Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!: July 2025

I bit the bullet. The boys and I are racing next weekend:

I had made it a year-long goal to shoot for a 1-mile PR at last year's Raspberry Run (which would have been sub-4:49), but I fell short. There is NO big lofty goal this year! I just really hope I can keep it under 5:00, but that might not be in the cards!

I mentioned at the end of last month that I did the Oakdale Duathlon 5 weeks ago and knew that I'd be giving up a fast 1 mile race in doing so (by "losing" 2 fast track workouts the week before and after the race). And then as my last few posts have showed, I've been off having LOTS OF FUN over the last few weeks: early June was 4 days up north with 4 kids, then 3 days camping in WI around Father's Day, then 10 days in Hawaii (I still need to get through all my photos to post!), and finally 2 days in Milwaukee for Henry's fencing tournament. In the last 4-5 weeks, I've skipped so many bike workouts, a handful of swim workouts, had 4 of my last 5 long runs in a place other than home (which means I'm not quite as comfortable pushing HARD), and done 2 out of my last 3 track workouts NOT on a track (and skipped 2 before that because of the duathlon, so I've only really had 1 good speed session in the last 5 weeks).

None of that is meant to be an "excuse," but I just knew leading up to this 1-mile race that it would be FAAAAAR from ideal training, so I put a low emphasis on it. It was either be relaxed about this race like I'm doing, or freak out while on amazing vacations because I wasn't getting in all of my perfect workouts... so it was a no-brainer!

So I'd love to see if I can hit sub-5:00 again for 4 straight years, but that's going to be tough. I trained hard leading up to this race in 2022 so I could break 5:00 "one last time" (4:56), but then I felt good and ran a 4:52 the following year. And then a 4:52 again the next year (which was last year). This year's training has not nearly been the same as these last 3 years, and I'm having a harder and harder time just "gutting it out" like I could do when I was younger. So I'm aiming for sub-5:00, but I know it might not be possible.

Off to hopefully hit ONE LAST track workout shortly. And check back on the 21st or 22nd for a race report to see if I can keep a 2025 1-mile race under 5 minutes.

Last year, I took 4 kids up to Lake Vermilion for 4 days. This year, we planned to do something similar! We headed to the North Shore of Lake Superior as my niece and nephew had never been much farther north than Duluth.