Snowy Track Workout

I did my first track workout of the year a few weeks back. Then just over a week ago, the track was too icy for a workout. Two days later, we got EIGHT INCHES of snow. And then the sun came out and I was able to hit the track on Friday!

A track that was too icy on Friday, 8 inches of snow a few days later, and then ready for a track workout the following Friday - just a week later and in the SAME week as 8 inches of snow! Wild.

I did a lap before running hard to check on the condition of the track. The homestretch had some pooling in the first lane:

Wet, but not icy. (45 degrees.)


But the first turn was still kinda nasty...


... areas were thick and icy.


These areas were the worst!


Still lots of melting snow from the outer lane along the homestretch.

I did a version of the workout I did a few weeks back (which was alternating 800s and 400s). This time, I didn't alternate and did 4x800 with 2:00 rest, then 4x400 with 90 sec rest.

With the issue of running wide and avoiding the ice on the first curve, I knew times wouldn't be THAT fast. I did my first 800 in 2:45 and was a little bummed. So the goal was to descend times and try to suffer.

When I got to the 400s, my first one was decent at 1:15, and then I thought I'd try to knock them down to 1:11-1:12. But my 2nd one was 1:12, so now I was just trying to hold on. This is what I ran:

1:22 + 1:22 = 2:44.9
1:21 + 1:19 = 2:41.2
1:20 + 1:18 = 2:38.9
1:18 + 1:19 = 2:37.9

1:15.8
1:12.8
1:12.9
1:12.4

You can see where I was dodging icy spots on the first turn in my Garmin details:

Jagged on the south edge.

Not amazing times, but a solid workout on the track!

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Fast Treadmill Long Runs!

Every long run of December has been on the treadmill.

• Dec 1st and 8th: I posted about my first two noting that my first one was rough and the 2nd one was better. The 2nd one had "pace miles" in the middle that started at 9.1 mph and sped up every half mile (speeding up at 3 other random times as well) for the middle 6 miles in 36:55 (6:09.17 pace).

• Dec 15th: My 3rd long run had "pace miles" that didn't quite last for all 6 miles: I started faster at 9.3 mph but only lasted for 5.6 miles. It was 33:53 (6:03.04 pace).

That brings us to these last 2 long runs that ROCKED...

• Dec 22nd: Last week, I was feeling risky and thought I'd start faster again. I started the "pace miles" at 9.3 mph, and I upped the speed at 4 other times as well (mile 1, mile 3, mile 5, and another one near the end), so I ended at 10.8 mph. My half mile splits looked like this:

3:12, 3:11, 3:07, 3:04, 3:04, 3:00, 2:58, 2:56, 2:54, 2:52, 2:50, 2:46

= 35:59.8 (5:59.97/mile!)

I knew as I was speeding up that I could be close to averaging 6:00 for those miles, as I was at 10.0 mph right near the middle of those faster miles (meaning half would be slower than 6:00 pace and half would be faster). I was thrilled with that!

• Dec 29th: I was hoping this week's long run would be outside, but as the weekend approached, they were calling for 5+ inches of snow on Sunday night. So it looked like this hours before my long run:

Welp, back to the treadmill. (I love running outside when it's cold,
but if I try to run FAST on slick footing, I hurt my knee or heel.)

Because my previous speed workout was kind of a FAIL, I went even harder on this run. I started these last few long runs with "pace miles" starting at 9.3 mph, but this time I started at 9.4 mph. I thought I'd try to be just as fast as last week, because maybe I wouldn't speed up an "extra" time after a mile. But I still sped up those extra times! (At mile 1, mile 3, and mile 5.) So this one ended up being WELL under 6:00 pace!

3:11, 3:10, 3:04, 3:03, 3:01, 2:59, 2:57, 2:54, 2:52, 2:51, 2:49, 2:46

= 35:43 (5:57.17/mile!)

Because I started faster and kept it that way throughout, those splits are all 1-2 seconds faster than the corresponding splits from last week's workout (except for the last split because both workouts ended at 10.8 mph - I didn't speed up one last time with a few tenths left on this last run like I did last week).

So this recent workout was faster than my "new best treadmill long run ever" post from 10 months ago, and just a LITTLE slower than one that came a few weeks after that that I only mention at the top of this post where I ran 35:37 (5:56.17/mile) for my "pace miles." (In that workout, I did 9.4 mph up to 10.9 mph, and the 4 "extra" speed ups were all a bit sooner: 0.7 miles, 2.7 miles, 4.7 miles, and within the last half mile.)

I had the time on Monday (as neither the boys nor I had school), so I got in a bit longer of a run... I kept running on my cool down:

12.2 miles on the treadmill in 1:22:02 (6:43/mile). Lots of sweat drips.

Yes, treadmill runs are "easier" than outdoor runs, but again, I'm just happy to get in some hard running!

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Treadmill 5K

I posted earlier this week that I did an all-out V02 max treadmill workout last week, but I had a solid treadmill workout the week before that as well. About 2 weeks ago, I did a treadmill tempo 5K workout.

I warmed up for 1.75 miles (approximately, as my treadmill only shows TENTHS of a mile and not HUNDREDTHS of a mile), and then walked for about 0.25 miles.

Then I started the 5K effort as I cranked it up to 10.6 mph. I upped it again to 10.7 mph after a half mile, and 10.8 mph at the 1 mile mark. I wasn't sure I could keep speeding up (that wasn't really the goal... I just wanted to be fast), so I held 10.8 mph from mile 1 to about mile 2.4. Then up to 10.9 mph for about 0.3 miles, and then 11.0 mph for the final 0.4 miles.

My half-mile splits for the 3.1 miles looked like this:

2:50, 2:48, 2:46, 2:46, 2:46, 2:44, 0:32 = 17:15 (5:33.87/mile pace)

I had no goals, but I was happy with that!! I think I've been in the very low 17s for a treadmill 5K before, so now I have something to try to beat (much like my V02 max treadmill workout from last week). Maybe I'll try a similar "speed up strategy" next time I try a treadmill 5K, but maybe I'll try to keep everyone 0.1 mph faster - I think that'd put me around 17:05. With some decent training, I might shoot for sub-17 before the winter is over.

Pace looks right. HR is NOT correct!

It was later that day that my car didn't start (here's the post where I biked 15 miles in 15 degree temps to get it back), but we had a family Christmas the next day. And we were in charge of bringing veggies. So I grabbed my backpack and started jumping snow berms on the way to Aldi:

My trusty 22-year-old steed after 8 miles in the snow.


Lots of gunky build-up.


I got a pitcher of water and washed it off before it corroded too much.


All of the veggies (and tortilla shells and shredded cheese) made it home safely!

That ride was a nice cool-down after the treadmill 5K!

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Frozen 15 Mile Ride

My car stopped working on 10 days ago (Friday, Dec 12th), and it was towed to the dealership. After a week of wondering why they weren't working on it (knowing so because of an app on my phone showing my car was locked the whole time) even though they said they'd get to it right away, they found an easy answer that they admitted should have been taken care of right away instead of sitting there for 5 extra days. (I was told it was ready 30 mins before they closed on Friday, Dec 19th.) My wife worked this past weekend, so I decided to bike out to the dealership on Saturday afternoon to get my car. It was 15 degrees with 20 mph winds. Yikes.

I grabbed my mountain bike (this is NOT road bike weather!) and figured out the best possible way to get there being I usually use 3 different freeways and highways when going by car. I planned a route and layered up:

The ski mask ended up over my nose after a few feet because it got cold!

The first 4-5 miles on Summit Ave looked this this, with clear traffic lanes but packed snow in the bike lane:

Not slushy, so no problem for an old mountain bike.

I knew the end of Summit Ave was closed (technically it's John Ireland Blvd at that point, and they have taken down a bridge to rebuild it), so I turned on Western to get across I94. But then behind the State Capitol, another bridge was closed that I didn't know about. However, I could sneak around the barrier and walk my bike across (as I couldn't keep it upright in this few inches of uneven snow):

Looking back the way I had come.

I went along the cemetary to Arlington, crossed I35E, and got on the Gateway Trail. It hadn't been plowed from the 1/2 inch of snow we got 2 days before, but it HAD been plowed from the heavier snow from 2 weeks ago, so that was great:

Again, easy riding on my mountain bike!

I turned onto the Bruce Vento trail to head north. The wind was out of the NW, so I was nicely "pushed" down Summit Ave, but the few miles heading north to Arlington was wind IN MY FACE as well as all of the Bruce Vento Trail. I was getting chilly. I took the hand warmers out of my gloves and added them to my shoes (where I already had toe warmers and 2 THICK pairs of socks).

A sweet abandoned go kart / buggy / thingy next to a PRETTY CLEAR Bruce Vento Trail.

I went on that trail until it ended. Near the end, I crossed a bridge over a more major road (before I694), and it was GLARE ICE. I took one pedal stroke and my back wheel spun out. I tried to coast the rest of the way, but the wind blew my back wheel out from under me, and I landed on my feet with my left pedal scraping the trail. That was my only time "crashing," and I landed on my feet without my hand even touching the ground. I "penguin walked" the rest of the way over the bridge, and continued biking.

I finished the last mile or so along the side of Hwy 61:

FAST cars, but very clear and wide shoulders. And there's my destination on the right!

The guys at the dealership were impressed. I just wanted my car so I could turn on the seat warmer and go home. (I often turn it on low for a little while, but this time I had it on high for the ENTIRE drive home.)

15 miles in 15 degree weather with a 20 mph wind.


Uphill for the last half. D'oh. And notice my speed dip at 30 mins
where I had to jog my bike across the snow-covered bridge.


"Strained" the day before the ride (a hard treadmill
workout - more on that shortly), but otherwise a lot of "maintaining."

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Turkey Trot Race Report: (ALMOST) a Family 5K!

Wednesday morning (the day before Thanksgiving), we woke up to the world covered in snow and ice for the first time this season:

Our road was ALL ice.


Side streets were just as bad.


Chipping ice off our sidewalk next to our house.

I was SO glad that happened TUESDAY night and not WEDNESDAY night just before the race! We were in for (and still are in) a cold spell, but an extra day to get sand and salt working was hopefully going to make the race course not so slick!! (Or my race plans would just go out the window and I'd just run to try not to get injured...)

Let's back up another few days. I've been mentioning how I want to be running more errands on my bike like I was 1-2 years ago, so after taking Henry to school for robotics earlier last week, I kept biking past his school to stop at packet pick-up on my bike:

My bike out front after picking up 3 race packets!

My wife worked on Thanksgiving (the life of someone in healthcare), so the boys and I got up after her and got ready to race.

Pre-race tradtional photo (at home because we were going to get to the race JUST before the start!).


Staying warm in the car before heading out to race.


After a jog to the start. A BIT worried about all the ice you see in the foreground!


Henry and I were ready to race!

Charlie was signed up to race too, but his cousin (who he was going to run with) backed out because it was cold (mid-20s), so he decided to just wait for us at the finishline. So Henry and I hung out for a few minutes, and then I worked my way a bit closer to the front.

Where I started. People packed in tighter in front of me
to put me about 10 rows back. Pretty ideal for me!


View behind me.

The race ending up starting 10 minutes late. We got to the race site hearing "We going to be starting a little late..." over the loudspeakers, and we were concerned we were going to freeze. But then we heard it was just going to be 10 minutes, and that was A-OK. After a little wait, we heard the gun and we were off!

Blurry cell phone shot about a 1/2 mile in!

I zipped past a woman running 15 minute miles who lined up DIRECTLY on the starting line of a race with 5000 people in it, and I collided a bit with another guy trying to get around her. But the roads were in decent shape as you can see from that photo above!! I wasn't worried about ice because it would make me "slow," but because it could make me "injured" - lots of slip tends to make my achilles flare up.

I took off pretty hot, and then knew I was easing up a bit. So when my first half mile was 2:53, I knew that if I held my current pace, that my next split would be a lot slower. So I sped up a BIT. I was mainly passing people, but I was also occasionally being passed - it was a very "random" start to a race. My opening 2:53 half mile was about perfect, and I was afraid that I'd end up having a few splits over 3:00 pre-race (based on slippage, cold weather that's harder to run in, and my general slow-down over the last 5 months). But I was happy to be running into the 9 mph wind with an opening mile like this:

• MILE 1: 5:44.2 (2:53 + 2:50)

We rounded 2 corners and started running along the river WITH the wind now. And I'd counted at one of the corners (just before the 1st mile marker) that I was in about 39th place at the time... I was going to try to work my way up.

Around the Hennepin Ave bridge, there was a big cheer zone with lots of turkeys:

My 2nd (and final) photo from during the race.

Notice I had runners close to me - I like a race like that! I had guys to work to "pick off."

The 2nd mile ended right before the climb up by the Guthrie, and I was THRILLED with my splits. Again, I was hoping to keep them all under 3:00 and I wasn't sure if that was realistic. But these were great:

• MILE 2: 5:41.5 (2:52 + 2:49)

I was still catching people. I was around 30th at this point, and there was a bit of a gap in front of me. I worked up those small hills by the Guthrie, and then pushed as we were now running back into the wind. I found another gear as I passed someone who looked about my age with about a half mile to go, and I kept pushing to the finish. I started this race at a nice pace, and I felt great building speed toward the finish! I moved up to 24th with a half-block to go, but then the last 2 people I had passed (both younger guys) passed me back before the line. It turns out one of them was the kid of a friend, and that friend got a photo of his son passing me seconds before the finish:

Me in pink, and friend's son in the gray shirt.

The friend's son ended up starting 0:02 in front of me but only finished 0:01 in front of me, so I technically beat him in the final results. I ended up 25th overall, and the 1st master!

• MILE 3: 5:38.2 (2:52 + 2:46)

• TO THE FINISH (0.13 miles): 0:37 (4:57 pace!)

I posted my splits online, and a running friend/coach said "Nice kick!" to which I replied with "I *may* have been sandbagging a little... 🤷🏼‍♂️😂" I definitely just raced this casually, turned in some decent splits, and then pushed hard to the line!!

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel
44, M, St. Paul

17:42
5:42 pace

25th out of 5330 overall
1st out of 222 in age group
1st master

[Garmin: 17:41.5 for 3.13 miles (5:40 pace)]

It wasn't one of my fastest 5Ks, but for hoping to break 18:00 and being concerned I'd have a few splits over 3:00, I was THRILLED with this! I had a 17:51 5K about 2.5 years ago, and that was my most recent "slower" 5K. Just before that, I ran a 17:39 indoors and was happy about that.

I raced through the finisher's chute, jumped the barricade at the side, found Charlie who was cheering for me, and we ran back to look for Henry. We found him coming through a few minutes later:

Go Henry!!


Just out of the chute, ready to head home for Thanksgiving dinner!

Henry hadn't ran much since the end of CC season a few weeks ago, so he knew he wasn't going to post an amazing time - nothing near his 19:09 or 19:10 like he got in his last 2 races of the season. So he finished in 21:13, which was good for 161th overall, and 12th out of 314 in the "male 10-14" age group!

Full course.


Close-up of the finish. Nice build over the last half mile
after getting up a few small hills to the right.


First skinny dip in speed is an icy turn, and then the
2nd dip is lost signal going under the big Hennepin Ave Bridge.

Again, notice that nice boost in speed in the final 3 minutes! And I was right about my start: I started fast, eased up, and then sped up a bit to keep my splits more even. But my heart rate in that graph is NOT right - I was NOT at 153 bpm max! I was well over that! My Garmin beeped during the race telling me I had a "+14 performance condition" which is INSANE. It's usually good when I have a "+4." On days after hard workouts, I might see "-1." But "+14" means it wasn't reading correctly - it saw I was moving very fast with a (falsely) super low heart rate.

I mentioned how I passed someone who could have been in my age group with about a half mile left... well it turns out that someone my exact age finished 0:07 behind me (5 spots), so that burst in speed gave me the age group win! And then the person who was 0:04 behind him was in the next age group up, so the top 3 masters were all within 11 seconds! In front of me, I had a 33 and 38-year-old, but everyone else was younger - the vast majority were in their 20s. I like feeling like a "faster" old guy at a race. ;)

And I passed both of those guys in the final mile or so, so that strong final kick moved me from 3rd master and 2nd in age group to 1st master and 1st in age group. Nice! Feeling good about that!

We all jogged back to the car, which was parked just 3 spots behind Mama's car who was downtown an hour before us for work:

Sarah's car on the right, and mine with the lights on 3 behind her!
(My barely-visible finger is pointing to my car.)






Henry had a huge age group! And notice the 2nd "peak" in
finish times: those were 55-59:59 finishers trying to break an hour.

We were actually in the driveway at home 40 minutes after the race started! We quickly stretched, showered, and got to Thanksgiving dinner with family:

Some "Tom & Jerry" on Charlie's upper lip.

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Cold (and Windy) Bike Rides

We've had some cold days recently. On a day that was 13 degrees and had 17 mph winds (that got stronger the later the day went on), I biked some errands for almost 15 miles. The first 5+ miles that were more into the wind were brutal: it was -3 with windchill, but being I was biking 11 mph mainly INTO the wind, it really felt like -7 to me. And truly, it's the cutting wind that sucks - it can be colder but not feel to bad until it blows through your soul.

After lifting weights at the gym, I biked home, but I was plenty warm being I was going more WITH the wind, so I did some extra:

Notice the long detour to the south (and then back north)
before heading home. It was chillier heading north!!

Garmin shows the wind coming straight from the west, but it really felt more like out of the NW as it was nasty for the last 3 miles home.

Freshly snow-packed (and kind of icy) trails along River Road.

I ran on those paths about 30 hours earlier, and it was mostly clear with just some packed snow here-and-there. But a little coating of freezing snow had made things slick for this ride. But always happy to get out!

This ended up being a day of good workouts: an early 2 hour trainer workout, biking to the gym, a good upper body workout, and then biking home. All-in-all, I had 472 "intensity minutes" that day! Normally, 300 is a good day, and 400 is a BIG day!

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Wintery Ride

I posted about a snowy ride home from work a few weeks ago, but that snow was only a dusting, and it didn't stick around. Earlier this week, we had highs in the teens, and we got some snow Sunday night that didn't go anywhere for a few days.

I had a long run that was a bit chilly:

After 10.55 miles with the middle 6 at 6:26/mile pace.
Little bits of frost everywhere.


A close-up of some melting ice on my lashes, and some
frosty crystals on some peach fuzz to the lower right.

After warming up and doing some class-prep, I took off to teach. It was still in the teens and chilly. It was my first ride of the season with snow-packed trails:

They had been lightly plowed, and you can see areas where sand was put down too.


My bike locked up outside my office window at work.

That 1/4 inch layer of snow in those last 2 pics is what I ran through earlier in the day. It slowed me down a LITTLE, but didn't really hurt my times - lately, I've been around 6:15/mile for my 6 harder miles, and this workout was 6:26 as noted above.

Oh, and then in my ride home from work later in the week, my water bottle froze. It's going to be a bit warmer now for a few days, but we had a chilly few weeks recently after a long/warm autumn.

Iced up when I got home - couldn't get anything through the mouthpiece.

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