I may not be cool, but at least my food is

A couple of weeks of down time after a long racing season have been a welcome change, and a chance to get a few things taken care of on the home front and get a bit of adventuring in.  I went with my brother down to a family reunion near Waldorf this last weekend and got to try my new $15 tent out for the first time.  Cary and I teamed up for the lawn golf and "win it in a minute" challenges and won both.  The golf games were very close, as we changed what implements we used each time.  Over the course of the weekend I used a Frisbee, a lawn dart (both the new weighted and old sharp variety) an actual golf club and ball, a horseshoe, an apple, and a block of wood.  The block of wood won us our very close victory game, it went into 3 extra holes to break the tie at the end of the regulation round.  Cary dominated most of the minute challenges, but I pulled out ahead in blowing a ping pong ball into a horseshoe and stacking erasers and dice on a Popsicle stick I was holding in my mouth.
I don't do a lot in the way of home maintenance, but I do what I need to.  My basement is finally finished, and is actually looking pretty good.  A nice thorough cleaning and things should be in ship shape down there. 
I am also working on fixing my refrigerator.  I had to de-ice it this spring and then a few weeks ago it started not keeping food cold.  I did some sleuth work and found out that the evaporator fan was bad, so the cold air was there but was not being circulated.  I replaced that, but still suspect that my defrost timing switch is bad, since I never notice the fridge going into defrost mode on it's own, and that was stated as one reason that an evaporator fan might fail, if it gets plugged up with frost.  The new fan is working great, and I can at least manually switch the defrost on and off, so I'm going to watch it a few days and replace the switch if needed.
A bad storm this last weekend knocked a lot of branches down, so that was a good catalyst to get some lawn work done as well.  I cleaned up all the dead fall and pruned a bunch of my trees and bushes back, so I had a good sized load to bring to the compost this week.  It is always fun packing the Focus full of branches and ratchet strapping the big ones on top, then cruising right through downtown with the whole ensemble to get to the compost site.  I also got my strawberry garden weeded out, a huge project, but it looks pretty good now, except the fruit season is long done already.
Got my first real rollerski workout in last weekend too, 15km in 1 hr, a pretty sedate pace, but it felt good to start getting the ski legs back under me.  I've had a couple really fast near TT bike sessions the last couple weeks on the lunch rides.  I would attack right after the intermediate sprint and open up a gap that I would try to hold as long as possible.  Add that to a 10 mile run on Tuesday, and even though I haven't been doing many extra workouts I feel like I'm getting some solid training in.  Racing starts back up for another block in a couple weeks, so I need to hone the fitness back in a bit before then.

A flood of panic

Gary and Maddie came down a couple weeks ago for some canoeing on the cannon river.  The river has been high all summer, and was finally settling down, so I figured it would be a good time to get some boats out.  It rained about 7" in a couple hours the night before we went however, so the river was very high and fast when we put in Saturday morning.  The trip started alright, and we made really good time, hardly needing to paddle.  There were a lot of trees down and debris requiring some navigation skills, which it turns out we don't really have.  We overturned the boat going under a tree and only then realized the predicament we had gotten ourselves into.  It was warm out, but the water was surprisingly cool.  More noticeably it was very fast, and high enough that it went well back into the trees near the typical shoreline, so there was no safe way to get the boat out of the current.  Maddie was in a kayak and her quick reaction saved our paddles and a couple other random objects.  We floated downriver with the boat for a while and finally managed to manhandle it over to a downed tree where we could anchor ourselves and get the boat righted, although it was a tough fight with the current to get it out of the water and upright.  Our poles and tackle were sadly lost, and I had to untangle my legs from the fishing line, but we got back underway.  We didn't make it near as far before tipping a second time, and needed to work over into some shallows and right the boat.  Then We decided to try me in the stern and Gary paddling bow, but barely got underway before tipping again.  This time we got caught on a pile of flotsam, but Gary had to drift away.  I managed to hang and get the boat flipped and emptied on my own while bracing on a log that seemed mostly stable, then sat in the bottom of the boat and turned it by leaning and paddling with my hands until Gary could grab hold and pull himself into the boat, while going downriver.  Maddie saved our paddles each time, and handled her kayak very well, without her there things would have been much the worse.  We ended up stopping when we reached a good place to beach along Hwy 3 and had Gary's dad come rescue us.  I think all of us had as much adventure as we cared to that day, and it was a good reminder how much the speed and power of a river differs from the lakes where I have been doing most of my paddling as of late.

Ngede it done

The final race in this block was another unique one.  My friend Erik has been dreaming up this race for a few years now, and to finally see it come to fruition was exciting.  It is called the Ngede challenge and is a pretty exciting series of events to make up one spectacular 65km race.  Since it is in it's inaugural year the field was pretty small, and this is probably a good thing since there were still a few bugs to work out in terms of course design and marking.  I showed up Friday night to have supper with some of the racers and volunteers and ended up helping finish up some course marking before heading to my folks to catch a bit of sleep.  The next morning was perfect temps, if a bit muggy.  There were 5 of us doing the whole event solo, and maybe 7-8 relay teams entered as well.  Erik I expected to get away on the 10k run that started the race, but thought I could pull him back on the road bike depending on his mountain bike skills.  There were some very fast looking Orbea TT bikes there with their accompanying triathletes.  These guys would be the unknowns, how much would the bikes and multi sport experience chip into the gaps I could put on them in the runs?  The 10k played out pretty much as expected.  One of the relay runners got a huge gap, Erik slowly edged away and probably had 1:30 on me by the exchange.  I was 3rd in with Than right there with me.  I took the time to throw on my EMVC jersey and shoes and hit the bike trails.  I kept it relaxed for the first couple km then started to work the big hills on the black ski loop.  I caught Erik after turning onto the blue loop and overtook him pretty quickly.  The long green climb I was starting to feel it a bit, and after pushing over the black climb I geared up and tried to relax on the long descent to the exchange zone.  The road bike transition went very quickly, just change bikes, no clothing changes at all, and took off, still with no triathletes in sight.  I hadn't seen the relay team in the lead either though, so I wondered if they were away.  I saw a flash of yellow ahead when I was about 3 miles into the bike though, and just kept my head down and pushed as hard as I could maintain knowing what was yet to come.  I caught the relay team rider about 3 miles later and quickly left him behind.  I knew this was going to be my chance to make a gap, and I kept right on the edge of what my legs could handle.  There was a long stretch on a crushed rock bike path, and I could feel the speed slow down compared to the road, and the effort increase.  It was a rail trail, so there was no break to climb or descend, just effort and the slow feeling of the legs creeping towards fatigue.  I tried to keep my focus on staying low and lean and keeping consistent force on the pedals through the entire rotation.  I took a couple glances back, but didn't see anyone closing on me.  Getting back on the road was a welcome change, and I picked up the tempo for the last 7 or so miles in to the last exchange.  I changed shoes, lost the jersey, and hit the trails.  The legs and abs were angry, they didn't like the change of motion.  I hadn't seen anyone else arrive by the time I left the exchange zone though, so I figured I was at least 1:00 clear and was willing to take my time for the first mile to let the legs adjust.  Then I picked up the pace a bit but kept things in control, just in case.  Much of the run was an out and back, so when I passed mile 2 on the way back I knew I had over a mile lead and was able to relax and just work at a comfortable pace the rest of the way in.  I ended up with a rather large win, at least 15:00 I think, since the fastest of the triathletes got lost on the road bike, and Erik stopped to redo some course markings along the way.  There was a Tanzanian feast afterwards that was simply amazing.  It was great to just eat and hang out with a bunch of friends new and old.  With that race done it was nice to go home and relax before heading to the cities the next morning for the EMVC urban warfare ride.

I got sole, they're super bad

So when I was looking at the race calendar this spring I though, you know what would be fun to do the day after a 50k, drive to the center of the state of Wisconsin and run a 5 miler.  The Pitsville Heart and Sole is a flat, fast, road race held on July 3 every year.  I have been going for a few years now and didn't want to miss the 25th annual race for something as dumb as running a 50k the day before.  The legs were barely working when I hopped in the car that morning, and walking down stairs was not happening without a hand rail.  This would make for exciting racing.  I did a couple strides before the race just to see how the legs would handle speed, and it wasn't a pretty sight.  I decided I would not push it, just tuck in and see how the race progresses.  My brother, friends Jeff, Chris, Rob, and Heather, were all racing too, so if I decided to just jog it out there would be plenty of people to run with.  Well when the gun went off that nice flow of adrenaline quickly calmed the aching muscles and I tucked in with the second group of runners.  Nearly everyone in the first group turned off at the two mile race cutoff, and I found myself in 4th.  This would have frustrated me in other years, but was better than I expected this year.  I was caught by a couple other runners and ended up settling in with a group of 4 behind 4 more leaders who we weren't going to catch.  I worked on keeping the turnover high and the effort relaxed, and in the last mile poked ahead just a bit to keep the other guys honest.  One of them got away, I tucked in with a second, and we dropped the third.  That second runner got away with a quarter mile left, so I settled in and took 7th, good enough for a second in my age group.  This kind of marks a turning point in my athletic career.  I used to always have the goal of not being beat by anyone younger than me.  I was training hard enough that my additional years of maturity and experience should keep me moving up.  Now my goal had become not to be beat by anyone older than me.  My youth, training, and enthusiasm would have to hold against the additional experience of my competitors.  I've been trying to train less this year, not always effectively, just to see what impact it has on my racing, and so far I've been pretty pleased with my ability to stay in the mix in most races, even though I feel like I'm riding right on the edge of crashing out more now than in the past where I just couldn't maintain the pace needed to move ahead, period.  One more race entry coming up, then a couple weeks away from the race scene, probably.

An Ultra good time

The next race on the docket was the Afton Trail Run 50k.  I really enjoyed the Birkie marathon last year, and so decided that if I could run a trail marathon and still walk the next day an ultra couldn't be that much harder.  I was wrong, at least in this case.  The race was supposed to be held at Afton state park, and is known for being hilly and tough.  It would be 2x25km with about 6 significant climbs each loop.  When the Minnesota government completely failed at it's job of coming up with a budget (a problem still not solved 2 weeks later) the state park closed and I hoped briefly that a cancellation would ensue and save me from this race.  Instead the resourceful race organizers moved the race right next door to the Afton Alps ski and mountain bike area and made good use of some single track and ski slopes to create a 12km loop that we would traverse 4 times, still with about 5 major climbs each time around.  The total elevation gain ended up being somewhere around 1600m. 
The long runs started out rough a couple months back with some digestion problems making me wonder if I still had it in me to do these long races.  As I built up my mileage and started to play around with my diet though things worked themselves out alright.  I put in a 25 mile run the week before Chippewa and then counted on my racing to hold my fitness until the race.  With only 2 days of just "running" logged in June I was a bit apprehensive going into the race, but when the gun went off at 6:30 am I was ready to go.  I quickly settled in as the trail immediately narrowed and most of the race was walking.  I watched a group of 4 go off the front pretty much right away, but I didn't worry about them.  I was here to finish, not to win any prizes.  I did want to finish in a timely manner however, so I passed a number of people when the trail opened up to a service road.  Jeff stuck right with me and I pulled us around on an uncertain first lap.  There were plenty of people even near the front walking some of the more steep uphills, and I took a cue from them and walked as well.  It made for a pretty pleasant race experience actually, it is a unique atmosphere where everyone I was around was racing, but not at the expense of the racers around them.  I could walk up the hills and chat with the racers around me (when I could catch my breath.  Even walking these hills were no joke) and when things flatten out go right back to a race pace.  There were "fun" hills with cool names like "pirates point" and "easier loop" (it wasn't).
The first water station was about 4 miles into the 7.5 mile loop, and it was a welcome sight.  I didn't carry water with me so I had 2 or 3 cups of water or heed (another huge plus of this race, they used the same drink I train with year round) and a banana, part of a peanut butter sandwich and some M&M's.  The aid stations were veritable buffet tables, and I made the most of it.  The race director was out acting as a course Marshall, so I gave him a thumbs up for the course selection, fun and challenging single track.  It was shortly after that I saw the sign indicating I was headed "to the Manhandler".  After a bit of winding around sure enough, there was a monster climb up to the back side of one of the ski slopes.  I was walking it so I was not man handled, but the prospect of making the climb 3 more times didn't seem super appealing.  From there things went downhill fast, right to the base of the ski slope in fact.  Then in a cruel twist we were right near the lap/finish line, but instead of finishing the lap there the course turned and went straight back up the steepest ski slope it could find.  If the race directors were worried about the course being hard enough up to this point (I'm sure they weren't) this climb surely settled any lingering doubt that this course would be an equal in challenge to the course at the state park.  Shortly into the second lap I began to catch 25k racers who's race had started an hour after mine.  This fueled me to push the pace a bit more than I may have otherwise done and Jeff's labored breathing reminded me to reign myself in from time to time.  There is something quite satisfying about flying by people who know you've already been on course for an hour, and probably will be for another hour after they finish.
Jeff decided to dial the pace back at the start of the third lap, and I continued to weave my way through 25k racers, albeit at a slower rate than the lap previous.  When I reached the easier route climb I found myself walking behind a rather attractive lady doing the 25k race.  I passed her on the short running section at the top of the hill and she tucked in behind me and easily kept my pace for the ensuing descent.  I paced her for a bit, then got a bit of a gap before the food station.  While I took my time feasting she cruised by, and I caught back up to her a hill or so later and ran with her for the rest of the lap.  It was nice having someone at close to my pace to make me keep up the effort, and to talk to while walking up the hills.  I didn't think to ask her name, so I don't know who she was, but she made a great pacer.  My friend Dean was out taking pictures of the race, so he popped up at various locations to give encouragement,  Dave and Caitlin came to cheer and hung out near the big hills at the lap/finish area, and the winding nature of the trail means I saw Jeff at several points too and we cheered each other on.  Once my pacing lady had finished her race I was on my own a bit behind a group of 3 runners.  I caught up to them and one turned out to be Kyle Donovon, one of my brothers friends from RF.  I ran with him for a while until the hills began in earnest when much to my dismay I found I was no longer able to run downhill without my legs starting to give out on me.  I kept the pace up on the flats and climbs to try to compensate, but as they say what goes up must come down.  I walked, even walked backwards when possible to try to keep the downhills manageable but still lost major time on the group I had caught.  The last time up and down the final slope near the end of the race was pure torture, but being able to see the finish line the whole time was a good reminder that it would all be over soon.  I finished and immediately started eating and drinking anything I thought my stomach would hold down.  It was an exciting time.  When I recovered enough to move around I went to wait and cheer for Jeff, who came in about 1/2 hour behind me.  My goal was to not take as long to finish this race as I did Chippewa, and I made it, by only about 10 min.  My time was 5:26:00 or somewhere thereabouts.  Not a bad day's work.

Give it a Tri

Work intruded on life for a couple of rough weeks in mid June, and I'm still dealing with some of those issues now.  The copper plater I'm in charge of has been getting worse, until finally a major overhaul was required.  This involved a couple long days of changing out parts, and in the process finding more parts that need changing out.  All this was accomplished, and then the machine worked worse than ever.  So the end result was that I ended up working a 65 hour week leading up to the Tri-loppet, with 50 of those hours being in 3 days.  This somewhat decreased my motivation for the race, but it is such a fun race I was still excited by Friday evening when Mike Kosloski and I hit up lake Calhoun for our one and only canoe training day (and Mike's first time in a boat in who knows how long) in the Jensen named Lilly that we borrowed from Paul.  I did my best to impart my incomplete knowlege of race paddling on him, and try to learn how to steer a boat at the same time.  The practice round didn't go too bad, and we had a plan ready for the next morning. 
Race day was bright and beautiful.  Jeff came with to be cheering squad, and the paddle over to the beach where the race was starting went off without a hitch.  There was a bit of down time to relax before the race start, then it was get in the boats, get in position, and get going. 
We started in the second row and drafted a rather fast boat right out of the gate.  We were probably about the 20th boat around the first booey, and were out of most of the traffic.  My steering wasn't the best, so we ended up bumping boats we were trying to draft a couple times, but never really interupted their paddling or ours.  We picked off a few boats along the course, including Fixie Paul in his solo kayak and Carl Schaffer, who had taught me my dubious paddling skills.  I was rather pleased with this, and even more pleased when looking at the results to see we finished 25th and 26th in the paddle leg, my best tri-loppet paddle yet.
Then it was off to the hilly quaking bog for the run leg.  I have had the fastest time for the run every year I've done the Tri-loppet, so I had a record at stake for this section.  I was feeling fast, but not winning fast, and taking a digger around a sharp corner didn't help.  I was back up in a jiffy, no worse for the wear, but it broke my rhythym a bit for sure.  Jeff was all over cheering, and when he ran along side me for a stretch not even breathing hard I figured I was in trouble.  My abs hurt far more than other years, since I actually used them to paddle this year, and the lack of sleep over the last week was beginning to catch up to me.  I powered through though, and was happy to hop on the bike.  Not that the bike leg hurt much less, but it did give my abs a rest, and the speed and wind always help a bit.  When I was at about the 3 mile mark in the bike I saw one of the leaders passing the 6 mile mark going the other way, so I knew there was no winning for me this year.  I got passed by a rider who I had caught in the running leg, the first time I've ever been passed in this race after leaving the boat behind, so that was a bit demoralizing too.
After an exhausting race I wasn't expecting much, so I was quite pleased to see I ended up 8th overall, and managed to snag a 2nd in my age group behind Matt.  I did have the fastest running leg, and was 5th in the bike, so if I ever get a fast boat I could be in the mix for a win.

Off to the Races

Since I last posted in May I have been doing a whole lot of racing, working, and unfortunately driving.  Racing season kicked off with a new one for me, the Chippewa triathlon in Cass Lake.  Emily and I were a canoe duo, and the Buessler family was nice enough to give us a place to stay before and after the race.  To get ready for the race I went up and paddled with the Minneapolis Canoe club a couple of times, and boy what a difference it made.  I feel like my stroke is way worse now than I ever thought it was, but at least I'm on the path to doing things right, getting the paddle in a powerful position and applying force with the correct muscles.  It was hard to tell at Chippewa if it paid off, since Emily and I are a bit unbalanced in terms of paddling strength and weight in the boat, so we had to make some mid race adjustments that included me hopping into the stern with really no idea how to steer a boat.  The portages were also costly since my height meant most of the weight of the boat ended up on Emily's shoulders when we tried to do the racing portage.  So by the time we hopped out of the water the race leaders were a good hour down the road.  The bike was a bit more suited to my abilities with paved bike trail, gravel roads, and bumpy, windy forest paths on offer.  I think I ended up with the second or third fastest bike leg on the day, not too shabby.  I had heard from reading about tri's that the bike to run transition can be a bit tricky, and boy was it ever.  I was running on fumes by the end of the bike leg, and then to hit the trails on foot the muscles didn't seem especially willing to get moving.  After a few miles this settled out and I could finally get into a good, if still not comfortable, groove and began passing people even.  A small detour to check out some neat trails not on the course had me backtracking and proceeding to pass most of the people I had caught earlier again.  I did pass them all a second time before the finish.  I finished the race in 5:32:12, my longest ever race in terms of time and distance (71 km).  It was a great adventure, and I was pretty spent afterwards.  Luckily the next weekend was Grandma's marathon, which I did not race, so I got a chance to recover, finally meet up with Matt and give him his prize and medal from trail mix, and get in a good bike ride on a very rainy day with Bjorn.  There will be plenty more racing news in the next few posts.