Adventures in Birkieland

Hopefully starting soon Tuesday will be bible study day, but this Tuesday that plan was derailed by some illness.  I think going forward I'm also going to try to make Tuesday blog day.  That gives me time to rehash the weekend, upload photos, and catch up with other things enough to have time to put a post together.  If Tuesday bible study yields good blogging fodder I might change my post date or add a second post, but I want to start sticking to a weekly schedule of some sort, just so stuff doesn't get lost in the wash.  Speaking of wash mine has been hanging in the basement since Wednesday, so it's probably dry and ready to be put away by now, or maybe I'll wait another day and it can have a solid week to dry.
This past week was an eventful one to say the least, but included a good amount of down time, which was nice.  Tuesday I went up to the cities for a going away party for my friend Annie.  She is leaving today for Tanzania, where she will be teaching English and other things at a rural bible college.  It was a fun group, with people from Amery and people from the U of M ski club.
Work has been slow for a few weeks, so last Friday was a forced vacation day.  I took of for my parents Thursday night, with a stop in Anoka to visit with Annie for a bit.  Friday I got a good rollerski in and had a chance to catch up to my parents and grandparents a bit, which was really nice.
Saturday I made the trek with my Trek up to Seeley to get some mountain biking in and cheer for my friend Allie who was running her first marathon.  I ran the Birkie marathon last year and it was a blast, but I've had enough of the racing for a bit and decided my mountain bike was underused.  The CAMBA (Cable area mountain bike association) trails were pretty baller, the singletrack defiantly pushed my technical biking skills to the limit.

I took off with a rough plan but forgot to grab a map, and started down the wrong trail immediately, so working off my rough memory of the trail system and my general knowledge of the Birkie trail I headed south to try to find a race.  I explored a few different trails, and managed to work my way to the Gravel Pit trail head, where I figured I could pick up a map.  Right when I pulled up I saw a few runners going  by who I guessed were about Jallie's speed, and then Jallie ran by, what great timing!  It caught me by surprise actually, so I cheered extra loud because I was happy to have found her, and that my timing was spot on despite a complete lack of plan following.  I grabbed a map and took off after her.

The singletrack trail I followed back towards OO where I parked weaves around a lot and crosses the Birkie trail at many locations, so cheering worked out really well.  If I got behind I would have to take some risks on some of the downhills and corners to catch up, and if I got ahead I had time to check the map or snap a couple photos.  Jallie's pace was good the whole way, and I got a great workout trying to keep up.
After OO my nice parallel trail disappeared, so I took some more adventures off on other trails and lost track of Jallie for a bit.  Then when I was ready for a break I cruised up to high point and waited there for her to show up.  After that I leapfrogged ahead a bit on the Birkie trail, and eventually found some more single track that ran along the trail in towards Telemark lodge.  Jallie finished well and was still walking around afterwards, which is always a good sign after a marathon.  I also ran into the Stone family and chatted with them for a bit. Michelle was doing the 1/2 marathon hike, and Mandy was doing the 5k so she could get a bit of mountain biking in afterwards as well.  I also ran into Joy Keller who was on a relay team.  After a bit of socializing I hit the trails back to OO and really pushed myself.  I got some good gravel road riding in, and got back on the Birkie trail in time to do the climbs at 16, 18, 20, and 22km.  By the time I got back to my car I was worn out.
Then I cruised back to the cities to meet Annie and some friends for her birthday meal at Old Spaghetti Factory.  A great way to fill the tanks back up after all that biking, and a really fun crew to hang out with.  After that we went out to the bars for a bit.
Then I headed home to get some sleeping in.  I actually slept a good chunk of the day Sunday as well, knowing I had to go in to work at 10:30.  Not the most exciting birthday, but I'm ok with that I guess.  There were machine troubles at work, and they only got worse over the next few days.  Things look like they are getting back on track finally today, although it's too soon to tell for sure yet.

Urban Warfare Eastern Front

Saturday was the EMVC's Urban Warfare Eastern Front ride.  We started in Mendota and got in some really good climbing and explored some great trails along the mighty Mississip'.  We found several closed roads to traverse, traffic to weave through, and one ways to take backwards to give the ride a bit of that warfare feel.

There were some great climbs including Davern Street where I managed to pull a foot out of the pedals, Highwood avenue, Grand Avenue over in South St Paul, and of course Ohio Street.  Jeff and Galen both climbed well, but I managed to wear them down over the course of the ride and made a big break on Ohio street.

We also got to try out a wide variety of different surfaces.  Everything from your standard pavement to wooden walkways, real cobblestones, brick, cement, grass, dirt, and gravel.  About the only thing we missed out on was a metal bridge or something.

Jeff edged me out on sprint points.  I got both of the Newport sprints, but he took a county sign to even the score, then got the double sign at Mendota Heights and the Mendota sign at the finish by a couple inches.

I broke another spoke on the Shogun, so I decided it is probably time to finally replace the back wheel.  I've also been looking at carbon forks, but that project may need to wait a year so I can build up some savings.

Lets Finish This

The time off running along with my consistent and enjoyable legs at Ragnar put me in much better spirits heading into the Trail Loppet, the final leg of the Hoigaards challenge.  I had a horrible set of intervals the Tuesday before the race (6:40 mile repeats which I felt sluggish for and no energy in the legs with 4 days until a big race, yuck) but didn't let that worry me too much.  I had some great intervals before Battle Creek after all and raced like crap.  I went to play some Frisbee the day before the race and tried my best to take it pretty easy, which is hard when playing Frisbee.  My black Frisbee of several years also developed a crack, which was sad, especially considering it was the only Frisbee we had to play with.  Also, the wall of talkers, a ski team ultimate Frisbee fixture from my early days on the team, was back in full force.  After Frisbee it was off to Annie's malt shop for some "carbo" loading.  I'm pretty sure a bacon cheeseburger and peanut butter cup malt with bananas is about the best possible pre race food, right?  Then it was off to drop Jeff and head to Elena's to sleep.  The next morning Jeff met Annie, Elena and I and we biked to the race start, a good 10 mile warm up before the race.  The legs still felt a bit sluggish on the warm up but not tired at all.
As I was going to check in Micheal Moulsoff stopped me to let me know that Matt Liebsch was not racing, so I was the favorite going into the race.  I knew Erik Solberg was there though, and after the beat down I was served at Battle Creek I was not giving myself great odds on winning.  My track record of winning close races hasn't been great in the last year.  It was a good boost to get a vote of confidence however, and got me in the right frame of mind to go after it.  I knew even with Matt out Evan Pengelly was a tough runner and probably a shoe in for the Hoigaards challenge win with a six minute lead on me going into this event.
At the race start Jeff took off fast so he could say he had his moment of glory leading the race.  Things at the front were pretty chatty for the first quarter mile as things sorted out.  Julien Sein created a small gap almost immediately, and I was content to let him get a bit of a gap, assuming someone would do the work to pull him back, and after a fast start led to a bad end a couple weeks ago I wasn't going to go too fast too early.  It soon became apparent however that nobody was in a hurry to go after him, so I ended up at the front of a trio of runners, with Erik and Eugene right off my shoulders.  Eugene took the lead for a bit, and I decided I would rather be in front, with the unpredictability of the trail I could get the best line of sight and the best speed control being in front.  I worked the flats hard and held steady on the climbs so the guys following me didn't get much rest.  I kept counting the gap up to the leader as about 10-15 seconds and at about mile 6 I finally decided I should go after him while there was still time, and maybe we could work together to make an escape from the two guys following me.  I pushed hard on a flat paved stretch of bike trail along Hwy 55, and it took me about a mile and a half to finally reel him in.  By then Eugene had lost contact, and Erik was a little ways back as well, so I pushed on by, hoping to leave them all chasing together.  After how long it took to reel in Julien I thought a good gap might just carry me through.  That didn't prove to be the case however.  Erik ran with Julien for a bit, but then I could see him bridging the gap up to me, and he caught me a bit before the big climb behind the Par 3 at mile 9.  We ran the next couple miles together, with me usually leading, but not making much of a gap.  Then at around mile 11 we hit some windy single track, and I amped up the pace a couple times and finally got a bit of a gap to put Erik out of sight for a bit.  This late in a race having a visual on someone can be a great motivator, and seeing someone get away and out of sight can make it hard to keep up the tempo.  Being in front and out of sight I was running scared.  I didn't want to turn around for fear of seeing Erik effortlessly shadowing me, but by the time I hit the last big climb I was close to shot.  I kind of walk/ran up it and took a glance at the top and didn't see Erik behind me.  I knew from there in as long as I kept the pace high I would get away, and I did pretty safely.  I came across the line about 30 seconds or so ahead of Erik, making this our 3rd or 4th Trail loppetHoigaards challenge outright.  The prize is a weeks trip to the Bearskin lodge up on the Gunflint trail, and I'm really excited to get up there this winter and get some skiing in.  Not sure when I'll be able to make the trip with some new process equipment due to come in about then at work, but I'll figure something out.
Then it was a nice easy ride back to Elena's, with a stop at the Birchwood Cafe for lunch on the way.  Over the course of the weekend there were a couple reminders of a happy evening from last fall that were pleasant to remember now that they are far enough away to have perspective, at least some perspective I guess. 
The next day I decided to skip the Jesse James day run, which I could have won, but probably wouldn't have enjoyed.  Instead I ate Indian Tacos and got beat by my brother at Frisbee golf and Jeff at Mario party in one of the biggest comeback games I have ever seen.  With 5 turns left I had 12 stars and was dominating, by the end I was down to 5 and Jeff had 7.  That is the crazieness that is Koopa's Tycoon Town.
Well with this long post done I am wrapping up the running race season.  There is still a chance I might give the big woods run a try, but if I do it will be a game day call.  On tap for this weekend is Urban Warfare Eastern Front, then after that the gravel season arrives.  Looking forward to some good bike rides, and plenty of rollerskiing now that fall is creeping in and snow doesn't feel so far away.  Jim has been stopping over to rollerski a few times now, and Nate Porath just started a facebook group for Northfield skiiers, so hopefully that gets some training partners together as well.

Not racing

I started this as a single post, but it is getting huge-ish, so I am splitting it up a bit.  My posting schedule is not what anyone would call consistent, or timely for that matter.  If I ever get readers I'll do my best to remedy that, but since all of these posts will be in the archives before I get around to reading them it doesn't matter how much time passes between posts.  The reason for the gap this time is that I actually didn't race for a couple weeks.  I did get some pretty good bike riding in over the course of the two weekends, something I have been missing this summer it feels like.  I went from not riding Sogn the whole season to doing it twice in 3 days, and I got in a ride to the cities and back, also a first for this year I believe.  I also got in a good day at the state fair where I rocked my blood pressure test, and perhaps most exciting of all I got a boat! 
I don't have pictures of the boat just yet, they will be forthcoming at some future time now that I have a camera, but it is a 36 lb 18' beauty of a canoe.  It is a Wenona Jensen 18' ultralight Kevlar canoe with bucket seats.  It currently has wooden gunwales that have quite a bit of dry rot, so I'm planning to replace them with aluminum gunwales, if I can manage to get some ordered.  Hoigaards has so far not been all that responsive to my requests for pricing and delivery.  There is also a 6" crack in the Kevlar that I need to get some parts for and patch up, a project I'm actually kind of excited to take on.  The boat is as old as I am, and considering the damage my body, which can heal itself, has sustained it is no surprised that a boat will pick up a few bruises along the way.  The price was right however, and the advantage of buying a boat with a few dings is that I won't be super protective of it and will get better use of it because of it.  It is a bit short to be a competitive racing boat, but should help give me a good boost for Chippewa and the Tri loppet compared to the fiberglass 18' Jensen I have been using (for sure it will help for the Chippewa portages) and it should make a good BWCA boat as well.  I don't know if I'll get it in the water before the cold sets in this year, it was 28F last night, but for sure by next spring it will be ready to hit the lakes.  Emily also got a boat on the same day, so I will now have 3 boats to store in the garage for this winter.  So that was the weekends off, back to a bit more racing.

Step Up

Many exciting things have happened since my last post, but I'll start with perhaps the most boring of them.  We are starting a fitness challenge at work next week.  The contest runs for a month, and everyone wears a pedometer and logs the number of steps they take.  Here is a picture of the beauty.

I signed up for something like 300k steps, or about 10k a day for the month the challenge runs.  On a normal day at work I get around 3k, but if I walk (or run most likely) to work I can get that number way up without any trouble.  If I am willing to leave a bit earlier to account for the longer commute I should crush the 300k mark.  So there is a tidbit for you, much more exciting stuff to come.  One more note, I got a new camera, so the photo included here is hopefully the start of a more visually entertaining blog going forward, which should be a joy for the zero people who read this blog.