TINY Week of Training - BIG Family Trip!

Two weeks ago, I had just finished the TC 10 Mile in 59:23, and the week that started the day after that looked like this:

A pretty normal looking week (just missing a long run
on Monday because of the TC 10 Mile the day before).

But last week looked a BIT different. After a pretty normal long run on Monday, the rest of the week looks weak (besides some normal runs):

My weeks never look like that! So what gives?!? Well, my boys and my wife and I were on a 2400 mile road trip through Yellowstone! We left on Tuesday morning and got back late on Sunday night. I'll be posting about it here sometime, but you can see lots of pics from throughout the trip by searching stevestenzel on Instagram.

Because I guess it's a "week in review," I can talk about my workouts...

- MONDAY was a big test run to check on my legs. I'm thinking about a half marathon coming up, and I wanted to push the effort a bit. I normally do a longer run of 11-ish miles with 6 miles harder in the middle, but I did 12 miles with 7 miles harder in the middle. The pace miles started a bit slower at 6:23 and 6:19, but then got faster:

Pace miles: 6:23, 6:19, 6:09, 6:05, 5:59, 6:05, and 6:06

= 43:11 for 6 miles (6:10.1 pace)

Overall, it was 12.17 miles in 1:22:35, or 6:47 pace.

- TUESDAY was in the car for 8 hours!

- WEDNESDAY was an easy run. This was in Glendive Montana, and it was at 3:30 a.m. so we could hit the road early and have the boys sleep part of the way to Yellowstone. I saw 5 casinos, 1 deer, and heard a pack of coyotes.

- THURSDAY was hiking in Yellowstone.

- FRIDAY was an easy run around Old Faithful. I posted this on social media:

Yesterday morning before leaving Yellowstone, I woke up at 5:30 for a run. It had snowed all night (and it was still still snowing, and it actually caused the south entrance of the park to be closed which made us add 2 hours to our drive to the Tetons yesterday), and I wasn’t sure where I could safely run before daylight. The roads and parking lots were quite dark, and I was afraid I would turn an ankle in a pothole. But snow was collecting on the boardwalk around Old Faithful, so I could easily see my footing there. I ran 7 laps (with bear spray in hand) around Old Faithful and didn’t see a single other soul! On my 5th or 6th loop, it started to erupt. I circled it with a big dumb grin on my face, running through the sulfur cloud on the east side, and watching it from every vantage point. I doubt many people get to witness an Old Faithful eruption in solitude. I knew this was amazing! I finished my run and came back with my phone to snap some pictures afterwards. Still no one else had been there. The only footprints around the boardwalk were mine. The photos are much lighter than it was in person, as the long exposure lightened things up a bit. What a surreal memory. (Splits shown are half miles.)

And these were the pics:

Only my prints circling the boardwalk.


Old Faithful visitor's center all lit up but not open.

- SATURDAY was driving to Rapid City, and then some weights before bed. I worked out for 30 mins as the boys swam.

- SUNDAY was a long drive home. We hit the Badlands briefly along with Wall Drug, and then we pulled into home at 9 pm.

So my "intensity" minutes from last week were LOW:

These 4 weeks are last SOLID week of 10 Mile training,
taper week, normal training, and in Yellowstone.

But my step count was HIGH:

In my top 4 weeks over 160,000 steps. (Along with last Jan's trip to
Jamaica, last October's trip to Chicago, and an Italy trip in Aug of 2023.)

(Oh, and that dip in July was when my Garmin died and I spent a few days without one. But otherwise I've been over 125K steps/week since the start of 2024!)

Back with more from this trip shortly!