Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!: August 2017

Husband/Wife Team in "RunMinnesota"

>> Wednesday, August 30, 2017

We recently got out July/Aug issue of "Run Minnesota:"

I always like to see if I'm in a race that has results printed at the back of that magazine. Well, The Brian Kraft 5K results were back there, but I knew I wasn't fast enough to make the cut with that deep field. But I quickly saw my wife's name from the MDRA Mississippi 10 Miler (with more photos in this post):

With her training/race buddy right behind her!

It wasn't until a week later that I noticed that I *DID* make the cut in the Brian Kraft 5K race results. I wasn't in the "overall" results, but now that I'm in the first "old guy" age group that they publish, I made the cut there:

Look at 10th place in the "open" division above me... sheesh!!

(Remember, I was injured most of last year when I turned 35, so this feels like my first real year in the 35-39 age group.)

Official Photos from the Minnesota Triathlon

>> Monday, August 28, 2017

Two weeks ago was my race report for the "Minnesota Triathlon," and here are some "official" photos from their Facebook page and a photographer who was out there. Here's an edit of 30 photos from the hundreds (possibly over a thousand) that he shared:

An earlier wave with a pretty aggressive dolphin dive. That seems pretty shallow.

Another good dolphin diver.

Start of my wave. Lots of teenage boys in Speedos,
and that's me on the far side (2nd from the left).

Start of our wave from a different angle.

I started swimming, and then popped up because it was too shallow.

Contemplating the race course before ACTUALLY starting to swim.

That's me and my gaping mouth.

A quick sight to find the buoy I need to swim to.

Lots of the bike course was out among fields south of the metro.

About to turn left with just a few miles left on the bike.

I don't know her. But I already like her.

5th place female looking fast!

The lead car (and cyclist) on the way back.

The lead cyclist who FLEW past me.

Doofy me riding in 2nd.

The guy I kept leap-frogging with on the bike. I actually yelled to him as I passed
him the 2nd time: "You'll get me on the flats, and I'll get you up the hills!"

The lead cyclist with a 3 minute lead on me as he dismounts.

Me rolling into T2.

My feet on top of my shoes! (I don't do that very often.)

Oops. This guy must have dismounted WAY too early if he was running back there.

The winner (looking a bit gassed - running scared) about to cross the line.

I didn't make it easy for him. His 3 minute lead at T2 was
down to 0:29 at the finish. But still WAAAAAY out of my reach.

Close up. My form looks OK for the end of a race. And notice the gel "lump" in the
side of my shorts - I don't litter. Oh, and yes, that shirt is 100% soaked through.

I think she was complimenting me on my shorts and I was being coy.

Race buddy Lance taking 5th overall!

#Gunz! (This was a friend of Bill Bs.)

Not a bad shot of 3rd, 2nd, and 1st chatting post-race.

Medals.

Here's the Facebook album with a "highlight reel" of photos, and here's the photographer's complete set of photos from the race. And here's my race report if you missed it. That was a fun race!

TC 10 Mile Training: A Rework

>> Saturday, August 26, 2017

First things first: there was a funny coincidence regarding Monday's "post-race training" post. In that post, I noted that I ran 6.4 miles (with the double stroller) with the middle 4 at 6:23.5 pace. Well, later Monday (that same day) I had a "Facebook memory" from 2 years ago that was this:

Nice. Feeling the same now (actually, I feel like I'll ALWAYS be feeling this way): just always "trying to get some speed back." And it's nice to see my speed was just 1.5 sec slower/mile this year with the DOUBLE stroller. I'm OK giving up 6 seconds over 4 miles with the added weight.

I had a hard, solid training run on Wednesday morning, but that made me re-think my TC 10 Mile training. I did 2x2 miles along the river in a nothing-to-write-home-about time:

- 3:05.5, 3:05.5, 2:59.4, 3:00.2 = 12:10.6
- 2:59.7, 2:58.7, 2:55.1, 2:56.6 = 11:50.1

The right side of my sacrum / right hip was achy that evening, and it's no wonder: my previous 3 runs were a bit harder (Friday was a hard run with the boys, Sunday was my longest run in 1.5 years [both noted in Monday's post], and Wednesday was the 2x2 mile intervals.) This is one of the pleasant "side effects" of keeping a training log: I could easily look back and say "well shit, I hadn't done any hard training runs since April, and now I did 3 harder runs over a week. Time to BACK OFF, dummy." So yesterday's run was an easy 5-miler with the boys:

It was chilly and damp, but a nice morning for a run!

So I'm going to back off when thinking about the "hard" training, and just make sure to focus on getting in the miles. The speedwork is secondary to nice long runs. And I'll still be peppering in rides and swims. (Sidenote: last week, I was VERY aware that I was done with triathlons when I was in the pool, and I had much less motivation to swim hard/fast/well.)

It's a bit too soon to be making any solid TC 10 Mile predictions (race is in 5 weeks), but I can safely say I hope to NOT run a PW ("personal worst") of slower than 1:03:05 as I ran the last time I did this race in 2015 (but as part of the Looney Challenge where I ran a 5K and 10K the morning before). I know I won't PR (which is 59:05 at this race in 2010), so I guess right now there's a 4 minute window where I expect to finish. I hope to narrow that down in the upcoming weeks, probably somewhere in the middle (sub-60 won't be realistic).