Week of Costa Rica Workouts

I've only posted a fun "jungle adventure" video so far from our Costa Rica trip that ended just over a week ago, but I'll have a few more videos and pics over the next few weeks. Here's a quick look at my training as I was there:

I "grayed out" the previous week except for Sunday as that was the morning we took off. I did nothing on Sunday the 18th.

• MON, 1/19: nothing. This is usually my long run day. But I was resting a glute issue that's still hanging around. I walked around a lot, but didn't do any workout (on purpose).

• TUES, 1/20: shorter upper body. My shoulder still isn't right from hurting it in December. I'm feeling pretty beat up with this sore glute and sore shoulder. Dang. So I did a shorter 5x upper body for everything by my shoulders (chest/back, lats, then biceps/triceps).

• WED, 1/21: treadmill test run. I was hoping to go about 5 miles, but I felt my glute get a little sore at about mile 4.7. So I stopped at mile 4.75, but I wasn't hurting - it was a good time to stop.

• THURS, 1/22: good upper body. This was my longest workout, and it was a nice one. I did 8x everything (and 8 minutes of some PT shoulder exercises) in 65 minutes. And then I hit the buffet for refueling:

High protein buffet post-workout: FOUR kinds of eggs (whites, scramble,
omelette, and on an open-faced English muffin sandwich).

Later in the day, I did some core as my wife did a little workout as well - we put the boys to bed because they were pooped, and then we went to the gym for a bit.

• FRI, 1/23: easy treadmill run. Nothing fancy. And my butt held up a bit longer this time! I went 5.5 miles. (Well, 8.8 km, which is JUST under 5.5 miles... I was counting 800 meters on the treadmill as a half mile). And I didn't stop because it hurt, but because I had gone far enough.

About to hit 8.8 km, and 22 "laps" on a track.
(I just stared at those dots doing laps around the track for 40 minutes.)


Afterwards, I did a cool-down walk towards the beach...


... and had this view as the beach was still in shadows. Life is rough.

This was all on a day that schools all across the Twin Cities were closed because it was too cold - it was something like 20 degrees below 0 with a windchill of around 40 below!

• SAT, 1/24: quicker upper body. After getting more comfortable with their machines, I did a shorter, HEAVIER workout of just 5x everything. But moved more weight.

• SUN, 1/25: core. Just some early morning core before heading home!

And my intensity and steps are "interesting" for the week. Here are screenshots from last night, showing a pretty normal/decent week back home last week, with Costa Rica being the 2nd week back (and an extra small week 3 weeks back from this butt injury that I'm still trying to work through). In Costa Rica, I completely skipped my long run on Monday to let my butt rest. And I didn't do any swimming or bike rides - just running, some strength work, and walking. My intensity minutes took a hit while in Costa Rica as I'd expect:

All small days.


A big drop between the injury 3 weeks ago and skipping runs in C.R. 2 weeks ago.


But my step count was right on par even though I skipped a 15,000 step run.

Lack of running that week, fewer official Garmin "walks" than normal, but having to walk around a big resort to get anywhere kept my steps high.

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Two Very Different Weeks of Training! BIG and Small.

The last 2 weeks of November were quite opposite.

I noted that my week of training 3 weeks ago was a decent one, and that I figured I'd have 1 more big week before an easier week. Well my big week was BIG...

... and then my small week was small:

That's 34+ miles of running, nearly 5 hours in the saddle, and 16+ hours of strength time the week of the 17th!

But then just 13+ miles of running, 3 hours in the saddle, and 9+ hours of strength time the following week.

(That's over 60% less running, 40% less saddle time, and about 44% less strength time.)

I had 5 "decent" weeks in a row (with 3 of those 5 being really nice), so it was a good time to have a "back off" week. I backed off partly because it was the week of Thanksgiving (with lots of family time, and I'm good at getting in the workouts when I can and not FREAKING OUT if I have to ease up for a few days), and partly because it was a race week because of the Turkey Day 5K on Thanksgiving morning (so I took it easy a few days before and the day after).

The week BEFORE Thanksgiving was an intensity minutes PR!

March and July each had a week of 2000+, but 2 weeks ago was 2124! First time over 2100!

That would have been a decent week the way it was, but it became a PR because I moved my Monday run (Nov 24th) up to Sunday (Nov 23rd) which means I had 2 long runs that week. I also had 3 decent trainer workouts, and even a little spin on my mountain bike down by the river.

And then last week was just easy all around, except for the Thanksgiving morning race. And it had a lot of missed strength days as well because of Thanksgiving fun with extended family.

This week will hopefully turn out "decent" again! Back at it!!

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Week in Review: Decent Again...

... and hopefully one more decent week this week before a random Thanksgiving week.

I had a big week of training 2 weeks ago partly because I fit in a nice long outdoor ride and my wife was gone for a few days so I could squeeze more workouts in at the last second. Last week's training was decent, but didn't look as good as 2 weeks ago:

Last week. Pretty normal looking.

I didn't have ALL the saddle time that I had 2 weeks ago, but I still had 2 decent spins.

And my strength days were decent (I seem to be doing more for my upper body than I ever have before).

And my runs were good: Monday's long run had some pace miles that were 6:18 pace, Wednesday was just a normal easy run, and Friday was a track workout that I posted about earlier this week.

Nothing was AMAZING, but it was just "decent" all around. The only way it could have been better would be if I got in a ride on Tuesday, maybe some outdoor spinning on my mountain bike, and maybe some slightly longer core workouts. But the last 4 weeks have all had a decent amount of "intensity minutes" according to my Garmin:

A slight up-tick in the last 4 weeks compared to the previous 7.

My totals aren't going as high because I'm not commuting anywhere by bike. I need to get back into the habit of running "nearby errands" by bike when it works - we've just been busy lately where I don't have that time.

And my weekly steps for the last year shows all weeks (except 1 in June) with more than 125K steps, averaging over 141K weekly:

The last 2 weeks were more "normal" after a big 3 weeks.

Like I said in the first line of this post, I'm hoping to keep making this a big week as well. That would be 5 nice weeks in a row after 2 weeks of easier workouts after the TC 10 Mile (and 1 week of easier pre-race workouts before that). And then next week will be a built-in "back off" week as there are a handful of family commitments around Thanksgiving.

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Big Week of Training!

This past week felt like a solid week of training:

• MON: easy ride, good legs, and core. I did an 8K CC race on Sunday, so I didn't do my normal long run on Monday. Instead I just hopped on my mountain bike and went for a spin. And fit in some good legs and core.

• TUES: good upper body, and good trainer workout. I had a good spin early with 3 nice efforts as part of it:

And I had a nice upper body workout just an hour after that. Solid day!

• WED: easy run, good legs and core. A normal/good Wednesday.

• THURS: decent upper body workout, and then a long outdoor ride. I thought I'd actually have to skip this ride as I had a big evening of conferences at Henry's high school, and my wife was out of town. But I got home from class and had a chunk of time, and being it was 55 degrees outside, I quick got changed and headed out for a ride around 2:30 pm! But being it's now mid-Nov, I forgot how quickly it gets dark - it was getting a little darker than it should have been by the end of my ride at 4:45. Oops.

AND I was bonking hard for the last few miles - I looked back in my training log and never saw a 40+ mile ride in Oct or Nov, and I went for 41.57 miles on Thursday afternoon. Luckily (I guess), the 23 mph wind was out of the south, so I was pushed home for the final 5 miles. I was averaging over 19 mph with 5 miles left, but it dropped to 18.3 mph by the time I got home (between the BONK and weaving through rush hour on city streets):

Odd route working around some trail closures and construction.
(Follow the 5-mile laps to make sense of this.)

• FRI: easy run, good core and legs, and riding along side of Henry while he was on a run. Just a nice day of workouts.

• SAT: good upper body and decent spin. I was REALLY hoping it was going to be nice outside as my wife was still gone and I would have loved to sneak out for a ride. But it was chilly, so I dropped the boys off at fencing practice, and I got in a decent spin. I didn't go nearly as hard as my 2 rides earlier this week as I was feeling pretty pooped. So I did a workout similar to Tues where I did 3x10 min efforts, but the efforts weren't as hard, and I spun longer after finishing those intervals. The efforts are harder to see in my heart rate, but that's because I wasn't going as hard:

And my upper body workout that morning was a PR as well! Saturday's I tend to do circuit-style workouts: push-ups, back rows, pull-ups, biceps, triceps, and shoulders... then repeat. A usual workout is 6-8 sets for me on a Saturday. But I did 9 for the first time on this Saturday. And my body was aware that it was more: that 9th set was BRUTAL as I died during the end of most of those exercises.

• SUN: core. Sunday's are my rest day. I just had a nice walk (and stretch), and did some core.

I had 7 hrs and 49 mins of total "saddle time" in all of October. And this past week alone, I had 7 hrs and 15 mins of total saddle time! Sure, nearly an hour of that was riding easy with Henry as he ran, but still, that's a nice uptick in saddle time! And I had more outdoor miles in my long ride on Thursday than I had in all of October.

I had a lot of steps (139K) and a REAL SOLID week of "intensity minutes..."

1827 intensity minutes for the week - the last 3 weeks have been a nice boost.

... ESPECIALLY considering that I didn't have a long run on Monday because of the 8K CC race the day before! So a big week on paper even though I skipped one of my biggest normal workouts for the week! NICE!

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Nice Training Week: Normal, but Better!!

Saturday's post was about a NORMAL long run after 4 weeks of not-normal training (because of 2 races and then recovery). Well that long run a week ago kicked off a very NICE and NORMAL week of training! (With my last really normal training week coming about 6 weeks before that, which contained my last really normal outdoor training ride as well.)

Here's what this nice normal week looked like:

I've been out of the pool for about a month, so there's no swims. And I was hoping Saturday's ride would be outside, but when I had my window to workout, it was still mid-40s and raining, so NO THANKS - I stayed indoors on the trainer. And my strength time is HIGH for most of these workouts!

• MON: long run and good legs. This is the run I posted about on Saturday. We got home really early that morning from a trip to Chicago, so I just got a few hours of sleep and then got at it!

• TUES: good upper body. 8x everything in a good workout.

• WED: easy run, core, and legs. Nothing fancy, but good core!

• THURS: good upper body, and indoor spin. After 8x for everything on Tuesday, I did 7x on Thursday. And then I hit the trainer for 90 mins doing a simple 3x10 min effort workout.

• FRI: 2x2 mile intervals, core, and legs. Sure, I did a pretty normal long run on Monday, but this was my real test: some SPEED. I did my normal 2x2 mile intervals along the river with 3:00 walking rest between them:

Half-mile splits, a mile out and a mile back for each interval.


Close-up of the start/finish. 4-8 was the first interval, and 9-13 was the last.

I felt like I had forgotten how to run fast when I started the first interval. I was happy with my opening half mile of 2:58, and then not surprised that I had let up a little bit with the next one (3:03). I started a bit harder in the 2nd interval, and I really pushed myself for that one! Notice the last split of my FIRST interval was my FASTEST of that interval, but my last split of my LAST interval was my SECOND SLOWEST of that interval... I was hashed!!

2:58, 3:03, 2:53, 2:55 = 11:50.9

2:53, 3:00, 2:50, 2:58 = 11:43.0

• SAT: upper body circuits and trainer ride. Both of these were good! I did 8x upper body (for a total of 23 sets for every upper body muscle for the week!) and then hit the trainer for a longer ride. I wanted this to be outside, but it was still raining when I had time to do my workout, so I was back on the trainer. Damn. Just a basic workout with 4x10 min efforts:

Heart rate shows the workout.

• SUN: rest day with walking and core.

That FELT like a nice normal week of training! The first in a WHILE! I finally had some higher "intensity minutes" logged last week

1766 mins, which is actually the 12th biggest all year.
(After 5 weeks of 1000-1300 minutes.)


Also (randomly) almost set a weekly PR for steps! I was over 165K,
and just a few hundred from my biggest week in early June.

This week won't be QUITE as big, but I still hope it's decent!

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Lack of Biking (and Swimming)

Last week was a pretty unimpressive week:

It was the 4th week after losing my pool access, so there still wasn't any swimming. I'm TRULY planning to start hitting up a community pool in mid-October. We'll see...

And if you remember, there was a stretch from early July through mid-Aug where I biked 400+ miles. But now I haven't been outside on my bike for the last 12 days, and the indoor workouts (the purple on Thurs and Sat) haven't really been "workouts" - I've just been spinning my legs before or after harder run workouts for the TC 10 Mile. Which is problematic as I'm planning to race a final late-season duathlon this weekend!

The Monday long run was a hot and slow one (and the 2nd run that day was doing some drills at the park after the run), and then Friday's run had some decent speed.

The highlight of the week was nearly 14 hours of strength, leg, and core work. And the week before that was just over 14 hours! Big numbers there!

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Back-to-Back Big Weeks in the Saddle

My car's been in the shop, so I've been getting in some extra time in the saddle. I posted that the full week two weeks ago was a big week of 103+ miles. Well, I out-did that last week! Here's those last 2 weeks:

103.81 miles the week of July 21, and
112.31 miles the week of July 28th!!

That last week, I had lots of errands by bike on Mon-Thur: a few miles on Monday, to the pool and back with extra on Tues, to Target and to get Charlie a haircut on Wed, and to an orthodontics appointment with both boys on Thurs! And then I had a 31 mile "training" ride on Thursday (with the first 20 at tempo pace) and then just a moderate longer ride on Saturday for 38 miles. It ended up being a PR for "intensity minutes" on the week as well with 2080!! (And the week before [the first week on the screenshot above] was 1888 which was my 4th biggest week to that point.)

I should have my car back shortly! This week will hopefully have some big saddle time, but then I hope to be backing off! :)

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Big Bike Week (Like Last Year)

Last week was over 100 miles in the saddle:

103.81 miles of biking last week!

Last summer, I had a huge July with 370 miles of biking! That consisted of a big week of biking on a family vacation (119+ miles) earlier in the month, and then even a bigger week (123+ miles) mainly due to fitting in an extra ride after taking a day off running after the 2024 Raspberry Run 1 Mile.

Well last week was that same "week after the Raspberry Run 1 Mile" that was so big in the saddle last year. I didn't go for an extra ride because of the "skipped" a run after the race, but I ran a few errands by bike on Monday. I did a lot by bike on Tuesday as well. And then I had 2 actual "training" rides on Thurs and Saturday that I posted about over the weekend. So only those last 2 rides (36 and 28 miles, totaling 64+ miles) were on my tri bike. The earlier rides in the week were lugging my mountain bike around town with my big backpack on my back.

This July won't end up being 370+ miles of biking like last year, but I MIGHT be able to hit 300+ if the next few days pan out the way I hope they do!

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Wild Week Last Week: MINIMAL Training

After the Oakdale Spring Classic duathlon 10 days ago, I threw my bike and boys in the car, drove just a few miles to my sister-in-law's place, unloaded my bike and race gear, grabbed her kids and their luggage, and the 5 of us hit the road for a North Shore adventure! We all had so much fun when we did something similar last year that we had to try it again. I have a lot of photos to fix up yet, but here are 5 quick ones:

About to swim in Caribou Falls even though it was in the 50s!!


Highest waterfall in MN, and along the border with Canada.


Posing at Judge C.R. Magney State Park.


Foggy evening at Artists Point in Grand Marais.


Rock climbing at Black Beach.

We got back after 4 days just in time for Henry's birthday, then we packed up to go camping THE VERY NEXT DAY on a long-weekend trip to WI. We canoed the Kickapoo River:

Cousins in a canoe.




All the cousins that braved 5 hours on the river. (The youngest screamed
the last half and her parents just paddled and paddled to get off the river.)


CANNONBALLS back at our campgrounds!

So my Garmin "floors climbed" shows 3 days of hiking along the North Shore followed by a big spike on the last day of camping where I ran a hilly 13.4 mile run in WI:

Three days of hiking, then a HILLY run.


When viewed "weekly," last week's floors look HUGE.
Pretty much double my average week!


But "intensity" was TINY for the week: skipped my swim, both rides, and a lot of strength work.
(And this is HIGHER than it should be because I did my long run on Sun instead of Mon.)


Steps were high again! Nearly 159K for the week!

I mentioned in last month's training in review that our first part of summer is going to be really random, so training will take a back seat on many weeks. It's been fun spending time with family! And the Grand Marais trip lined up nicely RIGHT after the duathlon, so it was some good "forced" recovery. :)

I'll have a big post (or 2) of "up north" pics and stories in the upcoming weeks! Stay tuned!

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Week in Review: Really Nice All-Around Training Week!

Last week was just a solid week:

That's about as perfect as a week can look for me!

• MON: long run and good PT legs. This long run started rough, but I held on to some speed in the middle “pace miles” that averaged 6:04 for 6 miles (36:28). Overall, it was 11.86 miles in 1:20:37 (6:48 pace).

• TUES: decent swim and good upper body. This was a normal swim workout of broken 400s and 200s that I like to do, and times were OK. And then some SOLID upper body: 9 sets for everything done as 8 "normal" sets (where I alternate between opposing muscles [like chest/back]) and then a 9th circuit-style set for everything.

• WED: easy run, then good legs and core.

• THURS: Quicker/harder upper body, then longer ride with the first 20 harder. I had less time in the morning, so I did higher reps and/or more weight to make it a more intense upper body workout. Then I rode 20 miles harder (in 55:33, or 21.6 mph average) during a 35+ mile ride. Then I added 5 more miles later by biking to the post office and library.

• FRI: hard intervals, then good core and legs. I posted about the interval workout over the weekend - it was a brutally good workout!

• SAT: quicker upper body and easier/shorter ride. I needed an easier day (I still do!), so the fact that we were going to be gone for Charlie’s birthday all afternoon and evening was OK. I just squeezed in some shorter morning workouts.

• SUN: just core. A nice rest day with a nice walk as well.

I ended last week with my 3rd highest weekly step count over the last year:

Almost 152,000 steps. (Only behind a big week in March and hiking in Yellowstone in Oct.)

And my intensity minutes were high again! Here I am over 1800 minutes for the 2nd week in a row:

6 of the last 9 weeks over 1800 minutes!
(I’d never been above 1800 minutes before March!)

And notice how those 3 “smaller” weeks within those last 9 weeks would all still be considered an “average” week for last July. I’ve been upping the intensity and workouts! I need to remember to take some rest weeks!

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Pre-Race and Post-Race Training Weeks

Just over a week ago was the "Get in Gear" 10K, so I took it easy the week before, and then I slowly started to pick up the workouts a few days after. Here's what those 2 weeks looked like, with the race being April 26th:

I mentioned in a pre-race post that I was feeling pretty sluggish and crappier early in the week before the race. My long run on Monday wasn't great - I cut the "harder" miles a bit shorter but those miles were still a decent pace, averaging 6:11/mile. Then I skipped my swim on Tuesday, which is the first time I did that since Christmas Eve! (Before that, it was October when I was in Yellowstone with family, and before that was August when I was camping with family, and before that was June when I was camping with family... so it's not something I do!)

Thursday before the race was the first I REALLY took it easy: just 50 mins of easy spinning, and no weight lifting. Friday was nothing but walking and stretching, and then the race was Saturday. Sunday I did some good upper body and some core later.

Then last week, I skipped my run on Monday to make sure my legs were rested up post-race. I did NOT do that last year, but after getting injured in October/November after the TC 10 Mile, I'm (appropriately) afraid of doing too much too soon after a hard hard effort. So instead, that purple color on Monday the 28th is an easy spin on the trainer.

The the rest of last week was pretty normal, including 2 longer outdoor rides on Thurs and Saturday.

- I had nearly an hour-long swim on Tuesday, along with good upper body.

- Wednesday was an easy run and good legs and core.

- Thursday was a nice ride where I went all over the city and rode hard for the first 20 miles (56:59, or 21.1 mph ave at that point). It was nearly 35 miles in total.

- Friday was NO speed work (because it was too close post-race), but I ran easy and did good core and legs.

- Saturday was just a moderate longer ride and good upper body. I wasn't feeling great yet, so I didn't do anything too hard. I just went 37.56 miles in 1:57:22, which is 19.2 mph on average.

- Sunday was just core.

Those 2 rides really upped my "intensity minutes" for the week! And actually, that short ride on Tuesday (along with good upper body and swim) made Tuesday big as well:

Another big week to the right! With big jumps on Tues, Thurs, and Saturday.


I had 3 big weeks in March where I was above 1800 "intensity minutes" for the first 3 times,
and last week I was at 1912. My 5 biggest weeks have all been within these last 8 weeks!

Notice that 2 weeks ago was smaller (the week leading up to the race), but then I hit it harder this past week. My legs are feeling good, so hoping for maybe 2 harder workouts later this week!

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An Easier Week, and Then Back to a Bigger Week!

I posted about 3 big weeks with back-to-back-to-back PRs for "intensity minutes" according to my Garmin. (I'd never been over 1798, and I had 3 weeks of 2041, 1819, and 1855 minutes.)

Then the following week (2 weeks ago) was more normal with 1460 intensity minutes - even slightly on the "low" side.

And that brings us to last week. I wasn't trying to make it anything special, but I ended up making it 1888 minutes for my 2nd biggest week ever...

... and now my 4 biggest week have all come in the previous 5 weeks:

Actually, 6 of the last 7 weeks have been above average (which takes us back to
the 2 smaller weeks when we were on the road for Henry's fencing tournament).


Also, back to having a lot of steps last week: 141K+.

Here's what last week looked like:

• MON: long run and legs. I did 11.67 miles in 1:20:54 (6:56 pace) with the middle 6 at 6:12 pace.

• TUES: good swim and GOOD upper body! It was my favorite "broken 3x400 / 3x200 swim" and then some REAL GOOD upper body at the college gym. In the swim, I had a bit of a slower/lazier 100 (in the part where I do 4x100) of 1:31, but then I really tried to hit those hard - then I posted 1:29, 1:27, and 1:26. I was DEAD and still had all the 200s to go. And then for lifting, I did 8 sets for everything and then an extra 3 sets for lats and 2 sets for shoulders. One of my longest upper body workouts ever at 81 minutes.

• WED: easy run, short MTB ride, and good legs and core. Nothing fancy, but put in some good time.

• THURS: shorter upper body day, and OK trainer ride. The trainer ride was NOT at full intensity as I was taking it easy planning on some intervals the following day...

• FRI: 12x400 at the track, good legs and good core. I posted about the track workout a few days ago, and that was a good one! Then I "burnt out" my legs with some good leg exercises, and relaxed them with a short MTB ride.

• SAT: decent upper body circuits and long-ish tempo ride. I posted about this tempo ride over the weekend, and that one beat me up! (Combined with the heavy legs from the track workout the day before.)

• SUN: just core. A nice rest day.

Oh, also I finally ended a big run of "workouts before 7 a.m." as well. There's a "badge" for that in the Garmin app for 7 straight days of workouts started between 4 and 7 a.m. Monday of this current week (the 14th) would have been 4 STRAIGHT weeks of workouts before 7 a.m., but I slept in unitl 7:15 on Sunday to end the week noted above. So the streak ended at 26th day. (I tried to sleep in about a week before, and I told my wife I was going to try to do that, but she came into the room 3 times early [once with her flashlight on looking for mis-placed workout gear], and she let out the cats and put one in bed with me at 6:30. So I got up and worked out. Oh well.)

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