Training Log Archive: FoxShadow

Great tune up! It was not our day, but it was damn fun. Great course!

Event: MNOC - AR Tune-up
 

Event: The Boonecrusher AR
 

The Boonecrusher AR!

A great excuse to gather in the Silver Bullet and make a whirlwind trip to Iowa.

We crashed at Ellen's sweet new place on Friday night and got up early to start the race around 6AM. It was around 40 degrees at the start, and cloudy. The rain that came overnight cancelled the MTB section. The race was well put together at a ski resort that had nice facilities including hot shoers. The directors did a good job supplying food, red bull and New Belgium brewery products. Although there were too many out and back checkpoints, the course had all the CP's hung in the right place, they had their distances spot on (fast team finishing in 8 hours but most teams finishing in 12). They found some cool terrain, steep re-entrants, got permission from multiple private land owners as well as public ones, they did a good job. Overall a great experience.

First place with an hour lead, finishing in 8 hours. Crazy this was, only 4 of the 40 teams finished in under 11 hours! Us, REV mountain khakis, and Beautiful people, and Micheal from Norway (MNOC) were the only people that really knew what they were doing.

C • Nice. Impressive finish. ... 3

From the creator of AP. This is so nerdy and awesome. Have you seen all the different bits of info and data he's got going? So intense.


http://youtu.be/MrZrNknFGQU

C • You said it first: nerdy an... 3

Suburbocross VI.

This was not my night. Regardless, SBOC is always one of my favorite nights of the year. It's like getting all your buddies over when you're young to play night games at the park - I used to live for that.

Now it's racing at night on a bike through the back hidden nooks of MTKA. From the start I felt cold and like I maybe didn't have enough fight in my legs. A group of 6 broke off the front in the first 10 minutes, and I was able to be a part of it.

At the 20 minute mark I was still in the mix, but as part of a second group of three that was 10 seconds back. We would catch up at the checkpoints, but coming out of the CP's it was clear that the big boys (all on CX bikes) had more than I did. I was on a MTN. bike, but my fully rigid MTB does not give up that much to their CX bikes, so it's no excuse.

Under the bridge for the mandatory beer/mountain dew slam, I could not get my dew open. Lost nearly 30 seconds trying/hunting down a new can. I left the bridge in 5th, but unable to see the 4th rider. Then I took a wrong turn and lost another minute. Kevin, the owner of Freewheel, was in 6th, and we teamed up. It was nice to ride with Kevin because my lights were not nearly as good as his, so I had a nicely lit path from there.

Kevin and I rode the rest of the Paris Roubaix section together, then a road section into the singletrack in Purgatory. There, I was not able to stay with Kevin as my light went out. I had to stumble my way around until Ditmer caught up. I rode the rest of the way in the Dittmer (and his buddy on a cx bike).

Super fun. 6th place. My worst placing to date, but that's ok. Just need to ride some more, I've been focusing on running. Great night!

Short night time run on the grid to get a little workout in.

Nice ride from MoBiz out to Hopkins for some Suburbocross course action, and back for dinner. With Biz, Kelly, Jesse and Pete W.

Treadmill to loosen up the sore legs. Felt good.

Event: MNOC - Willow River State Park
 

Trail Mix 2012 is in the books! Great race. Went out a bit too fast. I was trying to hang on to the immortal Richard Chin, that guy is an animal! First lap was about 56 minutes. Last year I ran 60 and 62 minutes per lap (12.5 k loops).

This year I knew I'd be faster, but I didn't think more than a few minutes per lap, maybe 20 seconds per mile max.

After the first lap I felt pretty gassed, my legs were sore and I thought to myself hey, why did you go out guns blazing in a 25k course, this is more of an endurance race than you are thinking! Damn you 52 year old Richard Chin and your immortal legs of steel!

So I settled into an 8 minute mile pace and didn't feel too rejuvenated. Richard Chin dropped after the first lap I think, as I saw him stopped by his bag after the first lap. I puttered along a few more miles at 7:50-8 min/mile as opposed to the 7:30's I did the first loop in, and then my stomach settled a bit and I felt better.

Finished strong and was able to hold off Richard Chin (who had merely stopped for some water/supplies between laps) which I had set from the night before as my "reach" goal. He always runs that race at 7:30/mile. Sure enough I see the results - he was 11 seconds behind me, and I averaged 7:29 per mile.

Last year I was happy with 8:02 per mile, so this year is a huge improvement. Have to be happy with that, even if I still didn't make top 50. Lots of good runners in our community. 56th of 455.

Kelly won the race, and set the ALL TIME course record by SIX minutes. Second place female was FOURTEEN minutes back.

Started and stopped my watch about a two minutes late--the time and distance I entered is my chip time.



Here's Kelly's data, so silly fast:

C • Beyond Silly 5

Easy jog on the treadmill to get some miles in during survivor.

Biking to OTNT, plus the OTNT bike ride, plus the rainy ride home. Good stuff overall, but reminded me how much I hate riding full suspension on the road. That was a bad idea.

Fun sprint course by Todd. Thank you! Not my best sprint, spent lots of time trying to memorize all the letters. I had 11 of 13 correct, which I was disappointed with because I was using most of my brain power to remember them all. The second to last letter (I) I forgot, and the C I mistook for a U.

Speed work on the tread mill.

.5 at 8/min
1 and 6/min
1 at 7/min
1 at 6/min
.5 at 8/min

Tough.

Durand's prescription for pain! Super tough, especially hidden falls. Rode it hard. With Crusher and MoBiz. Starting and ending at my house.

C • P4P 2

XX loop and an intermediate loop and terrain park. Trail was in great shape before the rain came. Good ride.

Run in the dark rain without a headlamp on the Mysitic Lake golf course, under the lights of the Mystic search light teepee. I convinced Kelly to camp down here tonight, it's been fun. This run was a blast, lots of lightning, some rain and wind. Alone on the paved golf course paths, illegally I suspect, checking out the waterfalls and fountains that they leave on all through the night for no reason. Maybe just for me : )

C • Out of the norm 3

Two laps at leb. Trail was butter. Chilly though!

Third round of the playoffs, and we got another W! We are in the A flight this year and it's a 64 team bracket, so I think we are in the Elite 8 now, whoohoo!

Run down to the river bottoms and back.

Event: MNOC - Lake Elmo
 

Good run at Elmo. Great runs by Andrei, Biz and Curtis, and I'm sure more, but I know those guys beat me by a lot and I was going pretty good. Certianly lost a minute here and there, but overall a good run. I felt strong, which has been few and far between in the last year or two. Running fitness is back. Nav was good too, but not as good as the leaders. Not my home turf -- I don't recall ever being north of the start. I'm probably have, but it was like running a new park, which was fun. Started my garmin about three minutes late.

Upon analysis of splits, it looks to still be fitness rather than nav that is majority factor. Andrei and Biz and Pete can haul ass in the woods, nice work guys. And Andrei, he has zero seconds lost, wow is that freakishly good.

C • Dre cannot rest on his laurals. 3

Red - Splits

Bike ride to tour foreclosures.

Recovery trio on the shredmill

Shredmill run. Still feeling a bit worn down but not bad enough to take days off.

Bike ride around South Minneapolis looking at foreclosures.

"Tempo" run with the PEAR training device. Object was to hold zone 3 throughout. I could not do it. Zone three is my lactate threshold, which the device says is at 155. But I could not get it up there consistently.

So, either that thing is off by a bit, or I'm sore/tired/overtrained. I think it's a little of both. My legs, and hamstrings in particular, felt tired and tight. At least I got a good run in. Need to slow down a bit or change things up for a few days.

Awesome April fools alleycat by gear junkie. We had 28 riders including Andrei, Biz, and Curtis. Awesome weather and a nice tour of south Minneapolis. Lots of very specific, gritty checkpoint locations.