Post-Triathlon 10 Mile Training

Here's a quick look at the last 10 days of TC 10 Mile training since the Square Lake Triathlon 1.5 weeks ago.

One thing worth noting (that didn't seem to have MUCH effect on my training) is that last week, I slept HORRIBLY the night of Monday, Sept 9th because I was coming down with a cold. I had a cold Tues, Wednesday, Thursday, and for most of Friday. (I think the intervals on Friday "loosened up" my cold, and I hacked a GROSS CLUMP into the trash later that day.) Saturday was quite better. Sunday and Monday were nearly all better. And by Tues (a week later), I had no sign of it. So it maybe slowed me down a bit for the week, but I didn't really see it being an issue in any of my workouts. (It was only my 2nd cold since Covid started! I had a cold [and then Covid] in the fall of 2022, but those were the only times I've been sick since March of 2020!)

• MON, Sept 9: leg workout and biked to work. It was a rest day the day after the race.

• TUES, Sept 10: long-ish swim and OK upper body workout. Any time I'm over an hour in the pool, it's a good day. I did a pretty normal longer workout, and my legs felt OK just 48 hours post-race. Time for a hard run the following day!...

• WED, Sept 11: fartlek run (on grassy trails), good legs and core, and biked to work. It's risky for me to put in ANY effort just a few days after a race - I usually hold off on speed work for nearly 2 full weeks post-race, but I'm chasing some goals, so I wanted to keep up with Coach Jen's workouts from 2010! (And as I mentioned in a post last week, the Square Lake Triathlon 10 days ago lined up nicely with a duathlon I did back in 2010 in the middle of TC 10 Mile training, so it didn't throw ANYTHING off - it actually kept me more on the same timeline!) So this workout was the same post-race workout back in 2010.

I ran up and down the large center blvd of Summit Ave for this workout:

Cretin to Snelling a few times.


7 bursts of speed, between 1 and 5 mins each.


Two things here: running around a big downed tree from a recent storm, and then getting
back on the sidewalk after my efforts were over because I didn't want to turn an ankle!

My speed here was very similar to what I did back in 2010! Still going for it!

• THURS, Sept 12: moderate ride and upper body. Not going too hard here because of the combo of the triathlon 4 days prior, the hard run the day before, and an upcoming hard run.

• FRI, Sept 13: 4x1 mile repeats, legs, and core. THIS WAS MY "TEST" FOR THE WEEK! I wasn't looking forward to this one. I knew this one would be hard for me for 2 reasons: first, I was supposed to start easier (hard for me to do on the track); and then second, I was supposed to finish HARD. Ouch. Gross.

In 2010, I descended these mile repeats in 5:44, 5:41, 5:30, and 5:15 (still my fastest mile repeat ever!). I ran those RIGHT where Coach Jen wanted them. Nailed that workout. Could I do that again in 2024?

Sure enough, my first one was faster at 5:39 (5:44 in 2010). And then my second one was faster as well at 5:33 (5:41 in 2010). I still felt great. My 3rd was ALSO a bit faster at 5:27 (5:30 in 2010). Now it was time to unload for the final one. Could I get close to that 5:15 from 2010? I ran the first 800 of that interval in 2:46 and I was dying. I was able to eek out a 2:43 for the final 800 for a 5:30 total. I lost the perfect descend, and didn't get close to 5:15. Damn.

TECHNICALLY, I was still faster overall last week than I was back in 2010 (5:32.0 average this year vs. 5:32.50 average in 2010), but that clearly wasn't the point of this workout. The point was to keep running harder and totally nail that last FAST interval. I didn't do that, so it's a WIN on paper looking at my average speed, but a FAIL according to coach's goals.

Yep, that's what it should look like.


Had to swing REAL WIDE in my 3rd interval as there were 50 people
on the track with me! Looked like some sort of ROTC training or something.

• SAT, Sept 14: another moderate ride (like Thurs), and some good upper body. My bike rides were completely unimpressive this week.

• SUN, Sept 15: rest (and core).

• MON, Sept 16: long run with descending miles, leg workout, and biked to work. This was another big running test to keep this comparison going between "2010 Steve" and "2024 Steve." In 2010, I did this run out by Cedar Point while cheering for a 70.3 my wife was doing, and it was FLAT out there. I knew I'd have it a little tougher on the rolling hills along the river. I warmed up for 2.5 miles, and then sped up for 5 miles trying to keep a perfect descend going with the last 2 miles being sub-6 - at least that's what Coach Jen prescribed for 2010 Steve. I nailed the descend running splits of 6:29, 6:20, 6:09, 5:52, and 5:49. SO, HOW DOES THAT COMPARE TO 2010??!? Overall for those 5 faster miles, I was ONE SECOND SLOWER this year on much hiller trails! I'll consider this to be super similar to 2010, just like the fartlek workout on the 11th!

• TUES, Sept 17: decent swim and good upper body. I did 500s in the pool for the first time in a long time. I hate those.

• WED, Sept 18: easy run, leg workout, core, and biked to work. After 3 harder runs in a row (well, FOUR if you count the triathlon too), I was happy to do some easy running. Ready to hit it hard again on Friday!

So overall, I'm still super happy that I'm staying CLOSE to my 2010 splits while training, but like I mentioned in last week's post, I think I'm just better at "training" than I was in 2010. So I'm not expecting to run a 59:05 again like I did in 2010. My best case scenario right now is in the 60-61 min range, which would be amazing for me! But I need to keep working hard and NAIL these final 2 weeks of training.