Category Archives: Winter

04082018 – Bike

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A cold ride around some lakes this morning. It was supposedly 17 degrees, but I wasn’t wearing enough clothes. Really it was just my fingers and toes that got the worst of it, but by the end I was feeling it! 

18 miles in 1:27. 

Rode by some crabby people who gave me the stink eye for riding on the bike path. The walking paths are still covered in snow. Another guy yelled at me for not announcing myself when I passed him, even though I yelled 5 times and his walking partner heard me and told him to move. But overall a nice ride!

04032018 – Run

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Lots of fresh powder for this morning’s run! I think there was about 4 inches of fresh snow, but I still wanted to hit the hills of the trails. There was enough snow that I ran with a skier and his dog for a short bit! Look for him in the one picture!

The workout was a 6×300.  Given the snow it was more about effort level than a specific pace for me. It was fun to play in the snow a little bit too!  The total run was 3.94 miles in 43:33.

1:58

1:54

1:59

1:40

1:25

1:43

04012018 – Bike

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45 unexciting minutes on the trainer followed by some kettlebell deadlifts, lunges and stretching. All of that before making waffles and heading to church to celebrate Easter. No joke! 

Most of the snow from yesterday melted, but no reason to risk it. Any of the shaded areas still have snow and I don’t think the Parks plowed so I’m sure it’s a little messy out there. And we are getting more this week. 

03312018 – Run & Climb 

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On the first day of Spring Break we woke up to 3 inches of heavy snow and strong cold winds! Not ideal conditions for a 4 mile Time Trial, but I went for it! The warmup and the first 2 miles were straight into the wind. I decided to run straight up my street and then go over to the parkway. Only 3 or 4 sidewalks had been shoveled yet and the streets and parkway hadn’t been plowed. Traction was pretty good throughout. The wind had created places that were almost snow free and then others where it was 3-4 inches deep. It was hard to know where the trail was on Victory Memorial Parkway, but I just ran between the lights! I extended the cool down a little bit by going on some single track. It felt like a reward for the hard work I had already put in!

I did the 4 miles in 34:06 or 8:31 pace. Total run was 5.88 miles in 54:47.

Victory Memorial Parkway, where do I run?

A mud puddle with pretty snow!

Updated: we went climbing this afternoon. I got some new climbing shoes, I think they helped! I was able to climb all the red routes I tried. I was having trouble starting one and a guy gave me a quick tip and boom I made it to the top. I definitely don’t have a lot of skill for some of the harder stuff, just height and strength which doesn’t work too much past the beginning routes!

03302018 – CrossFit and Biking

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Even though today was more flexible about showing up at work on time, I still did the 5:30am CrossFit class.  Instead of going straight to work, I stopped and got coffee for the wife and ate and showered at home.  It is a nice relaxing way to start the morning!

Today was another partner workout day.  Dan and I partnered for Annie and then 9 minutes to a heavy Snatch.

Annie Rx is double-unders but neither of us can do that. So we did singles.  We split up the following work:

100 singles

100 situps

80

80

40

40

20

20

The situps were a struggle for me.  I did my full share of situps for a total of 130 situps it just took awhile so Dan did the last two sets of single unders for me.  So I only did 90 single unders. It would have been nice to get up for a minute and have a break but it did get us done a little faster.  We finished in 9:04.

It ended up being longer than 9 minutes for the Snatch work, but we got a good skill lesson from Coach Kaitlin in the middle.  She reminded us to slow down the pull from ground and really snap the hips.  This did feel stronger! We both finished with 110#’s which is a 15# PR for me.  I missed my first attempt at 100#’s Dan did his and then I got it.  Then I nailed the 110 without any struggle. On my failed attempt I got the bar to eye level, but couldn’t get myself under it.

In the afternoon I took advantage of the family being out and ran some errands in Maple Grove and headed up to Elm Creek to get some riding in. I know the Mountain Bike trails are closed, but I thought it would be nice to ride some of their paved trails.  Well, duh – the snow pack still hasn’t melted in all the shaded areas.  At least half of the ride was on snow or ice. I didn’t end up with a lot of time either so it worked out okay to only get a short loop in.  I had hoped to do more – not the full loop though but the snow slowed me down.  I didn’t fall though it was close a couple of times.  Only one place was slick ice, most of the rest I either rode over fine or broke through the slush.  I took a few pictures, in the one I got a little off to the side into deeper snow and just got bogged down!! Oops.  It was kind of fun, but not what I had anticipated.  When I got back to the Eastman Nature Center I did a short out and back on the road to get a little more riding and a little bit of longer riding at speed!  Total was 6.2 miles in 39 minutes.  Definitely not worth the drive.  It was also my first time riding that trail, so next time will definitely be hitting some PR’s!