Indoor Tri TOMORROW!!

So there are FOUR of us headed to the Lifetime Fitness in Plymouth, MN tomorrow for a race! It WAS just 3 of us from the CVA Tri Club (Hannah, Katrina, and I), but Rachel signed up at the last minute too! Here's the 4 of us (plus Madeline) during their first indoor tri nearly 2 years ago:

March 2009: Indoor tri: Me, Rachel, Katrina,
Madeline (not racing), and Hannah on the right

- If you go to the Plymouth LTF, show up on Sunday and say "hi!" The ladies race from 9:40 through 10:55 (10:00 swim, 10:00 T1, 30:00 spin, 5:00 T2, 20:00 treadmill run). I'm in the "90 minute challenge," so I start in the final wave after them. I'll be racing from 10:00 through 11:45 (15 swim, 10 T1, 45 spin, 5 T2, 30 run).

- I still have the beard, so I'll see how it "feels" during a race.

- Hannah told me yesterday that she's been biking a LOT! But she hasn't ran in a few weeks..... and the last time she swam was during the last indoor tri.... IN MARCH! This should be good. ;)

- Back with a report on Monday!! Wish us luck!

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Friday Funny 129: Shave Your Own Back

If you're my Secret Santa, I have a perfect idea for you:

Yes, this was spawned from yesterday's post about my beard. Speaking of which, have you cast your vote yet?

Happy Friday!

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My Beard: Does it Stay or Go?

So I started getting lazy about 3 weeks ago: I stopped shaving. Then, when I decided to shave, I just shaved my neck.

Yep, it was becoming a beard. And Pharmie didn't really approve.

Here's how it looked last night at 7:00 pm, after I got done teaching class:

Awkward self-shot shifty-eyed profile photo


Close-up of the goods

And if you've forgotten what I look like without a beard, here's a reminder:

I have an indoor tri this weekend, and I'm NOT really worried about it slowing me down - the tri is totally for fun, so I figured I could be bearded for it. Afterall, my chest hair will be slowing me down SOOO much, that I shouldn't be concern about this little patch on my face.

Anyway....

I want your input. DOES IT STAY, OR DOES IT GO?

I created a poll for you to vote. You can choose 1 or 2 answers before hitting "Cast Your Vote" below. So read these through, pick 1 or 2, and cast your vote:

Online Surveys & Market Research

So far, I've gotten some mixed reactions from people who have seen it in person:

• "That looks nice." Generic (and probably fake) compliment.
• "Oh! A beard!" I can't tell which way you're going with that statement.
• "I like your beard." Straight up Ke$ha reference.
• "It makes you look older!" That's only OK to say to 8th graders.
• "It makes you look skinner!" Yeah. Nice. Because I WANT to look gaunt.

Anyway, I may or may not follow the advice of the most popular answer, but I WILL take it into consideration for sure. So please vote above! (Poll open through Saturday evening.)

Thanks everyone!

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28 Hours of FUN Workouts!

Thursday afternoon through Friday evening was filled with 4 great workouts!

• Thursday, Nov 4th, 3:30 pm: Mountain Biking! I got done with class, grabbed my bike, and raced out to the Theo Wirth MTB trails.

Self-portrait with camera on car.

Normally, at Theo Wirth, my "default" workout is 1 loop on the short "B" trail, and 3 loops on the main "A" trail. That usually takes me about 1:20+. On Thursday, I wanted to do a LOT more than that.

I headed out on the "B" trail, and then did 3 loops on the "A" trail. The first loop was easy(ish). The second loop I wanted to be all out, so I started hard from the get-go. Well, after 30 seconds, I had fallen off my bike TWICE and lost my bottle in the woods. (I found the bottle later, but not the chunk of skin torn from my shins.) Do'h. Fail. Then I did the third loop hard, but not all out. Here were my times:

First loop: 17:07
Second loop: 15:56 (my fastest loop EVER at Theo!)
Third loop: 16:46

After 3 loops on "A" at Theo. And yes, I'm aware that my helmet
straps are "weird" - they have been for 5 years. Mind of their own!

Then I did another loop on the small "B" loop, and then came back out for TWO more loops on "A" before heading back to my car.

Fourth loop: 16:20
Fifth loop: 17:01

Part of the trail on my fifth loop.


Looking back from the same point above.


Geese in a pond. Minnesota in late fall: gross.


The little creek crossing.


Trail along the creek, next to the mini-waterfall.

When all was said and done, I had been mountain biking for over 2 hours! I usually do 1 "B" loop and 3 "A" loops, but on Thursday I did 2 "B" loops and 5 "A" loops! I covered 20 miles on my bike, and nearly 16 miles of that was twisting single-track! Longest MTB ride EVER! I felt great! (Oh, and there's NOTHING special about my lap times. But I like to keep track so I can compare from year-to-year. I wonder how fast good riders can finish a loop at Theo...)

• Thursday, Nov 4th, 7:30 pm: Strength and Core. Pharmie went to the Y to swim, so I went for a killer strength workout. I did decent upper body, a fair amount for my legs, and good core work over 80 minutes!

• Friday, Nov 5th, 7:30 am: 2000 yards of swim drills. Julia asked if I wanted to come work on my technique with her. I figured I should, being she's always teasing me about my "giddy-up" kick. So we worked just on form / technique for a while. Here we are post-swim with nice goggle marks:

(Grey-haired photo-bomb.)

• Friday, Nov 5th, 6:00 pm: Off-road "exploration" run with Pharmie. We live less than a mile from the Mighty Mississippi, and I run along the river for most of my long / important runs. But I've only taken the off-road trails down to the water's edge in a few spots, so we thought we'd go exploring together. We ran about a mile of sidewalk / paved trail before heading off into the cliffs.

Standing by something that is important for some reason.


High water led to some tricky "running."


Smile!


Running downhill through the sumac.

[Safety side note: Notice in those photos that it was getting dark. Also notice Pharmie's stylish reflective vest. And note the Road ID on my wrist in the photo of me giving thumbs-up when mountain biking. We (as runners / bikers / etc) need to remember to stay safe out there. Someone e-mailed me last week asking if I could remind people to wear their reflective gear. She knew of 2 local runners who were just hit by a car on an early morning run on Friday. One of them died because of the accident, and it was someone she knows from the local race scene. That's horrible news. If it's dark, you NEED to make yourself visible. Pharmie and I wear this super sexy vest if we'll be out around dusk. Please, be safe!]

Working our way over fallen stone.


Running up from right along the river.


Working her way STRAIGHT UP to meet up with where the paved trail starts.

As the sun was completely setting, we made our way to the paved trail. Running along that trail, Pharmie stopped and said "LOOK!" There was a red fox just 10 feet to my left! As soon as I tried to take it's photo, it started running off, so I only got a "butt shot:"

A long MTB ride, a good strength / core session, a swim full of drills, and some running with my hunnie: that's a nice stretch of off-season workouts!

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Nasty Feet Post-Swim

I went for a swim early this morning. When I got home, I was going to clip my toenails. (I wait to clip them until AFTER a swim because I want to take full advantage of "flipper-like" nails if possible. We're talking about propulsion, people!)

When I took off my socks, I found a nasty blister on the bottom of my foot (which was all thick and squishy), and some gross peeling skin on the tip of my toe:

I cut off that bad-boy on the bottom of my foot to reveal some tender skin underneath:

Ahhhh.... the joys of morning surgery.

;)

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Winner of the "Bootyshaking Bike-Off"

There were 3 ladies who entered videos in order to try to win some SWEET biking gear:

• SUGOI RPM BIKE SHORTS with sweet compression technology.

• GU CHOMPS to keep the energy going!

• RYDERS SEEKERS for biking or running.

• ROAD ID to keep you safe.

Well, the video "It's a Hard Knock Life" eeked out the win by 1.5 percentage points!! Here's the winning video as voted on by all of you:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmj8zfOfIdA

Christine, I hope you enjoy your new gear from SUGOI, RYDERS, and ROAD ID, as well as your tasty GU CHOMPS!

(This image has nothing to do with anything, but I just wanted to post it....)

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To Do: Intervals or Fartleks

If you DON'T currently run intervals or fartleks, you should start.

If you currently DO one or the other, you should try the other one.

In the spring of 2008, I started to regularly do intervals on the track. Over the next 2 months, I saw my tempo run times drop, and I set my 5K PR that I wouldn't break again for 2 years. The intervals got me used to the pain of running fast and hard, and that worked WONDERS for my race times. My default workout would be 3 x 1600 with 90 seconds rest between. Sometimes I would do 6-8 x 800 with about 90 seconds rest. I usually wouldn't do anything shorter (like 400s [although I did them sometimes]) because running that hard on the track tends to make my heel / calf issues flare up.

In my training for the TC 10 Mile, Coach Jen only had me do intervals once. In their place, she had me do fartleks. I was told to run fast for a few minutes, and then run 50% of that time slow to recover. So if I did 4 minutes hard, I'd follow that with 2 minutes of easy running. One of the fartlek workouts looked something like this: "2 h, 1 e, 4 h, 2 e, 3 h, 1:30 e, 5 h, 2:30 e, REPEAT." This has the same goals as a track [interval] workout, but it was all based on "perceived effort." I didn't have splits to check on - I was just running "hard" or "easy."

Intervals: Pros:

• They are repeatable and "trackable." You can go to the track and say you're going to run "3x1600 with 90 seconds rest between" and then you can compare that workout with the same one in 2 weeks, in 4 weeks, or in 4 months. You can see if you're getting faster or slower by comparing your times from workout to workout.

• When you head to the track, you can bring water, extra clothes, food, etc, etc, and let it sit at the starting line. You can grab a bite or a sip when you need to between intervals, or throw off clothes if you get too warm. This makes it never a bad time of year to do intervals.

Intervals: Cons:

• If you are prone to injury, running hard on a track can be tough on your body.

• You need to find a track to run on. Sure, you can do them down the street, but then you're focusing a little too much on intersections, pets on leashes, old people on bikes, etc.

Fartleks: Pros:

• You DON'T need a track. You don't even need a mapped-out route. You just run. You could do these in the middle of nowhere.

Fartleks: Cons:

• You are just supposed to run "hard." Is this week's "hard" the same as next week's "hard?" Who knows. This is more about your perceived effort, and less about actual concrete numbers.


Here's my Tip of the Week: If you don't usually do one of these workouts, consider giving one of them a try. If you regularly do one of them, try the other. This sort of speed work has been the one biggest break-through in my running.

I used to ONLY run intervals (as my speed-work). But there was a problem in that, and I recognized this issue even a year ago. The problem was that I was just getting good at running intervals! Sure, it was helping my race times, but I could run KILLER interval times where you'd think I should be 1:00 faster in a 5K. By breaking this up with fartleks, I could get a similar workout, but get out of my "intervals rut."

Notes:

• If you're starting the "off-season" right now, it MIGHT not be the best time to introduce this sort of intensity to your workout. But if you're still running strong and not really cutting back your miles, try an interval or fartlek workout soon.

• During fartleks, to avoid looking at your watch ALL the time wondering when you start or stop running hard, I use the "interval timer" on my watch. I can set 10 intervals for my watch to beep. So I just program in my times: 2:00, 1:00, 4:00, 2:00, 3:00, 1:30, etc, etc. Then my watch beeps at me at those intervals. This way, I can just RUN, and and I either ease up or speed up whenever it starts beeping.

GO! TRY IT!

p.s. Here are some links to some of my recent Examiner articles. (Remember, for more local swim / bike / run info, you can "fan" the St. Paul Tri Examiner on FB). Anyway, here are some articles:

- The Chisago Lakes Triathlon is named 2011 MN Long Distance Championship Race.
- Cyclists nation-wide morn over the outcome of the Oberstar / Cravaack congressional race.
- Top 10 Minnesota Multisport Races of the Year (I've raced 2).
- USA Triathlon announces its National Challenge Competition for the off-season.
- An Apple Valley triathlete has her Kona story featured in the Star Tribune.
- Minnesota has a new, muddy off-road race (to MAYBE try to compete with Living History Farms in Iowa).

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Friday Funny 128: 2 Videos (Twirled and Non-Twirled)

This is totally sophomoric and immature. But since you're reading my blog, you must be into things like that....

Watch this pair of videos!

The first one is something I think most people have done. (At least those people who have been around a Mac with a built in iSight.) It's a video of a woman making funny faces with the "twirl" effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muc0kaQtCMU

That video is kinda funny, but it gets better........

Now, AFTER watching the first one, watch this next video. Someone removed the "twirl" effect, and now she just looks crazy. I've watched this a few times, and I always laugh so hard I cry. Especially at the 0:40 - 0:42 mark and the 1:14 - 1:19 mark. And at the 1:28 - 1:44 mark, I nearly wet myself. Seriously.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0PAgrm8nqg

This poor, poor, hilarious woman.

If you need a few more videos to watch, remember to vote for your favorite video in the "Bootyshaking Bike-Off." CLICK HERE to vote!

Happy Weekend!!

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Friday Funny 127: Farm Animals Shown at Purdue

Out of the blue, I got an e-mail from someone at the Purdue University Extension Service. (Being I grew up on a farm, I knew of "extension services" - they hold little educational workshops for farmers on farm-related topics. And it usually means a free lunch, so my Dad went to them when he could.) Anyway, here's the note I got:

Steve

I would like to ask your permission to use your photograph of the cow, pig and chicken coming out of the porta potty. I am doing a presentation on fertilizer application and this picture would put a funny twist to the presentation.

I appreciate your consideration!!

[signature]
Purdue Cooperative Extension Service

Here's what I wrote back:

Ha! Yes, that's totally fine!

It's even funnier because the 3 of us doing that all grew up on hog farms, and we spent our youth spreading manure (fertilizer).

Steve Stenzel

She sent me a screenshot of the presentation in the works. Here's the slide where Mike, me, and Matt make an appearance at the start of the 2008 Twin Cities Marathon:

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A Month Without Coach Jen

Coach Jen worked with me for 8 weeks leading up to the TC 10 Mile. She taught me so much, and then dropped me like a bad habit. ;) A few weeks after the race, I logged into TrainingPeaks (for the first time since the race), and I saw this depressing pop-up:

Anyway, I thought I'd take a look at my numbers from 1 month BEFORE working with Jen, the 2 months I worked with her, and then my first full month AFTER working with Jen. Here are the numbers:

• July: (PRE-JEN)
Swim: 18,559 Yd
Bike: 87.01 Mi (38:30 on the trainer)
Run: 54.58 Mi
Strength: 4:30

• August: (WITH JEN)
Swim: 25,817 Yd
Bike: 144.05 Mi (1:40 on the trainer)
Run: 108.34 Mi
Strength: 5:15

• September: (WITH JEN)
Swim: 19,820 Yd
Bike: 55.96 Mi (2:15 on the trainer, 1:15 MTB)
Run: 110.44 Mi
Strength: 3:15

• October: (POST-JEN)
Swim: 4,500 Yd
Bike: 71.80 Mi (1 hour on the trainer, 1:30 MTB)
Run: 77.11 Mi
Strength: 6:56

So my swimming has gone down the pooper. I got in the pool twice in October. I did a lot of OWSing in July and August, and that helped keep my numbers up. But I can only do so much in my 25 yard pool at the Y without going crazy. GOTTA work on that!

My biking got a little lighter after working with Jen. I went on a few nice rides last month, but I hit the trainer less. I REALLY want to hit the trainer hard this winter. Which is TOUGH.

I'm happiest with my running last month. Jen apparently taught me something about warming up and cooling down - that's where I've been adding in the miles. Sure, 77 miles is nowhere near the 108 and 110 months I did with Jen while training for the TC 10 Mile. But 77 miles is a lot for me when I'm not really training for anything. (In fact, there are only 2 non-Jen months where I've had higher mileage than 77 miles this year, and those were January [half marathon] and March [10 mile].) AND I've been injury-free! Yay!

Oh, and look how my strength time jumped back up last month. For the last few years, I've REALLY thought that building a solid muscle base (including core) over the off-season has helped me to be more injury-free. I'm going to keep that up over the winter.

One last note on my running: In the 4 months before I started working with Jen, my average pace for ALL my runs was 6:29 / mile. Working with Jen, my average pace dropped to 7:08 / mile for 2 months (7:16 in Aug; 6:59 in Sept). By having me SLOW DOWN and get in MORE MILES, I was able to bust out my fastest race ever: 59:05 in the TC 10 Mile. There's a lesson in there somewhere.....

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Halloween Tempo Run in a Cemetery

Thursday night, I put over 11 miles on my legs, and everything felt GREAT. (I REALLY think the compression calf sleeves I got a few weeks before the TC 10 Mile help to keep things "healthy" on longer runs - they work for me and my bum calves. I don't wear them often - this was the first time I wore them since the 10 Miler.)

Twin Cities in Motion (the organization that puts on the TC Marathon and 10 Mile) was holding their 3rd ever "Flash Run" in Minneapolis. We were supposed to meet at the gates in front of the Lakewood Cemetery. I figured I'd show up early, do a HARD tempo run, and use the Flash Run as my cooldown. So that's what I did.

I ran a loop inside the cemetery as a WU. I didn't map it out ahead of time and I don't use a Garmin, so I just ran. Afterwards, I mapped it out:

Just shy of 2.5 miles

It had some nice little hills - nothing was long, but there were some short and steep buggers. I figured the loop was around 2.3 - 2.5 miles (which was a good guess), so I thought I'd do 2 hard laps at tempo speed. My first lap was 14:20 (5:48 pace). I was dying on my second lap, and did that one in 14:54 (6:01 pace). Overall, my time was 29:15 for 4.96 hilly miles (5:53 pace). And including the WU (and some jogging to and from my car), I had done 7.5 miles in 50:59.

The moment I finished, I saw a cute ladybug and Xena (Warrior Princess) standing by the gates. No, I wasn't delirious from the run. It was people starting to gather for the Flash Run. I came over all sweaty and nasty. And oh yeah, I was wearing my "Tutti Frutti" shorts too!

The "bowl full of tutti frutti" shorts at the Mosquito Man Duathlon

Katie and Matt showed up, so did Kris and Mark, and after a few minutes, there were 9 of us ready to go for a nice evening run around Lake Calhoun. We headed off, and I followed a bowling ball and a bowling pin for the first part of the run:

Here's the entire Flash Run gang (except me) running around Calhoun:

No one seemed to mind that a bowling ball, a bowling pin, a time traveler, and an obscure M*A*S*H reference were leading a run around the lake. Gotta love Mpls / St. Paul!

After just over 3.5 miles of chatting with friends, we were done for the night. Hannah had brought candy for us, and she told us all to take A LOT. So I did. I enjoyed this on my ride home:

Ahhh yes, THERE are the shorts.... ;)

If you want to be kept in the loop on future "Flash Runs," become a fan of Twin Cities in Motion on Facebook. That was a good way to get 11.17 miles in! Good way to spend an evening!

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Vote for your favorite in the "Bootyshaking Bike-Off"

There were 3 submissions in the "Bootyshaking Bike-Off" contest. Here's a reminder of the prizes that these contestants are trying to win:

• SUGOI RPM BIKE SHORTS with sweet compression technology.

• GU CHOMPS to keep the energy going!

• RYDERS SEEKERS for biking or running.

• ROAD ID to keep you safe.

Below are the entry videos. Check out these sweet dance moves in the "Bootyshaking Bike-Off" and vote for your favorite! Voting is open through Saturday afternoon. The contestant with the most votes at the time the poll closes will win ALL of those sweet prizes listed above!! Check these out:

"It's a Hard Knock Life:"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmj8zfOfIdA


"Halloween Training:"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZRkpayCGUQ


"Bust a Move:"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wotXID_hmBI


So find your favorite video listed in the poll below, selected that video, and make sure to click on "Cast Your Vote" at the bottom:

Online Surveys & Market Research

The winner will be announced next week! (The poll will allow one vote / computer.) Thanks for voting!

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