Training Log Archive: pwentz3l

Borrowed some shoes to play soccer with the local irish crew. Concrete floor and a huge tennis ball. Weird feel to the whole game. Overall, it was fun, but hard on the body.

Run with a coworker. either uphill at a good gradient, or downhill. It didn't seem to matter where we were, the streets were covered with goose, cow, pig, dog or sheep "droppings". Nice. Luckily.... it was raining, which washed us down as we went.

Ran the "two bridges" of Derry run tonight. The coworkers were a little sketchy on the route. They told me to follow the river... duh. I had to detour due to construction, and then tried to get back in the park. I came close, but never made it. When I got back, I was told that you can't run on the river on the East side.... Ok, it was fun anyway. The foyle bridge is about 100' off of the river, so I had a little climb. Kind of an industrial run. Not the most scenic, but got a feel for the Irish community. A lot of walkers, not many runners.

About the Irish:

It has been a long time since I went to an event as a stranger and was treated so well. Maybe I have never been treated so well in this situation. maybe I have never been in this situation.

I got there early on Saturday to get my bearings. Really, I left early just in case I got lost. It all worked out transportation wise, so I snooped around the race HQ. I asked if they were selling souvenirs, patches, etc. I picked up a Possum Trot O-club patch in Kansas, thought this would be a good thing to get. Sorry, we don't sell souvenirs. OK, no big deal. Back to the car to change. I was chased down by one of the women. Are you the gentlemen from the USA? 50% guilty.... Check with me later.

On to the start. Everyone is looking at me sideways... a little. Nothing obnoxious, just curious. I start taking pics, ask a couple people to take pictures of me near the start. A gentleman comes over and we start talking. I told him I had never run on this type of terrain. He told me the light tan (rough open land) was the majority of the course and could be moved through, but look for trails as they will be much faster. A lot of trails out there that aren't mapped. The dark brown was open grass, similar to a lawn. Not much out there, but use it if you have the opportunity. The dark green is the blackish shrubs you see out there. It says inpenetrable, it is what it says.... use them as terrain features. They are accurate and visible. have fun....

After my run, another guy started talking to me. Wanted to know if I orienteer much. I told him I AR more than orienteer. It turns out he runs the Causeway Coast AR Organization. The Wild AR of Northern Ireland. Great guy. Did Abu Dhabi last year. We chatted until he was recruited for control retrieval. (they set 70+ controls)

So, everyone wants me to come back the next day and run the relays. No fee, just come run. They hook me up with a team. (see post) great fun.

After the prizes are awarded, the woman from earlier on grabs me and gives me both the first and second place prize. A t-shirt and a key ring. Both unearned, but welcome and will be used. The key chain will be pinned up with all my patches.

I show up on Sunday, and Ivan, the AR director, tells me he has something for me. He pulls out a Causeway Coast AR custom cycling jersey. SWEET!!! It has been worn a few times he stated, but only to ride, not race, so no tears or stains, etc.

Now I start feeling bad as I have nothing to exchange... So I pulled out the MNOC dipper retainers I purchased from Ian. I thought about parting with my MNOC jersey, but not until after everyone had split.

lastly, Ivan wanted to know if I needed a bike while I was here. I told him i have a road bike lined up. He offered me a mountain bike, but stated there weren't any good MB spots, and he lives 60 minutes from Derry... i told him i was looking for a good place to run. I wanted to know if the national park 30 miles to the West was good. Boggy.... but everything is boggy. Just south of the dunes a couple miles is a huge hill. He suggested running on the hill to the top for the views, and they have an O map of the area. The race director/club director didn't have any, but would check overnight. Sure enough, he brought me 6 pristine maps of the area. I should be able to get a good 15-20k run in with some monster elevation. Countour intervals are 5 M.... Yikes!!!

So, besides the option of potatos, potato's, or ...potato's with every meal, Ireland is awesome. Tomorrow I have to work. :-(

A couple of notes: I have not ordered potato's yet, but have had them with every meal.

The magilligan dunes, location of the o meet, is a military base and prison. They say it is the equivalent to GITMO. You don't have to be guilty to be a resident....

They were making up adhoc teams yesterday for the relay today and asked if I would like to join. I didn't have anything else scheduled, so of course I agreed. I was teamed with a 61 year old Brian (handicap of 6(age)) and John (handicap of 0 (age 25) who said he should have a handicap....) and me (handicap of two) for a total of 8, which put us in the handicap 6 group.

The handicap 6 group runs a 5.7k leg (me), 4.2k leg (John), and a 3.7k leg (Brian). I ran first, followed by Brian, then John. I felt better on this terrain vs. the day prior. Although only a mile apart, this terrain was short grass, rolling dunes with some pits, reentrants, etc.

The start of these is crazy. Countdown to 0, everyone's maps are in a manilla envelope, at go, the envelopes fly open, maps are ripped out and the mass start begins. There are people starting that are assigned the short, medium, and long legs. So although you can follow, you don't know what course anyone is on. Additionally, there are twin controls, sometimes 50' apart, that are both used, but have different numbers. There may have even been different courses for the long legs. Not sure.

Anyway, a good run, with a few bobbles, but overall just happy to be out there and enjoying myself. My team got 4th. We had some issues. Brian didn't punch the finish, but John was last, so only total time matters. Brian was a little flustered and cleared his dipper prior to download.... Anyway, John looks like a rockstar due to Brian's mix up.

A note on speed. I did a 5k in 20:17 on Thursday. The elite's here orienteered a 5.7k, 18 control course through sand in 25-26 minutes. I am sure it is just me suffering from Jet lag.....

Irish O Champs. Probably one of my slower runs. I got my heart rate up a coupld of times, but felt slow most of the time. The terrain was very tricky dunes overgrown with tall grass and thorny patches. There were a few open pieces, but most of the terrain was 12-18" grass.

My course was 8.1k and had 27 controls. I found the first one just fine, but was very cautious. The nest was short and I misread the control number and bypassed it. I realized my error and returned, but it threw me off a bit. I found that the entire event was move/stop/move/stop, look for the control, etc. Really felt slow. Multiple times, the control could be spotted by moving two to three feet, but you had to be in the correct location. Very tricky. I don't think i saw more than 2-3 controls from more than 20-30 feet.

Anyway, I got to the download and found out my time was good for third place. Never would have guessed that.

C • great Dune navigation 7

Event: Irish Orienteering Championships
 

Seagate Earth Day 5k. I set a goal of 20 minutes. We went out a little hot as there was a little smack talking at the start. In the end, I got smoked. Well, we all got smoked, as I got 2nd out of the 80+ runners and walkers. The winner ran in 18:30, looking smooth. I imagine I looked like I felt, an old man trying to cough up a lung.

Great weather, good course, good fun.

Forgot to start the GPS at the start. Someone stated we were 15 minutes in, so I will add that as another entry. Fun Ride at Lebanon Hills. It didn't seem as technical as the last time I rode it..... A little less stressful. Could have been the company though. Clark usually bombs the course and I feel compelled to try and keep up.

A great course set by Mike and Julia. Lots of hills to run, lots of thorns to bushwhack through. After the slaying I took on Sunday, I stuck to the trails whenever possible, even though it may not have been the most efficient choice. Legs were tired.... especially at the start. Good mix of big feature controls (big or distinct reentrants, etc.) in the hilly parts, and subtle nav areas to the north. Great training. Only had a chance to go after 10 of the 12 controls.

Lost 15 minutes of cycling time.

Event: MNOC - William O'Brien State Park
 

A good day for an O meet. Warm temps with sunshine!!! MNOC meet at William O'Brien Raspberry patch.

My legs were a little tired, to Erin and I did a 1/2 mile warm up loop. I jogged to the start to complete the warm up.

I had a decent run with a few bobbles. I have posted comments in the splits. Overall, I felt fairly comfortable on the map. I think I would benefit from slowing down for a few moments at the start of every leg. I still feel a little adhoc with my attack.

Red - Splits

Remaining distance and time after the GPS died.

Who says decending is fun while riding.... my heart rate hit 248 going down Ohio...

Not sure what happened there.

Saturday AM ride with Chris and Will. Started at Minnehaha falls and rode through Mendota Heights, South St. Paul, then down towards Hastings. Headed North to Afton and stopped to eat. Nothing looked good, so we continued on to Stillwater. My GPS battery went dead leaving Afton. Does it use more power when you have a cadence counter on the bike, heart rate and GPS?

Stopped to eat at Stillwater, then up Myrtle to the Gateway trail. Wound our way through St. Paul to Mounds Park, then DT St. Paul, up Summit to the river road and back to the falls.

My legs were a little tired after the 10 miler yesterday. I thought this would be a good session prior to sitting on a plane. It looks like the Volcano messed up those plans. At Least I will be able to orienteer tomorrow!

Tempo run with Clark. Supposed to run 7:40/mile. Clark decided last minute that he was just up for 7:50/mile. He is constantly bugging me for pace. I am constantly lying to him about pace. I think he may be caching on....

I just registered for the Irish Orienteering Championships. They are an hours drive from where I will be staying in Londonderry. Dunes and brush.... I can't make the sprint on Friday and I am afraid I don't qualify for the relays. I may go back and watch though.

Irish O Champs Website

C • Lucky you and good luck to you 6

Great fun at the Cake-O Course was set by forever 40 Mike Carlson and party was hosted by forever 30 Ellen Farseth. A great turnout for an enhanced google map sprint including a run from river level to one of the high spots in St. Paul.

Rode the mountain bike out to Mound to help a friend with the Chris Craft we have been rebuilding. Today was the day to start the engine... it didn't work out. Spark is weak. We did get some items fixed. 2 steps forward...

Garmin Shut Down.... Mix of Andrei, Clark and Pete Navigating. Good course, good fun, good weather.

All paved trails and roads. Good ride at a relaxed pace.

Tempo run with Clark. 1st time my heart rate broke 180!!! I was beginning to think I would have to change my max from 185.

The route Chris and I took at the Badger ROGAINE.

Badger ROGAINE Map

Badger ROGAINE Blog Post

A couple of notes. The bobble at 20 and 14 show how close we were, yet we still had to reorient. 20, I thought we were further east, so was focused west, 14, I have no excuse. Chris and I both searched and must have walked right by the control.

Look at the route from 1-2 in the SW corner. Andrei and Clark went direct from 2 to the south side of the pond. Hopping dry spots in the marsh. We chose the path as it looked quick and safe. Kevin had stated that the path was added and roughly in the correct location. His rough route is approximately .75k south of the route on the ground. Hard to imagine why we felt a little lost after the landmark hill near "Millston". The path we were on was "x'd" out as non-existant. I think I would have attempted the swamp if I knew that we were being routed that far off track, or I would have substituted 5 for 2.

C • Nice Quickroute 4

Event: MNOC - Terrace Oaks Park
 

Event: Badger Orienteering ROGAINE
 

Another good effort by the MNOC and MN contingent. Clark and Andrei took first place with 25 controls, Pete and Chris took 2nd with 24 controls, Darryn and Todd took 4th with 22, and Erin, with CAOC partner took 21, but had time penalties. Weather was perfect and the terrain had a great mix. Some trail, open wood, and thick stuff. Plenty of steep hills mixed with swamp. A little something for everyone... I rated the map "Complex" since we were running on dated USGS 1:24k maps. Trails missing or added, generally good, but definitely required extra thought.

My longest recorded race outside of POCAR, but POCAR includes a lot more trekking. The race was billed as 30k, so we went for a sweep. I don't think our route was that inefficient, but nowhere near the 30k standard. I think we would have stayed closer to home if we knew it was going to be this long. I think Todd and Darryn's route was 5 miles shorter. Chris and I had 2-3 bobbles. Nothing horrible, probably 5 minutes each, but cost us enough time that one more control would not have been attainable. More to come in the TMMAR blog.

C • almost a marathon... 3

Ran with Clark at lunch. 10 mile tempo run at 8/mile pace. Pretty tough in the heat. Luckily I had left a water bottle at work. Clark had to bow out at 8 miles after his heart rate went to 195 for a mile. Dehydrated.... Not sure how smart this was with the ROGAINE this weekend. Clark said, "I am training for a marathon, not a ROGAINE." He'll have fun when Interkosmos puts him in the hurt locker on Saturday.

C • Hurt Locker 3