Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

Friday Funny 45: Drunk People Doing Yoga

2009-07-17T07:27:00.000-05:00

You always thought they were just passed out. It never occurred to you that they might actually be doing yoga.

Splash and Dash Results

2009-07-16T06:12:00.000-05:00

The “official” results are in. Well, as official as a “non-chip timed event where jumping up on a curb is the finish line” can get. Ha! Here’s what Curt from Gear West put up on their website:

The July 14th Splash and Dash was held last night in windy but dry conditions. After having to cancel the 1st Splash and Dash event in June due to severe weather, we were afraid the second one might need to be called as well since thunderstorms were in the forecast. But luckily the weather cleared up and a hearty 7 showed up for the 7pm start time. Jason Midgarden, who came out of the water first on lap one, took a wrong turn on the run, allowing "Steve in a Speedo" Stenzel to coast in first in round 1. Suzie Finger was the first woman across the line. Round 2 was much closer with Jason coming out of the water first, but running on course helped his placing significantly, coming in just ahead of Steve, who was closing fast on the run. (Steve ran a 5:43 second mile). Steve also happens to be a frequent blogger and wrote up a nice race report (link below).

http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/2009/07/first-ever-gear-west-splash-and-dash.html

Thanks to all for coming out and we hope to see you August 11th.

That’s a PERFECT wrap-up of the night! Thanks Curt! (And thanks for the link, too!) It was accompanied by this chart:

(Note: the transition times were added onto the swim times.)

Curt also took a little video out there, and he said he’d let me know when it’s up on YouTube so I can see it and post it here. I hope Jason comes to the one in August so we can have a great, head-to-head race! (With no wrong turns.) That’d be a BLAST!! I LOVE friendly competition!

p.s. Swimming at Lake Nokomis tonight around 6:30 if anyone is interested!

First Ever "Gear West Splash and Dash"

2009-07-15T07:51:00.008-05:00

Last night, after wrapping up teaching, I braved rush hour traffic to head out to Long Lake. I was going to try out Gear West’s “Splash and Dash.” They were supposed to have had the first one in June, but the weather caused them to cancel. Here’s what Gear West says about this event:

...The swim is 200 meters consisting of 2x50 meter out and back swims. You will swim out and around a buoy and back then run out on the beach around a cone and then back in for another out and back swim. You will transition to a 1 mile out and back run north on Brown Rd. Then repeat. (200M 2 lap swim/1 mile run/200M 2 lap swim/1 mile run)...

Sounds fun, right?!? It was pretty cheap, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. I arrived an hour early, and helped Curt from Gear West set up the tent. Here’s Curt getting ready to set out the buoy:

The buoy on the right is staked to the beach,
and that’s the one we had to run around.

Here was the “transition ~~zone~~ square” as it was called. It’s TINY! The arrow shows which way we were to run out:

Well, there were 7 people that showed up! Curt was thinking there’d be around 10, so that’s about right. Here’s some of us getting officially registered:

Here’s the transition square “filling up.” My shoes are to the right on the brown plaid blanket:

Hannah from Gear West showed up, and we changed the format a little. Instead of swim / run / swim / run all back-to-back, she said we were going to do the first swim / run, and then take a 5 minute break to wait for everyone to finish before starting our last swim / run. That sounded fine. That sounded safer: we wouldn’t be sprinting right into the water already oxygen deprived from the run.

We lined up on the beach, and we were off!

The 7 of us spread out pretty quickly. I rounded the buoy and headed back to shore. I was getting ready for the run, and I honestly forgot about having to run back into the water for the second part of the swim until I saw the 2 guys in front of me jump back in. Oops. So the second part of the swim was a bit tougher because I went a little too hard in the first half. My first 100 was 1:22 and my second 100 was 1:32.

My 18 second transition consisted of running to the coned-off square, plopping down, and throwing on my running shoes. I was off to try to catch the 2 guys in front of me.

I started running. It’s really hard to run when you’re already breathing hard from being oxygen deprived from swimming. It was MUCH harder than I thought it was going to be! I caught Mike in the first 1/4 mile. Nearing the turn onto Brown Road, I saw the guy a block in front of me going the wrong way. We were supposed to cross Brown and then round a cone and head to the right up the hill. This guy kept going straight instead of taking the right. Running up to Hannah who was controlling that intersection, I was asking, “So we turn right here? Just past the intersection? Right?” I took the right and rounded the 1/2 mile turn-around cone in 3:06. I wanted to be faster than that. That was 6:12 pace, and I was thinking I could do more like 5:35 - 5:45 pace, but the swim REALLY took more out of me than I thought it would.

I ran hard back to the waterfront. I did that last 1/2 mile in 2:52, so my 1 mile run was 5:59. I was the first one back with a total time of 9:14. There was no sign of the guy who got lost. So I took a commanding lead after the first half of the race due to his error. D’oh. Everyone showed up after a few minutes, and we mulled about until we were ready to start again. Here’s a shot of all 7 of us in the “transition square” getting ready to start the last half:

We grabbed our goggles, and we were back in for round two!

I tried to keep it easier for the first part of the swim, and then I tried to pick it up for the last 1/2. I swam a 1:26 and a 1:33. The last half of the swim I was all over the place - when I get a little fatigued, I can NOT swim in a straight line!

I had a better transition time as I only took 14 seconds to put on my shoes. (Oh yeah, these were the first 2 runs in my racing flats where I did NOT wear socks, and my feet were just fine!)

It was the same situation as last time: I had 2 guys in front of me, and I caught 1 pretty quickly. The other was about 2 blocks ahead of me. I was slowly gaining on him. And he took the right turn this time... good.

I cut his lead to about a block at the turn-around. It’d be a close finish if I kept this up. I ran out in 3:02, which was too slow. I noticeably picked up the pace and headed towards the finish.

Rounding the “flower mart” corner, I knew I couldn’t catch him, but I only finished second in that heat by a couple seconds. I ran that last 1/2 mile in 2:41, for a total mile time of 5:43. That was better! And that made my final time for the last swim/run 8:59. Nice.

Curt tallied the results. He noted that the guy who beat me on the second swim/run had the fastest individual swim/run time (of about 8:55), I had the best single mile time, and that I was the overall winner with a combined time of 18:13. The 7 finisher’s times were between that and 25 minutes, with a majority stacked up in the 21 minute area (if I’m remembering correctly).

I felt bad for the guy who probably SHOULD have won, but he had a good, carefree attitude. He didn’t seem to mind. There weren’t any prizes or anything, so he didn’t miss out. It was a REALLY fun little event!! One of the participants said, “Hey, we should all come back to the one in August, and we should all bring at least 1 friend!” We all agreed that was a good idea. So, who’s interested? The next one (and final one for the year) is on Tuesday, August 11 at 7 pm. Click here for more info. If someone wants to come from St. Paul, you can hitch a ride with me!

I got home and updated my FB status. This is my race report condensed to 2 lines:

p.s. OWS at 6:30 pm at Nokomis tomorrow night (Thursday) if anyone is interested.

p.p.s. All my splits above are unofficial. The “official” results should be up on GW’s website in a few days. And Curt had a video camera, so there MIGHT even be a "highlight reel"...

Lifetime Fitness Triathlon 2009

2009-07-13T13:27:00.003-05:00

Sit back. Get comfy. Grab a soda. I have a LOT of photos of pro triathletes and a bunch of friends racing the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon at Lake Nokomis.

Sarah E, a member of the “CVA Triathlon Club,” biked over to my place early Saturday morning, and we were off on our bikes by 5:30 am. Once we got to Lake Nokomis, the first thing we saw was US Olympian Sarah Haskins!

We walked over to the “non-pro” transition area, and we spotted Cathy, who won the Amateur Elite division last year:

We chatted with her a bit later, and she said she was feeling good, but she wasn’t the favorite “on paper.” Little did she know what was about to come...

We went back to gawk at the pros some more. Here’s Craig Alexander and Andy Potts yuckin’ it up:

Sarah and I BOTH admitted that Craig was pretty hunky. He’s MUCH more hunky and attractive in person. Really. Soon, Greg Bennett joined the picture (on the right):

We also spotted Becky Lavelle:

We walked back to check out the non-pro transition area as it was filling up:

I spotted this golf cart that had an odd combination of jobs:

“Everyone disperse! But first, pee in this cup!” Ha!

Sarah and I hung around the pro transition until they headed for the water. Here’s Becky Lavelle and multi Xterra champion Julie Dibens heading to the start (and I believe that’s Andy Potts “Body Gliding” the back of his neck):

I wished Becky “good luck,” and she smiled and waved. Soon, Matt Reed and Craig Alexander headed to the water. I don’t know why I’m getting Craig’s “stink-eye:”

A moment later, I wished Craig “good luck,” and he smiled and said “thanks!” Once the pros were at the water, pro transition volunteer buddy Katie W snapped a photo of all the pro bikes set up:

(While hanging around the pro transition, I got to talk to Katie for a bit. She’s always so fun! I also chatted with Tri-mama, Nat, and Amy Bee’s hubby. It was great chatting with all of them!! On our way to the beach, I stopped XT4 and we chatted for a bit, and there were a few people that stopped me to say “Hey, Steve in a Speedo! Hi! I read your blog!” That’s ALWAYS fun!)

Sarah and I headed to the beach. I stopped to quickly grab 2 shots on the footbridge that went over the run course. Here’s Nokomis Beach filled with people before the start:

Looking right

Looking left

We tried to peek through the crowds to see the pro and elite starts. Here’s Sarah watching the Athena/Cyldesdale start (trying to spot Amy Bee):

We hung out on the beach for a while to watch many of my friends start. (LTF has a TT-style start: each person has his/her own start time. People go off every 3 seconds. It makes finding someone at the start EASY if you know their number, because they good off in order.) I had the list of pros (along with all of their bios) with me, and I had written all of my friend’s start times on the front:

I’m a nerd, I know...

First up was Ms. R. Here she is contemplating her race, and then smiling once she spotted me:

Next up was buddy XT4:

Off with a splash!

Next up was the main reason Sarah and I were there: Cynthia, a fellow CVA Tri Club member, was hitting the start of her FIRST OLYMPIC DISTANCE TRIATHLON!!

Hitting the water, chasing down the swimmers in front of her

Sarah and I headed back up the beach towards transition. Here’s a nice line of swimmers heading back to shore:

It was a funny sight back at the pro transition zone. I mean, look at how LITTLE stuff they have!!

Greg Bennett was the first pro to come into T2:

Next was Matt Reed:

Not far behind was Andy Potts:

A couple of racers back was local rockstar David Thompson!! Go David!

David was ahead of Craig Alexander:

All the guys were out there. The first female to hit transition was Olympian Sarah Haskins! I was REALLY rooting for her! Go Sarah!!

Not far behind Sarah was Julie Dibbens and Becky Lavelle. They came out of T2 back-to-back:

Becky running out of T2

We headed down near the finish line. The run course was 2 loops around Lake Nokomis, so it was easy to watch people starting their second lap as others were finishing. We cheered for the pro females as we waited for the pro males to finish. Sarah Haskins was still in the lead!

Do you know how Sarah can run so fast?!?! Look at those photos above: her feet NEVER touch the ground!! ;)

Still right behind her was Julie Dibens:

And still in 3rd was Becky Lavelle:

Look at that quad!

Also, local triathlete Devon Palmer came running by, as the lead in the Amateur Elite division. I had just introduced myself to him, wished him luck, and shook his hand before the race. Go Devon!

A moment later, the crowd started to erupt. The lead men were coming to the line, and IT WAS GOING TO BE CLOSE!!! Look at this race!! Here’s Matt Reed, Andy Potts, and Greg Bennett all within a few seconds from one another, with about 100 meters to go!

Look at Andy’s wicked stride!

Matt Reed checked over his shoulder, and I got a shot that looks like he’s staring right at me as he’s sprinting hard to the finish:

They held those positions, so Matt Reed took first by 0.1 seconds, Andy Potts got second, and Greg Bennett came in third. The crowd was going nuts!! I told Sarah that she had just witnessed something pretty cool, as non-draft-legal races usually aren’t that close. SO COOL!!

The next people to the line were 2 sets of blind athletes!! They took off around when the pros started, but they only did the sprint course. Here’s a blind woman heading to the finish tethered to the man that lead her through the entire course:

Amazing!! Congrats!!

Next, Sarah Haskins was heading to the line, as the first pro female!! YAY SARAH!!

Second was Julie Dibens:

And third was Becky Lavelle:

Not far behind them was Cathy, who defended her title as the first place Amateur Elite female!! CONGRATS ON 2 IN A ROW, CATHY!!

Well, that did it for all the Pros and Elites. Man, they were fun to watch! To be SO CLOSE to them as they competed was AWESOME!!

Before I knew it, intervals buddy Jen came SPRINTING to the line of her second Olympic Distance tri. I swear, I’ve NEVER taken a bad photo of Jen running:

I spotted Miss Allycat cheering near us, and she said her boy-toy was going to be finishing shortly. And sure enough, Ryan came running by just a few moments later:

I TOTALLY missed BaddApple as he ran by, but I got my camera up to snap a photo of him running down the finishers chute. He’s the one in white:

And buddy XT4 came running by shortly after:

We had one more buddy out there - Cynthia was still working hard. She did the bike on a commuter-style bike, so she knew she wasn’t going to have a super-speedy finish time. But she WAS going to finish! Sarah and I walked farther out on run course to cheer. We cheered for all the other athletes right at the point where the trail splits (finishers headed right and people with 1 lap left headed left). I saw and cheered for Joe, Pharmie’s running buddy that she met at Liberty.

Soon, Cynthia was finishing her first lap:

She really had to force that smile - she was a little beat up. But before too long, she had finished her 2nd lap, and she headed down the finisher’s chute!

We had talked 2 days earlier, and she gave me her estimated finishing time. I told her she’d be 20-40 minutes faster than that. Well, she was 15 minutes FASTER than my prediction!! CONGRATULATIONS CYNTHIA!!!

Here’s Sarah, Cynthia, and I shortly after Cynthia finished:

Sarah and I hit the porta-potties before heading home. (I actually had a roll of TP in my bag, and I made 3 friends at the porta-potties who needed TP! Always prepared!! Ha!) We bumped into Marie and t-odd (and one of t-odd’s friends whose name escapes me at this moment...). I think Sarah was getting sick of all the people stopping me saying, “Hey, Steve in a Speedo!!” Seriously, there were 12-15 people that stopped to say hi on Saturday! It was AWESOME!! We spotted Mike and Ms. R on our way back to our bikes, and we congratulated Ms. R on a 2:40 oly PR!

As we were leaving (as I wrote about yesterday), we bumped into Becky Lavelle (3rd place pro). She was really nice and personable, and we snapped a photo with her:

That’s all! What a hell of a day!! A LOT of cool pro-spotting, Cynthia’s first oly, and a great race by a lot of my friends!! I asked Sarah what she thought of all of that, and I THINK she liked it. Her response was, “Well, I’ll be racing it next year!” Sweet!

Monkey Winners!

2009-07-13T07:51:00.000-05:00

The winners have been chosen! These 2 people will receive $45 worth of my new favorite recovery drink: The Monkey Shake from 10:10 Wellness.

There were over 100 entries. So I wrote out the numbers 0-9 on little slips of paper for the drawing:

I first drew from 0 and 1 to determine the first number. I drew the 0. I threw all the numbers back in, and then drew a 6. I threw the 6 back in and then drew a 1. So that was 061, or the person whose comment was #61.

I repeated the process all over again, and I came up with 063.

I looked down the list of comments from Saturday’s post, and those 2 numbers corresponded with Kelly from New York and Julie from Iowa. Congrats Kelly and Julie!! Send me your mailing address (stevestenzelphotography [at] yahoo.com) and I’ll send you some Monkey!!

I had to look up #62. Jason Buckner was “that guy,” who didn’t win anything, but who was flanked by the 2 winners. Sorry Jason!

If you didn’t win, but you still want some Monkey, you can purchase your own Monkey here. And as I said on Saturday, if you want to buy anything from 10:10 Wellness, you can use the coupon code "steveinaspeedo" (without the quotes) to get 25% off ANYTHING that you get from their site - clothing, Monkey, anything!! So check out 10:10 Wellness. The coupon code is only valid for the next week and a half.

I’ll be back shortly with a ton of photos of pro triathletes and some friends competing in the LTF Triathlon on Saturday. It was a great day!!

Hit By Car / Pro Triathlete Sighting / Brick WO / Giveaway Reminder

2009-07-12T15:13:00.006-05:00

1. Hit By A Car:

Sarah, a member of the “CVA Tri Club,” was swiped by a car while biking yesterday. She’s fine, but she was pretty shook up. We spent the morning together at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon (we biked there together), and she was struck on her way home after the race. I had been home for 10 minutes when the phone rang. I zipped down to where she was hit and brought some ice packs. Luckily, she just had a few scrapes on her ankle, leg, and arm, as well as a goose-egg on her head. I sat with her on Summit Ave for 40 minutes while the cops finished getting their info, and while she was waiting for her Mom to pick her up to take her to the hospital. Sarah got a few different scans on her head, and everything is A-OK.

The accident was actually Sarah’s fault. She tried to make a left turn without looking far enough over her shoulder to see if any traffic was coming from behind. She feels REALLY dumb that it happened, and she was REALLY lucky. This just serves as another reminder to be careful out there and to wear your helmet!!

This morning, when I hopped on Facebook, I saw Sarah’s status from last night:

She got right back on the horse. Good girl. You can’t keep her down.

2. Pro Triathlete Sighting:

On to some more upbeat news. About an hour before Sarah was hit, we were getting ready to leave the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. We had just cheered Cynthia, another member of the “CVA Tri Club,” to the finish of her first Olympic Distance Triathlon!! Congrats Cynthia!! Anyway, as we were leaving, I spotted professional triathlete Becky Lavelle sitting on the curb. I shouted “Congratulations on your finish, Becky!” (She had just finished 3rd overall.) She smiled, waved, and said “Thanks.”

A moment later, I asked Sarah if she wanted a photo with Becky. She smiled and said yes. We turned around and asked her for a photo with us:

Becky’s taller than I had imagined...

Sitting on the ground right next to Sarah in that photo is Becky’s oversized winner’s check for placing third. I think we should have had that in the photo too...

I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with a TON of great photos of all the professionals who raced yesterday, as well as Cynthia’s first Oly, and all my friends who raced as well. Stop back tomorrow to see a bunch of great shots from this great triathlon!

3. Brick Workout Today:

This morning, I hopped on my bike for a good 32 mile ride. I did some minor hills (small rollers along the river) for the first 10 miles, then I shot down to the end of the Greenway and back.

- First 10 miles of rollers: 20.0 mph average
- Next 11 miles (flat): 20.3 mph average
- Final 11 miles (flat): 20.0 mph average at the finish

Those last 11 miles were pretty killer. They were into the (slight) breeze, and my legs were toast. I tried to push hard throughout most of the ride. I grabbed a photo when I got home, but it’s all sweaty and gross, so I won’t show you.

I spent exactly 4 minutes “transitioning” to the run: I took my bike inside, peed, had a gel and some water, threw on my running shorts, and hit the road again. Before the ride, I set out my new Brooks “Adrenaline” running shoes, and they were ready to go on a hard, fast 3 miler.

- Mile 1: 6:36. Easing into it.
- Mile 2: 6:05. Upping the pace. Legs burning.
- Mile 3: 5:57. NEARLY an all-out sprint. Nice.

- Total: 18:38 (6:13 / mile)

Nice hard run, nice negative split, little-to-no heel pain! I stretched for a while, and then rewarded myself with Chipotle. This will be my last “killer” workout before the Chisago Sprint Triathlon in 2 weeks!

4. Monkey Giveaway Reminder:

Read my last post. You can easily win some delicious and nutritious Monkey by commenting on my last post. You only have through tomorrow morning at 6 am!

So check back tomorrow morning to see if you’ve won any Monkey, and then check back tomorrow afternoon to see a photographic run-down of the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon (with all my friends and all the pros) that took place yesterday! Happy Sunday!!

Tasty Giveaway!! ONLY this weekend!!

2009-07-11T00:30:00.009-05:00

First, a quick update on an old giveaway: Remember the "Tales of a Virgin Athlete" Contest that I hosted a few months back? The top 3 vote getters won a bunch of Drymax Socks. Mike won the contest with his inspirational story, and soon this photo appeared on his Facebook page:

I just heard back from Gabriel, the second place winner. He lives in South America, so there were some shipping (and then some customs) problems. But, earlier this week, he just sent me this great photo:

Enjoy the socks!!!

- - Now, on to the current giveaway!! - -

Who wants some Monkey? I’ve been a fan of the “Monkey Shake” for a while now. It's a homemade recovery / meal replacement drink from Chris at 10:10 Wellness. It contains rolled oats, whey protein, chia seeds, and RenewPro (another kind of whey protein). Click here to read all about it on the 10:10 site.

You can mix it with other things to make it more delicious. Here’s my personal set-up that I shared with you all a few weeks back:

Milk, frozen berries, a few ice cubes, and a naner (yes, a “naner”) go into the blender, and the Monkey Shake gets sprinkled on top:

What results is hearty and delicious:

I like to have a good Monkey after a hard workout to “kick start” muscle repair. These photos are from when I made a Monkey Shake after my last Olympic Distance triathlon. I usually make it with berries, sometimes I use a banana, and one time I made it with fresh-squeezed OJ from my grandparents, and that was GREAT!

If you don't want to wait to see if you've won, you can purchase your own Monkey. Here's my recent shipment, and at 2 servings per baggie, that's a LOT of Monkey:

So a "giveaway" is good news, but this is even BETTER news: If you use the coupon code "steveinaspeedo" (without the quotes), you'll get 25% off ANYTHING that you get from 10:10 Wellness - clothing, Monkey, anything!! So check out 10:10 Wellness.

Giveaway Rules:

• Comment on this post to get your name in the hat to win some Monkey Shake. Comment once anytime before 6 am Central Time on Monday morning.

• You must be from the US or Canada. (Or have someone in the US or Canada that I can send this to.)

• I'll draw 2 winners at random, and I'll post the winners ASAP on Monday morning (probably around 9 am Central Time). Each winner will win 10 baggies (20 servings) of Monkey Shake! That's a $45.00 value for each winner!

• If you're not a blogger, you can still comment, saying something like "Hey, this is John Doe from Detroit. Give me Monkey!" But if that's the case, make sure to check back on Monday to see if you've won - I may have no way of contacting you!

I'm off to watch some friends and some pros compete at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon! Should be fun!! Happy Weekend!

Note: In the name of full disclosure, this giveaway was NOT the idea of 10:10 Wellness. This was my idea. And I'm the one giving away the Monkey from my own personal Monkey stash. I'm an "Instigator" for 10:10 Wellness, which means I help Chris spread the word of his little tri site. But I'm just giving away some Monkey because I seriously think the stuff works wonders, and I want others to try it too! So please, leave a comment to be entered!

Friday Funny 44: Computers

2009-07-10T07:17:00.001-05:00

I wish MY computer had a ship’s wheel:

Text under that image: “Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a ‘home computer’ could look like in the year 2004. However, the technology will not be economically feasible to the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems...”

I guess that portable “9 pound computer” sounds like a good idea if THIS is your only other alternative...

p.s. I’m heading to Lake Nokomis to cheer everyone on during the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon tomorrow morning. There will be A LOT of cool pros there, and I have a CVA Tri Club student who is doing her first Olympic distance! Good luck Cynthia!!

p.p.s. Stop by tomorrow to throw your hat in the ring for a great giveaway! The contest will ONLY run over the weekend, so don’t miss it!

p.p.p.s. Happy Weekend!!

First Tri Club Open Water Swim

2009-07-08T21:53:00.001-05:00

Earlier today, I took a few members of the CVA Triathlon Club to Lake Nokomis for their first open water swim! (Again, it’s under 3 weeks until their first triathlon!!) And it was cool that we had a lot of others meet up with us too!

Pharmie brought her wetsuit for Sarah to try. Sarah is thinking about doing a 2 mile Lake Superior swim in a couple of weeks, and you NEED a wetsuit for that! Here she is squeezing her way into a wetsuit for the first time:

Here was our whole gang:

Hannah, Cynthia, Evan, me, Pharmie, Tim, Sarah, Sara, Jen

You’ll remember Hannah, Evan, and Sarah from the 4 miler this past weekend. Cynthia is on the CVA Tri Club, and she’s doing her FIRST OLY this weekend!! Jen is doing an oly this weekend too. Tim is an old high-school buddy who has a similar oly PR as me. And Sara #2 (second from the right) was told about our get-together by Julia, as she’s training for the Lake Minnetonka 5 mile swim.

I also had to get a photo with the person who took that photo above. Deb, an admissions counselor at CVA, came to hang out on the beach and watch our stuff as we swam. Thanks Deb!!

I gave some advice to Sarah, Hannah, and Evan, as it was their FIRST OPEN WATER SWIM! We all headed out, treaded water for a moment, and took off. I stopped after 45 seconds to see how everyone was doing. Sarah and Evan were RIGHT on my tail! Nice! Hannah was a bit slower, but she KNOWS she can get through the race, and that’s all that matters.

As we were wrapping up, a big “Team In Training” group hit the water and swam all around us (including Ms. R). They maybe had 40-50 people out there (and 2 kayakers). It was good experience for my students to be out there with a lot of others. And they did GREAT! Here’s Lake Nokomis as it was filling up:

Cynthia, Tim, and Jen had to get going. Hannah swam in after 1 long lap. After a bit longer, Sarah and Evan came in. Here’s Evan sighting nicely on his way back to shore:

They popped up to run it in...

...and Evan went down in a heap:

Sarah kept running up to shore:

Evan immediately picked his butt up and ran in looking like a pro:

Here’s us few stragglers getting ready to head home:

Hannah, Sarah, Deb (curled up with a blanket
and a book), Pharmie, and Evan

EVERYONE SURVIVED AND DID SO WELL!! Sarah and Evan felt great! (And looked good too!) Hannah’s going to hit the pool a little more, and I’ll try to help her out to get a bit more comfortable. It’s under 3 weeks to their big day!!

(p.s. Check back Saturday or Sunday for a quick weekend giveaway!! You don’t want to miss it! I’m choosing 2 winners for a bunch of my new favorite recovery drink!!)

Getting My A** Out The Door

2009-07-08T07:42:00.003-05:00

This week I’m teaching a week long Digital Photo class for high school students at one of the colleges where I teach. That’s on top of my regular undergraduate Color Theory class. Tuesday and Thursday are the days of overlap. So yesterday, I had 6.5 hours of teaching and entertaining high school kids IMMEDIATELY followed by 3 hours of Color Theory critique/test review/project intro/work time.

And then I had scheduled a bike ride when I got home.

Yeah. Right.

On the drive home, I talked myself out of doing the ride. Twenty minutes later, I had talked myself back in to doing it. A few minutes after that, I had talked myself out of it again. FINALLY, I said I was going to do it, so I got dressed and out the door before I could change my mind again. I was just going to go for a short ride. I was thinking about something that Stefanie recently said on her blog:

I told myself the workout doesn't need to be perfect but I do need to be present.

I figured SOMETHING was better than NOTHING. So I did the River Road / Shepard Road loop once (15.8 miles). I pushed pretty hard for the quick ride, and finished with a 20.1 mph average (which included a nice climb up Ramsey Hill with 4 miles left). Better than nothing. I’ll do a longer ride this weekend, and my training will still be on track.

OWS with the CVA Tri Club at Lake Nokomis tonight at 6 pm! Should be interesting!! I’ll bring my camera, and I’ll have a report tomorrow morning. If you’re a local looking for an OW swim, stop on by at 6!

(p.s. Mark this Saturday on your calendars - I'm doing another simple giveaway. All you need to do is stop by on Saturday and comment on my post. It will only be open to entries on Saturday and Sunday, so MAKE SURE TO STOP BY THIS WEEKEND!!)

I’m NOT Really That Sweaty

2009-07-07T07:22:00.003-05:00

Or, “The 'Free To Run 4 Miler' Official Photos”

Here are a few official photos from the “Free to Run 4 Miler” that I did with a few of my Tri Club students on the 4th. Here’s just before the start:

I’m on the far right

Ready, set, go

Students Hannah, Sarah, and Evan starting
(you can barely see Hannah in the green)

Danielle was at the turn around, and she snapped a few photos. Here’s leader (and soon-to-be winner) Vlad running with NO ONE behind him:

Ryan, Doug, and I finally came through about 60-90 seconds later, all vying for second place:

Here I am just after finishing (it started to rain about half way into the race - that’s NOT sweat!):

Me (3rd), Vlad (1st), and Ryan (2nd)

Male and female winners. Yes, this is the woman
I so creepily wrote about in my last post...

Soon, Evan came running in. Here you can see me taking a photo of him running by:

Sarah finishing

Hannah finishing

Like I said in my race report, I went to help the announcer after I finished. I would help read numbers and find the runner’s name on the list so he could announce them and then cross them off (so we knew they weren’t out there anymore). Gary snapped a shot of us once it started to slow down, and he labeled this “Steve Stenzel’s Team Helping Gaylen Announce Racers:”

Nice job, team!!! Congrats on a solid race!

In other quick news, my heel is feeling pretty good. The only thing I did last week was swim once (not far) and then race on Saturday. During the race, it BARELY got a little tight (just at the very end), but it didn’t get sore. That’s good news! Later that day, I was out taking pictures, and it started to downpour. After being stuck under an awning at a body shop for 20 minutes trying to wait-out the rain, I finally decided to run back to my car. My heel hurt a little after that 2 block run in non-running shoes. D’oh. But it’s back on the upswing again. So.....

I swam 18 - 50 yard intervals last night. I cut my rest down to 15 seconds, and averaged 41.05 / 50. That’s just a little faster than 3 weeks ago when I did 17 with 20 seconds rest. I also took my heart rate after a few of them (as Andrea suggested). After 5, it was 156. After 10, it was 162. And after 15, it was 168. Andrea said that was good - she just didn’t want to see it drop which would mean I was giving myself too much rest.

Some members of the tri club are meeting me at Lake Nokomis tomorrow evening at 6, and they’ll be trying their FIRST open water swim!! Wish us luck! I’ll be back with photos!

Free to Run 4 Miler

2009-07-05T10:44:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning, a few of students from the “CVA Triathlon Club” and I went down to race at the Free to Run 4 Miler on Harriet Island. (Note: It’s only 3 weeks until a few CVA students tackle their first sprint triathlon!!) We all met at CVA and headed down to the race together.

Harriet Island was hosting “The Taste of Minnesota:” a drunken food fair with live bands. (Tonight is Brett Michaels if you’re interested.) So I wasn’t surprised to find a porta-potty that looked like this:

All of us got our numbers and got ready to race! Look at the excitement!!

Ha! Sorry Sarah, but you KNEW I was going to do this! Here’s a better photo of us pre-race:

Evan, Sarah, Hannah, and me

Soon, we were shuffled towards the starting line. I kept looking back at those 3 and giving them thumbs-ups! I was hoping that they’d have a good race and feel good about their performance.

Ready, set, GO!

We were off. A man named Vladimir who had a strong Russian accent quickly took the lead. And he just kept pulling away. Right away, I realized that unless he crashed, he’d easily take the win. I was running with a tall 27 year old name Ryan, and soon, we were joined by 43 year old Doug. The 3 of us were running side-by-side in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place. We chatted about the weather, this race, other races, and the course for the first 2 miles. Friendly guys!! I love races like that!

Mile 1: 5:50. “Good. Solid, but not too hard. Where I want to be.”

As we were heading up to the turn-around, I saw Danielle at the aid station with her camera. I think she snapped a photo. I smiled and said hi, she cheered for me, and us 3 guys rounded a cone to head back home.

Mile 2: 6:04. “Slower, but OK. Let’s get mile 3 back under 6:00.”

I was excited to see my students after the turn-around. Evan wasn’t too far back! Then came Sarah. And Hannah was close behind. They were all smiling, so that was good news!! I cheered for all of them. Doug knew a lot of people out there too, as he was cheering for a lot of people as well. I LOVE friendly races like that!

Mile 3: 6:08. “Too slow. Damn. Pick it up Steve.”

I ran the middle of this race a little too slow. I usually push myself hard in the middle of my training runs, and I didn’t do that well at this race. I think the 3 of us running together were a little afraid to pick it up too much and take the out-right lead for second place - we were all running with the “pack” mentality.

I have a good “slowly-building kick” over the last mile of a race, but I don’t have a good “last 100 meters” kick. So I started picking up the pace after the mile 3 marker. But Ryan and Doug didn’t get left behind - they picked it up and stayed right with me. Second place was still anyone’s guess. (Vladimir CLEARLY had the lead, so we were all just shooting for second. We couldn’t even see Vladimir anymore.)

I ran the middle of this race right behind these 2 guys, but with about 800 meters left, I was running ahead of these guys. I just had to try to hold that. We came off the wooded part of the trail into the opening near the park entrance, and we were all running HARD. At the little downhill into the park, Ryan picked it up and strided past me. Doug was right on my tail. I pushed and pushed and pushed. I couldn’t catch Ryan, but I didn’t know how far Doug was behind me. I tried to hold on to 3rd place. I hit the line just behind Ryan, but still in front of Doug for 3rd.

Mile 4: 5:44. “Better. Fast. Still, I should have pushed more last mile.”

Top 4 finishers (out of 154 runners):
1 Vladimir Reznikor, 29, 21:28, 5:22 pace
2 Ryun Hess, 27, 23:49, 5:58 pace
3 Steve Stenzel, 28, 23:49, 5:58 pace
4 Doug Brew, 43, 23:53, 5:59 pace

I grabbed my camera (so I could snap photos of my students running by) and went to help the guy who was reading numbers and names of people coming to the finish line. It wasn’t long before Evan came by:

Evan Nagan:
23/154 Overall, 19/74 Men, 30:56, 7:44 pace

Sold time! Nice finish!!

Then Sarah came running in, leading a pack home:

Sarah Ekstrom:
36/154 Overall, 8/80 Female, 34:06, 8:32 pace

Sarah had hoped to break 45:00. Yeah... she broke that by 16 minutes!! Nice job!

Not far behind her was Hannah:

Hannah Frick:
46/154 Overall, 13/80 Female, 35:50, 8:58 pace

Hannah’s goal was to run the whole race and not have to stop to walk. And, by golly, she ran the whole way! Oh, and Gary from Charities Challenge already sent me Hannah’s finishing photo (you can see Gary in the photo above). Here’s his version, and you can see me taking a photo under Hannah’s armpit:

Nice finishers photo, Hannah!

Sarah came to join me under the little announcer’s tent:

Man, we’re an awkward group:

We grabbed one last photo at the finish line with Gary and Jeanne from Charities Challenge:

Me, Evan, Hannah, Gary, Sarah, and Jeanne

Creepy side-note: the first place female was wearing short, tight “bun shorts,” and all of us noticed her amazing butt. Sarah wanted to touch it. And then slap it to see how it acted. She kept calling it something like “2 round bubbles.” Weird. But kinda true. As we were walking back to the car, the girl with the butt passed us with a group of people. My group wanted me to take a photo of her butt, but she was walking in front of someone else. But when they turned to head into the lot, I grabbed this blurry, creepy shot:

Sarah’s mouth dropped when her leg shot up on a barricade to stretch:

Then I turned to get a reaction shot of my group:

Back at the car, Sarah said 2 amazing words: “Uhhh..... breakfast??...” Yes, breakfast! We all headed to the Uptowner on Grand to stuff our faces:

Evan and I should have posed like Sarah and Hannah

This didn’t take long...

Congrats Evan, Sarah, and Hannah on such a strong race!!! You guys are SOOO going to rock the Chisago sprint tri!! I’ll be back with official race photos as soon as they are up. Happy weekend!!!

Friday Funny 43: Bamboo Bikes

2009-07-03T08:11:00.001-05:00

This isn’t “ha ha” funny, but it IS interesting. I think this is old news, but I just heard of it a few days ago. Did you know you can make bike frames out of bamboo? Here’s an article from the BBC a few days ago talking about it. It’s a pretty “green” bike (being bamboo grows so quickly), a bamboo frame only weighs about 4 pounds, and apparently it dampens vibrations better than carbon. This is news to me!!

I thought it was “neat” but maybe a little impractical for road cyclists. But then I came across this image of a bamboo bike ready to race an Ironman:

Man, that’s sleek!

p.s. My heel has been feeling GREAT the last 2-3 days, but I HAVE been taking it easy. (Since Sunday, I’ve only swum once, and that was short.) So I’ll be heading to the “Free to Run 4 Miler” tomorrow at Harriet Island. And I think there’ll be 3 tri club students running it too! Check back Saturday night or Sunday to see how they all did!! (I hope my heel holds up!)

p.p.s. If you came for a “ha ha” Friday Funny, here’s a little something from StuffThatMakesMeChuckle.com:

A.R.T. for M.E.

2009-07-02T08:08:00.004-05:00

So that 13.1 mile run on Sunday at WIBA wasn’t the smartest. Before the run, I was thinking, “Last year I did the full 13.1 at WIBA, and I was fine.” But I forgot that last year, I was trained for a marathon 2-3 weeks before. Oops.

With about 20 minutes left in the run, my heel had a little sharp pain. It was my achilles ready to give up. I got through the run OK, but my heel was SORE. Dang.

Monday morning, I called Dr. Folske ASAP, and made an appointment for some ART on my heel. I’ve talked a little about ART before (Active Release Techniques) - it’s a way to “dig out” tight/sore muscles and tendons. Some of it hurts a little. The final thing Dr. Folske did hurt MORE than just a little. To end our session, he had me stand up, with my left leg bent back at the knee resting on the therapy bed. Then he straddled my sore heel, dug in with his fingers and thumbs using his body weight, all while flexing and releasing my foot. That SUCKED (but it was a “good” suck - that sounds weird...).

It doesn’t show up too well in this photo, but my lower calf / upper heel was all red when he got done:

That was Monday. On Tuesday, was it was still a little sore, so I took it easy. It felt quite a bit better yesterday, so I was able to swim (just a short 1000 yards in 16:17 [1:37.8 / 100 yards]). Today it feels even better. I hope to go for a bike ride after class. Then I’ll rest tomorrow.

If all goes as planned, I’ll be doing a 4 mile road race at Harriet Island on the 4th. (A few members of the tri club are going to do it too!) I think with my iffy heel, it wouldn’t be smart to wear my racing flats. I REALLY want to try them out in a road race, but this might not be the best time. Anyway, here's to a healthy, pain-free heel!

p.s. I don't mind visiting Dr. Folske because I get to talk with Michelle Lilienthal who works for him. Yes, THIS Michelle Lilienthal:

Yeah, I might be a little star-struck. She just did the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon (part of Grandma's Marathon in Duluth) WITHOUT tapering, just as "another training run," in a week that she had run 90 miles, and still finished as the 6th female in 1:18!! WHAT?!? That's crazy talk!!

More WIBA Photos

2009-07-01T05:16:00.000-05:00

I have just a few more WIBA photos to share that some friends took. First, here are some from Stu:

Spitting in my goggles pre-swim

With Pharmie before getting wet

I like this next sequence of us jumping into Lake Menona. The best is the 3rd image down - I look freaked out, bow-legged, and strange, and Pharmie looks GREAT:

Tanya snapped one of the 3 of us before swimming:

Pharmie, Tanya, me

And she also got one of me grilling in my “grilling outfit” and with Pharmie in her normal “I just biked 60 miles outfit:”

Oh yeah: Stu got a good one of me grilling too. I like how the all the smoke makes this look like a dream sequence:

Is this your dream, baby?
Gross. Why did I say that?...

And Wil got a few good ones too. Here I am taking a ~~vodka~~ water break:

Chatting with new buddies Running Jayhawk and Out of Shape Guy

Non-bird and non-head-cut-off group shot pre-run
(if you don’t know what that all means, check my previous post)

Everyone starting the run in downtown Madison

WIBA #4 was SUCH a fun weekend! It was great to hang out with old friends!! And it was great to meet other fun athletes. We’ll have to see if we can make it to WIBA #5 next year. (The date is being changed, so we’ll have to see.)

Check my previous post for a TON of photos from the WIBA weekend.

2009 Wisconsin Ironman Brick Adventure

2009-06-29T09:42:00.000-05:00

Sit down. Strap in. Hold all calls. Have you pooped? Because it will be a while before you can go to the bathroom. I have nearly 70 photos to share from the weekend at WIBA (Wisconsin Ironman Brick Adventure). It’ll be a long but fun post. Here’s how it will go down:

I. Arrival and Dinner
II. Open Water Swim
III. Bike Ride
IV. Post-Workout Meal
V. Run
VI. Endurance House Meeting

This was the 4th WIBA. Pharmie and I have been to all 4. We’ve made some good friends out there, and we just like to come and workout with them, even if we’re not training for IM WI.

OK, here we go.

I. Arrival and Dinner

Pharmie and I were able to catch I ride with Iron Girl Nyhus out to Madison. We made it out there in about 4.5 hours:

IGN, Pharmie, Me

I drove IGN’s SUV the last part of the ride, and I realized I’m not used to driving something that big. I mean, just take a look at my parking job:

Next door (at the Alliant Energy Center), there was an Airsteam convention:

We unpacked a little and then headed out to a dinner with everyone else.

Pre-dinner info from Robby

Pasta buffet!!

IM WI bike course analysis with Robby and Sweet

II. Open Water Swim

The next morning (Saturday), we all met at nearby Olin Park for an open water swim in Lake Menona. Here’s IGN, Pharmie, Charile, and Lisa checking out the weedy lake, with downtown Madison in the background (that’s Menona Terrace along the lake to the right, and that’s where the IM swim takes place):

IGN waving

Pharmie and I jumping in. Photo from Wil.

Finishing the swim with Al (who’s eating seaweed)

Post swim with Pharmie

So, there was a lot of algae in the lake. And a lot of weeds. Someone joked that swimming through it was like resistance training. Anyone doing IM WI, don’t worry - it’s NOT like that in the IM swim. Here’s the inside of IGH’s suit when she got done:

Rural Girl had to help Pharmie get into her sports bra after the swim, and it was pretty hot.

Pharmie’s side after the swim, all covered in algae

The funniest part was that when Pharmie took her suit completely off, her boobs, ribs, and belly button caught the algae in such a way that the inside of her suit looked like it had a smiley-face. We’re not making this up:

And here’s a shot from later in the day that shows 2 washcloths in the shower. Both were used. But can you tell which one Pharmie used to clean herself up after the green OW swim?

Nasty

III. Bike Ride

Right after the swim, we all headed out to Fireman’s Park to ride the IM loop. (the IM WI bike course is about a 16 mile “out,” a 40 mile loop done twice, and then a 16 mile “back.” Fireman’s Park is near the start of the loop.)

Everyone unloading

Pharmie and IGN getting ready

IGN, Tanya, and Pharmie

Everyone putting Wil’s phone number in their phone

Here’s most of the goup all ready to ride:

Click here for a larger version

I got to chat a bit with Mike and Jenny. If you remember, Mike won the Tales of a Virgin Athlete Contest a few months ago with his story of discovering triathlons and losing a combined 365 pounds with Jenny. Here’s the 3 of us together:

It was time to roll out!

Jeremy

Mike, Kara, and Lisa

Pharmie (with Tri-Mama behind her)

I had to get my annual shot of Rural Girl heading to the trees to pee:

Everyone was out riding. I went back to the room and relaxed. I stopped at Taco Bell, spent a half hour in the “fitness center,” and got ready to head back out to see everyone finish their ride.

Kara and Lisa

Stewie

Pharmie and Al

People were arriving. It was time to hit the grill!!

IV. Post-Workout Meal

A few weeks ago, I told Wil that I wasn’t going to ride, so I could help feed everyone. She asked Stu and I to man the grills. So that was our next task: to feed 80 hungry riders!

I changed into my grilling outfit: my “bowl full of sunshine” yellow shorts, wrist bands, head band, and apron. I think this is a good look:

Making fire

Photo from Wil

Stu and I manning our grills

Mike and Jenny bringing more goodies

“the spread”

With my “meat”

Robby excited to eat (and drink)

People hanging out

Robby giving instructions for the next morning

After grilling, showering, and resting for a moment, a few of us headed downtown to get some gelato. Here’s Pharmie and Jeremy:

Charlie, Lisa, Pharmie, Jeremy, TriSaraTops, Robby, and me.
Photo from Wil.

Pharmie, TriSaraTops, Lisa, and Wil heading back to the hotel

V. Run

Sunday morning, we got up, had a quick bite, and headed to the Terrace for a run. We were going to run the IM WI run course. Here’s Robby telling everyone about the swim exit and T1 in IM WI:

I set my camera up to take a group shot with the self-timer, but 2 funny things happened. First, the wind must have gusted through and tipped the camera forward, because I didn’t TRY to cut off everyone’s heads like this:

Sorry tall people!

Secondly, as we were waiting for the shutter to click, a bird flew though the picture, and we all laughed. As it turns out, that bird made it into the photo. Check the far upper-right:

I can’t make this stuff up

We split into groups, and we headed out:

Here’s everyone heading towards the capital in the first half mile:

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9kejwJSZVA

Heading down State St.

Doing the little “out-and-back” section on the bike path

“Off-roading” through the construction

I ran with the lead group. We did the full 13.1 mile course (it’s done twice for IM). Sweet led the group, and we chatted about nerdy college teacher things for a bit. I forgot the name of the guy in white (SO bad with names - sorry!). And I talked the most with Andy who’s doing IM WI this September. We had a nice chat. Here’s my group heading back towards the State Capital:

We did the 13.1 miles in an easy 1:44. The run was nice, but with about 20 minutes left, my left achilles suddenly got sore. I might be giving Dr. Folske a call today. Damn.

Back at the Terrace, there were some people hanging around that had just done 6-7 miles. Here’s IGN perched between some parking meters:

Pharmie showed up with Kara a few minutes later. They had just finished the full 13.1 miles too!

VI. Endurance House Meeting

One last stop before heading home. A few of us met at Endurance House - a tri store near Madison. They opened the store an hour and a half early just for us WIBA folks. They were going to do foot-strike analysis for anyone who wanted, and they gave us all a 15% discount! Sweet! Here’s IGN and Pharmie heading in:

Pharmie and I needed shoes shortly, so we thought we’d take advantage of the discount and the foot-strike analysis. Here she is on the treadmill:

Looking at her foot strike in slow-mo

Here’s a look at our foot-strikes side-by-side (be warned: this is one of THEE MOST BORING videos on YouTube):

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdM5UEXPoOs

Pharmie has a great stride/strike. My left leg is great, but my right leg has a little “flavor” at the end, and it kicks out a bit too much. So I tried some shoes that will work with that. Here’s Pharmie trying on shoes with hunky Justin:

IGN bought some compression socks, and she wasn’t sure how she’d get her legs into these little socks:

(As it turns out, she accidentally bought one size too small...)

So we hit the road for home. We kept joking about how much IGN and Pharmie had in common (I kept saying they were the same person). Well, after an hour on the road, they just proved my point even more:

What a fun weekend!!! Thanks Wil and Robby!

Note to WIBA participants: If you are in any of these photos or just want a copy of a few of them, just e-mail me and tell me what image(s) you’d like, and I’ll GLADLY send you the file(s). My e-mail is: stevestenzelphotography [at] yahoo.com Just put something about WIBA in the subject line because I get a lot of spam.

I might have a few more photos from friends in the next few days. Thanks for wading your way through such a long post!

WTF Is Going On Here?!?...

2009-06-28T17:36:00.000-05:00

This is how I spent part of my weekend at WIBA:

Wanna know more? And see a BUNCH of great photos of people working out on the IM WI course? Check back Monday. I’ll have the post up as soon as I can wade through all my photos. What a fun weekend!!!

WIBA Riders!

2009-06-27T11:02:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that we’re out in WI with a big group of old friends and soon-to-be friends! About 80 of them are out riding the IM WI course right now, and I’m sitting in an AC hotel room with reruns of “Married With Children” on in the background. I’ll be heading back out to Fireman’s Park to grill all kinds of goodies for the riders when they get done in a few hours.

We had a great time at the group meal last night, we had a fun (dirty, weedy) open water swim this morning, and hopefully, everyone’s having a good ride right now. Here’s a photo of about 85% of the group before the ride (about 2 hours ago):

Click here for a larger version

I might be back with a few pics now and then, but check back early next week for a TON of great IM WI training photos! (No, Pharmie and I are NOT doing IM WI. We just come out here for the good time!) Happy weekend!

Friday Funny 42: Men vs. Women

2009-06-26T09:20:00.000-05:00

Just a quick Friday Funny with 2 recent funnies from StuffThatMakesMeChuckle.com that I enjoyed.

And here's another funny one that seems like it'd be a good idea (I love the expression on the kid's face)...

Speed Thursday 08: Track Intervals

2009-06-25T21:39:00.003-05:00

Tonight, a few of us met at the St. Thomas track for some speed work. We got down there, and a lacrosse match was going on:

We asked one of the coaches if we could run on the track, and he said (with a smile) “Yeah, I’m more concerned about YOU guys getting hurt - some of these guys have HORRIBLE aim, so just watch your back!” I thanked him and we got ready to go.

A few students from the CVA Triathlon Club (who have been running quite a bit) were going to meet us there. But no one showed. Lame. So it was just the 4 of us “regulars”:

Me, Pharmie, Borsch, and Jen

- I didn’t know what I wanted to do: 800s or 1600s.
- Pharmie was out for speed: 400s for her.
- Jen was going to do some 800s.
- And Borsch had just finished a hard 15 mile ride, so he was there just to run some laps. Nice brick!!

We all took off. I decided on 1600s. I ran them pretty solidly: 5:33, 5:33, and 5:30 (for a 5:32 average). I was spent. It was warm, and that was a HARD workout. In fact, that’s my best 3 x 1600 average ever.

Here’s a shot of Jen running her speedy 800s:

And here’s a split-screen of Borsch and Pharmie at the same point on the homestretch:

I don’t know what Pharmie has to smile about during 400s...

That’s some good speed-work for the week. This weekend, Pharmie and I should have a good time working out with friends in Madison at WIBA! Should be a BLAST!!

p.s. Just over 3 years of blogging and 500 posts! Wow. Who’d a thunk it? Thanks for being with “Steve in a Speedo” for so long! Here’s to another 500!

2009 Liberty Olympic and Long Course Triathlon Photos

2009-06-25T07:06:00.000-05:00

Here’s a photographic recap of the Liberty Triathlon nearly 2 weeks ago. Pharmie did the long course and I did the Olympic distance.

Here I am finishing a PR swim:

Pharmie popped out of the water shortly after me:

We hit the hilly bike course:

And here we are heading back into T2 after the ride:

The run started with a decent uphill that was all woodchips. Suck-fest. Here I am rounding the corner at the top of that hill:

Heading to the finish (notice 2 of my “CVA Triathlon Club” students cheering me on behind the “n” and the “t” at the end of “Moments”):

2:23:06 chip time (oly PR by 14:27)

Pharmie came to the line a few hours later, finishing her 6th half-iron distance triathlon!!

I’m taking a photo of her to the far left

Just behind her in those photos was Joe, a running buddy that she had made on the course. They did most of the 13.1 mile run together. I shouted “Way to go Joe!!” as he ran by. He turned back to see who was cheering him on...

...and then gave me a thumbs-up as he crossed the line:

Liberty was a fun tri! Pharmie and I may do this race again in the future!

I'll be back tomorrow with some photos from a group workout that's going down tonight. I'll post that tomorrow before the "Friday Funny." This is my 499th post, and I don't want #500 to be a "Friday Funny"...

Bike Accident

2009-06-24T13:34:00.003-05:00

This story has been making it's way around lately. A biker was hit and seriously wounded during a triathlon on Sunday. The story is brief and doesn't share many details, but the reader comments are insightful / interesting / maddening / etc. Check out the story.

Who knows if it WAS a police officer's fault as one person claimed, but we should all just remember to be safe out there!! Racing or riding, we know that we may have the right-away, but other people can easily not see us out there! (It sounds like I'm saying it was the bikers fault, which I'm TOTALLY NOT doing!!) Stay safe everyone!!

+ + + + + + +

On that note, I went for a hot 23 mile ride last night. It was about 88 degrees and humid as all get-out when I started my ride after work. I road a relatively hilly (but not super hilly) route. I wanted to go hard. Here were my average miles/hour throughout the ride (they tell the story):

- 21.8: at the 35E bridge (around mile 7.5)
- 21.1: a mile across the bridge (gentle uphill)
- 20.5: turning around on the Mendota Trial at the tunnel
- 20.7: back to the bottom of the steep uphill by 35E
- 20.5: to the top of that hill
- 20.7: the end of Shepard Rd
- 19.9: up the bastard hill known as Ramsey
- 20.0: home (4 miles later)

I rode hard in the middle, and I held on to that 20.0 mph average (barely). It was a good hard ride. I was all sweaty once I got home, but I was surprised that I had such LITTLE boob sweat:

Intervals on the track tomorrow. And then off to WIBA (Wisconsin Ironman Brick Adventure) this weekend! Should be fun!!

(p.s. Liberty Triathlon race photos will be posted tomorrow)

Swimming with the CVA Triathlon Club

2009-06-24T04:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning, we headed to the Y for another low-key group swim lesson for anyone in the “CVA Triathlon Club.” (Note: it’s under 5 weeks until these current art students [and recent grads] tackle their first triathlon!) Swimming buddy Julia agreed to meet us and give some pointers / drills / advice.

We started with some dry-land core exercises:

Julia, Rudy, and Trent.
Rudy, drop those hips!

Then we hit the pool:

Julia, Rudy, Sarah, and Trent (who’s breakdancing I think)

Julia instructing the guys

They stopped to grab some pull-buoys to put between their legs to stay afloat a little easier. Rudy’s placing a pull-buoy between his legs, not doing... something else... really...

Sarah had to leave early (which is fine because she’s pretty fluid and comfortable in the pool), but the guys kept working for another 1/2 hour. Here are the guys doing a few freestyle laps at the end of our workout:

Thanks for your help Julia!! You’re the best!! Tri club members, make sure to hit the pool often to get more and more comfortable in the water. We’ve got under 5 weeks!! You should be upping your distances in all 3 disciplines!!

Back tomorrow with photos from Liberty Triathlon that Pharmie and I did 10 days ago.

7 Miler While Camping in WI

2009-06-23T05:40:00.000-05:00

Friday through Sunday I was camping with the in-laws near Sparta, WI (near Amish country). Saturday, we went canoeing down the Kickapoo River, which is hailed as “the windiest river in the world.” Doubt it, but whatever. ("Kickapoo" is Algonquin for "one who goes here, then there," and that's about right for describing the river...)

Saturday morning, before hitting the river, Pharmie’s uncle John and I went for a 7 miler. (John recently ran a sub-1:35 half marathon, and he’s hoping to get under 1:30 at the end of the summer.) I had forgot to pack a good pre-run breakfast, so I had a FruitaBu roll-up and a granola bar:

John told me that I COULD NOT RUN WITH A WATCH! He wanted me to push him to a hard run, but he wanted me to just “feel it out,” have a “fun run,” and not be concerned with my splits. We ended up mapping out a 7 mile route, John let me wear my watch AND take mile splits, but I couldn’t look at it while I was running - I could just check my splits after the run.

We went out at a pretty good pace. For the first 3.5 miles, we were pretty chatty. I was probably going at about 85-90% of “all out” pace. After we turned around and started heading back to the campsite, John started talking less - he was pushing himself to a good run. Just before mile 5, he said he was going to ease up at mile 5 and cool down for the last 2 miles. I had worked him hard, and he was done. He told me to finish out the run, and he’d be not far behind. I finished 7 hilly, hot, Wisconsin miles in 51:01 (7:17 pace with a negative split), and John was just a few minutes back.

Here we are at the campsite after our run. John didn’t pee himself; that’s all sweat:

Our work was done; it was time to spend the afternoon canoeing down the Kickapoo River! We canoed for about an hour before stopping at the first of many sandbars. Across the river from the sandbar was a rocky ledge with a lot of plants growing on it. A few of us ventured up it so we could jump off. Here I go:

I jumped hand-in-hand with a few of Pharmie’s cousins too:

Fun times on the Kickapoo! Here’s our entire gang after getting off the river (I’m in the yellow visor in the back):

Back at the camp grounds, we had a good time in the pool:

That’s harder than it looks!

It was a fun way to spend the weekend! Now, I’m off to a “CVA Triathlon Club” workout, and then maybe another workout before having to teach.

$75 Gift Certificate Winner!

2009-06-22T04:33:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, it was time to pick a winner for the $75 gift certificate to OnlineShoes.com from the 230 comments that people wrote on my post from last Monday. Those 230 comments translated into 403 entries because you could post about the contest or “follow” my blog to earn more entries. Well, a winner was chosen from those 403 entries.

Here’s how it went down (for accountability purposes): I wrote the numbers 0-9 on 10 little slips of paper:

First, I drew for the first digit of the winner (the “hundreds” spot):

I don't know why I'm so giddy...

I had to try a few times to get the first number: the entries only go into the 400s, but I first drew a 9. And then a 6. Finally, I drew a 3, so the winner was going to be in the 300s:

You can see the first 2 little slips of paper next to me

Then I drew a 5.

Finally, I drew a 2. I was pretty excited:

So the winner was number 352. I looked at my 16 page list of entries. Number 352 corresponded with Julia from California who is training for her first marathon this winter! PERFECT!

So Julia, enjoy your $75.00 gift certificate to OnlineShoes.com! Get some new shoes for training! Thanks everyone! And a big thanks to OnlineShoes.com for giving away goodies!! Have a great week everybody!

(p.s. Yes, that's a hot dog giving a thumbs-up on my t-shirt. And yes, it says "Weinerland" under the thumbs-up-giving-hot-dog. What of it?)