Training Log Archive: pwentz3l

Fun OTNT hosted by Todd. Maps were new street-O maps from a new website??? I can't remember the name. I was a little burnt on map reading, so took the clue sheet and followed Darrin's expert nav. We ended up three controls shy and 25 seconds over time, but were the first one's back and were up there on the number of controls. I rode my single speed, which provided a different challenge. Fun.

No topo on the map, but very good for this type of event.

C • OOM 1

Log entry to get my hours down for the Thunder Rolls AR. Brief summary before the blog post.

2 mile run to the canoes, 1 mile portage, 4 hour paddle, Transition to bike, 2 hour bike to Radio Orienteering (person with map stays at the TA, the rest of the team runs the course based on directions via Walkie Talkie), 2 hour bike, 2 hour pack raft (3.5 miles...) 5.5 hour O and rope section.

Great race format. Radio-O was in a cool grassland. I was picturing 3' grass, it was 7' plus.

Event: Thunder Rolls AR
 

Work run around the lake. The Garmin is acting up... :-( We definitely went faster than Monday. 15 degree change will help there..

No hot water at the work showers. Who runs this place???

Test run on the inflatable pack raft. Plenty of fun this weekend...

Garmin couldn't find the satellites last night, so I just took off. I made really good time on the mountain bike. Lakes, greenway, west river and Minnehaha back to the 50th street hill. 19-21 the entire time the wheels were rolling. At least I can say that when the Garmin can't prove me wrong.

Sweaty mess by the end.

Hot hot hot lunch run with Clark after a lazy weekend. Clark was a little dehydrated and bonked.... I helped him in. I could have finished a couple of minutes sooner at best. Too hot.

Pre-OTNT ride with Molly around the Hopkins loop. Met Biz about 1/4 around and did some chatting, mixed with some pace line. A good warm up for our run.

The new Pizza Luce looks pretty sweet.

C • Your shirt 2

JJ was in town. MOBiz, Andre 3000, JJ, Ellen and I went for a nice trail run from Jiffy lube through Theo and back. Nice easy pace.

We followed up the run with a short swim, a little hot tub action, then Burger Jones. Good times.

Control retrieval with Andrei 3000. I got to nav to my skip, but from a direction I would not have come from in the meet. Andrei got to redeem himself on 111, and I got to show him the super highway from 111 to 112, a route he didn't take. A fun run in the woods. Worked out some kinks. We both rolled ankles though...

Event: MNOC Rogaine Chequamegon NF
 

MNOC ROGAINE 2010 Map and Route

What a great event. First, thanks to Mike and Julia for the amount of effort put in to this event. Second, thanks for the opportunity to run solo. It was a little odd for me, hard to keep the effort up for that long, but very rewarding. A great confidence builder and a smack in the face at the same time.

The only issue with running solo, was I was asked to commit to a route. I hastily pieced one together, not even comparing other routes, and downloaded to Julia. It turns out that my initial attempt wasn't too bad.

I started off with the blue train to 106. Who said this is a solo effort, I have 20 partners. A quick treacherous rock strewn downhill followed by a bog hop. It the entire woods is like this, it is going to be a long day... I punch and head west. I find the mountain bike trail and follow it until it cuts south. I go over the hill and find the depression. Something doesn't look right.... Closer look, there is a hill in the depression!! I skirt around it, punch the control and head out with noise from other teams in my ears.

I head south east, find the road and there is no one around... dropped already? 30 seconds later I hear GJ and the mad Russian behind me. hmmm.... maybe I am ahead. The next three controls we ran together. Or I should say we converged at the control together. We followed different routes, and sometimes caught glimpses of each other. It seems like we always came in to the control at the same time. I had committed to skipping 126, thinking the course was not sweepable, and parted ways with the team at this point. Alone in the woods.

From 105 I hopped on to the trail headed east and learned the difference between the MB trails and the national trail system. The difference is that neither of them conform to any standard. I had better stay on the map. 111 had an easy approach from this direction and I punched and headed east intending to run the ridge, find the trail and head south. Lucky me, the trail started 30 meters from the control leading to a fast move towards 112. Another spike!

The trails in this part seemed accurate and were easy running. I was cautious on the attack points and found 118, 124, and 125 with no fumbles. The off trail terrain on the last two were a bit treacherous.

I stayed on the map and found the next two with a little bushwhacking. I ran into MoBiz at the 2nd, my first people encounter in a while. 117 was a good trail run on a real MB trail, followed by a hop up to the ridge, following the spur to the control. I bailed NW, looking for the trail. The downed trees were really beating me up. Use the trails when you can.

I located the MB trail headed towards 110 and hopped off to run up the spur. I punched the control, moved 10' to the east and their the trail was... Argh.... i intended to skirt the depression between 110 and 115 to the south, but went a little too far south. I analyzed the north side of the ridge when I crested the top and thought I needed to go further east. Here comes the Boom.... read your compass dummy. I went south east, bushwhacked through some thick pines and found nada.... Mike had stated the control was further down the spur, soooooo I went further. Hey look, a trail, lets run down that too!!! I finally realized where I was and retraced my steps. I ran across a mountainbiker who commented, "I don't know how you guys navigate out here...." neither do I.... neither do I. Back on track, I punched the control and retraced out my tracks on the way to 116.

I was cautious going in to this area as I was approaching the depression from the narrow aspect. Spike!!! Confidence building again. I don't remember seeing any of the N-S trails to the east on the way to 121. What I do remember is the "fight" terrain. What a slog. Then 121 had a nice unmarked trail leading right to it. Bonus!!

The route to 120 was wet, but simple. Wow, there is a LOT of bear scat in this area. 120-119-114-113-108 What a great orienteering stretch. No trails, at least I couldn't find them. 119 - Found the depression, skirted to the north and follow the ridge. Spike! 114 - bail to the road, find the trail, but can't find the northern one. skirted the hill to the south, aimed for the fat part of the depression. Got down low, turned the corner... Christmas! I aimed for the trail to the NW of 114 and had to correct when I saw the large depression. skirted south and headed for the N-S trail to the west. It wasn't the depicted single track, but I was getting used to that. Followed the trail to the bend and hopped up on the hill to nail another.

I look down at the map. Yikes!! Why did I commit to this route? No contour lines. The bonus was is was a narrow alley with discernible features at the far end. I committed and hit every feature I looked for including the mountainbike intersection just east of the control. Over the hill and there is my flag. If I would have had a beer, I would have sat down and relished the moment. And just as you get cocky, the humble monster comes rolling in.

107 was pretty straight forward. The only issues now were the fact I was starting to cramp. I pop some eCaps and go for the water. Empty. Uh oh. Ok, two more controls and you are done. I head for 101, checking off the trails as I went. I get to the point where the trail turns south, and I think I am one intersection further along. (Didn't realize exactly where the first error came in until I overlayed the map) OK, it doesn't look right, the trail veers too far to the left. I bail for the small hills, looking to use the ridge to guide me in. I end up north of the small finger of the northern marsh. Back around and try again. I head too far west and see an opening to my south west and head for it. Search the northern edge and can't find it. Marsh is too small. I believe I am too far east... fatigue... I head further west. Look another marsh. It is bigger, but wrong shape. I realized my error and head back and find the control without issue. I run in to Ian and Jerritt. There are still people out here... With my two booms, I figured I would be late for the party. True to there competitive nature, they don't give a clue as to how they are doing.

I head to 109. Stumble to 109, stumble out of 109, and trickle down the hill to the start finish. Gassed.

Good times. 25 of 26 controls. Everything I tried to get was got. :-) 5:39, good for a third place finish overall. First in the loner category.

C • nice write up. 2

Holy cow is it hot out.... This was a tough run. No heart rate monitor to gauge just how hard I was working, but I was beat down at the end....

I like to get in at least one organized century ride per year, I have been averaging 2-3 in the past couple of years. It looks like this year will just be one... Anyway, the Tour de Tonka offered up a century this year on a great route. I had to break the route in two to purge some data from the GPS.

Summary: Cool at the 7:30 start. Rain at 7:45 until 11:30. It actually wasn't too bad. It sucked to tuck in and draft, but I found myself at the front a lot. I rode with my friend Nicole, who was content to ride on my wheel. We hooked up with some folks from Grand Performance, but probably only rode with them for 15 miles or so. 1 flat at mile 55 (approx.) used my tube and lone CO2 cartridge. Nicole was on a brand new bike, since hers was stolen two weeks ago after a ride, and had a tube, but no CO2.

I flatted again with about 6 miles to go. Front tire started getting mushy. I put my weight back and hoped for an all uphill finish. With two miles to go I had to hop off and hoof it. Corners were getting sketchy.

The new 100 mile route is a good one. No serious hills, but lots of rollers and nice pavement.

C • Nice work 4

I think something is wrong with my heart rate monitor..... 203... I don't think so.

Dairy Queen was donating $1 from every Blizzard sold yesterday to cancer research. I met some friends at the Calhoun Executive Center for a ride to DQ by Minnehaha Falls.

Segment from my home to Calhoun.

C • I hope so 2

Ride from Calhoun to DQ.

Slow go....

DQ to a Geocache site on Calhoun. Three of the five five are really in to Geocaching. I think the way I would describe this activity vs. Orienteering is Geochaching you use a high tech gadget to get really close to your target, then the search begins. Orienteering, you use a low tech gadget to get relatively close to your target and if you can't find it, you are in the wrong place....

There is a bench on the East side of Calhoun. The cache is "in/around" the bench. Look for it. Let me know if you find it. It is the bench where my GPS trail ends.

Ride home. Not much of a work out, so I tried to keep a little higher pace, but the lakes are tough for that. I did sprint up the hill on 49th though.

Talked a friend in to riding the Tour de Tonka on Saturday. Her only caveat was that she needed a long run this week for her half marathon training. My comment that you don't need to train for a half marathon wasn't acknowledged. So, a long flat run....

We hoped to ride Rock Lake single track, but two people bailed, the other had two broken spokes. After all the futzing around, we decided to ride the Fat Tire route from OO to Fire Tower Hill. Crazy steep 5 stepped hill. Granny gear and spin until your lungs blow. Neither of us made it. We both lost it with about 50' to go. Alex lost traction and laid his bike down, I tried a little different route and about went over backwards it was so steep. Ended up losing traction also.... bummer. Fun shorter ride for some sore legs....