Training Log Archive: FoxShadow

Thanks to Darryn for hooking us up with Jeff Dubois, a paddling fiend who was nice enough to lend us his old race boat for the month. We got a lesson from him today at lake calhoun. The boat is very tippy and I don't think either Kelly or I enjoyed it much. But we'll try to practice a few more times, and perhaps even race in next week's canoe derby - I can guarantee will not be pretty.

C • Are you two 11

Leisurely laps at Lebanon with Scotty.

A short jog with Baxter to work on running with him. Kelly had Lexi on the leash as well. They did very well.

Shredmill. One fast mile wedged between warm up and cool down.

Shredmill, a little speed work. Legs feelings a bit beat up.

Trail running slowly but with some max effort hill repeats.

Riding around on the two tracks and gravel roads near MoBiz's cabin. We were just playing around in the puddles mostly, it was very wet and muddy up there.

We found a small window of time where the Cayuna trails were dry, but it started raining soon after we arrived. At least we got to hop on them for a short time.

Jogging the singletrack at Cayuna.

Running on the gravel roads at the MoBiz cabin after we arrived.

Another treadmill session

Maybe longest shredmill run to date. Not too bad. 60 minutes is such a great show, helped the time fly by.

Slow ride with Crusher and MoBiz on the roads around the lakes and greenway, taking in the awesome weather!

Jog/hike along the riverbottoms at sunset. Trail is great this time of year.

Event: MNOC - Mille Lacs Kathio State Park
 

The ALMANZO 100. One of the hardest days I've had on the bike. 90 degree heat, dry, and 20mph steady wind from the south.

Started out strong for the first two hours, across the 33rd mile in 1:57. Then the heat started to wear on the field, and on me. I brought 70 ounces of water on board. I had about 15 remaining at the 40 mile mark, but I felt ok. Left the 40 mile mark in maybe 50th of the 550 riders. But as I continued to fight fluids down (my mouth was dry and my legs getting weaker, so I knew I needed to drink) my stomach went south.

I was out of Gatorade. I had Nuun, but did not remember to bring my salt tabs (not sure if they would have helped but I would have like to try). By the 60 mile marker I was hurting badly, but able to push a decent ring into the wind and up hills. Not enough to stop from getting passed and hook onto the stronger riders that were coming through, but close.

It was not much help to draft. Usually drafting is helpful in all cardinal directions. On this day it was only one. The wind was so strong that downwind there was no resistance (20-25 mph steady, so we'd ride 25 and overheat in the still calm). In the cross winds, the draft was horizontal, which on asphalt, is still a good draft. But on gravel, there is only a narrow band of ridable road. Outside of where the cars' tires go the road is loose and difficult to stay upright upon. So, you have to choose the draft and a chance at crashing hard, or the good road and no draft. So going South was the only helpful drafting direction, and we did most of our going south in the first 25 miles.

I went to wrong way for about a half mile, and then turned around and corrected.

After mile 70 I was feeling really sick. My stomach was not happy. I wanted to quit. I was riding alone. I was nearing 6 hours, the time in which I was done last time (I was 24th last time) and I knew I had about two hours of 90 degree heat ahead of me. I was hungry but couldn't get much down. I was dehydrated but my tepid hose refill water was not appealing to my wrenching stomach.

I labored on despite constantly thinking about quitting. Likely because I didn't have much of a choice. The next 30 miles were a humbling blur. It hurt all the way to the line. Crossed in 7:44. I don't know what place I was, probably in the middle.

I went through 180 ounces of water, finished dehydrated, and never peed.

Strangely, I felt really good to finish. I was really proud that I did not give up. I felt a huge high for the rest of the day. One of those "you have to hit bottom to feel the top" type of things. I won't forget how much it hurt, and I'm not sure I'll do another one soon, but getting it done is something I'm proud of.

C • Grueling 8

One fast mile (6:18) and the rest just to get moving while watching the Tour of California.

Great Street-O at Darryn's. Fun neighborhood/state fair tour. Legs were cashed so I did it slowly. 11CPs - I headed to the most densly CP populated area and had a decent route - evidently one of the CPs I thought I got was incorrect, argh. At least Todd and I got it wrong together!

MNOC Adventure-O makes Men's Journal this month! That's 3/4 million american readers. BOOYAH!

Can't find good link, but this may work:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1395705760...

Ride into Yogurt lab for some recovery yogurt, what a treat!

Event: Wild AR Spring Thaw
 

Uff-da. Fun and challenging Spring 12 hour race. I'm glad Wild is back with some events in the midwest. This one was really challenging, even tougher than the hilly Boonecrusher three weekends ago. This one had about 54 miles of biking, 9 miles of paddling and I don't know but I'd guess ten miles of running.

Raced with Gearjunkie/Wedali which although it sounds weird is I suppose the team I'm "on" now. It's great to team up with Biz and his crew, but it's funny considering one of the reasons I liked racing in the midwest was the loftly goal of beating them! But hey, a wise person said "if you can't beat 'em join them" right? I think that person was wise? Time will tell.

Anyway, great times were had in the silver bullet, and on course. I don't remember when but I must have been hit by a locomotive at some point on course, because the way my body feels it surely happened at some point yesterday.

Problems included going a suboptimal direction straight down a hill after CP one, blowing the sidewall out of my rear tire and patching it with a cliff bar wrapper and then going through three CO2 cartridges before realizing that our inflator was broken (frozen?). So then we hustled over to the bike shop where we bought a pump. The mandatory Wild Adventure Race one missing checkpoint was also a bit of a problem considering we paid hundreds of dollars for the race - when will this race get vetted by someone who knows how to set a race?

Overall an awesome course and just a PERFECT day. The falls were beautiful (called big falls?, you'd think they could do better) and the singletrack mountain biking was some of the best I've ever done in an AR.

I did a TERRIBLE job of start/stopping/taking splits, but here is the data that I did get:

C • Congrats! 6

Full trail - X to XX to back out on X, then intermediate out to terrain park - the "usual". What a beautiful day! Glad they opened it back up after being closed for a few days.

C • I think you should do this... 2

Fun training at Teirney's woods! Thanks todd!

Renegade apocalypse loop again, only this time on bike. Shorter than I thought it was, I figured it was 10 miles when I ran it. Took me 12500 on foot, still took almost an hour on bike. Always a gritty endeavor.

Awesome no name Alleycat race. Rode super hard, came in 2nd with Biz and GJ. Good stuff, great workout.

Ride to the Alleycat and back home.

Up at 5:30AM to get a 70 miler in before I headed to do an open house for a client. Had a good group of 8 guys for a hilly ride to Belle Plaine and back. I don't have accurate distance or time info, but I think it was about 3.5 hours and 64 miles in the end. My legs are toast!

Nine miles around Cedar, Isles and Calhoun with MoBiz.