back."

Intervals between the 2 groups of laps.

Splits on the east side...

... and splits to the west. (Just before Hwy 100.)

The intervals are shown as the five "bumps" in heart rate.

So that 15 mph wind from the west showed in all of my splits: #1, 3, and 5 were slow, and #2 and 4 were fast:

5x4 mile efforts, 3 mins easy riding in between:

#1: 12:16, 19.6 mph
#2: 10:35, 22.7 mph
#3: 12:09, 19.7 mph
#4: 10:11, 23.6 mph
#5: 11:54, 20.2 mph

I thought my heart rate was going to show me pushing harder INTO the wind, but that HR graph above is pretty even (if anything, my biggest spikes are going fast WITH the wind near the end of #2 and #4).

That was a busy Saturday afternoon on the trail, so I was working my way carefully around lots of people which slowed me up a LITTLE. It was still a good effort after a few decent workouts!

The following day (Sunday, which was yesterday), I took it easy to let my legs rest after a few big days!

Long Run in Northern MN

>> Saturday, June 13, 2026

A week ago, I was starting a 4-night stay up in Lake Vermilion with my sons, niece, and nephew. (I've only posted a quick video so far.)

On Monday morning, I got up early for a long run as they still slept. It was just starting to drizzle as I took off:

After 3 days of eating crap AND knowing that this would be a hillier-than-normal long run, I was ready for this to hurt. And it started SLOW with my 2.5 miles of warm-up averaging over 8:00 pace... I don't think I've EVER done it THAT slow before! But I was about to kick it in gear.

Finishing my warm-up up this gentle hill on the trail, then ready to go hard down the far side.

I saw about 6-8 wolf turds...

... and one pile of black bear poo. But no ACTUAL wolves or bears.

I hit that first half-mile split of my "harder 6 miles" nice with a 3:04! I had a slower uphill split 2 miles later or 3:20 which was rough, and then a 3:14 on a hillier section on the way back. But my splits were decent! The big uphill with 1 mile left (the same downhill that started my harder miles with a 3:04) was 3:13, and then I kept up the effort after that for the final mile. I finished a hilly 6 miles in the middle of that long run in 37:48, which was 6:18 pace.

On the road back into the campgrounds.

I turned here and added in some extra hills.
(I'd come across a black bear near the top of that hill on the following morning!!)

I got rained on a bit on the middle of my run, but it wasn't bad.
The sky was still threatening when I got above the campgrounds.

My calf held up, and I ended up going 11.86 miles in 1:25:42 overall (7:13 overall pace, which is SLOW because the warm-up and cool-down were rough). On this Garmin map, I went hard from splits 5-17, then cooled down with an extra 1.5 miles toward the campground to the east (splits 19-22):