Friday Funny 2603: Questionable Furniture

I kinda like this one...

Lots more funny things posted all day on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

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Friday Funny 2602: Innuendos

More funny things on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

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May in Review: Lots of Biking, and MAJOR Strength Time PR!

May saw some DECENT numbers! Here’s what my training log looked like:

(Don’t let the red and purple in the final week scare you: the red is just noting a race, and the purple was noting some shoulder pain after trying something different in the gym - I don’t think they are related.)

I had some BIG NUMBERS for strength training and bike miles!

RUN: 91.85 miles
BIKE: 360.69 miles (outdoors)
TRAINER TIME: 2 hours and 21 minutes
STRENGTH TIME: 66 hours and 53 minutes

Total saddle time: 22 hours, 3 minutes, and 24 seconds

That’s not really super impressive saddle time, but so much of it was outside, so 360+ miles of outdoor riding is huge! That might be a top-5 month of bike miles in the last 18+ years (post-Ironman training). I had 1 bigger month all of last year, 2 bigger months all of 2024, and 0 bigger months all of 2023. And my years were all smaller before that. So this random May might have been my 4th biggest of month of biking in the last 18+ years.

And that’s a massive lifetime PR for strength time! I’ve been getting in some good longer workouts! And what has helped (artificially) bump that number even higher is that I’m doing an extra 15-20 minutes of new shoulder exercises about 5 days/week to help strengthen my shoulder issue from December. May was nearly 67 hours, and my previous PR was April with 60 hours and 42 minutes. So 6+ hours more is a big jump from a previous lifetime best!

This month will see a decrease in bike miles - partly due to more family things happening this summer, and partly due to getting a gym membership so I'm HOPING that one of my biking days each week will transition back to pool time instead.

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Back at the Gym!! In a Pool!!

I've been using the small weight room at the college where I currently teach once or twice a week for a few months (where I ran on the treadmill this winter), and I lift the other days at home. And through this past winter, I also regularly popped into the gym of a college where I used to teach to get in some weights as well.

But yesterday, the boys and I got a gym membership for the first time since Covid hit! And this morning, I went for my first pool swim since losing access at the U of M in mid-August last year.

Just after hopping out (after sharing a lane with that guy).


The pool complex from the walking track upstairs. It's GREAT that there's
an oval pool for the old folks to walk in to keep the lap pool more open!


1200 yards total. 200 easy, 200 hard, 200 easy, 200 hard,
4x75 kicking with a board, and 100 cooldown.

That was just a "testing the waters" sort of a swim. I need to see how my (still sore from an injury in Dec) shoulder will react to this. I didn't hurt anything WHILE swimming, so now it's about feeling it out for the rest of the day and tomorrow.

My wife has joked that it's "Swole Stenzel Summer" because the boys want to go and lift weights at the gym with me!! :) I'm looking forward to it!!

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Final Post-Race Notes from the Brian Kraft 5K (and Some Post-Race Rides)

I was surprised Henry kept his shirt on for the race as it was nearly 70 and a bit humid. The sun was HOT. I dumped a cup of water over my head at the aid station around mile 2.

Like many of my long runs lately, I just couldn't find another gear. I kept thinking (well, after the first mile) that I could run faster, but just had no way of getting my body to go faster. Hopefully my calf issue will keep getting better and I can start getting in some more consistent speed work (that's what I need!!).

Speaking of which, my sore calf stayed in check for the race and the rest of the day. So the day after the race, I headed out for a moderate 25 mile ride:

5 mile splits, nothing fancy, 19.0 mph average.

I felt like the BIG TEST was the following day. Two days post-race, I went for an easy run. I had no reason to doubt my calf, but I still didn't head down to the river for my normal loop. Instead, I zig-zagged near home like I do for runs where I'm injured and feel like I might have to stop at a moment's notice.

Half mile splits. Would get about a mile from home and turn to get a little closer again.

My calf held up!

So I got up early the next morning and went for a bit of a longer ride. I did the first 20 miles harder (as a tempo ride), and I was a few tenths of a mph faster around mile 14 than I was when I did a similar workout in March. But I couldn't get my speed much higher, and finished a kinda hilly tempo ride in 20.8 mph when I was 20.9 mph 2 months ago. Still, a nice effort.

Then ON MY COOLDOWN of that tempo ride, I hit the 2 biggest hills in St. Paul, both for the first time this year! I biked down Water Street to the base of Ohio Hill, went up that, biked across the High Bridge, and then biked up Ramsey Hill.

Start through split 4 was the 20 mile tempo, Ohio was 5-6, Ramsey was 7-8.
38 miles total starting with that 20 mile tempo!


Heart rate dropping after the tempo at mile 20.


The first red arrow is Ohio, the 2nd is Ramsey.
That's a brutal 7 minutes of riding with those hills so close!

I take my splits up those hills (obviously by the map), and times were SLIGHTLY on the fast side, especially considering it was after a 20 mile hard effort. Ohio was 2:17 (10.7 mph from a road sign at the bottom to a light pole on Alice at the top), and Ramsey was 1:19 (10.0 mph crosswalk to crosswalk). I think average for both of those hills is a few seconds slower in the low x:20s.

My sort of final "test" for my sore calf was yesterday's run. (On Friday... so raced Monday, easy bike Tues, easy run Wed, tempo/hill ride Thurs, slightly longer run Fri.) My "normal" easy runs are 5.5 - 6 miles, but because the 5K was Monday, I skipped my normal Monday long run (obviously). So I ran a BIT longer than usual on Friday to get in SOME mileage. I ran nearly 8 miles, and I did 2 miles a bit harder in the middle NOT for the workout, but just to break up my stride from being the exact same for an hour. And my calf wasn't perfect, but it help up just fine!

So to get in 13+ miles of running and 64+ miles of biking in the 4 days after a race is pretty good! If I'd have been at 100% with no sign of injury, my Tuesday bike ride could have been longer, and yesterday's run would have had more effort. Still working that calf back to normal.

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