Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!: July 2018

Best Run of the Summer (and an Upcoming Stroller 15K!)

>> Monday, July 30, 2018

On Saturday, I had my best run of the summer. My wife went on a long run with a friend, and I took the boys on a 9.5 mile run.

Along River Road 1 mile into the run.

I had no goal for this run. I figured it'd be a long easier run. I figured I'd have tired legs after a lot of solid vacation workouts earlier in the week. But my pace ended up faster than I thought, and it didn't feel too bad. The weekend before, I TRUDGED through 9 miles with a 6:51 average overall (running the middle 4.5 harder). But two days ago, I went 9.5 miles while pushing both boys in the stroller with a 6:55 average, and none of it felt hard! It was just magical. I ended up doing 4 miles in the middle in 26:18 (that's 6:35 pace for those 4 miles).

Back home after our run. Still watching Loony Tunes in there.

Dudes in their shades post-run.

That run was a test run. It confirms that I can push the boys in the MDRA 15K this upcoming Sunday. Yes, yes... I know having your "best run of the summer" decide if you should do a race isn't the best idea. But I have no time goals - just going to start easy-ish with the stroller and build into it. It's along Shepard Road in and next to Crosby Farm, so THERE ARE SOME HILLS. And lots of little turns. I rode through part of the race course yesterday, and there are a few dirty/muddy parts from the high water lately:

The race course isn't totally set yet as there are worse flooding issues in parts.

Oh, and then after that run, we headed to my wife's cousin's wedding:

We got cute. But it was bright. So we're squinty.

This babe.

Again, here's my last post about some good workouts on a family vacation if you missed it. I'll be back in a few days with a 15K preview (as I had to scope it out being I'll be running it with the stroller), and then check back in a week for a 15K race report!

Vacation Workouts

>> Saturday, July 28, 2018

This past week, I was on a family vacation in Alexandria, MN. We stayed in a cabin less than 100 feet from a beautiful lake, but (oddly enough) I didn't get any proper swim workouts in. On the day I had hoped to swim, it was wavy and choppy, so I just used that as a rest day (which was fine because we have time to get in longer run and bike workouts up there, so a rest day isn't a horrible thing).

Here's what my training time up north looked like:

• SATURDAY I got in 9 miles before we left. I think that's my longest run all year. (Longest all summer at least.) I did the middle 4.5 a bit harder with a 6:25 average.

• SUNDAY my beautiful bride and I left the kids with family and got in a long ride. Here's a selfie before we hopped on the Central Lakes trail:

What the trail looks like for miiiiiiles.

Post-ride by "Big Ole."

This cutie coming back from her ride.

Refueling the best way.

I often do 3x5 mile intervals or a tempo ride, but I wanted to try something a bit different. So I did efforts of 5, 10, 15, 10, and 5 minutes. That ends up being 45 minutes of hard riding, which is just a bit more than my normal 3x5 mile intervals. It was hard to keep the 2nd interval fast knowing I had so much left. My average speed for each interval was:

- 5:00: 22.9 mph
- 10:00: 20.1 mph
- 15:00: 21.3 mph
- 10:00: 23.0 mph
- 5:00: 22.3 mph

I was against the wind at times in the first half, and with the wind at times for the last few.

• MONDAY was the swim that never happened. I'm 100% OK with that.

• TUESDAY was a moderate effort mid-distance run. Nothing fancy. Just over 7:00 pace for 7 miles. Then I took my boys and my niece and nephew to "Hotel Transylvania 3:"

Charlie and Mama on the tube that night.

Jumping off the boat with my niece and nephew.

• WEDNESDAY it stormed early in the morning. So my ride was on still-damp trails. I warmed up for 10 miles (a LONG warm up) and then did 18 miles hard. I ended up into the slight breeze for the first 14 of those miles, which was good for me. I finished with a 21.0 mph average.

Pre-workout selfie.

The drying trail with dark clouds still on the horizon.

Legs covered in muck post-ride.

• THURSDAY I did some 1 mile intervals on small hills and partial gravel roads. My Garmin was set to half-mile splits. Here's what I ran:

- 2:57, 2:52 = 5:49
- 2:57, 2:54 = 5:51
- 2:59, 2:48 = 5:47

• FRIDAY we got back and I did a decent swim of broken 400s and 200s. Nothing fancy, and DEFINITELY nothing fast.

I had a GOOD LONG run this morning, which leads me to a possible longer race next weekend! Check back for more on that on Monday. Happy weekend!