Training Log Archive: FoxShadow

20 minute warm up and 10 minute cool down.

Fridley Fright Crossniac CycloCross Race! Good times. Started off fast, probably 8th or so out of 50 into the first turn. Ended up 12th, my best result thus far. Hopefully I can crack the top 10 next weekend.

Trail run at the River Bottoms. Felt good, almost always does when I'm on those trails. Good terrain.

Upper body and core exercise at the gym.

I posted this to MNOC group, but I'm not sure anyone checks that so I'll try there as well -- We need to get the Friday night runs at Hyland resurrected. I am willing to do the work. Ideally I'd like to do two and if someone were willing to take a third I'd love to run one too. They are the reason I started Orienteering and I think I could get a good size group to come. I'd hope MNOC'ers/OTNT'ers would come as well, even though I plan on setting Orangish courses.

Did Bullard get permission from Hyland Park to do those or were they more OTNT style? That parking lot we used to use was unconventional, was there a reason we used that one? Were those courses about 4k? Can someone send me the purple pen file please? I'd consider even getting it ready for this Friday.

C • Hyland 18

Upper body and core exercises at the gym.

Run on the treadmill. Felt pretty good. Need to do more running if I'm to survive Possum Trot.

Blue course. Went pretty well, made a few typical Puzak mistakes but corrected them before blowing up. One of my favorite mistakes to make is to frenzy myself into hypoxia and get so tri-dumb I lose all contact with the map. ("Tri-dumb" is the hypoxic stupor some of us know from going so hard during a triathlon you cruise off course or do something otherwise inexplicably stupid.)

Not that I do stupid things only when I frenzy myself into hypoxia, it's merely one of my favorite ways I do stupid things.

I did this a bit at CP 5-6. As I approached CP 6 I was looking for the small depression 3/4th of the way there as it was virtually the only attackpoint on the route. I never found it. There appeared to me to be little depressions all around me! Wel;, the only other attackpoints on this route were two little marshes with a small hill to the SW of them. There they were! How I I north of them I thought? I flew down there and did not find the CP. I then realized I was in light green, so the CP must be north. I went north out of the light green veg found a second set of two small marshes with a small hill SW of them, curse you Brigadier General Eleazar W. Ripley!

Then on my way into 10 I was feeling pretty good again, and certainly enjoying myself. The stress of the difficult nav. coupled with the moderate success I was having (especially after a difficult prior day) was so fun. That and not getting cut up trying to fight through buckthorn. I recognized the terrian and knew where I was with confidence most of the way there. I arrived in a large depression with some undergrowth in it. The CP was in a small CP just north of there. Except I can't find it! I'm cruising around checking the small depressions north of the huge sprawling one south of me, feeling the noose of confusion and self-doubt restricting my breathing and perhaps my ability to think straight as well. I'm hating it. Instead of checking my map, I'm scanning the real world too much. After three minutes of acting like as idiot, I stop and check my map and see that there is a similar set of features on the map, just of north of where I thought I was. Of course, I already had been thinking I ran too far north when I glanced at my compass a few times going into there! Why did I not out the two together? I don't know, this is hard, even if it seems easy. This sport is like golf. You start by cherishing the few times you do well, and eventually you start wondering how you could ever makes a mistake, but you keep doing it all the time. No hypoxia here, just tough nav. I was entering the hardest area in all all of Ripley.

The next 4 CPs I mowed down like Brigadier Ripley mowed down the British. But while I slightly over-ran CP 13 I saw speedster Marcel pass me, I tried to catch him. Could not do it before CP 14, so I tried on my way into CP 15. I am crashing through the woods like a blood-lusting predator feinding for a tasty meal of speed and victory. Where is that guy? I can't feel the left side of my body. He's the fastest kid alive. I can't see him anymore. Where am I? If were not hypoxic, I would have realized that I knew where I was about 30 second ago, because I knew I ran a ridge almost straight west out of CP 14. But instead I started following Plamen. What a stupid thing to do. Of course, he was heading to a different CP, and when I saw the wall of dark green I reoriented and got back on course.

The rest of the run went pretty damn well as my legs were too tired to carry me faster than my brain could process the terrain. What a great time out there in the gorgeous woods of Camp Ripley. Looking forward to next year.

Warm ups mostly, and a little cool down for all the weekends events.

Event: MNOC Camp Ripley Fall Orienteering weekend
 

Worst sprint in a while, not pretty. The map and I were not getting along at all yet. Scale was the biggest problem.

Middle distance race was better than the sprint, but not by a lot. Still getting used to the terrain up there. Good runs by many of the usual suspects, the competition is getting much tougher, notably by Todd, good show!

The night-O went really well, 3rd overall behind Maricel and Biz. I needed redemption after two borderline futile efforts earlier in the day. The fact I did well makes little sense considering I was having a lot of trouble in the day. Used my compass more than the terrain, which is different from the way I approached the first two runs. It was fun to do well without much following. Biz ran through from 4-7 but other than that ran alone. Too bad the results are not posted on the MNOC site or here, do Score-Os not count?

C • They count... 7

The fact this is real nearly made my head explode:

http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me...

Just when I thought MNOC was categorically the greatest O-club ever. Which I did think. Perhaps there is room for argument.

wowwwwwwwwwwww.

C • here is the map....have at it..... 3

Biking at leb, X loop and then rode back to grab KB to make sure she was ok. She was attempting her first night loop at leb, which she did successfully but for one endo.

A creative OTNT set by Todd. The first exercise was running around an area of "open field" (the dimpled brown orange vegetation symbol) which was a good way to recognize that although a vegetation boundary on the map may not look like an imposing obstacle that may determine your route choice, it is one.

Then he set a course in which the CP's could be located on ANY intersection or trail junction on the entire southern half of the Theo map. I didn't think they could all be visited in 45 minutes but I got very close. I missed three and on one I was told it was not there, one I ran by it twice and did not see it, and one I just plain never went there. It was a good idea for practicing route choice, there were many loops made, and a few out and backs necessary to visit every junction.

Certainly was good to start running again. I think I need to host an OTNT soon, maybe next tuesday after ripley.

Shredmill workout.

WEDALI is the US Adventure Race Association Nation Champion. After knocking on the door for 5 years, including some top 5's and 3rd last year, they did it. Taking it down in a race, according to the USARA spokeman, built more for strategy and toughness than raw aerobic ability. They ran strong the whole way but entered the last O-Section about 45 minutes behind Technu and (according to the post race interview with Granite) Granite gear as well. Evidently there was a road on the map that did not exist that caused the lead teams some problems. Can't wait to hear exactly how it played out by The Chosen Ones when they return.

Congratulations to Biz, Molly and Erl!

C • awesome result for them!...... 1

Headed out to Hudson for the Big Ring Flyers Cyclocross race. cyclocross is a crazy sport where you do short loops (this loop was 1.56 miles) on a bike that looks like a road bike but has knobby tires. The terrain is off-road, mostly single track, and there are multiple points per lap where one must dismount the bike and carry it over obstacles. Whoa, is this sport a 5 on the intensity scale. It's like racing a 5k but on a bike, which makes the small amount rest you get on the downhills and turns motivation to sprint very hard on the flats to maintain your position.

I wanted to get a good warm-up in because I knew it would be continuous, hard sprinting. What I didn't know is that lots of guys line up early in order to get the hole shot. I showed up at the start line about 5-7 before the gun and there were already 50 guys in the box. Not knowing what to expect (I had only raced one other cx race, last year) I choose not to fight my way up. I passed maybe 15 guys on the first lap but I was blowing up doing it, sprinting around guys on the outsides of turns that could be negotiated by barely pedaling if on the inside line. After the third lap I figured I had passed about 25 guys, 15 on the first lap and maybe 5 the next two laps.

Then I heard the bell, and since it's a short race and I didn't want to regret not trying. I passed another 3-4 guys during my 190BPM efforts to the finish. When I got to the finish line I hear a much louder and more mature church bell, and one of the guys I hard worked so hard to pass flew by me at race speed. Uh oh, I'm in for another 9 minutes of pain! We were still racing. Some fan had a cowbell and was ringing it to cheer, it was not the real bell lap until now! My legs were really hurting and I couldn't keep up the pace, I hard to slow down.

Fortunately after about two minutes of struggling my legs came back underneath me to some extent. I felt strong, but had certainly lost an edge, there was no fire left, just good pedaling power. I had no idea where I sat but I knew the leader were way ahead of me.

I rode an average pace the rest of the lap, and Kelly kept yelling that a group was forming behind me. I didn't care. I was doing what I could. If they had enough to pass me, my lungs were seared, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Coming into the last straight away I was able to muster up a decent enough effort to hold them off, barely. One of the guys passed me right after the line. I finished in 21st of 58. Not a great result considering I was racing CAT 4, the slowest of the 3 categories in the day's race. But it was all I had, and that was good enough for me. Such a tough challenge.

I'll be back for more, maybe next weekend.

X loop at leb quick before dark. My weekly graph is starting to look like a Christmas tree.

Shredmill run.

Met with Milner and Dittmer and Tim (Dan's co-worker from Seagate) for some loops at Leb in the dark. What fun! We did the shortest route that allows riding every inch of the trail. A XX loop to an X loop out, then an intermediate loop. Great ride on a great trail made better by great conversation with some great guys.

Shredmill run. Still a bit sore from the Minnegoat.

The minnegoat. Great course, but lack enough water, food and mostly lack of training (no OTNT means virtually no running for me) was nearly the end for me. Kelly and I were in second behind only Owen ahead of GJ and Biz going into CP 7 but were quickly run down by the superior athletes. My shoelace had broken going into CP 3 and I felt like we didn't have the time or the means to try to repair it. At CP 20 we were in fourth with Ian working together with us. At CP 23 my shoe had fallen off in a muddy marsh for the umpteenth time and I gave up fighting. Kelly was able to run in with Ian which was good. I walked in from there, totally exhausted, dehydrated, and a bit bummed aboutbmy fitness. But I can't be surprised, I virtually never run anymore. Causes too much discomfort in my back day to day. At least the navigation went well. Many 1 minute mistakes, only one 3-5 minute one. I was happy about that. Great course. Thanks Todd, and everyone that had the strength to do control retrieval.

Minnegoat - Splits

Suburbocross 3. One of the most fun races I've done this year. Biking super fast together with friends, throughout MTKA picking up 7 checkpoints along the chilly and dark route, illuminated only by our bike lights. From start to finish the endorphins were flowing. The competition was very good. Brandon Manske, Andrew Kroese and Nate were there, all much more accomplished cyclists. Nate was 13th at Leadville this year and 7th the year prior. At the 15 mile mark we dropped two guys on cx bikes. (The rule about taking home the coveted traveling trophy (looks like a flava flav medal) is that you can't win the race on a cx bike.) As expected, Andrew, Brandon and Nate surrounded me. At the 19 mile mark, still with these three, I thought to myself that I had little shot at the podium. Certainly zero chance for winning. Then after Nate accelerated and Bman and I were able to hang, andrew dropped. Straight down excelsior blvd on pavement, with a quarter mile to the finish, Nate accelerated, Brandon as well and I stood up and stomped on my hardtail Niner as hard as I could. I felt good, very strong. Sprinting involves flexing virtually all of your muscles at the same time, quads and glutes on the downstroke, hamstrings on the upstroke, upper body too. I crossed the line first, all the while expecting to see those guys fly past me. Turns out I won by over fifty feet. Thanks to Stanley and Ben and Nate and Brandon and Andrew and everyone for making it happen.

Check out this map from yesterday's World Cup in France. The top guys are calling it "this is real orienteering" (the winner) "one of the best courses I've ever run", and "this is the course I've been longing for all year".

Tero won it by 5 minutes. All runners lost significant time, even the thrid place guy said he lost over 5 minutes on on of the controls. Tero said he lost 2 minutes twice. I can't believe they are running a 14k+, 32 CP course in that terrain in under 100 minutes. Incredible! No wonder the US guys can't hang -- they are inhuman.

http://folk.ntnu.no/oysteios/kart/2010/host/pages/...

Also, can anyone help me reap this map? I don't understand the double CP's. Are they choose your own adventure?

http://folk.ntnu.no/oysteios/kart/2010/host/pages/...

C • help 3

We rode up to NE for another tough race. This one had only 8 checkpoints but they were not easy to plot, and they covered a considerable distance. I think Andrei said the race itself was 17.5. We struggled mightily to plot all the points, and without the help of my Iphone we may not have ever found them. We were the last team to start the race, giving up a solid 10-15 minutes to the fastest plotters. We had difficulty on two of the CPs, maybe 15 minutes worth in total. When we returned we found out that we were beaten by about half of the riders (probably a bit less) and that the winner was a woman, who came in over 20 minutes ahead of us. Impressive! We will be back. The hipsters can't win every time can they?

C • those damn hipsters.... 4

What a day for the TC marathon. I dropped Kelly off at the start and watched her the rest of the way on bike. I joined Biz and Mo and Waima for the first half or so of the marathon, then followed Kelly more closely for the second half. She had an amazing race. I can't believe anyone can run that fast. She went out a bit fast, doing the first 10k in 40 minutes in a effort to catch the 3:10 pace ballon. This ballon runs steady 7:10, but because Kelly started in the back of the 2nd corral, she had to fly to catch up to it. She caught it by mile 6!

She ran with the pace balloon until around mile 15 or so, where she said she felt pretty good but was worried a bit about her stomach. By mile 19 she had left the 3:10 balloon, she must have been feeling good, because she was a full minute ahead of it! She absolutely flew through the rest of the course. She ran 7:02's from mile 19 to 23, which is all slightly uphill. Then she latched onto a woman runner that was making steady 6:50's until she blasted past her and many other runners, closing down with a 6:13 last mile!

Her garmin data is really something else. What an incredible effort. And only her second marathon!

I'll post it, keep in mind the first two miles she ran were not recorded. Click "View details" to see her mind-bending splits.

C • Congrats, Kelly!!! 3

"Back to the Future" scavenger hunt! Super fun alley cat style course that started in Whittier park and ended at the Black Forest Inn with a prize drawing and a screening of Back to the Future! Awesome idea by "Ani" and creative and super knowledgeable local biker. We started at 3:30 with a manifest that was 75 questions long! Biz and I used 40 minutes to get through it, attempting to plot a course. It worked out fairly well, we plotted a course down through uptown, up Hennepin to the Walker, through Loring park, then downtown and back to the Black Forest Inn through the markets on Eat Street. We have no idae how well we did, because we had to leave right away to attend the Alleycat race that was starting at 6:30 in NorthEast!

Much love to Biz hooking up the maps for us, I owe you one Biz.

Great hill workout with Molly and Biz and Brian and Rick. Did Durand's infamous Prescription For Pain, or "PFP". Great anerobic workout consisting of painfully steep hill climbs, 25 of them. Followed up with breakfast at Buster's, which is a great place for both food and beer - this was the best morning of the week by far.

Two race pace laps at Leb to try to get them in before the sun went down. It didn't work, those woods get dark very fast. I had a blast going fast, the sport gets better the more you a pushing it, at least for me. Because at speed every corner becomes an obstacle. When riding slow there are very few challenges and less to get the endorphins flowing. I enjoy riding slowly with Kelly or whomever from time to time, to enjoy the setting. But it's much less "sport", when you're not going fast.

First lap was a full X loop in 34:53. Second was a modified (shortened, I cut out the large climbing switchback right before you spill into the beginner loop) intermediate loop in 30:04.