Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

Friday Funny 2445: Party Hard

>> Friday, May 02, 2025

As a follow-up to this "Friday Funny" from 2 weeks ago, here are more "drunk" funnies:

More drinking funnies in this post.

And more funnies posted all day long on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

Post-Race Thoughts on a 44-Year-Old's 10K PR

>> Thursday, May 01, 2025

Over the weekend, my 44-year-old body ran a lifetime 10K PR of 36:17 at "Get in Gear." I truly wasn't expecting to PR, but I took 16 seconds off of last year's PR (where I took 13 seconds off a 12-year-old PR). I've been trying to come up with reasons how that was possible.

Here's a list of thoughts as to why this PR showed up out of nowhere, with the most important ideas first:

• It's mostly due to pushing harder in the middle of my long runs. I usually do 11.x miles with a 2.5 mile warm-up, then straight into 6 harder miles before running easy for the rest of the run. I don't care much what my OVERALL pace is, but I've been working to make those "6 harder miles" in the middle faster and faster over the years. And as I noted in a pre-race post, my 5 fastest long runs EVER have been in the last few months. I think this accounts for a lot of where that speed came from.

• I've had good speed workouts at the track lately as well. 400s, 800s, pyramids... I've been doing shorter and harder track workouts, and they've been happening on NICE mornings at the track, which is important. (I didn't have as good of a Raspberry Run 1 Mile last year as I had hoped, and I think a chunk of that was due to having many track workouts on stormy mornings where I was drenched and suffering - still a good workout, but not what it needed to be to hit my goal.)

• Negative splitting training runs and speed days has something to do with it too! My harder miles in my long runs start a bit easier and then build. And the majority of my track workouts are done as negative splits (and I'm not sandbagging the first ones either!). I mentioned this in my race report for why I felt dead half-way through this race, but then could still keep upping the pace and dropping time (with my fastest 2 miles being the final 2 miles). My body has been trained to do just that.

• It was a beautiful day! It's a running joke in the TC running community that "if it's Get in Gear weekend, expect it to be cold and damp!" This was the first perfect day for Get in Gear that can I recall!

Those are the 4 main reasons I can think of. These following 2 thoughts MIGHT have contributed, but to a lesser exent...

• More leg exercises and core exercises lately. I've been slowly doing more and more over the years. I don't know if it's "helping" my training/racing or not.

• Walking more. And just being more active. Yes, I like to "train:" I swim, bike, and run regularly. But in the last few years, I've put more emphasis on actually MOVING more - like getting out for a walk after lots of computer/grading/class time, or biking to classes more (something I started doing weekly and year-round nearly 2 years ago). To put numbers on this, over the first 4 months of wearing a Garmin as "daily wear" watch in 2023 (Jan-Apr), I averaged 452,784 steps/month. These last 4 months (Jan-Apr 2025) had 3 of those being over 600,000 steps, averaging just under 600,000 steps/month. That's about a 32% increase over 2 years, and that didn't happen by accident. I PURPOSEFULLY MOVE a lot more than I did 3-5 years ago.

"Get in Gear" shows a nice trend for me over the last 4 years: I ran 37:56 in 2022 (50 degrees and raining), then 37:13 in 2023 (damp ground and 42 degrees), then 36:33 in 2024 (damp ground but otherwise nice), and finally 36:17 this year on a perfect day. On paper, I should break 36 next year! ;)

Well, I took Monday off from running just to make sure I was healed up as I'm still a little "gun shy" from injuring myself a bit after running too hard after last year's TC 10 Mile. And things seem to be good. Not doing any speed work this week, but hoping to be back at it normally next week!

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: Henry's Training for a 5K

>> Wednesday, April 30, 2025

My whole family ran "Get in Gear" this past weekend, and Henry had the best training leading up to it. Here are 2 pics from an early April training run in the snow:

Spotted a bald eagle over the Mississippi!

Running along Town and Country Club in the snow!

And then about a week ago, I took him on his final training run pre-race:

Nearly the same spot as the photo above (same tree on the left, just a different angle).

We scared up a turkey along the RR tracks near I-94.

He knew he wasn't going to PR (well, I also knew I wasn't going to PR, but I ended up surprising myself...), but he turned in a solid time! His PR from last fall is 22:15, and he ran a 22:45 on Saturday! Nice work Henry!

Oh, and I don't have any pics of him, but Charlie PRed on Saturday! His old PR was just over 30 mins, but he ran a 28:02 at Get in Gear!

RACE REPORT: 2025 Get in Gear 10K

>> Monday, April 28, 2025

Saturday was the BEST day for the "Get in Gear 10K!" It's historically a wet and cold race, but it was in the mid-40s, calm, and sunny. So I "took care of business" at home in the bathroom before heading out the door:

I did this at the race too, but without my phone this time.

Good turn out for the Fleet Feet team! (I'm 3rd from the left in the back.)

My boys and my niece and nephew were all doing the 5K!

And my wife was doing the 10K too!

The 10K started 15 mins before the 5K, so my wife and I headed off to line up with about 5 minutes to go before the race started. I met some new teammates, jumped around nervously, and tried to go through possible race-plans in my head: I wasn't sure if I'd go out harder (more of the "norm" for me lately) or start a bit easier and work to negative split the race (as I wrote about pre-race on Thursday).

10 secs before the gun!

And we're off! That's Charlie's hands on the left, and Wes in the Santa hat!

Ready to suffer.

The increased back/shoulder/arm work shows a bit here. :)

My wife behind me! (She'd admit later that she was over-dressed...)

Charlie and Wes starting the 5K a bit later!

Go boys!!

And my sister-in-law Steph and Evie starting just behind the boys!

I started out a little closer to the front than I’m used to. I often feel like I start a little too far back, and I purposely didn’t make that mistake this time. But that also pushed me out of the gate. My first half mile was a dangerously fast 2:47 when I was hoping I could hold onto just below 3:00s. Yikes. I tried to ease up a little, and my first mile ended up being a great start:

• Mile 1: 2:47 + 3:01 = 5:49.3

An unusual thing happened between miles 1 and 3 that I’m not used to. Because I normally start a little too far back, I often start a race, pass a few packs of people, and then settle into a spot pretty quickly. But in this case, I had a group of 5 people pass me here at the 1st mile marker, and I had two more groups of 4 to 5 people each pass me in the next few miles. I wasn’t used to that!

Mile 2 ended on a fast note:

• Mile 2: 2:57 + 2:50 = 5:48.1

My splits were still golden! I was feeling optimistic that I could hit my sub-37:00 goal, and that maybe I could be around my OLD PR of 36:46 (that I broke last year when I ran 36:33).

Mile 3, however, felt a little more rough, and it showed in my splits. My optimism was waning. D'oh.

• Mile 3: 2:58 + 3:02 = 6:01.0

We ran across a 5K mat, and I glanced that my time was around 18:25. "OK... I can hopefully hold on and evenly split this race, and still finish around 36:50... but CAN I evenly split this? Am I about to crash and burn?"

The two worst short little hills are in the last half of this race. I was staring up the first one of those hills at this point (and the next would come at mile 5.5 as we go under and then loop back on top of the Ford Bridge). I WAS THRILLED WHAT HAPPENED HERE: I didn’t find myself working much harder, but I ended up pulling away from the people I was running with, as well as passing a few people heading up that hill! Maybe my better strength workouts for my lower body have been paying off!

We were past the 1st arrow (crossing the bridge), and the 2nd arrow was
the hill we just climbed. The 3rd arrow was what I was dreading at mile 5.5.

The slower half mile up that hill ended up not being the slowest half mile of my race! And then I bombed down the other side of the hill to turn in a respectable 4th mile:

• Mile 4: 3:01 + 2:47 = 5:49.5

I felt a little wind in my face crossing the bridge around mile 2.5, and may be just a little bit after getting up that hill, but wind wasn’t a factor. It was a beautifully calm day to race! I was hoping that would help me in this last half of the race.

I didn’t know what was going to happen in these last 2 miles. I was hurting, and my pace felt all over the place. I felt like I would surge for a few strides, and then start to die and back off for a few strides. Again, not feeling confident. But I was happy to get to mile 5, and HAPPIER YET to still be turning in good splits!

• Mile 5: 2:51 + 2:54 = 5:45.6

I noted my overall time at mile 5, and I was only about 10 secs slower than my goal PR pace from last year! And my splits were moving in the right direction, so I was really ready to push to see what I could do! I was just barely starting to think "...could I PR again?"

I tried to use the hill going down under the bridge because I knew climbing the hill on the other side to get up onto the bridge was going to be brutal. I was kind of running by my lonesome, but I had been slowly passing a few people for the last 1.5 miles or so - moving in the right direction!

I bombed down the little hill around mile 6 and passed a guy I had been back-and-forth with earlier in the race. I didn’t know if I would be able to hold him off for the finish, but he was a good push in those final few blocks.

• Mile 6: 2:51 + 2:53 = 5:44.9

I SAW MY OVERALL TIME! I WAS JUST UNDER 35:00!! THE FINAL 0.2 MILES OF THIS 10K USUALLY TAKES ME AROUND 1:20, AND THAT WOULD BE A BIG UNEXPECTED PR!! (Bettering my 36:33 from last year.) SO I WAS GOING HARRRRRRDDDDDD!!!!

Pic from Coach Laurie, just in front of the guy I passed 20 seconds earlier.

Hurting!

Brother-in-law Jon (who took all the photos at the start - thanks Jon!) saw me coming. The guy I had just passed was able to pass me right back, but he was a good pull to the finish. And the little kid in orange was a 5K runner (who's course meets up with our 10K course for the final 2 blocks), so I look REALLY COOL passing him in the final few meters:

Guy in white is now back in front of me!

Big strides toward the finish!

You can see the hole in my butt - I can only wear these "Tutti Frutti" shorts
in cold weather because of the wind-proof briefs I wear under them!

Closing in on the finish line!

• Final 0.2 miles: 1:19.0 (Garmin had it as 0.25 miles.)

Holy balls. An unintentional PR brought on by a big negative split!

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel, M, 44, St. Paul

36:17
5:51 pace

54 out of 1492 overall
51 out of 742 men
6 out of 86 in the M 40-44 age group
12 out of 401 male masters (40+ years old)

54th overall at mile 1
63rd overall at 5K
54th overall at the finish

18:30 first 5K / 17:47 last 5K

(Garmin: 36:17.3 for 6.25 miles, or 5:45.37 pace)

5 POST-RACE NOTES:

• I really don’t know how I did this! Like REALLY! For how bad I felt at mile 3 (with splits moving in the wrong direction), but then how much I ended up negative splitting it, I... I just don’t know. I mentioned in Thursday’s post about better / faster / stronger long runs I’ve had in the last 6-8 months, and I’ve also had some consistent and really good track workouts. Maybe that all did the trick!

• I took myself RIGHT to the edge of the pace that I could hold onto in the last half of this race. When I was hurting around mile 3, I was very concerned I wouldn’t be able to hold on in the last half especially because I hadn’t raced in a while. And it hurt like hell, but I was able to speed up and have my fastest 2 miles as my last 2 miles. Whew. Training has been treating me right apparently! Which brings me to my next point...

• I'm not necessarily proud of THIS RACE, but I'm proud of my TRAINING. I feel like my solid training these last few months has been "seen" by this unexpected PR. It's not that I raced it perfectly on a perfect morning (which all might be true as well), but I just feel happy that my good training is showing.

• I train to negative split my runs, but this was a huge negative split! My average pace in the first 5K was 5:58/mile, and it was 5:44/mile in the last 5K! I was hurting so bad, so I can honestly say I wasn’t sandbagging. I think it was just all of my negative split training telling me I was running pretty fast early on, but then I had the fitness to keep speeding up, even though I was dying.

• A blog reader finished around me and recognized me, and we chatted a bit in the finisher’s chute. Sorry, but I didn’t get your name! My brain wasn’t fully working yet! He knew I had a sub-37 goal, and he knew I had PRed as soon as I mentioned my time! Thanks new friend!! (EDIT: by his comment, his name is Cory! Hi Cory!)

I got through the finisher’s chute quickly so I could grab my phone, go find Jon, and go cheer on the rest of our family. I found Jon quickly, but just like last year, I had barely missed Henry finishing. And then somehow, Jon and I both missed our young boys who were running together, as well as his daughter!