A Photo from our "Donut Mile"

I did something gross with this group of people this morning:

Who's that freak posing like a centerfold in the bright shorts? Oh wait...

This was a post-race photo from the Donut Mile we all did. Lots more pics coming next Monday in my race report. Stop back soon!

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Semi-Wordless Wednesday: No Pants Dance

I posted this on Instagram yesterday:

Caption: "This morning's 9-miler makes it official: no pants while running in 2015."

That run also took me over 100 miles for the month. More on that this weekend...

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A Few Races in the Near Future

Well, my next race on the books is on THURSDAY! I'm doing a "donut mile." The rules are basically like the beer "kitten" miles that I've done, but with donuts instead of adult beverages: someone says GO, you eat a donut, run 1/4 mile, eat a donut, run 1/4 mile, eat a donut, run 1/4 mile, eat a donut, and run 1/4 mile. I'm EXPECTING it to be easier than any of my kitten miles because eating a donut FAST every 1/4 mile sounds easier than chugging a beer. We'll see.

(Oh, and my "secret weapon" is that I think I'll be the only one racing who's done a donut run before. Click here to check out my race report from my 2008 Donut Run where I ate 15 Krispy Kremes during a 5K!)

After that, I'm THINKING about signing up for the Minnesota Distance Running Association's "Grand Prix" series again (like I did in 2012). It's 13 races where you get scored against other Grand Prix runners, and your best 10 races count. I wouldn't be shooting for 10 races though - if I did 7, that'd be great. I'm thinking about doing the series for 3 reasons: first, I'm thinking about doing the Securian Run Half Marathon at the end of January, and that's one of the series races, so why not just sign up for the series and do some more races. Second, Grand Prix members get a discount on many of the races in the series, so the $5 cost to enter the series is recouped right away (and then you end up saving money on subsequent races). And third, my elbow is showing little sign of getting better, so triathlons (swimming) might not be on the books for 2016, so I might as well run more.

There are 2 Grand Prix races in January: a 1 mile track meet on the 11th, and the Securian Run Half Marathon on the 30th. I won't be in KILLER shape for any of those, but I'm 100% OK with that. I've really been enjoying my easy to easy/moderate runs just to build base milage. I'm not about to hit the track for 20x200 and re-injure every old injury I've ever had.

So stop back next Monday for a "Donut Mile" race report! And I'll have some training numbers posted over the weekend.

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Tuesday Night Time Trial Photos

I've been meaning to post these for a few months now. Probably about 6 months to be exact. Here are a few photos that my brother-in-law Matt took of me at the last "Tuesday Night Time Trial" that I did to help get ready for Duathlon Nationals back in June:

Coming up a little hill around mile 2.


Close up of that last photo.




Close up.


This photo is mildly depressing because I haven't been able to lift weights in over 6 months
because of my elbow issues, and this is back when I had some arm muscles. Dang.

Back soon with some ACTUAL "training" numbers, and not just easy runs! Oh, and an impromptu end-of-year race. Happy weekend!

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Friday Funny 1029: Ski Slope Warnings

An oldie but a goodie:

More funny stuff posted 10x a day on http://steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com.

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Friday Funny 1028: Husbands

I found some of the following images in a gallery about how "husbands can't follow directions." Correct me if I'm wrong, but the majority of these show that the husband WAS following directions, and the directions were not made clear by the wife. (Or maybe I'm too much of a husband to understand the issue in some of these...)

So he screwed up in the "tea" one, the "donut" one, and the "cat food" one, but in the other 13, he did what was asked. What do you want from us, wives?!?

More funny things posted all week long on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com!

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Merry Christmas!

From my family to yours.

Yes, that's Charlie covered in chocolate on the back. And yes, I'm wearing a Baby Bjorn in that lower right photo on the front. That's how I spent this past year - why lie?

Our Christmas cards came on the 22nd. I got them addressed and got 95% of them mailed yesterday on the 23rd. Sorry if yours hasn't arrived yet!

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Sweet, Sweet Justice!

The Nov/Dec "RunMinnesota" magazine recently showed up in the mail:

Molly Huddle on the cover smashing the female TC 10 Mile record (she ran it in 51:44).

My name is listed twice in the back under their race results - I always kinda like to see my name back there. First, it's in the overall results for the TC 10K: they published the top 30 finishers:

Notice I was listed right behind Evan who beat me at all 3 "Loony" races back in October:

Me and Evan at the 10K finish.

So I had to laugh when I saw the TC 5K results in RunMinnesota. Evan beat me by 2 seconds in that race, but he started way behind me, so his CHIP time was faster than me. But RunMinnesota (and the Minnesota Distance Running Association) counts race times the "official" way: by the GUN time. So in the 5K results, I was listed in front of Evan, AND I was listed as 30th place, so Evan got cut from the results:

Oh I was so happy. Take THAT, friendly race buddy who's just a bit faster than me! :)

p.s. I'm not going to mention that Evan was 3rd in his age group and that "RunMinnesota" publishes the top-10 in each age group too. So I won't have to mention that his name DID get published for the 5K as well. Nope. Not going to mention that.

p.p.s. Here are my posts from this year's "Loony Challenge" in case you missed them: my 10K and 5K race reports, my TC 10 Mile race report, the final Loony Challenge standings (also with finish line video screenshots that show Evan and I), my official photos from the 3 races, and final Loony Challenge thoughts.

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Healthy as a (Healthy) Horse

Pharmie and I just did a lot of financial planning. Along with that, we got new life insurance policies. So a nurse had to come out to our house and draw blood and get info from us:

Uhh, according to this BMI chart, my BMI of 23.7 is just 1.3 points from being considered "overweight." Really? Dang.

Other than that, my blood results were pretty darn good. Here they are. CLICK THE IMAGE for a larger version if you want to read the smaller text.

CLICK to enlarge.

Pharmie (who's a pharmacist) was super impressed with my numbers. So if I die of a heart attack in 2 weeks, make sure to question my wife before she collects the insurance money. :)

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Friday Funny 1027: If Classic Children's Books Were Written Today

Distractify shared some modern twists on some old classics:

Lots more funny things posted 10x day on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com. Happy weekend!

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Friday Funny 1026: Worst Album Covers

Classic.

Lots more funny stuff on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com.

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Friday Funny 1025: Christmas Presents from Preschoolers

The class below Henry's at preschool recently hung their "Christmas presents" up at school. Some of these are pretty good:

A gift for yourself. Smart.


Ok, that's a weird gift for your cat.




Smooth. Get something for Dad that YOU want to play with.


Nothing says "I love you" like overly processed meat.


Because THAT'S why Dad wants a new phone.


Lainey's Dad is pretty embarrassed right now...

If you thought those were cute, here's some from last year. And here are some preschooler's knowledge of bats around Halloween in this post and this post.

More funny stuff posted all week long on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com.

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Thirsty (for knowledge) Thursday: 3 Links for Runners

Because I don't want to be typing much because of my elbow, here are 3 interesting links that you runners should look at:

• 3 things every runner should do. These are all short things to keep in your routine.

• Some new(ish) achilles exercises. If you're like me and have issues down there (I'm talking achilles, not "down THERE"), check this out.

• My winter plan: train slower to race faster. I'm not planning on being FASTER in the spring, but I'm hoping to benefit from running a bit slower this winter. The 2nd page of this article has some interesting info about this idea of training slower.

For more "Thirsty Thursday" posts that highlight workouts, body science, and all kinds of interesting information, CLICK HERE.

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Running According to Plan

Here's a quick look at my last 7 weeks of training:

3 runs/week except for the week of Nov 16, with the weekly milage on the right.

Oh, and my last 2 Saturday runs have had a LITTLE bit of effort to them! My Dec 5th run had the last 2 miles at 7:00 and sub-6:30 pace, and my Dec 12th run had the middle 3 miles descending: 6:31, 6:23, and 6:18. That's far from "tempo" pace, but it feels good to be running a bit "harder" here and there.

Just as I was starting to run again about 7 weeks ago, I noted that I had 5 goals for the next few weeks/months for running (seen in this post). Here they are in bold, along with my comments right now on how well I'm doing:

• Run easy, 3x/week, running the same distance all week while building by about 3-4 minutes each week. Well, I'm building 5 minutes each week, but otherwise this is good. Only missed that 1 run, and I kinda needed that day to rest.

• No running on the track at the Y. Every run has been outside.

• No weight lifting or swimming until the elbow heals up. Tried swimming, but still taking it easy now.

• Eat better. I've had a lot of junk in the last few weeks. Ehh, OK. I could ALWAYS be eating better.

• Hit the bike/trainer when possible: maybe 2x/week all winter? This is where I'm doing quite well. Looking at my training in those numbers, I hit the bike (outdoors [in green] or on the trainer [in purple]) 17 times in 7 weeks: 1 week had 1 ride (Thanksgiving week), 2 weeks had 2 rides, and 4 weeks had 3 rides! This is GREAT for me. I have no plans on slowing down here.

This week might be another week where I don't get in 3 runs, but that's OK - my heel has felt GREAT in the last few weeks but has been just a little sore in the last couple of days. A rest day this week would be fine. Things have been feeling good enough that I'm starting to think about winter/spring running races. Back with some thoughts on those shortly.

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A Spill on my Bike, and Striking the Ego of a College Runner

I posted this on Facebook on Wednesday:

Here are some pics from an Instagram post of mine that show the aftermath:

Caption: "Wounds from a pre-dawn icy bike crash. Bike is fine. First below freezing ride,
and it was too slick for my tri bike! Knee on the left,
big road rash on hip, little scrape on elbow."

Yes, that's technically a bare butt cheek on the far left of the hip photo. Deal with it.

Then on Thursday, Charlie and I went for our normal bi-weekly run. And something funny happened:

Caption: "Charlie may have (adorably) destroyed a college runners ego on our 7 mile run
this morning. We passed him when Charlie was still awake, and Charlie shot his hand out of
the side of the stroller, waved, and said 'hiiiii.' The guy laughed, but I think he wanted to cry."

Sidenote: YES, that's green grass in the background of the photo of Charlie. In mid-December. In Minnesota. And Charlie didn't have to wear gloves; just a thin sweatshirt and a hat. I STILL haven't warn anything on my legs for any bike ride or run yet this fall/winter! LOVING THIS WINTER!

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