Wednesday May 30 |
 | trail running 32:45 [3] | |
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| 1 loop of wrth mt bike trail on foot with Kari....ran easy legs felt good.... |
| Hike 21:12 [1] | |
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| ...warm up hike over to mt bike loop and back.... |
Tuesday May 29 |
| Triathlon Bike 19:46 [2] | |
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| ..took the tri bike out for a quick spin with the race wheels on.....making sure things were working right for this sundays sprint tri.....my swimming and running are ok..the question is: can riding only a mountain bike all Spring prepare me for a 14 mile bike leg in a sprint triathlon?....look for answer soon....I think biking at threshold may hurt..... |
Monday May 28 |
| Run race (23:10) 23:15 [5] | |
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| Brain Kraft 5K ...wanted to run sub 24 and beat that significantly.....saw Ziggyr at the start and we agreed to run together and pace each other to sub 24....Z took off like a scalded dog at the start proving that some people start even faster than me...strategy was to go out fast...settle in and hang tough the 2nd mile and go fast enough on the final mile to make the goal....
first mile rolls around and we are at 7 flat and I am thinking "boy!...thats a bit fast" but also excited to jump out in front of my goal by a good bit...I eased up on Ziggyr on the 2nd mile and felt good that number two came in at 7:38...now its just a matter of holding on and I felt good that I would not likely need to suffer extrodinarily to come in under 24..I had pulled ahead of Ziggyr by mile 2 and just tried to maintain.. ..third mile came in at 7:48 and I finished with a 23:15 and very satisfied with the effort.....ZiggyR was in 10 secinds later and both were happy to be sub 24....Kari came in at 26:39 after deciding not to race hard but still managed a firm pace....
it feels good to set a goal and meet it.......should be able to run 8:10-15/mile at Sprint triathlons... |
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| C • Thanks 2 |
| Paddling 1:55:34 [2] | |
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| paddled 7 miles of Minnehaha creek with Kari from 54th street in Edina to Nokomis in the much maligned yellow duckie Sevylors..say what you will but it handled the lower water well and with some finesse you can handle the twisting creek pretty well.....first time doing this....really enjoyed the sights from the creek...gives you a whole new perspective... |
Sunday May 27 |
| Mt Bike 1:38:23 [3] | |
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| Kari and I did the loop at Murphy Hanrahan on the new mt bike single track trails.....I fell early on and hit my head on a log after catching my handle bars on a small tree...I thought I was going to be seriously injured but popped up quickly and realized I would be fine...that rattled my confidence and I fell at a few other spots....we went slow taking in the new trail and trying to save our legs for the 5K tomorrow....
the total loop is an amazing 10.2 miles...and very scenic...it feels alot like Leb Hills to me with some very difficult (for me anyway) but infrequent obstacles...lots of biking on a sidecut trail into the hill and sprinkles of "spin fast" or topple over uphills that are not to long...in and around reentrants....we tried to go very slow to learn the trail and not go to hard and still averaged 130 on the heart rate...Kari loved the trail and managed it better than I did after my spill...this is a great addtion to single track around the city...a place to get a long bike in and be throughly entertained...........our loop took 1:38 but imagine a normal loop speed would be around a 1:10 or so without doing more than one lap...the trail will be faster and smoother once more riders wear in the single track...people travel to destinations to do trail like this....and now we have great mt biking near us in the cities and more to come........ |
Saturday May 26 |
| Mt Bike 38:00 [2] | |
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| ...slow lap at Wirth with Kari, 27:30....but I had an excuse....as Kair rode ahead I stopped along the trail FAKING that my bike had mechanical trouble.....I called Kari back to take a look at my bike and told her that this small plain silver ring, that I held up to her, had fallen off my bike and I did not know where it went...I also lied and said my back wheel was locked up....Kari, sounding irritated said "well, where did it come from?".....I told her I did not know.....she started looking at her bike looking for a similar ring on her back derailler...I said "look up, look up for a second.." as she looked up still a bit irritated I told her "I think I know where it goes..." I then dropped to one knee in the middle of the trail and noticed her expression change from irritation to suprise..........
....you can probalbly guess the next question I asked...
and she said "yes"......
total loop was about 27:30 which includes 7 minutes for a marriage proposal........
later in the day we spent 1 unlogged hour shopping for the "real" ring at the Shane Company. |
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| C • Congratulations! 6 |
Friday May 25 |
| Mt Bike 3:01:00 [2] | |
| ahr:122 |
| the weather looked good and we made a quick decision to do the Grand Rounds on Friday afternoon....Kari and I biked clockwise and discovered that when the trail ends in the North that it requires some very frustrating road riding to get back to the U...really ruins the flow....would not do it again...I would guess you could design a more intresting loop and avoid this part.....we stopped at the Longfellow Cafe on Lake and W River Road fopr dinner before heading out and enjoying the ride along Nolomis/Minnehaha and the Chain of Lakes.....total distance was 38.5 miles... |
Thursday May 24 |
| Swimming 30:27 [3] | |
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| 3x 400 in 6:11 on 8:00..... |
Wednesday May 23 |
| Mt Bike 1:11:10 [3] | |
| ahr:126 |
| ...on roads and bike paths after the rain....also found a bit of dirt trails in the woods...just enough to get a bit muddy... |
Tuesday May 22 |
| Note | |
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| long weekend coming up....here are some of the in town adventures we are planning this weekend....
Grand Rounds....bike path on our mt bikes..48 miles???...with stops at some cool places for coffee and eats...
Leb Hills for mt biking.....want a little variety and Leb Hills is fantastic...long loops to get a good long workout in...always puts a smile on my face....
Paddle Minnehaha or the chain of lakes...use our yellow duckie or rent a canoe at Calhoun...
5K on Memorial day to break 24 minutes....worthy goal and with our other activities I may not be rested but I plan to give it a go....
what are everyone elses plans??? |
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| C • grand rounds 5 |
| Swimming 29:37 [4] | |
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| time trialed 450 yards and completed it in 6:42...(push off wall, no diving start...did in in 6:48 a few weeks ago)....somewhat disappointed with that....thought I might be closer to 6:35 or so....it was a good strong effort also....if memory serves me I was around 6:25 or so 10-13 years ago....I wonder what Ian could swim this distance in?....Ian? ...looks like my speed is set for triathlon season.....the last 5 sessions havent seemed to increase my speed any.....now I just need to maintain and concentrate on good open water swimming skills (fast start, peek strokes, good lines, sighting, and drafting when possible) to get a good swim leg time....
looks like in addition to Buffalo and Minneman, that I will sign up for Graniteman sprint in St Coud on July 8th...and Lakefront sprint tri in Prior Lake on Aug 5th...(it has just been listed)...hmmmm......perhaps I could convince Ian to come duel in Prior Lake on August 5th....Ian? |
| trail running 38:46 [2] | |
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| ....good lord I am still sore.....very slow run on single track in Wirth....found more single tracks sections....the place is riddled with small "unofficial" trails everywhere..... |
Monday May 21 |
| Mt Bike 51:51 [3] | |
| ahr:136 |
| 2 loops of Wirth...2nd one in 18:24....quads still very sore..I messed up a couple of places on the trail and fell over once... boy, recovery does take longer than it used to....I wonder why?....Kari sez she is not sore anymore even though her legs are a bit fatigued.... |
Sunday May 20 |
| Note | |
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| unlogged 50 minute walk around the neighborhood looking at houses... |
Saturday May 19 |
| trail running race 3:16:36 [4] | |
| ahr:149 |
| 25 K Suprerior Hiking Trail race.....longest I have run in 5 years....suprised that Kari and I did as good as we did....fantastic race with scenery...Lutsen to Oberg Mountain and back....we probably ran 80% of race and hiked 20%....technical single track on the SHT that demanded our attention....although we havent run long much the orienteering and AR's we have done helped us....Very sore today....we finished in the back of the last 1/3 of the field of 106 finishers and enjoyed another unique adventure....Average HR for the event was 149 which tells me that my legs gave out on me before my heart did... |
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| C • Congrats 2 |
Friday May 18 |
| Hike 30:00 [1] | |
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| Drove to Lutsen....Kari and I hiked first part of the race course of the Superior Hiking Trail race just to get an idea of what we are in for.... |
Wednesday May 16 |
| Swimming 32:01 [3] | |
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| decided to do cruise intervals rather than swim hard....just wasnt in to another really hard swim session.............5x200 in 3:09 on 4:00....and 10x50 in :43 on 1:00... |
| Note | |
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| unlogged 50 minute walk around Lake Calhoun with Kari...........trying to save our legs for the Superior Hiking Trail 25K this Saturday.. |
Tuesday May 15 |
| Note | |
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| added note on the Sprint AR...HR average was 159 for the 3 hour race (also hin 181 sometime during the event), tells me that we managed to go at a pace that was almost max for us....no excessive stopping for navigation reasons...even on our 4 -5 minute mistake we we moving quickly trying to locate a route off the bluff and back to the entrance road.... |
| Run 35:03 [3] | |
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| treadmill run...havent kept up with my interval workouts for the upcoming 5k...did 8x1:55 @ 7:47 pace on the treadmill on 3:00, walked 1 minute of recovery....highest HR was 152 and I set the incline at 1% to help be realistic. Seems to indicate that I can beat 24 minutes at 5K but the proof is in the pudding.... |
| Hike 35:00 [1] | |
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| Kari and I walked for 1:35 but only counted the single track/off trail hiking we did found a new area of Wirth that I had not been to before... |
Monday May 14 |
| Note | |
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| random thoughts on AR...
There needs to be a system for checking to verify all controls were obtained...someone needs to check punches or check control words...if its not evident that checking is happening to SOME extent teams will not always admit they did not......all it takes is a few teams to not do this to cause the results to lack credibility...what got me thinking of this is after the race we were talking to the 2nd place team and they asked "did you get CP 7?) I answered yes we got all of them and later wondered why they would ask me that...I stress that they could have asked me that because they found it challenging to get and I did not ask them if they got it.I wonder if it would get caught if some teams skip some CP's and did not say anything.....one of the reasons I use control words is that I can glance quickly and see if all words are right in a sentence....I have had a few teams try to guess at words but did not admit to it till after I said that the word was not right...... |
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| C • checking punches 10 |
| Mt Bike 49:01 [3] | |
| ahr:126 weight:170.4lbs |
| ...did a short loop and long loop at Wirth with Kari....plus some more....had to go back and redo a rock garden after missing it the first time.... |
Sunday May 13 |
| Note | |
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| Wild Spring AR...good course...lots of adventure packed into 3 hours....running close to threshold the entire way.....I love racing the short stuff and seeing how the 12 hour race turned out we were once again glad we went short....lots of novice teams with very good athletes this time but navigation still was the key....more than last years 3 hour...FYI, the 2nd 2 person coed was made up from a women that was 56 and the guy was 52....they did not move real fast but they were good with navigation...they also said they were heading to Ranier in 3 weeks so they are probably pretty fit.... |
Saturday May 12 |
| Orienteering 48:09 [4] | |
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| Started Wild Sprint AR with Orienteering section....we led out up the big hill but with the big starting crowd we quickly got caught by the other 2 Person coed and 4 coed/open teams (2Person opens started with Kayak portion)....managed to stay in front of the field but could not keep from giving away controls we found....took an inefficient route back to the TA after the 4 CP's that cost us 4-5 minutes...we got cliffed out and did some steep terrain butt sliding but though a bit frustrating was not a major mistake...and we recovered well.... |
| other 4:00 [3] | |
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| transition to kayaks... |
| Paddling 21:30 [4] | |
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| ...we hit the kayak as the 3rd 2 person coed team and also had 2 4 person teams in front of us....(looking at splits later there were also around 6 2 person open teams in front of us also but did the kayak portion before the Orienteering section on the split field start....) Time to pick up some time because we can paddle the yellow duckies pretty good right?....wrong!...I had picked a boat with good sides but the bottom was totally deflated...a curse in these boats.....luckily the course was only a mile and we managed to hold our postion because we arent to bad at the paddle but we are now half way throught the race and we arent where we want to be.... |
| other 2:05 [3] | |
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| transition to mt bike....ok, there was a sliver lining to not having a inflated kayak bottom....I was able to deflate and roll up the kayak quickly...very fast transition..... |
| Mt Bike 52:51 [4] | |
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| bike around Sorens bluff via city streets and then up to the top...this turned out to be the KEY segment of the race....our USGS map had 4 O points for the mt bike section that did not have any of the single track mt bike trails marked on it....that meant that you had to KNOW where you were on the topo map during the mt bike without the trail marked on the map because the points were located off trail and NOT easily seen from the trail...we nailed this section and we rode the single track well...I have not seen the splits for this section but I imagine this is where novice teams blew up....we jumped from 11th overall to 3rd overall and first in our 2 person coed division with a big lead...... |
| other 2:08 [3] | |
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| ...did a special test horse shoe throw (missed by millimeters of being only the 2nd team to get a time bonus with a "frisbee like" high and long throw) and transitioned to running/trekking..... |
| trail running 50:00 [4] | |
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| ....ran the roads to Barns bluff and then took the South trail to the top of Barns.....as we left we could see that we had a clear lead in our division but still worked hard to catch any of the teams in front..I was slightly more on than Kari and I grabbed her hand to tow on the run.....we caught and passed the 2nd overall 2 person male team on the ascent to the first of two CP's on top of Barns but they recaught us at the last CP due to some confusion on a taped trail we were suppose to take....we also could see that the 2 person open team leading had 5 minutes on us...on the incredibly steep scramble down the rocky trail from the top of Barns the other team gapped us and we could see them about 70 meters up the road....just for grins we decided to go after them....I grabbed Kari's hand and told her "they may beat us but they are going to have to puke to do it"...the next 10 minutes found us bearing down on them as they looked over their shoulder but we ran out of real estate and finished 10 seconds down as my heart rate hit 181.....we ended up 3rd overall team out of 27 total teams and 1st in our division..,(later we realized that the 2 person open teams did not have to deflate and roll up their kayaks so we rationalized that we had the 2nd fatest time...total time 2:57:40 on my watch..... |
Friday May 11 |
| Note | |
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| unlogged 52:00 easy bike ride with Kari to loosen the legs..... |
Thursday May 10 |
| Note | |
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| we are signed up for the 3 hour adventure race this Saturday....looking forward to racing hard and hoping I dont screw up..... |
| Mt Bike 55:12 [3] | |
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| 2 loops of Wirth with Kari in 19:36 and 17:52....taking it easy trying to save it for Saturday... |
Wednesday May 9 |
| Swimming 32:10 [4] | |
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| did 10x100's in slighty sub 1:25 average on 2:00....very tough workout.....HR was at a 5 by the last intervals....I had to swim to my max to keep my average sub 1:25....I have now determined that 10 interval swim workouts will build me to speed before plateauing....good to know if you want to do the minimum amout of workouts to get the greatest benefits to do swim triathlons sprints....I have signed up for 2 sprint triathlons and looking to do 2 more for a total of 4 this summer.... |
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| C • which tri's 3 |
| Run 32:16 [3] | |
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| run around Cedar Lake with Kari....a mixture of bike path and trails.....founds some additional trails on the East side of Cedar that I did not know existed....nice run with plenty of shade... |
Monday May 7 |
| Hike 1:42:11 [2] | |
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| Kari and I hiked the trails at the Chattahoochee nature area....only 1 mile from my childhood home.....I was amazed by the area and the forrest we hiked through....since I was not into hiking or running growing up I never knew it was there... |
| Note | |
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| ...during this trip we ate at "the Varsity"...Chick Filet and Waffle House..I was in heaven, Kari wasnt so sure......Kari also learned what the term "Hell No! we aint furgetin!" means...and the difference between a Yankee and a Damn Yankee!....(a damn Yankee is one that comes to visit and stays...) |
Sunday May 6 |
| Hike 24:08 [3] | |
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| hiked up Stone Mountain in Atlanta with Kari.....(1.3 miles and 704 feet of elevation gain)....not exactly Colorado but its a good little workout...and a great view....met my brother at the top.... |
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| C • Pilgrimage....(x2) 10 |
| Hike 22:04 [1] | |
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| Hiked down Stone Mountain.... |
Saturday May 5 |
| Hike 1:43:40 [2] | |
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| Hiked up Kennesaw Mountain (657 ft of elevation gain in 1.1 miles) and over to Pidgeon Hill before hiking down and around the base...some moments of 4 effort and some 1 so i rated it a 2 overall....5 miles total... |
| Note | |
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| went to my High School reunion for my class turning 50 years old...graduated in 1975.....the people who had not seen me in 32 years did not recognize me and told Kari I was a bit chubby in high school and that I had "slimed down"....(I was an offensive guard in high school...dont laugh).......I thought it was funny because I lost weight in college and have kept it off for the last 30 years but people who only have a high school memory are still operating with that memory...In the past reunions I had gone to (10 years and 20 years) I was supprised that people had not changed....they HAD changed this time...and not for the better....thank goodness for training and exercise...we had a good time telling some very old stories and Kari got an earful... |
Friday May 4 |
| trail running 44:01 [3] | |
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| trail running with Kari at Red Top Mountain Park...both these trail run efforts should help us with the 25K trail race on the Suprerior Hiking trail in a couple weeks... |
| trail running 1:34:11 [3] | |
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| ..some moments of a 4 effort as we ran the Homstead hiking trails at Red Top Mountain State Park in Georgia...I ran with a light pack...pretty good vertical..ran with the USGS topo trail map and stayed on the map most of the way by thumbing the map for practice...great trail with open woods....Kari kept and eye out for copperheads after seeing the one they had in the visitors center....they have a Permanent Orienteering course there but I could not convince Kari to go off trail with our shorts in the snake infested woods : )....did not see the O map from there but the woods looked nice and open with many features....hilltops/reentrants......... |
Thursday May 3 |
| Note | |
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| travel to Atlanta with Kari for a high school reunion..... |
Wednesday May 2 |
| Mt Bike 52:54 [4] | |
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| 2 laps of Wirth with Kari.....first loop was done in 18:04 and then we came back and I did a 17:03 and Kari came tumbling after with a 17:11 which means we both broke our lap record of 17:14....sub 17 should fall soon..... |
Tuesday May 1 |
| Swimming 35:45 [4] | |
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| 5x200's in 2:59 on 4:00....10x50 in :41 on 1:00.....my average for the 200's was really around 3:03 or so but the guy in the next lane tried to keep up with me on one of my 200's and I had to crank it up to show him who's boss...did that one in 2:53 and that brought my average down....I like showing people that just because I do open turns and not flip turns (I never wanted to learn) does not mean that I can keep a decent swim pace... |
| Run 45:22 [3] | |
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| ...with Kari...found the ped bridge over 394 and ran the neighborhood on the south side of 394...nice run route option.... |