O'Gara's Irish Run 8K Race Report

Or, "My FIRST Race on an Running Team!"

Or, "Battling Past Some Usual Race Buddies."

Or, "Debuting Some NEW Shorts!"

After a beautiful and warm 30 days or so, we woke up to this on Saturday morning:

STOP.


I Instagrammed this: "Not the preferred view when heading to a road race... #OGarasIrishRun"

Many of us were talking pre-race about the icy footing and wondering if it would be an issue. Well, it really wasn't, so don't be nervous. I got inside O'Gara's Pub and found some of our YWCA running team:

In our jerseys for the first time!

And YES, that's a new pair of shorts! They are orange and green, and they KINDA look nude at first glance. Here's a pic my wife took of me post-race once I got back home:

Wearing my multi-colored arm warmers from my triathlon in Israel 2 years ago.
For the time being, I'm calling these my "nude shorts."

I grabbed one quick photo of the start of the race course before putting some clothes and my phone back in the car:

An icy situation up and over that hill 2 blocks in the distance.

I chatted with SOOO many "race buddies" briefly before the race. I got in line with everyone else, and found myself next to cyclist extraordinare Pam N. We commented about how NICE AND WARM it was crammed tight next to all of these bare-skinned athletes even though it was only 30 degrees. Soon, the pack lurched forward to the starting line, and we were off!

444 8K runners and 184 5K runners = 628 runners taking off! (This pic is from Tom Rs
camera - he had a friend on top of the bridge seen in the last photo. Thanks Tom!)


Same photo, only with an arrow. Hey, that's me!


The pack hitting the hill. I'm still visible to the right.


Now I'm REALLY visible as I dodged a puddle!


That's my foot in the lower right. Next to Jenna (63) and Nathan (90),
with Angie next to Nathan, and Evan just behind him in orange.

I worked up the hill and past a few friends. Nathan and I chatted on the downhill - he asked what I hoped to run, and I said 29:30. Shortly after, I realized that I had posted that I hoped to run 29 FLAT. That would be around 5:50 miles, or 2:55 half miles.

My first mile was solid: 2:49 and 2:53 for a 5:42 mile. Nice. A good opener.

The street was a bit icy/slushy in spots, but staying in the car tire tracks was good. Nathan and I were still together running in a pack of 6: the 2 of us and 4 women. Being this race is the MN USA Track and Field season opener, it draws out the speedsters. Mile 2 was slowing up a bit, but still OK: 2:54 and 2:59 for a 5:53 second mile.

Suddenly I realized that Evan was running past. (My race buddy who beat me in every race at the 2015 TC Loony Challenge, and who I was able to beat in my final kick 2 months ago at the Securian Run Half Marathon.) THIS WAS THE FIRST I REMEMBERED THAT THIS WAS A "GRAND PRIX" SERIES RACE AND THAT I NEEDED TO TRY TO BEAT MY FRIENDS WHO WERE DOING THE SERIES! Those friends include Nathan and Evan! I was so concerned with this being our first race as a team, that I forgot I needed to be racing hard for the series too! Well, time to try to stick with Evan!

Mile 3 included the turn around (in front of my old apartment): the first half was slower in 3:01, and the second half was where it needed to be in 2:54 for a mile 3 total of 5:55.

Here's a pic from Tom R again that shows the thin trail of runners heading back toward the finish (we had to dart off the frame to the right to go under a little overpass on Hamline so they didn't have to stop traffic on that busy road):

Cathedral and downtown in the distance.

My splits were slowing up. This is usually where I start kicking and passing people, but I think this is where my lack of speed work showed up. I had no "long kick" like I've had in the past. My next half mile splits were 2:56 and 2:59 for a 4th mile of 5:55. Sub-29:00 wasn't possible. But MAYBE sub-29:15 was possible (my 8K PR). I was going to try to stick with Evan and earn some Grand Prix points.

Up and over the final bridge: Dan Greeno (228) out kicked Jeremy (330) by
3 seconds to take the win. IN 24:42! THAT'S 4:59 PACE!


The leaders (and lead biker) heading down the hill
to the finish (with some 5K runners in front of them).

I was slowly sneaking up on Evan coming up to those quick sharp turns to head under Hamline with a half mile left. At the base of the bridge, I ran up along side him and said hi. He pulled away up the hill (showing my lack of hill work with my tight heels). As we came to the top, I started catching up again. Here's Tom's photo from the top of the bridge:

Evan and me to the right.


Close up.


Passing a 5K runner with an unfortunate "tuck."


Close up. Evan has some of THEE BEST "final kick" faces.

I got past Evan just a few seconds later, and I pulled away a bit towards the finish. (BTW, I pulled past Grand Prix buddy Nathan before the turn around, and finished 40 seconds in front of him.) Here's a screenshot from the finishing video showing the gap between me and Evan just before the finish line:

Garmin pace: slow up the bridge, fast down, and then slow at the turns under
Hamline at 0.5 miles. A dip at the turn-around, then slowing to 7:01 pace
up the hill at the end, and ending at 4:54 pace down the hill to the finish.

My final mile was faster, but not SUPER fast: my last 2 half mile splits were 2:58 and 2:51 for a mile 5 total of 5:49. (An 8K is JUST shy of 5 miles, but my Garmin read exactly 5.0 miles.)

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel, #582, 35, M, St. Paul

29:20
5:54.06/mile pace (5:52.00 Garmin pace for 5.00 miles)
14:41 first half, 14:39 second half

65 out of 444 overall
62 out of 231 males
7 out of 26 in the 35-39 age group (first race in the new age group!)

Start to turnaround: passed 69 runners and was passed by 1.
Turnaround to finish: passed 5 runners, and was passed by 0.

7 POST-RACE NOTES:

• I thought I had a PR (and I tweeted that I did post-race), but then I remembered my 2012 8K finish of 29:15. So I was 5 seconds from a PR. Dang.

• Speaking of twitter, Evan tweeted me post race. He's ready to race again:

Oh, and Josh tweeted me too. He was cheering at Lexington (mile 1 and mile 4).

• I was happy to just have 1 half-mile split over 3:00. Running up to the turn around from mile 2.0 - 2.5 was 3:01, and the rest were sub-3:00. I thought about how it'd be nice to try to keep them all under 3:00, but didn't make that any sort of race goal. And I was decently consistent: all half-mile splits with within 12 seconds (2:49 through 3:01). And my mile splits were within 13 seconds (5:42 through 5:55). I had a negative split by just 2 seconds. Pretty consistent.

• My team did well! We had enough runners to score a full men's, women's, and masters' team. I'll be back with a post showing more photos of them, as well as our team results.

• My legs held up well for the race. Sure, it was a short race, but it contained some speed, and I haven't been doing much speed work lately. If anything, my lack of speed work made me legs feel BETTER post-race. (By not doing speed work, my final kick isn't nearly as fast, which in turn makes me hurt less once the race is done.)

• My left calf was a LITTLE tight/sore the day after the race, but nothing unusual. I was hoping it wasn't even going to hurt, but I DID just race. I need to give it a few days of rest, some rolling and massaging, and then start some easy runs. I should be OK.

• Finally, my cat gave me a nice post-race lick-down. This was the scene for 20 minutes as I was starting to type this up on Saturday afternoon:

There's a joke in here along the lines of
"being so hot that pussy licks ME," but I'm not going there...

Leaving the race, I jogged a bit of a cooldown, and then I got home. During the race, my sister came up with her family, and so did my parents. We were heading out for a birthday lunch for me (my birthday was the week before). We went to Davanni's for pizza, and then stopped by "Taste of Love" bakery between Izzy's Ice Cream and Choo Choo Bob's right in our 'hood. I had this blueberry vanilla donut in the lower right:

Henry's cream filled roll had SOOOO MUCH CREAM!


From Instagram: "Cake pops make him happy."

It was a decent day at the race, and a great day with my family!

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Biggest Training Bonk Ever

Yep. I had a fun run on Saturday. And I made 3 "Rookie Mistakes." Here's what you need to know:

Pharmie left for an Evotri training camp early on Thursday morning. I had Henry Thursday night all by myself (our first night with just Dad and son EVER), and Pharmie's Mom came up over the weekend. Pharmie got back into town on Sunday morning, and Henry survived 3+ days with me (and Grandma)! Grandma even brought goodies for me when she came up:

Saturday, Grandma took Henry to the Zoo:

I was STARVING when they left in the morning, so I INHALED lunch. Rookie Mistake #1: My eyes were bigger than my stomach. As I "let my food settle," I ran some branches to the compost site:

(I tweeted this photo along with this text: "A little used phrase: 'To the compost site, bitches!'")

Less than 2 hours after eating, I KNEW I needed to get out on my long run before Grandma and Henry got back. Rookie Mistake #2: So I took off on my run thinking "oh, my full stomach will settle with these first few miles." Oh, also, it was 12:30. Rookie Mistake #3: Go out for a run during the heat of the day on a warm afternoon.

I headed out on a route that would put me around 13.5 miles. I was going to run the first 5+ moderate, and then descend the next 6 miles (cooling-down for the final 2 miles). The warm up was fine. The first mile of the build was good (6:23 - a solid place to start my descend).

Miles 2 and 3 of the descend were fine as well: 6:31 and 6:19. But I felt like barfing. That food did NOT settle. I felt horrible. And it was hot.

I ran a bit more of the next hard mile (descend mile #4; overall mile #9), and then I suddenly found myself stopping to walk. I don't do that much... I hate it when I do that. I walked for a minute and ran again. I got past the next mile marker and ran to some water. I drank. And I drank. And I drank.

I started off running hard again, but I was so full of food / water / disappointment that I had to stop and walk again. I NEARLY turned around to head straight across a bridge towards home (cutting the 13.5 mile route to under 10), but I realized THIS was the time that I had to do this long run - Grandma had Henry, and I needed to use this time! (Which was another reason I felt so bad for timing the run so poorly - it was my chance for a solid stroller-free run, and I was blowing it!) None of my injuries were hurting, so I figured it'd be fine to go on with the regularly scheduled 13.5 miles and push through this bonk.

I eased up the effort, but didn't go REALLY easy. I stopped to walk a few more times. I ended my final 3 miles in 6:45, 7:01, and 8:40 (which included a bit of walking up a hill in that final mile). The bad news is that I finished 13.5 miles in 1:38 - usually I'm doing workouts like that in around 1:30. And my hard 6 miles turned into only a hard 3.5 miles. The good news is that I still got in 13.5 miles. And (as I tweeted) there are some people that would kill for 1:38 over a long half marathon.

I collapsed on the floor at home. Grandma and Henry were still off having fun. Kermit came over and started licking the sweat off my chest:

(That whole red area is from Kermit's tongue.)

I hadn't had one in a long time, but I wanted an ice bath. First, I was HOT, and it would help cool me down. Second, my legs were getting pretty sore, so the cold water might make them feel better. (I didn't feel like my legs really worked that hard on this botched run, but with the work they DID do along with the heat, they were fried.) So I ran just cold water into the tub, dumped in out entire ice bucket, and slowly lowered my man-parts into the freezing water:

That night, after getting Henry to bed, I was winding-down in bed with my laptop. I used my laptop to snap a photo of my RED SHOULDERS from the hot shirt-less run earlier in the day:

It's kinda hard to tell, but I'm FRIED! Oops.

But the next day, Pharmie got home, and we all enjoyed a quick easy run to Menards!

Henry's first real run in the stroller withOUT the carseat!

Maybe an easy run in a day or 2, then some speed work, and then another long run this weekend (this time WITH Henry because Pharmie has to work). The "Get In Gear 10K" is now less than 2 weeks away!!

p.s. I also went to cheer at "Goldy's Run 10 Mile" early Saturday morning. I took a lot of photos around mile 4. Click here to see my slideshow of photos.

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Training and Cats

My training is FINALLY starting to look a little more "normal!" Here's last week:

• STRENGTH AND CORE:
The biggest difference from the "norm" is all of the strength work I've been doing lately. I've been trying to get my legs strong!! No, they're not going to be a muscly and veiny - I'm just trying to build up my little stabilizing muscles to help get me back to 100% quicker. Over the entire year of 2010, I averaged 1:15 of strength or core work each week. Since I've been working with my PT over the last 5 weeks, I've averaged around 3:10 of strength or core work weekly. Again, I'm not trying to get HUGE; I'm just strengthening my weak points like my ass and core.

• SWIMMING:
One thing is always true: I need to swim more. My only swim last week was a 2000 yd tempo in 32:39 (1:37.98 / 100 average). Not great, but a good "push." I'd like to try to hit the pool today for an "active recovery" day and do some drills.

• BIKING:
I had 2 rides this week. That's about average for me. Notice my first ride (a "long ride" of 30 miles) was the same day as my swim. I couldn't sleep on Wednesday morning, so I was up and grading final projects by 3:30. Once the pool opened, I headed for a swim. I needed a break in the afternoon, so I went for a ride. It was a nice 2-a-day. Ella stretched with me after that ride:

Saturday, I did a flat tempo ride down the Greenway Trail and back. It was 21 miles, and I did it in 1:01:06. I had a SLIGHT tailwind on the way out, and hit the turn-around with a 21.0 mph average. I had pulled a 40-year-old stranger for 5 miles at that point, and as I turned back, he said "Thanks for getting me out of my comfort zone! I could not and would not have done that myself!" No problem, stranger! I was a bit slower coming back home against the slight breeze, but I tried to keep it strong. I finished with a 20.6 mph average. Need to work on that.

• RUNNING:
I had an easy treadmill run on Monday (2 days after the duathlon).

Thursday, I wanted to go a bit longer and throw in some speed. So I hit River Road for 6.5 miles. I did the middle 4 miles in 24:42 (6:25, 6:18, 5:52, and 6:05). They were SOLID, but not "all out."

Yesterday morning (Sunday), I hit the track for my first speed work since mid-January!! I made sure to be nicely warmed-up and good and loose. I ran into Matt M as he was finishing up some 800s. I wanted to do 3 x 1600, but I told myself to let up at the first sign of any heel issues. Well, THERE WERE NO ISSUES, AND I GOT THROUGH THE WORKOUT JUST FINE!! I took a longer rest between intervals to make sure I wasn't starting with horribly sloppy form (3:00 instead of my usual 1:30), and I made sure to try to keep "quick feet" and keep my cadence high. Here were my 800 splits and my 1600 totals:

2:45, 2:47 = 5:32
2:45, 2:42 = 5:27
2:46, 2:43 = 5:29

The middle one was hard, but I was happy to have negative split that. The 3rd one was all guts.

I came home from the sweaty intervals, and Kermit sat on my lap and started licking the sweat off my collar bone:

Pharmie calls these "cat hickeys"

Oh, and speaking of cats and Pharmie, here's Pharmie taking a nap with Kermit and Ella on Saturday:

She said "It's a photo of your 3 girls, along with another boy or girl." Ha!

I've got some fun news coming in a day or two....

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Workouts Coming Back From My Injury

I FINALLY feel like I'm starting to get back into a bit of a rhythm. My heel is far from 100%, but it's been letting me build up some endurance. After a lack-luster March, the first 10 days of April looked like this:

Lets go sport-by-sport.

SWIM:

Yes, only 2 swims over those 10 days. That's not great. I had a (slow) tempo solo-swim on the 6th, and then a good butt-kicking swim with Julia on the 8th. I did 3,100 with Julia, and around 1,100 of that was pulling! Here's Julia and I post-swim:

BIKE:

I'm REALLY happy with my biking over the last 10 days! The first 10 day of April contained my first 3 outdoor rides!

- The first ride was my favorite 15.5 mile loop that I posted about last Monday.
- The second ride was a LONG ride (for me, for this time of year) of 34 miles on Friday.
- The third ride was that same 15.5 mile loop, only I did some intervals.

On Friday, I wanted to go long. So I just wandered around St. Paul and nearby suburbs. I crossed the Mississippi on I35. The flooding was CRAZY. Here's the yacht club under water from the bridge:

Close-up

Riding one-handed while going uphill across a high bridge with a strong side-wind while taking a photo? Yeah, maybe I won't do that again...

Then I hit the Big River Trail. Here's more flooding - I USUALLY like to ride down that road that goes under the RR bridge:

Before continuing down the trail


Ice and snow on the trail under the 494 bridge - I had to dismount to cross


Still snow along Big River Trail, but I was in shorts

So I made it all the way to Pilot Knob and 494 before turning around and heading back. I crossed through downtown St. Paul, and worked my way over to the start of the Gateway Trail (just to make sure the trail had survived the winter). I rode only to mile 1, and then turned around:

BONK TIME!!! I turned into a slight (oh so slight) wind, and I realized I was done. I was slightly overdoing it for this time of year. I was running out of water (I started with nearly 70 oz - yes SEVENTY OUNCES - and apparently that only lasts me about 30 miles), I had already ate the 2 gels I had brought, and I was going to bonk with 7 miles left. Oops.

It was a good ass-kicking. I needed that. I ended up logging 34.22 miles that looked like this:

Notice the little A, B, C, D, and E on that map? Those correspond with these averages:

- A: Downhill for a few miles, then up over the bridge, then down along the river: 18.7 mph average

- B: Long, gentle uphill, crossed icy lump (seen in the photo), and uphill to my turn-around at Pilot Knob Rd (far southern point): 18.0 mph average

- C: Down gentle downhill, up steep hill, across bridge, and down Shepard Trail to Downtown St. Paul: 18.3 mph average

- D: Realizing I'm bonking at the northern most part of the ride, after a lot of street riding: 17.8 mph average

- E: More street riding after serious bonk, up the hill by the Cathedral: 17.3 mph average

- Down Summit Ave to home: 17.2 mph average for the 34.22 mile ride. Ouch. Ego blow. But a necessary one.

Kermit (my cat) licked the salt off my arm once I got home:

Arm hair styled by Kermit

I didn't know the best way to handle that major bonk. So I had a recovery drink with 5 grams of protein, and then I had a big protein shake with 58 grams of protein. That was a lot of protein. But I think it did the trick.

Then yesterday, I did some short intervals on a 15.5 mile ride. When I started out, my legs felt GREAT, so I think all the protein 2 days before had helped! I warmed up for a few minutes, and then did 5 x 3:00 intervals with 3:00 of easy-to-moderate spinning between. I tried to keep track of what I did:

- 0.97 miles (into the wind).
- 1.08 miles (ending on better roads).
- 1.13 miles (lots of technical turns going under 35 at high speeds).
- 1.20 miles (starting at the bottom of the hill just before Randolf, ending just past Smith Bridge with a long, slow downhill).
- 0.63 miles (starting by Smith, ending about 0:40 past the top of Ramsey Hill).

That means I averaged 24 mph during my "farthest" interval, and I averaged under 13 mph during my "shortest" interval (over half that interval was going up a steep hill in my granny gear).

I REALLY liked this workout! I snapped a photo once I got into the house when I was all sweaty:

Just after I took this photo, some sweat dripped into both of my eyes. Suck-tastic. But it was GREAT to be sweaty in short sleeves and bike shorts!!!

So 65 miles on the bike in just over a week is nice for me (and for this time of the year). I need to keep that up for a few weeks!

RUN:

Yes, all these runs were pretty short. But I'm trying to build my heel back up so I'm ready to go for multi-sport season. I'm using the exercises and tips (that I wrote about in my last post) from my new PT.

Tuesday was a 5 miler, and that was my longest run since my half marathon at the end of January. It was a "test," and my heel held up! (It was a pretty easy pace.)

And Saturday (between my long ride on Friday and my interval ride on Sunday), I "tested" my heel with a little speed. I warmed up for 1.5 miles, and then I did the next 3 miles in 19:00!! (6:30, 6:24, and 6:04.) I did NOT go "all out," but I just tried to keep it strong and hold good form.

And then my cats got cozy with my stanky shoes post-run:

So, bottom line, these numbers aren't that impressive, but I'm just happy to be doing this much coming off my injury:

(Oh, and notice Friday was my first 2-a-day in 5 months!!)

I'm FAR from 100%, but with smart decisions, I know I can work my way back up. Step-by-step. Here's to an injury-free spring and summer!!

OK, now back to my PT exercises from my last post..... ;)

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