Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

Friday Funny 2126: Animal Funnies

>> Friday, August 26, 2022

More funny things here: SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: Back at the Gym

>> Wednesday, August 24, 2022

I mentioned in Monday's post that the boys were gone for a few days last week. So on Thursday, I hit the gym at one of the schools where I formally taught:

Feeling the post-workout burn.

Later: red spots under my calluses from using a heavy bar for the first time in a while!...

I hit the gym at a different university back in April, and this was my first time properly benching (not just pushups) and doing heavier curls since - it's been 4 months!

Wet Intervals and Dry Tempo Ride

>> Monday, August 22, 2022

Ten days ago, I hit the track for some 3x1600 intervals with 3:00 rest between. It was raining. And it was only going to get worse, so I headed out in the rain. I didn't do as long of a warm-up, and I didn't stand around as much before starting my first interval. I ran the first one and was concerned about the pooling water on the turns of the track (and how it was mainly getting my left foot soaked), so I ran #2 the other direction (clockwise) which I NEVER do. At the start of #3, it was POURING. My shoes were just clomping on the track because they were so heavy. Here's what I ran:

2:48.16 + 2:48.35 = 5:36.51
2:48.11 + 2:45.03 = 5:33.14
2:48.12 + 2:44.53 = 5:32.65

I was pleasantly surprised by that descend! After the first 2 being relatively close, I figured I'd crap out during #3, especially when it started absolutely pouring. So those weren't great times, but I'm OK with them based on the weather. (And it's funny that 4 of my 6 800s were within 0.24 sec!)

Soaked selfie back home.

NOT BLOOD! My orange laces bled all over my white socks.
Everything is soaked in this photo. Gross.

And then this past Thursday, my boys were at Grandma's for one last summer hurrah, so I went out on a 20 mile tempo bike ride. I had HOPED to get up and do some class work, and then take a break mid-morning to ride. But at 6:30, the Weather Channel app was saying it was going to be storming around 8:30, so I HOPPED OUT THE DOOR RIGHT AWAY!!

But it was still sunny when I finished around 8:30. After 9:00, I checked my weather app again, and it had really pushed back the chance and severity of storms:

Damn it, weather app! (And these amounted to nothing as well...)

I did pretty much the same route as I did at the end of July, but I went a bit harder from the start this time. I ended up 74 sec faster with an average of 21.0 mph vs 20.5 mph 4 weeks before.

Along the river, across the river on I35, and then an out-and-back on Big Rivers Trail.

Heart rate. The big "plateau" at 22:00 is crossing the river, and the big
spike at 45:00 is climbing that hill on Big Rivers from 494. Not a flat ride!

And then in my "cool down," I road up Ohio Hill (1-2, 2:21) and Ramsey Hill (3-4, 1:22)

It was a nice way to get 33+ miles in! Thanks for taking the boys for a few days, Grandma Monica!

Crayfish Hunting

>> Saturday, August 20, 2022

Last month, my boys and I spent a little time in Minnehaha Creek below the falls. We got their early and started catching crayfish with small nets and our hands. (To be clear, the boys had nets, and dad used his hands. Typical.) I posted some photos on social media noting "According to Charlie, we are going to come back in a few days with a bucket so we can have a crayfish feed. We’ll see..."

Here are some pics:

My boys are the only ones down there! Let's hear it for early weekday mornings!

Netted.

Stalking.

This is what we were after.

More stalking.

And wouldn't you know it, Charlie got his wish. Two days later, I got a fishing license just so I could legally help them catch and keep these suckers. (In MN, we can take up to 25 lbs [not 25 crayfish, but 25 POUNDS] during fishing season as long as they are an inch long from the tip of that "horn" between their eyes to the end of their tail.) We brought a 2 gallon bucket and arrived even earlier this time:

Again, an oddly quiet scene if you are a local.

Our spoils.

Henry with the biggest one of the day...

... and Charlie with the next biggest.

Their 2 biggest (dubbed the "king" and "queen") are on the far right.
Queen had a slight blue/green tint as you can see.

The cats were NOT sure what we brought home!

We rinsed them really well in the yard (where I got my FIRST pinch all day, even after catching many by hand), and then prepped some boiling water with this homemade creole seasoning recipe (only I halved it and didn't have white pepper). I also added a few peeled whole garlic cloves and a quartered lemon. I dumped them in the boiling water for 3 minutes, and Charlie was AMAZED to see them suddenly be bright red when I lifted them out after those 3 minutes!

Don't be alarmed: the little chunks you might see are herbs from the creole
mix and NOT dirt/sand/poop from the crayfish that I didn't get cleaned off.

The boys both sucked the juices out of the heads, and didn't think it was too bad!

A plate of shells after lunch.

Charlie doesn't really care for seafood or shrimp, so he only ate 2 tails. But he decided that the TINY meat in the claws was more mild than the tail meat, so he cracked open and ate a few of the larger claws. Henry and I had the rest of the tails.

Here's a video of trying some of the meat for the first time:

Direct link: https://youtu.be/5vkg6vM_wa8

We might do this again before summer is over. I brought some polish sausage to cook in the boiling water as well, and it's about sweet corn season here in MN so we'll add that as well to make it a bit more of a proper "crayfish boil." Maybe some potatoes and cornbread too, as another friend suggested. I'll report back if this happens...