Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!: February 2017

ANOTHER GOOD WEEK! (And a snowstorm that wasn't)

>> Monday, February 27, 2017

Now I've had back-to-back weeks that consisted of 3 runs, 2 swims, and 2 OUTDOOR rides! Here's what last week looked like:

In last week's post about my good week of workouts, I noted we were supposed to get a big blizzard shortly, and that all my February outdoor tri-bike rides would be ending for a while. We were supposed to be getting 12-18 inches! Well, the meteorologists kept pushing it farther and farther south, and we got NOTHING in the Twin Cities metro area on Friday. Everyone was teasing on Facebook. Here's what my tri buddy Amy B had to say:

So as you can see from my week-in-review snapshot above, I got in a nice ride on Saturday evening, even though I was expecting to be under a foot of snow! But instead, the Greenway Trail looked like this:

Proof I was on my tri-bike, "Eiffel." Got home just as the sun was setting.

I have 3 workouts last week I want to note:

First, I have those 4 rides shown on Tuesday. The first is riding to work, the 2nd is a WU and CD from a hard ride over lunch, the 3rd was the hard "time trial" effort ride (which I posted about last week), and the 4th was riding home from work.

Second, I did my first hard running in over a month on Friday. Just a simple fartlek workout at the 6-laps-to-a-mile track at my gym. I did the same workout I did in November and December of last year: a ladder going up and down of hard efforts, with 1 lap of easy running between the efforts. Here were my 2-lap ladder splits:

1:54.7
1:51, 1:52 = 3:44.3
2:03, 2:02, 2:00 = 6:06.1
2:02, 1:56 = 3:59.1
1:54.3

Nov "fast" laps totaled 18:05 (just over 6:00 pace)
Dec "fast" laps totaled 17:27 (well under 6:00 pace)
Last week "fast" laps totaled 17:37.

I told myself I could go easier, but I ended up faster than I planned/hoped (except for maybe the 1-mile effort, which felt slow/rough).

Third, yesterday I did a simple 10x100 HARD effort in the pool with 0:30 rest (longer rest than I've been having lately). I only had one that was slower than 1:24, and then I slowly sped up with my fastest being 1:18, averaging 1:22.9. I've had plenty faster a few years back, but this still felt good.

I've now surpassed 117 miles on my tri-bike outside in February! Maybe 1 more ride tomorrow before the month is out...

Friday Funny 1237: Stupid Hilarious Life Hacks

>> Friday, February 24, 2017

Here are 16 "life hacks" that are awesome: (via)

Lots more funny things posted all day long on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com. HAPPY WEEKEND!

Friday Funny 1236: Uneasy Photos

I'm... not sure how to feel about most of these...

Wait, no, I DO know how to feel about these:

Lots more funny things posted all day long on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com.

Friday Funny 1235: Baby Instructions

An oldie but a goodie.

Lots more funny things posted 10x every day on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com.

Friday Funny 1234: People Disrespecting Food

Here are 15 people who have just lost their damn minds:

More funny things on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com.

Long TT Ride (and a February PR)

>> Thursday, February 23, 2017

It's been a GLORIOUS week here in MN. It's been 50+ degrees every day, but a snow storm is coming tonight. Dang. This is NOT what mid-February usually looks like in MN:

Pushing my boys down River Road on a 5.25 mile run earlier this week.
They were just in hoodies. I was just in shorts and a t-shirt.

Over 10 days this mid-February (which was 4 rides), I logged 94 miles OUTSIDE on my tri-bike. I looked back through my training log at every February since I was recording my miles online (2009), and I saw that I biked 28 miles outside last year in February. But NO miles outside during ANY OTHER FEBRUARY in my recorded history. I just quadrupled my life-time February bike miles in the last 10 days. Sweet. So YAY for 2017. (But BOO to the snow storm that's coming!)

My last ride was 2 days ago when I rode to work and got in a long tempo ride over lunch. (I started doing this 2 years ago, but now it's much harder because I have to get Henry to school JUST before heading off to class. But my wife was off on Tuesday, so she took care of him as I biked out the door.) Over lunch, I did a longer version of my "go to" 15.X mile loop from home. Only this version started near the University where I teach before heading past home. Here was the loop:

Counter-clockwise.

Average speed was 20.7 mph! That dip at mile 14 is climbing Ramsey Hill.

I've only done that big 20 mile loop a few times, and this week I was the fastest. I also took my split riding past home (both "out" and "back") so I'd have a split of my normal, shorter, 15.X mile TT loop as well. For that middle part of this 20 mile loop, I had a 20.31 mph average, and that's probably my 4th or 5th fastest for that segment. (My fastest on my old bike was 20.51, and my fastest just over a year ago on my new bike is 20.64 mph.) So things are looking good right now! I just need to keep it up and ward off the injuries!

Oh, and I downloaded my Garmin data for the first time since last year (really), and I noticed there are "segments" where your get ranked against everyone else who's done that "segment" of road before. (I've never dug that deeply through my data before - I don't know when they started doing this.) Out of 2200+ people that rode this part of Summit Ave, I was ranked 9th:

And the fastest of 2017 so far!

I don't know how prestigious it is to be at (or near) the top of one of these, but I'll TOTALLY try to kill it the next time I'm riding that segment to see if I can better my position.

Anyway, that's enough of thinking about outside biking for now. Right now, it's time to brace for some snow. D'oh.

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: The Tights Have Been Named!

>> Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Remember these tights that I've been wearing for a while now?

Well, a reader my have come up with a name for these. She didn't comment on Monday's post because she claimed her comment was not "blog-friendly." But she gave me a name:

"Crotchsicle!"

(Because of the creamsicle color of the crotch.)

And when those wear out, I can break these bad boys in:

Last Week's Training = Happiness!

>> Monday, February 20, 2017

My training last week IS FINALLY LOOKING LIKE SOMETHING!!

That's 3 runs, 2 swims, and 2 outdoor tri-bike rides IN MID FEBRUARY. Sure, the runs are short as I'm coming back from that little knee issue, but I'm still SO HAPPY with this week! Here's a quick breakdown:

• MONDAY: Easy/moderate run on the track at the Y.

• TUESDAY: 3x500 at the Hamline pool between classes, averaging 7:34/500 (just under 1:31/100 pace). Post-workout, I tweeted this:

• WEDNESDAY: Short, easy run because I wanted to bike long the next day. Being smart!

• THURSDAY: Long 26 mile ride! First ride outside on Eiffel (my "new" tri bike) this year after going out with my old tri bike "Goldilocks" the weekend before. A big icy puddle on Big River's Trail helped dictate my turnaround point:

• FRIDAY: Moderate 5 mile run on the track at the Y. Knee is holding up well!

• SATURDAY: 6x200 in the pool, with 20 sec rest: 2:59/200 average.

• SUNDAY: Moderate ride, moderate distance. It was 55 degrees when I headed out around noon! In February! In Minnesota! I didn't wear gloves, but I still wore tights mainly to help keep my knee a bit warmer/looser. It's now state law in Minnesota that if a motorist hits me and claims he/she didn't see me, they are deemed legally blind:

In other news, I NEED A NAME FOR THESE TIGHTS! HELP!

Post-ride, I tweeted this:

I actually had to keep myself from biking more (being I want to do a hard "time trial" effort ride tomorrow). I held a 21.0 mph average on this ride through mile 20, before easing up for the last 3 miles!

This week, I hope to run on the same days, but then swap the days I bike and swim, so I still hope to have another good training week. After a SUPER warm week this past week, they're saying we could get a nasty snow storm this weekend. Dang. I guess we're not out of it yet.

Tutti Frutti Replacements

>> Saturday, February 18, 2017

As I posted about on Wednesday, my "Tutti Frutti" shorts are dying (most likely a water slide incident from last weekend). I posted a link to that blog post on the Steve in a Speedo Facebook page, and a friend jumped to the rescue:

It turns out that FunkyTrunks.com has some good options!

The "Joker."

The "Impressionista." Unrelated: how does one get those muscles that point
towards your fun parts? Clean eating a lots of training, you say? Oh, I'm out.

"Jungle Jagger"

So if you're interested, check out FunkyTrunks.com and come race along side of me in some bright shorts this summer! :)

p.s. If you post a lot on Instagram like I do, and if you would like hard copies of some of your Instagram photos like I do, then check out my review of "Chatbooks" on my Photo Blog. You can easily make books with 60 of your Instagram pics in them for $8 including shipping. If you're on your phone you can download the app using this link which will give you your first book FREE: invite.chatbooks.com/stevestenzel15k. You have 10 days to do this, and I think you have to officially place your order within those 10 days in order to get your free book. (And then I get a few bucks credit towards my next Chatbooks too.) So check out my complete review here, and then download the app using THIS link to get your first book free.