Nice Training Week! (And a Stroller Running PR)

Last week was a nice training week! (After an easy week post MDRA 15K, and before an easier week this week pre Maple Grove Triathlon.) Here's what it looked like:

THE BIG THING I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IS THURSDAY'S RUN, but we'll work our way there...

• MON: 14x100 in the pool. I planned on 15, but this was during the boys' swim lessons. Henry got done and came over after 13, so I told him to get his brother and then come back. So I did one more. Averaged around 1:28 - 1:29.

• TUES: easy 5.1 mile run with the boys in the stroller. Nothing fancy.

• WED: 3x5 mile intervals on the bike. These were decent. I hadn't cleaned my bike (degreased and re-greased my chain) since my last multisport race, and that was the first weekend in May. So it was feeling "sluggish" and "noisy." I finally cleaned it before the YWCA Women's Triathlon that my wife did (I cleaned up both of our bikes pre-race). So this was my first CLEAN ride in a long time.

I had a slight headwind for the 1st and 3rd intervals, with a slide tailwind for the 2nd. Here's what I rode:

- 14:11, 21.1 mph
- 13:04, 22.9 mph
- 13:34, 22.1 mph

Solid ride. Hadn't done that in a while.

• THURS: 2x2 mile intervals with the boys in the stroller. THIS IS THE ONE I WAS SUPER HAPPY ABOUT! I did this along the river on my "normal" route for this workout: starting just north of the Lake/Marshall Bridge on the St. Paul side, running 1 mile to the north close to the Franklin Ave Bridge, and then back. (Downhill at 0.25 mile, and uphill at 1.75 miles.) I had no goals, other than to suffer. I was hoping to keep them under 13:00.

For the first one, I hit the turn-around in 6:06 and was thrilled! I told myself to really keep it hard for the first 0.5 mile back, and then nail that uphill. My half mile splits were:

3:00, 3:06, 2:56, 3:02 = 12:05.80

I DID NOT EXPECT THAT! I wanted to run #2 harder, so after 3:00 of walking, I took off with the stroller again:

2:56, 3:03, 2:55, 3:00 = 11:56.99

That was my FIRST 2 mile interval with the double stroller that was sub-12! (But my SINGLE stroller PR is a lot lower: 11:36 and 11:37 as noted in this post from March of 2012!) Exactly 2 months earlier, I posted that I ran the same route with splits in 12:04 and 12:14. WITHOUT the stroller! My running is moving in the right direction after running TOO easy for TOO long this winter.

• FRI: 8x200 in the pool with 20 sec rest. I've done 7x200 every time for the last year. Added one more for good measure being I'm racing this weekend. Times were slow, but I nearly perfectly descended them: 3:09, 3:08, 3:07, 3:06, 3:05, 3:02, 3:03, and 3:01.

• SAT: 9 miles moderate. We were camping Friday through Sunday, and I got up at 6 for a long run in SE Minnesota. It was FOGGY! I ran 9 miles averaging 6:55 pace in this:

View from our little camper cabin, looking 1 block into the fog.

• SUN: long ride of 30 miles. My legs were hashed from a few short hikes but MAINLY from 1400 stairs up to a fire tower and 600 stairs up to a lookout in the 24 hours before this ride. So I just rode kinda hard for 25 miles (averaging 20.5 mph on busy trails) and then eased up for the last 5.

Back soon with some photos from our recent camping trip!