Semi-Wordless Wednesday: The Tights Have Been Named!

Remember these tights that I've been wearing for a while now?

Well, a reader my have come up with a name for these. She didn't comment on Monday's post because she claimed her comment was not "blog-friendly." But she gave me a name:

"Crotchsicle!"

(Because of the creamsicle color of the crotch.)

And when those wear out, I can break these bad boys in:

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Last Week's Training = Happiness!

My training last week IS FINALLY LOOKING LIKE SOMETHING!!

That's 3 runs, 2 swims, and 2 outdoor tri-bike rides IN MID FEBRUARY. Sure, the runs are short as I'm coming back from that little knee issue, but I'm still SO HAPPY with this week! Here's a quick breakdown:

• MONDAY: Easy/moderate run on the track at the Y.

• TUESDAY: 3x500 at the Hamline pool between classes, averaging 7:34/500 (just under 1:31/100 pace). Post-workout, I tweeted this:

• WEDNESDAY: Short, easy run because I wanted to bike long the next day. Being smart!

• THURSDAY: Long 26 mile ride! First ride outside on Eiffel (my "new" tri bike) this year after going out with my old tri bike "Goldilocks" the weekend before. A big icy puddle on Big River's Trail helped dictate my turnaround point:

• FRIDAY: Moderate 5 mile run on the track at the Y. Knee is holding up well!

• SATURDAY: 6x200 in the pool, with 20 sec rest: 2:59/200 average.

• SUNDAY: Moderate ride, moderate distance. It was 55 degrees when I headed out around noon! In February! In Minnesota! I didn't wear gloves, but I still wore tights mainly to help keep my knee a bit warmer/looser. It's now state law in Minnesota that if a motorist hits me and claims he/she didn't see me, they are deemed legally blind:

In other news, I NEED A NAME FOR THESE TIGHTS! HELP!

Post-ride, I tweeted this:

I actually had to keep myself from biking more (being I want to do a hard "time trial" effort ride tomorrow). I held a 21.0 mph average on this ride through mile 20, before easing up for the last 3 miles!

This week, I hope to run on the same days, but then swap the days I bike and swim, so I still hope to have another good training week. After a SUPER warm week this past week, they're saying we could get a nasty snow storm this weekend. Dang. I guess we're not out of it yet.

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Superheroes at Mama's 16th Twin Cities Marathon!

That's right. My amazing wife finished her 16th TC Marathon in 17 years yesterday! (She's only missed 2013 when she was pregnant with Charlie, and she did her 20+ mile training run that year, so she COULD have done the marathon. That was the only year she's missed since 2000.)

The boys and I biked to see her at 5 different spots to cheer her on in the last half of the race. Here was our route (along with our 5 stops):

Here are a bunch of pics from the day:

I Instagrammed this along with the caption:
"Mild vulgarity + superheroes = the best way to cheer for the #tcmarathon."


Waiting for Mama around mile 15.


Henry got LOTS of high fives!


HERE COMES MAMA!


A kiss before running off.


Loaded up to go to the next stop. It was in the upper 30s
at the race start, and around 42 degrees here.


Catching up to Mama in the pink.






Lots of runners around mile 17.


Mama again at stop #2!




THIS IS SO PERFECT BECAUSE HE'S STANDING ON A MANHOLE COVER!

Both boys were tired. We had to simply bike over the Lake/Marshall Bridge to see Mama at the next spot, but we had about 40 minutes to do it. So I just biked around the Desnoyer Park neighborhood of St. Paul as the boys passed out. (Note miles 6-9 on the map above.) When we pulled into stop #3, this was the scene behind me:

I let the boys nap as I cheered Mama on!


In the pink right in the middle, heading under the Lake/Marshall Bridge around mile 21.


In transit: stopped at a stoplight. They were both dead to the world.


At stop #4, they were STILL asleep. This was near Fairview on Summit Ave.


Mama running off past mile 22 with new race buddy Sarah.


The boys woke up before I got back on my bike at stop #4, and we had a longer ride towards
the Cathedral to see Mama go by with less than a half mile left. We cheered here for a while.




LOTS more high fives. Henry LOVED it...


... but Charlie was kinda done with this whole cheering thing.




Mama again!


Mama running off to her 4:30 finish! Congrats Mama!


Another Instagrammed pic from post-race.


We had to stop at the grocery store to get some last-minute ingredients
for cooking last night, and I also treated the boys to a cookie.


Oh, and I was wearing some new tights so Mama could find us easily. :)

So CONGRATS to my lovely wife on her 16th TC Marathon and 18th Marathon (not counting an ultra marathon and 2 Ironman marathons). Back with thoughts on MY race this upcoming weekend shortly, and maybe a few more pics from Henry and my family running the TC Family 1 Mile 2 days ago (some initial photos in Saturday's post.)

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