Training Log Archive: FoxShadow

Brisk run with Pete W and Molly around Lake of the Isles. Felt good! The dang hot tub was closed afterward though, which was admittedly the main reason that I say through 5PM traffic to attend the run.

Awesome Lake Harriet area OTNT set by Jim! Fun to meet at Beard's Plaisance and discover the fenced in wildlife area that I always assumed was owned by the cemetery or something.

We were up one after 5 against one of the better teams in the club, then fell apart. Disappointing second loss in a row.

Rode the trainer while watching amazing race.

Awesome hike up the river trail at Interstate and back on the bluff trail. The potholes carved out by the old glacial St. Croix were something else, really neat! The hiking trail would have been one of my favorite in the state if not for the fact that it's on either side of the road. Still, a gorgeous hike. The bluff trail had more elevation that I imagined, very steep and deep re-entrants and cliffs, which were fun to explore. There used to be a train track that climbed through the area and across the huge re-entrants, would have been an awesome view from up there.

C • Silver Bullet 6

Explored the Interstate potholes and cliff near the visitor's center. The Dutch Oven pothole that you can walk down into from it's side is awesome.

MTB Turkey burner from start to French park. Fun group ride, found some fun areas.

This run felt longer than the 32 minutes that evidently it took. My legs were cashed from Wednesday's run and the 3 hours of biking today.

Burner ride back from French park to NE mpls.

Spinning on the trainer watching Biggest Loser. Generally a relaxed pace with a few intervals of hard effort here and there when bob and dolvet we're on their A-game.

Tough run in Theo including 10 hill repeats or so. I was sore from this one. Good possum trot training.

Played great the first 5 ends. But fell apart in the final few and ended up having to swallow the first L of the year. That one always hurts the most.

Team memory, a great OTNT idea, one that should be used more often than once every three years. Maybe I'll set one of these this winter. Yes, I think that would be splendid.

Cyclocross state championships. Not my best race. Was not able to get a good enough warm-up in and I paid for it. Finished 10th after having a good final lap. Everything before that was a bit disappointing. Bike worked well, finally have it dialed. Hanging up the cx bike for the year.

Spinning at home watching DVR'ed Daily Show episodes. I don't like that Stewart parrots the same liberally slanted stories that all the liberal media does, because it's so predictable. But at least he's the best at delivering the message - he's hilarious.

Quickish run on the shredmill.

Short Five Fingers run. Didn't feel too hot.

Setting next month's No Name Alley Cat with Biz. A wrinkle or two is in store -perhaps a built-in advantage or those used to orienteering maps?

Should be fun, not too long, maybe an hour for the winner. A good chance for anyone thinking about doing it to give it a try. I won't be there, but Biz and Molly will be hosting.

Fast and adventurous MTB ride with Dre, Biz and GJ. Deep sands on the river bottoms is no fun, but the remoteness of the area was a good change of pace to my usual training ride. Felt good to get a lot of riding in today, almost four hours.

Event: MNOC - Sunfish Lake Park
 

Great run at Lake Elmo. No mistakes other than a route or two that might have been faster a different way, and a minute or less bobble on CP 11 (on map A, which is 210 if I recall) that can be seen on the uploaded GPS data. My watch did not begin to pick up the GPS track until after the first loop, which is too bad. It's not my focus, I need to get better with it.

C • Great race! 7

warm up/control retrieval

A Long - Splits

Great start training drill and sprint courses at Battle Creek set by Todd. No women, so we went and just got totally crazy out there.

Full loop plus a little at leb with Dittmer and Chad and Grant. Except on difficult climbs, I feel stronger now than anyone I ride with, which feels good. I'm as strong on my mtn. bike now as I ever have been.

C • ...mt bike season this Fall... 3

No Name Alleycat. Finally an alleycat with a route that was not too difficult for us non-messengers. Biz and I got the route planned out just before the 7PM start time. We had a great pace, and a nice tight route throughout the ride. We worked together into the wind, which helped on the long sourthern legs. I read clues, searched for the clues (which were all magic the gathering cards) and wrote stuff down while Biz did all of the nav on his map board. We saw the hipsters at most of the checkpoints, and had little idea as to whether we were in first or 10th. In the end, we rolled into Hell's Kitchen at 7:52 in first. 3rd, 4th and 5th all came between 2 and 5 minutes behind us.

It felt good to finally beat the hipsters at their own game. We won $80 cash and the rights to host the next one. BUT, I'll be in Sacramento with Kelly and Biz will be at Possum Trot. So,

Todd, you have to either get on the PT train, or help us! Please!

C • PT is second weekend in December... 1

C • congrats 13

Riding to and from the alleycat start.

Event: Badger OC - Devil's Lake State Park
 

GPS picked up slightly after I started, didn't pick up the "prologue" style start.

Fun course a the National Sports Center. I gave it my all, went DEEP into the pain cave. The lowest my heart rate got was in the low 170s and I hit 186 trying to hold my position in 4th, which I eventually was forced to relinquish. Finished 5th. Good race. The new bike worked pretty well, at least the frame did. I'm was not happy with the gear ratios I found myself in. So this afternoon I ordered parts to convert the bike to a single front ring. Because less is more for CX. I also ordered a V-brake to eliminate the front brake shudder. I'm going to put a longer stem on as well. Getting the bike just the way you need it to be as fast as possible is part of the fun. It's like the Birkie geeks getting all excited about layering waxes, putting structure in their base and lathering themselves with CERA F.

Thanks to Mike and Ian for coming to watch, that made it fun and added a little motivation!

warm up and cool down for cx race.

I'm probably going to buy this (or similar) so we can travel to O-meets together.

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/rvs/26798619...

It has been my dream to RV since I ski bummed out of my Ford conversion van in Jackson Hole (and Montana and the three years in Utah). Feel free to weigh-in. Particularly if you think I should go Vanagon/Eurovan camper. It's between the two.

C • Toyota 3

Intervals on the shreadmill.

Took the new CX bike out for it's inaugural spin. I finally finished getting it built up. Apart from a creak or two from the cranks and some fine tuning the fit that I may need to do, it's ready to race. I'll hit up the CX race in Blaine this Saturday to put my new steed to the test. This bike is much lighter and stiffer, so it shoudl translate to results. We'll see!

Hot laps at leb with Chad, Grant, Jesse, and Alan. Firm pace.