Two Final Speed Workouts...

... that should have NOT been back-to-back. Oops.

Friday I did my last true "speed" day, which was 8x (3 mins HARD / 3 mins EASY). It looks simple on paper, but it's a longer speed workout: that's a total of 24 mins HARD and 24 mins EASY in the middle of the workout, which is 48 mins of running... not including a warm-up or cool-down. So it ended up being over 9 miles total for me.

I have my Garmin set to take 1/2 mile splits, and I was aware that when I did this workout last year, I ran the first 1/2 mile of the 3 mins hard in 2:40-2:55 (with an extra 0:05-0:20 to make it a full 3:00 effort). I was just hoping to keep this year's under 3:00 as I'm not in the same shape. I ran the first 2 at exactly 3:00, and was really hoping I could hang on to that or even speed them up. I didn't have any sort of perfect negative split (and I wasn't trying to do that), but I kept my first 2 as my slowest:

Split, distance, and (pace)

3:00, 0.50 (6:01)
0.38 (8:00)
3:00, 0.50 (6:01)
0.38 (8:01)... 3:03 to get across a road
2:51 (5:43) + 0:10 (6:00) = 0.53
0.37 (8:01)
2:55 (5:51) + 0:05 (5:47) = 0.52
0.37 (8:07)

2:53 (5:47) + 0:06 (5:35) = 0.52
0.37 (8:04)
2:49 (5:39) + 0.11 (5:50) = 0.53
0.38 (7:55)
2:51 (5:42) + 0:10 (5:33) = 0.53
0.36 (8:14)
2:55 (5:51) + 0:05 (5:29) = 0.52
0.34 (8:52)

= 4.15 miles of hard running

The first half mile of each effort (in order) was 3:00, 3:00, 2:51, 2:55, 2:53, 2:49, 2:51, and 2:55

I went 3.77 miles over the first 4 and 3.81 miles over the final 4 last year (including the easy running), and this year I only ran 3.55 for each half of the workout. So that's a bummer.

4 intervals "out," and then 4 intervals "back" (which are the 4 that can be seen here).


Pace and heart rate - all what you'd expect.

Then on Monday, I went for my last hard long run. I looked back to last year's workouts to see what my last long run was before the TC 10 Mile, and it was 6x (3 mins HARD / 3 mins MODERATE). YES, THAT'S DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO THE SAME WORKOUTS BACK-TO-BACK WHICH WASN'T THE SMARTEST MOVE. I should have looked ahead to this run last week when I was picking out a final speed workout, but I didn't. And then when this popped up as the final long run, I felt compelled to do this "as prescribed" last year (and in 2010 by Coach Jen, which is what I was "copying" last year for my workouts leading up to the TC 10 Mile).

The big difference in this workout ISN'T that it's only 6 instead of 8 reps, but it's that there's no true REST - it's still running MODERATELY between the efforts, so your heart rate never fully comes down. It sucks! Notice in the previous pic above (where I was running EASY between reps) that my HR ALWAYS came down well below the average HR of 159 between each rep (the white line). Now look at this workout from Monday where I was running MODERATELY between the reps and my HR stayed above the average of 162 after the 2nd rep through the rest of the efforts:

4 efforts "out" (starting around the northern-most point) and then 2 "back" that you can see.
Notice in between is more GREEN (moderate) compared to all the BLUE in Friday's workout above.

Like Friday, I couldn't get them anywhere near the speed of last year. Last year, my slowest opening 1/2 mile of the 6 reps was 2:49, and I was aware for this year's workout that my "moderate" reps from last year covered around 0.46 miles (around 6:30-6:40 pace). This year, I finished the first 1/2 mile of each 3:00 effort right around 3:00, and my "moderate" reps covered around 0.43 miles.

Overall, the "guts" of this workout covered about exactly 6 miles back in 2010, 6.01 miles last year, and only 5.58 miles this week. That's a difference in pace of 6:01/mile last year, and 6:29/mile this year. Yikes. I don't like seeing how much slower that is on paper compared to last year!

I just added the upcoming TC 10 Mile race to my Garmin account, and it asked for a goal. I'm really uncertain what I can do. I'll have a quick post about that this weekend (after a "week in review" later this week and then some "Friday Funnies").

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One-Mile Race Prep

I'm behind on this training, but I made that decision weeks ago.

In 2022, I hit the track for some shorter-than-usual workouts to try to get a sub-5:00 1 mile before "aging out" of that possibility. I kept it up in 2023 and did it again! At that point, I wondered if I could PR in a 2024 mile (sub-4:49), but I didn't have it in me last year as I finished in 4:52 (which is still not bad!).

So would I shoot for a PR 1-mile again this year?

No.

When thought about racing the Oakdale Spring Classic Duathlon, I knew that if I did, there would go the chance of a 1-mile PR race. Doing that duathlon meant 2 weeks of no track work (I do track workouts on Fridays, so I wouldn't do one 2 days pre-race, and I wouldn't do one the following week as to let me legs heal up from a race pace effort). And those would have been 2 critical weeks for starting some shorter/harder speed workouts. But I made the decision to race the duathlon, and I was fine with not "going for broke" in the 1 mile race in a few weeks.

When I finally hit the track for a shorter/harder 1-mile specific workout, I did this old Coach Jen Harrison workout: 16x200 done as 4x(4x200) with 200 easy running between the 200s, and 3:00 rest between the sets of 4. I last did this workout just before last year's 1 mile race, but I also did it earlier that summer and didn't post about it. I didn't have much for time goals, but I just wanted to try to descend the sets of 4 and suffer!

My opening set of 4 was fine.

I was a bit faster in my 2nd set, but lost track of what my splits were.

I worked nicely in the 3rd set, but didn't know if I was faster or slower than the 2nd.

And then I beat that time in 4th set while feeling like I was going to trip over my legs during the last 75 meters of each interval. I was hashed!!

Here were my splits, with the (important) 200 meter split first, and then the (much less important) 200 meter easy jog in parentheses:

35.1 (1:04)
36.6 (1:00)
35.9 (0:59)
36.2 (2:58) = 35.95 average

34.9 (1:01)
35.8 (0:58)
35.0 (0:59)
35.3 (2:58) = 35.25 average

34.7 (1:00)
35.4 (1:00)
34.6 (0:58)
34.5 (2:57) = 34.80 average

33.6 (1:00)
34.5 (1:00)
34.4 (1:01)
33.9 (2:12) = 34.10 average

ALRIGHT! A NICE DESCEND!! That's -0.70 sec from 1st to 2nd, -0.45 sec from 2nd to 3rd, and -0.70 sec from 3rd to 4th.I wasn't quite as fast as last year just before the race (which is hard to compare because I did that workout on a paved trail), and it was 0.5 to 0.9 secs slower than the averages from this same workout on the track just over a year ago (where my sets averaged 35.50, 34.78, 33.93, and 33.73 seconds).

16 intervals: notice there's no jogging right after the final one...


... because I cut across the track (walking) because I was D.O.N.E.

So, as I figured, I'm not quite in the same "short distance" shape as I was in last year and probably the year before. But at this point, I'm still gunning for a sub-5:00 mile in a few weeks! We'll see...

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Seven Days of Biking Followed by a BRUTAL Tempo Run

Last week, my family was gone on a spring break trip (my wife took my boys to Portugal!), and I got in a bit more training than normal. They left on the 14th, and those next few days were quite big as I went into that weekend - and I talked about some nice bike rides in that linked post.

Starting on the long 44 mile ride for my birthday, I had seven out of eight days with a bike ride as my family was away:

And as I mentioned at the end of this post, I was THIS CLOSE to biking to the gym on Sunday (the only day above that I did NOT bike) to add in a swim which would have made it 8 out of 8 days of biking... but I thought it would be better to truly get in a rest day, which was probably the right call.

As far as biking goes, those 8 days looked like this:

THURSDAY was my long birthday ride.

FRIDAY was biking to and from the gym (with some extra as well) so I could swim.

SATURDAY was just a moderate ride mentioned in this post - that put me at 101.09 miles for the week! In MARCH!!

SUNDAY was a rest day. I actually got a massage!

MONDAY was an easy spin along the river (and a bit of the Greenway) in the afternoon after one of my best long runs ever that morning!

TUESDAY was biking to and from the pool for a long swim.

WEDNESDAY was a trip to Menards and the library by bike - just easy errands on a chilly day.

And THURSDAY was biking to and from class after a big trainer ride that morning (as it was too cold then for an outdoor "training ride").

My (super dirty) mountain bike in the hallway to my office at work.

So in those 8 days, I had 7 rides outside (only 2 of those being "training rides") totaling 122.54 miles. Nice!!

Before my family came back on Friday afternoon, I fit in a running speed workout on Friday morning. I figured it was time for another track workout, but I'm trying to balance out my speed workouts better this year. I really started doing shorter/harder track workouts in 2022, and then did that a lot more in 2023, and it was sort of no surprise that 2024 held a handful of lifetime running PRs because of that added speed work. But I maybe focused TOO much on short work on the track, as proven by staying OFF the track for 9 weeks leading up to a fast TC 10 Mile that utilized mostly tempo runs. So I realized on Friday that I should do more of a tempo run instead of intervals on the track.

My warm-up started SLOW and HEAVY. I was well aware that I was feeling all the recent biking in my legs. I thought this workout could suck. Hard. I did an old "Coach Jen" workout that was 1 mile warm-up, then straight into 4 descending tempo miles. Stop and walk and try not to die, then a mile cool-down home.

All I remembered from doing this workout back in August to prep for the TC 10 Mile was that my first mile was 6:0x, and then the rest got faster and were all sub-6:00. But I didn't remember any more details.

My first mile on Friday was OK. It was about what I thought it would be (nothing great, but not horrible either): 3:03 + 3:02 = 6:06.3.

My 2nd mile was just a bit better, but I was hurting. I was ready for this to be quite a bit slower than in August. I turned around after a mile 2 that was 2:58 + 2:58 = 5:56.2.

"OK... THIS is where the workout is MADE. Keep it strong here!" I was really hurting, but a 2:55 half-mile split made me feel a bit better. And then I felt like I was dying as I finished mile 3, but again, a 2:51 half-mile split made me feel OK with how much I was hurting. Mile 3 was 2:55 + 2:51 = 5:47.3.

I didn't know if I'd be able to finish a full 4 miles, and that's how you know you're doing a tempo run correctly! But it only counts if you ACTUALLY hold on through the finish. I finished with the biggest uphill in the final half mile, but I kept up the perfect descend with 2:50 + 2:49 = 5:40.2!

It turns out that I was faster NOW than I was in August when I was in the best running shape of my life! I ran a 23:39 then, and I ran a 23:30 now on the exact same course. And EVERY mile was faster now! The 1st mile was 2 sec faster, the 2nd was 2.5 sec faster, and the 3rd and 4th were both 2 sec faster! I had no idea I was under each of my splits from 7 months ago! (And in my 8 half-mile splits, 5 were faster now, 2 were the same, and 1 was slower now.)

Half-mile splits in an out-and-back 4-mile tempo.


Started at split 2, finished at split 10, walked to
the north and back to split 11 before running a cool-down.

That was a THRILLING way to wrap up a nice week in the saddle! Didn't think it'd end with one of my fastest tempo workouts ever! Woo-hoo!!

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The Final 4 Weeks of 'Coach Jen's' TC 10 Mile Training

In September, I posted about the first 4.5 weeks of TC 10 Mile training where I "reused" Coach Jen's workouts from 2010. I was REALLY HAPPY that I was able to keep up with my 29-year-old self now that it's 14 years later! I REALLY didn't think I'd be able to do that!

Here's what the final 4 weeks of training with her workouts looked like (showing early Sept through the race in early Oct):

And here's that same calendar with my workouts overlaid as FASTER NOW or SLOWER NOW (just like I did in the post about my first 4.5 weeks of training):

The overall bummer (and why I was questioning myself so much leading up to the race) was that my only 2 "normal" Monday long runs were slower now: the first one wasn't bad (just 0:01 slower), but the second one was 0:36 slower, and that made me question my fitness. My 3rd long run was VERY similar (1 week pre-race), but then my final burst of speed the Wednesday of the race was slower as well. I had 3 out of 12 workouts RED in those last 4 weeks, where I only had 2 out of 14 workouts RED in my first 4.5 weeks of TC 10 Mile training - but I suspected that I'd be "making faster gains" when I was back in my 20s vs being an older and more seasoned runner now, so that wasn't surprising.

For more details: here's a post about the first 10 days of that calendar above, here's my descending tempo run that was a bit faster on the 20th, here's the WORST run - my last slow long run, and here's the final big week of training of the 23rd through the 29th. Oh, and here's "September in Review", but that doesn't go into detail of the specific workouts like the previous links do. And here's the first 4.5 weeks of TC 10 Mile training where I started with Jen's workouts.

And one kind-of-unrelated note: even though I was 0:18 slower this year at the TC 10 Mile than I was when Coach Jen got me to my PR 14 years ago, I still felt like this was a MAJOR WIN. I was NOT expecting to get under 60 minutes, so to go 59:23 this year was a DREAM. I maybe could have shaved a few seconds off some middle miles, but only if I had the hindsight to know "You will feel like [this] and run a 59:23. So how much more can you suffer in miles 5, 6, and 7 and still NOT BONK?!?" But I don't think there would have been ANY way in a PERFECT race to hit a PR. As I age, I'm happy seeing my "age graded" results going up and getting better. In my PR race in 2010, I had an age graded result of 74%:

And that moved up to 78% this year even though I was 0:18 slower because I'm slowing down "more slowly" than average:

Old guy still trying to bang it out!

(Also note that I was so much BETTER in my age group this year because I'm runner strong as an older guy [vs in 2010 when my age group was all the speedy 22 to 29-year-old men], and also note that my overall place is much WORSE this year because they included the pros in the overall race [which they traditionally haven't done].)

Also, I can't state enough that I had GREAT weather for this training. I'm pretty rigid in what days I do what workouts, which stinks on some of these nice fall days where I say "Jeez, it's 75 today, and it would have been a great day for a ride! But it's my 'pool day,' so woe is me. Oh well." But that rigidity has also helped keep me injury-free these last few years! And this fall had many PERFECT running days. And that helped me prep for this sub-60 10 mile. One of the reasons I didn't hit my goal at the Raspberry Run 1 Mile (running a 4:52 instead of a PR of sub-4:49) was that 2-3 of my track workouts were rainy (one was POURING rain) and one "important" track workout had to be done on a family trip on a trail. I was grateful for great training weather leading up to this race, and it helped me on race day!

As far as next year goes, I really don't know if I want to train this hard right away agian. I was just starting to feel a little burnt out by the end of these 8.5 weeks, and I don't know if I can do this RIGHT AWAY again. It was SUPER FUN to run FAST at the race, but I also don't need to have a goal like that EVERY year - I can just "run." If I trained like this next year, I know I'd be obsessively comparing new training to 2024 splits to 2010 splits, and I don't know if I need to do that. I don't need to make running a stressful endeavor. We'll see what next summer holds... I could see myself looking back to SOME of the workouts, but not doing the entire "program" like I did this year. My "normal" long runs these last few years looked a lot like what Jen had me doing, so I can keep doing normal long runs and maybe just pepper in some different speed workouts here-and-there. We'll see.

Again, check some links above for more specifics about these workouts, and here's the first 4.5 weeks of TC 10 Mile training to kick off this 8+ week training session.

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A Few More 'Sub-60 TC 10 Mile' Thoughts

I was SUPER happy with this past weekend's 59:23 at the TC 10 Mile! I shifted my goal mid-race from "maybe I can go sub-61?..." to "I'll be bummed if I don't get sub-60 because this is REALLY GOING WELL!!"

As I said in my race report, I think I was so fast because I had been nailing Coach Jen's workouts (that she gave me in 2010 for my PR race of 59:05) over the last 8+ weeks, and also because I've been running my long runs harder over these last 2-3 years.

Here are 13 more post-race thoughts:

• ONE: I really let myself rest before this race. I tend to always try to do a LITTLE more leading up to the race. Here's what 2021 and 2022 (the last 2 times I did the TC 10 Mile) looked like leading up to the race:

2021: 55 min easy spin and upper body on Thurs, core and legs with easy run on Friday.


2022: same (with slightly longer easy spin and upper body
on Thurs, and slightly longer final legs and core on Friday).

Compare that with what Coach Jen had me do in my PR year of 2010:

2010: easy spin WED, easy run Thurs, nothing Fri, and short easy run Sat.

So I backed way off this year... more than what I'm comfortable doing:

2024: short/easy spin Thurs, NO upper body Thurs, NO legs and core Fri, nothing Saturday!

That's SO much less than I'm used to doing if you look above to 2021 and 2022!! That may have helped! (And even with that extra rest, I DID have some effort in my run on Wednesday: normally I'd be going totally easy, but Jen's workout was "6x2 min hard then 2 min easy" just to get the legs moving.)

• TWO: related to that, my intensity over the 4 weeks leading up to the race shows that I was building, and then resting. The race is the final "peak" on the far right of this graph:

Three weeks of decent intensity, then a TINY week.

• THREE: it's fun to look at where the runners were based on the time of day. These interactive graphs were shown in the race results. The pros started at 6:55, and the first wave (including me) started at 7:00, with 5 total waves going out including the pros. By 7:30, there were TWO runners at mile 7.7, and everyone else was behind them:

7:45: some pros had finished, and I would have been at 7.3 miles (not yet to 7.7 miles).


8:00: I had been finished for 37 seconds! I was one of the 189 finishers at that point!

• FOUR: my overall place is much worse at this race than in year's past because the pros were lumped in with us "normies." The last 3 times I did this race before 2022, I was 85th, 95th, and 94th overall. This year, I posted a LOT better time (also moving way up in my age group), but ended up 147th. I don't know how many pros went off before us, but it was probably about 50 runners... which would put me back just breaking into the top-100 like "normal."

• FIVE: here's my elevation and pace chart. It shows the big hill at mile 2-3, the short little hill at the half-way point, and then that brutal "false flat" uphill from miles 5-7:

Half-mile pace with elevation: slow up the mile 3 hill,
then faster along River Road, then building to the finish.

• SIX: maybe my "proudest" results from the race are my age group placement: 5th out of 545. I've never been that high in a field so big. I was curious how close I was to top-3, and I would have had to have been 23 seconds faster (10 spots overall):

• SEVEN: where could I have been faster during the race? It's hard to say. I always look back after a race to figure out where I could shave off time with the gift of hindsight, and I think I ran this race VERY well. As I said in my race report that I often finish and think I could have been faster in the middle miles, but I was already SO FAST in these middle miles compared to other TC 10 Miles: I ran miles 6 and 7 in 12:08 this year, and the average of those miles over the previous 7 times I did this race was 12:49! I took off 0:41 between those 2 miles alone! If I was faster in some earlier miles, I maybe wouldn't have the endurance to keep those middle miles fast - that's a big unknown. I MAYBE could have gone a bit faster in miles 8 and 9, but I was working pretty hard. An ABSOLUTELY perfect race could have MAYBE gotten me down to a sub-59:05 PR, but I don't know where I'd find those seconds. I'm not disappointed at all with this race! I got right up to my redline and held myself there for 10 miles!

• EIGHT: I ran through SO many race scenarios in my head leading up to the race. I think that helped me be ready. What if I started fast? Slow? What would I do up the hill at mile 3 in either case? What if I hit half-way point sub-30:00? Or at my ideal of 30:15 or so? Or slower nearing 31:00? What if I hit it at 30:15 feeling like crap? Feeling great? I worked through lots of options and wasn't just thinking about "OK, so I'm gonna run 60:45 for sure, and I'll do it like [this]."

• NINE: in my pre-race post, I noted "peaking" at the right time. My Garmin also then told me when the race was over and that I've been "recovering" now:

"Maintaining," then lots of "productive" training (maybe my biggest
stretch ever), then "peaking" for a few days, and now in "recovery."

(Sidenote: maybe I've never seen "peaking" before because I've never been properly trained... or maybe it's because I've never entered an upcoming race into my Garmin. I don't know if it truly just looks at the workouts/effort/HR of your training, or if it also needed to see "oh, you're racing in 2 days... I think you're 'peaking' for that. Doesn't that make you feel good?" I just don't know.)

• TEN: my HRV status TANKED after the race. I once had it hit 50 the night after I was in a car crash. But the night after the 10 Mile, it dropped to 46, which is the lowest I'd ever seen:

... but then that same morning, it told me I was "recovered" and ready to train again:

• ELEVEN: local speedster Danny Docherty showed someone familiar in one of his Instagram posts! He ended up 17th overall in 2:26! I was flipping through his images, and I spotted this scene from the last 2.5 miles of the marathon:

That's our priest Father RJ in front of our church blessing the runners!

If Danny started at 8:00 a.m., ran a 2:26 marathon, and was at mile 23.8 here, that would mean it was about 10:12 a.m. when he ran past our church. And there's a 10:30 a.m. mass, so Father RJ was maybe outside for a bit before mass. Worlds colliding! Too funny!

• TWELVE: this hard training over the last 2 months bumped up my V02 Max. It normally floats between 62 and 64, but it shot up to 66 during the final bit of my training:

• THIRTEEN: the day after the race, I had a nice walk around the University before class, and I enjoyed a Cosmic Brownie from a vending machine. I just got out to get some blood flowing before class:

A nice 30 min walk (to keep my "30 mins of exercise/day" streak alive
since Nov 2023, along with my "walk 1+ mile everyday" streak as well).

Back with some race photos shortly! Here's my RACE REPORT if you missed it!

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RACE REPORT: TC 10 Mile

Yesterday was my BIG RACE for the year! I've been posting a lot these last few months about how I looked back to Coach Jen's workouts that she gave me for 8.5 weeks leading up to my 10 mile PR of 59:05 in 2010. As I posted about over the weekend, I was REALLY HAPPY with my training, but just unsure what I'd be able to do at the race. I was HOPING for sub-61:00, and I had a few "check in" points along the course to for me to pay attention to (as I posted about over the weekend as well).

Pre-race burritos and burgers the night before!


WINDY the morning of the race!


"Twin Cities in Motion's" post of the finish line early on Sunday.

My sister-in-law was racing the 10 Mile (as she often does), so my brother-in-law and her offered to pick up me and my wife for the race. So Matt dropped us off near US Bank Stadium around 6:20:

Angela and I about to race the 10 Mile!


Me and my cutie. She was going to start the marathon in 90 minutes!


A few of my teammates!

Angela and I found our way to the starting line. I bumped into SO many friends (and family! - my cousin's wife was in town for the race!). We heard an announcement noting that the mile markers might not be out there because it was so windy that they could get dangerous - wild!! I worked my way up near the front (maybe 10 rows back or so) and waited for the horn.

"Runners to your marks!!.... *BULL HORN NOISES*"

I hopped around the standard few people who shouldn't be that far up. My wife cheered for me a few blocks later, and I finally noticed her AFTER she took these photos:

I'm wondering if that woman taking photos of me is my wife... :)

We were talking a different route to get out of downtown! We went straight to the river (to the Stone Arch Bridge) which meant there was an extra downhill and then the uphill behind the Guthrie that we didn't have before. My first half mile split was a bit fast (sort of not-surprisingly) at 2:56. I think I eased up a LITTLE so I didn't blow up later.

• MILE 1: 5:57 (2:56 and 3:01)

We were on the rollers along the river. I tried to "take the tangents," but it was crowded and I often had to take slightly longer routes.

• MILE 2: 5:57 (2:56 and 3:01) "Nice. Two great splits to start!"

I felt the strong wind at our back. I was hoping it would push the whole way! A bald eagle soared above:

Here's where my first big "choice" came - we were headed to the base of the longest hill of the day, and I had to decide if I was going to push the pace or ease up a bit. I found myself pushing. I passed a group of 6 women running together, including Kari C. who I cheered for as she smiled back. I MISSED MY 2.5 MILE SPLIT which was a bummer - this new Garmin doesn't beep as loud as my old one, and I've been missing a lot of splits because of that (especially while biking). But I finished the mile with normally slower splits, but still splits showing that I was working up that hill:

• MILE 3: 6:09 (3:03 and 3:06) "18:03 overall for 3 miles... time to keep these next miles strong before the 'check in' at mile 5!"

I was happy with that pace! I was on my familiar running route now, and I just kept working.

• MILE 4: 5:46 (2:51 and 2:55) "THAT was fast! Still feeling OK!!"

My Garmin was going off 0:15-0:18 before the mile markers, so I was already making note of that: I'd need some extra time to get from my Garmin's "mile 10" to the actual finish line. And if I'm close to breaking 61:00, I need to be aware of that! Now where would I be at mile 5?...

• MILE 5: 5:59 (3:01 and 2:58)

• FIRST 5 MILES: 30:03!

That 30:03 split was at the actual mile marker - I hit mile 5 on my Garmin more like 29:48, but that was early. I stated in my pre-race post that I wanted to be under 31:00 but didn't think I'd be close to 30:00 flat. Well, I was close to 30:00 flat. A shift happened here - now I wondered if I could negative split this race and run a sub-60! I knew I'd have to keep this next miles strong as these "false flat" uphill miles can often suck a lot of time out of my race. Time to suffer!!

Right after the mile 5 marker is the nastiest hill on the course: we turn away from the river and head up a 2 block gut-buster:

Dark blue = slow. Turning away from the river up a hill.

I got onto Summit Ave and felt better than I remember the last few times I did this race. I was preparing myself to suffer. Can I keep these splits close to 6:00 when they are usually 6:20-something??

• MILE 6: 6:07 (3:04 and 3:03) "A 6:07 here is a MAJOR WIN!"

My PR year in 2010 (with a 59:05 finishing time) saw a mile 6 split of 6:17. I was aware in the moment that this was my fastest mile 6 split of any of my TC 10 Mile races!

I had a plan to get to mile 7.5 and start going a bit harder, but after running a 2:59 split from mile 6-6.5, I decided to up the pace a mile early! OOoooooohhhhhh that's a good sign!!

• MILE 7: 6:01 (2:59 and 3:01) "Again, one of my faster mile 7 splits!"

One of my "check-in" points was overall at mile 7. I had wanted to be around 43:30 so I could maybe run some fast splits (if I was feeling good) to hit just barely sub-61. But after getting my mile 7 split and then running the extra few seconds to the mile 7 marker, I was at 42:15. I was 75 secs faster than I HOPED to be at this point! AND FEELING GOOD!!

I had been chasing Nathan C. (hubby of Kari C. who I passed uphill at mile 2.5) ever since we got on Summit around mile 5.5, and I was getting a BIT closer to him. He was a good rabbit! We ran through the 2nd-to-last water stop, and just like at every water stop up to that point, I grabbed a sip.

• MILE 8: 5:44 (2:51 and 2:52) "WHO *EVER* SAYS THIS AT MILE 8 OF A 10 MILE?... BUT SUB-60 IS IN THE BAG!!!!"

Yes, I was that confident. Maybe 20 minutes prior, I would have been happy with sub-61. But at this point I would have been bummed with anything over 60! I was running strong and laying down good splits yet!!!

For the previous 1.5 miles or so (since around mile 7), I was going back-and-forth with a woman, and I mustered out a cheer for her along with "we've got a shot at sub-60!"

I was watching my splits, and I was keeping them under 3:00/half mile, so I was still taking time OFF my sub-60 (anticipated) finish.

• MILE 9: 5:52 (2:55 and 2:56) "Gooo!! Keep shaving time off this wild sub-60!"

We turned to angle slightly north at mile 9, and then the wind was SLIGHTLY in our face. It was a little defeating, but I didn't think it was enough to make me bleed so much time that I'd end up over 60:00. I tried to duck in behind other runners when I could, but I was being slapped with wind more often than not.

I spotted bro-in-law Matt in the distance (standing across from the Cathedral), and shortly after heard him cheering for me around mile 9.5:

Me back there to the left.


Close-up. That's the woman on the far left I was going back-and-forth with.




A little bit of an awkward hip-drop, but I was FLYING at this point!

Notice I was running past that guy in red over those last 3 photos. I was moving. I don't remember much about running down the hill past the Cathedral. I wasn't *absolutely* dying, so I wasn't desperately looking for the finish line. I was still just running strong!!

• MILE 10: 5:31 (2:52 and 2:39)

• MILE 10 to the FINISH: 0:18

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel, 43, M, St. Paul

59:23
5:57 pace

147 out of 9117 overall
120 out of 3338 men
5 out of 545 in the M40-44 age group

First half: 30:03 / Last half: 29:20

- Start to 5K: I passed 77 runners and was passed by 13
- 5K to 8.76 miles: I passed 15 runners and was passed by 4
- 8.76 to finish: I passed 3 runners and was passed by 1

- 11th in age group at start
- 5th in age group at 5K
- 4th in age group at mile 8.76
- 5th in age group at finish

[Garmin had 10.06 miles in 59:23.8, or 5:54 pace]

Garmin said 22 mph wind from the NW!!
(Also, some "green" after crossing the river for fast mile 4,
but otherwise nothing unusual with the pace colors.)

8 POST RACE NOTES:

• I couldn't be happier with this race! In my pre-race post, I mentioned something about not even dreaming of breaking 60... but it WAS in the back of my mind. I never said it out loud (I told lots of people I hoped to break or be right around 61 mins), but I had sub-60 WAY back in my head as a possibility. So then being WELL under 60 was amazing. I just felt like I was flying. Yes, it was hard, but it was like a "fun" hard, and not a "defeating" hard. I felt better at the end of this race than I have in a looooong time.

• I had my fastest middle miles EVER at this race. I've always said this is an issue for me, and I mentioned it in my pre-race post. So here's some proof about how much faster I was in the middle of this race: the last 7 times I did this race (2011, 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, and 22), my splits for mile 6 and 7 were SLOW. Those years, they averaged between 6:20 and 6:28 (in order, they were 6:28, 6:24, 6:27, 6:20, 6:22, 6:25, and 6:24). In my PR year of 2010, they were faster averaging 6:14. This year I averaged 6:04! (6:07 and 6:01.)

• Related to that last point, I think some of my speed in those middle miles came from how much harder I've been running some of my "pace miles" in my long runs. I've had a summer full of PR after PR in the speed of my long runs. Between that and Coach Jen's training, I was ready to knock out some faster miles.

• I only had 3 miles that were over 6:00. In 2010 when I ran my 59:05 PR, I had 4 miles over 6:00. The last 2 years, I had 9 miles EACH YEAR over 6:00! Even my previous 2nd-best TC 10 Mile from 2011 had 9 miles over 6:00! This was a great race for me.

• Here's an interesting point: I've been saying that my training has been keeping up with Jen's workouts from 2010 partly because I have a Garmin giving me 1/2 mile splits now (when back then I only had mile markers mapped out), so I might not be in the same shape. But then DURING the race I also used the 1/2 mile splits to keep my miles where they needed to be. So early on (like miles 1, 2, and 4 for example), when I had a fast start to a mile, I could ease up a bit and not start to "blow up" over the course of the entire mile. It's not surprising at all that early on many of my mile splits had faster first halves and slower 2nd halves to help keep me from going out too hard. (In later miles, it was just about surviving, and you'll see my half-mile splits are a lot more even later in the race.)

• The (mostly) tail wind was wonderful! I can't say enough good things about that. Thanks God / Mother Nature.

• Paris 2024 Olympic marathoner Conner Mantz broke the course record, and ran the fastest time ever on American soil!!! My understanding is that because it's a point-to-point race, it doesn't qualify for the true American record. He ran 45:13, and the actual record is about a minute slower than that. I would have loved to have seen that! Matt said the guys were FLYING to the finish! The top-5 times EVER ran at this race were all ran yesterday.

• I had a little toe pain post-race, but I didn't think it was this bad:

Nice little blood blister there!

I have a lot more to say about Coach Jen's workouts and how I think they helped me with this fast race, so check back for more on that! I'll leave you with this pic that Henry snapped of me when I got home from the race:

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Pre-Race Thoughts for the TC 10 Mile

The training is done. I woke up this morning with a "99" on my Garmin for "training readiness," and I've never seen a number that high before:

It's also showing I'm "peaking" for my training (purple)
after some weeks of "productive" training (green). GOOD TIMING!!

I'm REALLY happy with how well I kept up with "2010 Steve's" training splits, but as I've been saying for months, it helps that I have a Garmin now and that it gives me half-mile splits. That extra feedback is helping me hit splits that I was hitting 14 years ago when I just had known mile markers on any given route. We'll have to see how this all translates to a race tomorrow!

Here are 4 big "check-ins" I'll be doing throughout the race:

• FIRST: mile 3 split and total time at mile 3. The first mile is just getting into a grove - it could be fast or slow, and as I stated at the beginning of my 2010 TC 10 Mile race report where I ran 59:05, an extra fast or extra slow first mile won't ruin anything. (Just not TOO fast to start!!) The second mile is mostly downhill and then some gentle rollers along the river. And then the first "test" comes in mile 3 - it's a long uphill from the edge of the Mississippi River up about 100 feet to end up crossing the Franklin Ave Bridge. And then the "mile 3" marker is just across the bridge.

If I'm feeling good and that I really want to suffer for the next 40-some minutes, I could push it up that hill a little. Normally, that's a slower split of mine (generally around 6:30), but in my PR year, it was 5:41 (I'm NOT planning on being that fast!). How much do I want to put myself in a hole early on with the possible pay-off of a fast time? (Or the other possible outcome of crashing and burning at mile 7 or 8 if I go TOO hard?) Again, in my PR year I hit mile 3 at 17:27 overall, but most years I'm around 18:20-18:40. I'm not giving myself any specific goals, but I'd love to be just over 18:00 at this point.

• SECOND: total time at mile 5. There's a timing mat there, and it's right before a short nasty hill, and then a long "false flat" that we go up for 2 miles. I don't really care about mile 4 or 5 as they're on my normal training grounds with small rollers. I need to keep those miles moving, but I won't be too concerned with an overly fast or slow split in there.

But I'd love to see a decent number at the half-way point: I don't think I'll be close to 30:00 flat, but I'd love to be decently under 31:00. (That's a small window... I know!) And again, how I'm feeling will play a part in my mood here: running 31:00 while feeling GREAT will have me pushing for a big negative split (which historically can turn out some decent race times for me), while running 30:00 while feeling DEAD will make those next uphill miles really slow and depressing, and I'll stop wanting to push myself.

• THIRD: individual mile splits at mile 6, 7, and 8. I need to be strong here! Historically, I often end up saying "I think I could have been faster in those middle miles," and I want to BELIEVE in my training and push hard here. The last 2 times I raced this in 2021 and in 2022, I had BAD splits in those miles: 2021 was 6:25, 6:24, and then finally a 6:05; and 2022 was 6:24, 6:25, and 6:16. Every one of those splits I had wanted to be faster at that point. Yes, it's heading up a false flat, but I want to be knocking those split down!

But I also have to be realistic there. My PR year had those 3 splits being 6:17, 6:10, and 5:46, so I realistically can't (shouldn't) be shooting for 6:00 flat for those miles - that'd be dumb. Two of those 3 splits in 2010 were my slowest splits of the race. So it IS a slow part of the course for me (probably for everyone) and I need to accept that, but I also need to try to work through it and keep it strong.

• FOURTH: overall time at mile 7 (and maybe mile 8). When I'm getting closer to the end of a longer race like this, I start doing math heading backwards from the finish line: "OK, if I can run 6:00/mile for these last 3 miles, then I have 18:00 left... am I where I want to be?" Around mile 7 or 8 will be the first time I'm really thinking about my "realistic" finishing time. An AMAZING day would put me at 60:xx at the finish. I'm not even dreaming of breaking 60:00, so ANYTHING starting with SIX ZERO would be fan-freaking-tastic. If I see 43:30 at mile 7, that means (if I'm feeling good) if I can run 5:50s to the finish, I can hit 61:00 flat. If at mile 8, I see anything around 49:00 flat on my watch, I'll be thrilled. That'd be amazing! If I can run mile 9 and then a faster (downhill) mile 10 in 11:59 total, then I'll be fist-pumping my way to a 60:59! I REALLY don't know if that's possible, but sub-61 is my best possible outcome.

My 2nd best possible outcome is to run a 2nd best 10 mile time. In 2011 (the year after my "coached" year of hitting my 59:05 PR for the 10 mile), I re-used Coach Jen's workouts and ran my 2nd best 10 mile of 1:01:20. I've been better about hitting those workouts these last few months, but I was also 14 years younger back then. So I'm faster on paper now, but wisdom says I might be dragging ass this year. So really, a lot of my predictions are based on that year: I "used" coach's workouts without officially being coached, and cranked out a 1:01:20. Can I break that this year with better cross training and more consistent running as an "old guy?"

Oh, and here are my times from my official 10 mile races:

10 mile races (13 total):

59:xx: 1 time
1:01:xx: 3 times
1:02:xx: 8 times
1:03:xx: 1 time (at the end of the Loony Challenge race weekend)

My 2 other 1:01:xx times were 1:01:41 and 1:01:59, so anything under 1:01:20 will make it my 2nd fastest 10 mile out of 14 races! And that's what I'll be shooting for!

Oh, and it's worth noting that I DON'T think I'll be WORKING to hit those times above at every "check-in" along the way. If some of these earlier miles start slipping away, I don't think I'll REALLY up the pace to get back on track. I'd much rather let some time slip away if needed, and then hope I have the training to lay down some fast closing miles vs trying to keep a certain pace early when I'm dying, and then REALLY suffer and lose time in the final few miles. I'm AWARE of these times I want to hit above, but I don't NEED to hit them at every check-in.


POSITIVE THOUGHTS:

1. Training has been solid! I’ve had many workouts a little faster or a little slower than my workouts from 14 years ago, and that has really given me some confidence.

2. Training has been varied. I haven’t been doing the same few workouts over and over again.

3. My cross training is better than it was 14 years ago. Four of my biggest months of cycling (since 2009 at least) have happened over the last five months. My overall endurance might be the best that it’s ever been in my life. Wow... that's a confidence booster to type!

4. Older = wiser. ??????????? Maybe????????


NEGATIVE THOUGHTS:

1. I have no idea what’s a realistic pace.

2. I have no idea what’s a realistic pace.

3. I have no idea what’s a realistic pace. Really, this is my biggest concern. Working with an actual coach (and not just looking back on old workouts from a coach) would have been able to give me more thoughts on how I should first start the race, and what I could realistically expect overall. Instead, I’m running blind. I want to run as best as I can, but I also don't want to go out too hard and just crash-and-burn at mile 7. There's a fine line!!!

4. It’s been two years since my last long distance race. And with shorter speed work these last few years, I’m afraid I could go out “too hot” and really pay the price later.

5. Older = slower. I can train like I did when I was young, but I don’t think I can quite race like I did when I was young.

6. I can’t hold onto the same level of pain as I could when I was younger. I really suffered for that 59:05 in 2010. Let’s say that same level of suffering could get me down to 60:30 this year... if that’s true, I’d only be able to “suffer” my way to 61:15 or so, because I can't "suffer" like I did when I was in my 20s. I really need to try to convince myself to be strong in those middle miles.


As usual, I’m probably just overthinking all of this. I’ll go out there, see how I react to what’s happening, try to suffer hard, and crank out whatever I can. STAY TUNED!!!!

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