Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

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.