Training Log Archive: FoxShadow

The Buck Hill MN seriies race. THE most pailful race of the year for me thus far. I went out fast and tried to hold on. But for 5 laps at buck, I was going slower each lap, with possibly the exception of the last lap. It was a battle. I am not sure enjoyed the race too much, as I was going so hard. But it felt good to get a good result, 12th of maybe 50-60 racers in the "comp" division, which is the 2nd fastest of 5 divisions. This is really good training for worlds.

C • looks like you manned up on that one.... 5

Minneapolis City Solve Urban AR.

Loop out to Uptown and back. About 8 CP's with TONS of bonus/side clues challenges throughout route. Lots to keep straight in the head. Every team we talked to took the bus both ways. We ran there, and took the bus back.

Similar race and results to last week, although there were lots more teams. They said about 160 2-4 person teams. Second place was about 7 minutes back, 3rd 15 minutes back, average team in about 3 hours. Eric and I worked well together, and although we had a few near miss steps, we put together another solid day.

We race for the $5,000 mega-prize in three weeks at the Salvation Army "Most Amazing Race". Today's prize was $300.

Fun to race well with Eric again, good stuff!

C • Congrats 2

Yes, I warmed up for an urban AR.

Second bomb sesh of the week - this one much less intense.

A nice long and slow ride in the morning before the big heat came. rode from my house up to the lakes, then did the popular greenway to cedar trail loop, and back home.

Intense creek bomb sesh. Amy and the Gear Junkie and I hit some intervals and creek bombing on a hot day until my hammies went out. The GJ was in rage mode and I did my best to keep up. Fun way to start the bombing season, although I suspect it will be short this year. : (

Tommy O. and I hit the gym and got in a great lifting session that included some good core work stuff. Glad he have been getting me out for this stuff. Did a mile and a half on the treadmill to warm up.

Ride to theo and and back on the road bike - rode up there to meet Molly and wentzel for a pre-run of the wirth O-courses for the tri-loppet weekend.

Ran both of the courses for the tri-loppet weekend. Good stuff.

The Urban Dare Adventure race.

Eric Kelly and I headed to the Loon Cafe for the first of a summer full of urban adventure races. Looking back at the last few years, I think I've done about 8 or 9, and only in one did my team not win. Had to keep the streak alive.

We got 12 clues at the start - in a parking lot across from the loon. After at least 10 minutes of google searching and calling friends for help (anyone willing to be on call next saturday, all of our googlers are out of town...) we had an understanding that checkpoints were either in the north loop, over by the walker, or roughly in between.

We set off towards the north loop. While there, we found a nice young lady who agreed to do cartwheels for the camera.

We continued across town, moving at a fast pace, being as smart as we could not to make a mistake, yet acting completely frenzied and crazy the entire time.

I proposed marriage to a man, on camera, around this time. We rocked the three-legged race, Eric went rain-man on some maths.

We finished in 1:17. Second place came in around 1:45. It was a thorough domination of the 75 team field.

Hopefully next weekend goes similarly.

C • Nice 3

HIIT workout.

Warm up.

1 minute max, 1 minute jog.

10X.

Not much time for a cool down.

Felt good to get something in despite only having a spare 40 minutes yesterday. I feel it in my hamstrings today.

Mileage is accurate - I was only about 3 minutes off of my 5k PR in an interval workout. I need to sign up for a 5k, the speed is certainly there.

C • with your weight down and f... 1

Fast loop at leb. x-loop to terrain park. Great fun.

Can it be true that my FIRST ride at leb was after June 15th? Oh dear, what a shame. Need to start getting many more days in there. I had a blast, as always.

C • change that to suffering on... 1

Control retrieval.

The Members only Score-0.

Started a bit frazzled because arrived late and did not find my watch until after the maps were flipped. Headed out to 11 with Biz and Eric. From there, shoe became untied on the way to 7, got headed on a bad bearing and aborted to 22, choosing a very early skip. I figured during the first 60 seconds that clearing was not possible.

From there hit 22, then headed to #9. Very difficult time with that control. Lost maybe 4 minutes down there. To 8, I found some large trails that were not on the map. I was very curious as to why this trail that I remember running on in the winter was unmapped -- decided that I need to continue to trust the map, despite this issue.

Then, on the way to 10, while trying to push the pace on the trail, I was thinking to myself "first right hand turn". I saw Dana on the trail, and headed in full speed. But nothing made sense. What was going on? Another unmarked major trail? Why?

I headed east assuming that the trail was too early. It was thick. After a long time, I came out at the camp sites to the north of the control. I was not happy. I abandonned the control, and started walking. The competitive spirit had left me.

Now with 4 controls under my best and 28 minutes remaining I had to make a new route. From there it went fairly well. 2, 1, 21, 12, 13, 4, 10, 24.

I should have grabbed 23 on the way home.

Enjoyed the second half. I was resolved to run hard on the other courses.

They can't all be good runs.

Contour-only.

Had trouble to #1, but likely only 30 seconds lost.

Hit the rest without too much issue, although I did roll my ankle from 2-3 if I recall. It's been swollen since, but not a bad injury, just need to take it easy and ice for a week.

Good run. I have not seen results yet but assume it will be up there.

Great exercise Pete, thank you for setting both this an the line-O, really good stuff!

Line-O.

Brutal!

Found the seasonal marsh with a quickness on the way to the first control, but since it was not marked as such, I retraced all the way back to the path, then checked west of it and east of it for a parallel error, then decided that it must have been a map error, and continued along the Line. Found the next 5 controls without much issue, although it was slow going.

Leave the 5th control, I followed the course to the finish. But no 6th control! I retraced all the way back to 5, but took some short cuts. Then on the way back again, I saw the 6th near the marsh. The same marsh that I recall keeping on my right initially, but I was too far west to be "IN" the line, and therefore missed the control. It was admittedly right in the middle of the line. Bummer, would have had a great run.

Despite the frustration at the end, I really enjoyed this extreme navigation challenge. Very difficult. Thanks Pete!

A quick run around the neighborhood to blow off some steam after work. Good to get the legs going before the O-meet.

MTB-O training.

Mostly on roads and large trails. What a great time!

Had early troubles, largely due to getting my brain used to the lack of information, as well as the scale, of the google map.

A huge thanks to Ted and Sandy for setting this great event, and for a delicious BBQ after the event!

Headed out to get a long ride in, but ended up at the farther point with a broken rear spoke. Fortunately Eric was able to come get me. But I lost the mileage, two hours, and perhaps those wheels - second broken spoke in a month. Bummer!

C • Now 1

A fantastic day of riding singletrack at Cuyuna. We woke up early to get a few hours in. We took a break during which we grilled an awesome lunch and then broke the jet-ski's out on Eagle lake, which was beautiful in the sun. Then went back out in the afternoon after the race was over. With Monika, Dan Dittmer, Chand Millner, Grant Brasch and others. Great group! Awesome Saturday, one of the best.

C • Super light! 3

A nice ride before the sun set at Cuyuna. With Dan, Grant, Monika and I.

A quick spin into the city. My rear hub was loose, so I turned around and headed to the shop for what turned out to be a very easy fix.

A quick jog before the bike ride.

Strava hunting. Got 3rd overall on the hill climb by Wentzel's. I'll need a solid leadout if I'm going to KOM that big beast.

Riding the Hayward cluster with Reed and Meghan to get their remaining checkpoints. The trail festival was this weekend. Although they don't call it such, it is a giant all weekend long rogaine. Complete with push pin checkpoints and all!

The Mt. Borah Epic.

This is a new race in The Chequamegon National Forest. IMBA recently finished building a bunch of trail up there and I believe those efforts were what resulted in the trail system being large enough to ride all the way from the Cable cluster to Hayward, all on glorious singletrack.

The race started out on a 4 mile gravel toad roll out. Predictably, the pace out of the gate was firm. If you get into single track behind people that are slower than you, are you screwed. It's a well known mountain bike truth.

The roll out was hilly, and I probably hit close to 170 BPM a few times trying to get into the top 25. There were 250 riders on course.

I entered the trail about 30th, which turned out to be a perfect self-seed. The top 20 were gone, and I never really saw any of them again for the rest of the three hour ride.

As mentioned, I was near redline on the roll out, and I kept the pace very high in the singletrack. I figured I'd be out there for 2.5 hours, and that I would try to leave it all out there.

After thirty mintues I had passed about 5 riders. My bike felt odd. I had been riding my new road bike most of the spring. To further dampen my confidence, the 30 PSI I was running in my tires was too much on the very technical singletrack.

But at the 90 minute mark, the bond with the mountain bike was returning. Although my rear tire still needed less air and more tread, as least I had become one with the machine again. I suppose remembering how to handle my favorite weapon is, well, like riding a bike. (sorry)

After 2.5 hours, I felt tired, but good about my effort. I was hammering well, and had just enough food and drink to keep myself moving at a competitive pace.

My chain dropped, 4 riders passed me during the fix. I got one of the spots back, three I did not. I was ok with it, they were very strong. One of these three was the woman's winner. She finished very fast. I felt good about hanging with her, as I had heard she was very good.

By the end, my hands had 5 blisters. My legs were spent. My back was very seized up. I left it all out there.

It lived up to it's name sake. It was an epic effort on an epic trail. 24th place. I'll be back next year.

C • I have been waiting on your... 1