Onward and Upward

Another year is in the books. Since this is mostly a training/racing blog, and because that is what I spend a lot of time doing, much of this year end post will be athletics related. I'll start with the non-athletic events though, for anyone not interested in that stuff.

Touring the Purdue Campus

I had a couple of fun trips this year. In the spring Nate, Nichole, and I carpooled out to Indiana to try out our snazzy pink arm warmers pacing one of Nichole's athlete's Sharon to a half marathon PR.
In May Nichole hosted the first TNC (Team Nichole Coaching) camp and a fun group of folks all spent a weekend up at the Porath cabin near Hayward, did a lot of running, a strength competition, ate lots of good food, had a bonfire, threw around a frisbee, and did other fun cabiny things. I won the strength contest mostly due to cleaning up bonus points for an epic 15 minute wall sit segment.

TNC Training Camp

During the summer I helped crew/pace for my friends Jeff and Rob for the Voyagers 50 miler and the Sawtooth 100 ultramarathons. Rob had an amazing race at the 100 miler, finishing 12th in under 27 hours. Jeff survived his first 100 miler, finishing in a little over 34 hours.

Jeff on the Sawtooth course - Photo: Todd Rowe

I joined some co-workers of mine on a bicycling bar tour around Rice county and had a good chance to try out my new headlamp for the later part of the ride.

EMVC Rice County Brew Tour

I also joined my friends Jallie, Kevin, Joe, and John on a tour of some craft breweries around the Twin Cities.

Tour de Brew

In the fall I made a trip out to Ohio to join Sharon for the Columbus 1/2 marathon and spend a week with my friends Garrison and Kristen and their new baby Maggie. The day before I left I was also able to meet Nate and Nichole's brand new baby girl Greta.

Nichole teaching Greta how to do a proper pushup. Important life skills.

Kristen, Garrison, and the Moogle in her Halloween costume.

I had an adorable, fuzzy housemate named Mozzarella.

Unfortunately I found out this summer that she had cancer, and she passed away in November. She was a lot of fun to have around and the house seemed pretty quiet without her. That didn't last long though, because after Thanksgiving my brother and his cat Oryx moved in. He is house hunting and living with me until he finds the right house.

On to the racing review. This was by far my best ski season yet. The extra rollerski miles, a December trip to Silver Star before the race season started, and actually learning good ski technique paid off. I won my first ever Dala Horse at Mora, my first axe at the Minnesota Finlandia, and I finally jumped over to the Birkie classic race and won my first ever age group award and got a top 10 finish! In most races I was in the lead pack for a good portion of the race and got a lot more comfortable there as the season went on.

Nikolai - my first Dala Horse

After the Pepsi Challenge and a fun weekend skiing at Giant's Ridge it was a quick transition to running season for the Sam Costa half marathon. I was pacing for someone, so it wasn't a full out effort, but ramping up for a 1:30 half marathon 3 weeks after ski season was a good way to get back into the running groove.

After doing a couple gravel races in 2013 I had big aspirations for some more bike racing in 2014, but racing part of the Ragnarok 105 before dropping to head to my friend Sam's wedding was the only one I actually got in. It was a good excuse to go explore some gravel roads in the spring though, and the only reason I had over 1000 miles on the bike this year.

By and large my spring and summer were consumed by running. This was partly due to the wet, cold, rainy weather not being conducive to much else (it wasn't fun running in 35F and rain/snow, biking would have been worse) and partially because running was probably the most enjoyable it has ever been for me this past spring and Grandma's marathon was a big goal. Ever since my first miserable marathon experience at a very wet and cold Twin Cities marathon I've been a wimp about running hte rain, but this spring if I didn't run in the rain I would hardly have trained at all, so I embraced the discomfort and got my workouts in, often dragging Nate out with me.

A soggy crew out for a 17 mile training run before Grandma's

The highlight of the training season had to be the TNC Training Camp which included perhaps the hardest workout Nichole and I used to do. 20-15-10-5 minute tempo. Nichole was nice for this camp and included some easy miles between the 15 and 10 minute sections. There had been times where this workout crushed us, and times when it went so well you felt like you could accomplish anything. The training camp also culminated for me in my first 100+ mile week of running. In years past I always felt like higher mileage and consecutive days of running beat me down, but this year I actually recovered on my recovery runs and just kept getting stronger. This was by far my biggest year ever in total hours trained and in miles run, and it paid off!

TNC almost sweeps the Maple Syrup run awards

I had a string of race wins throughout the summer including the Maple Syrup 10k, a win and new half marathon PR (1:14:28) at the Stillwater 1/2, the Lift Bridge 10 mile, Ngede Challenge, Urban Trail 1/2 Marathon, my first Marathon win at the Birkie Trail Marathon, and the Arctic Commando 5k. My best race however was the one where I placed the worst. I set a new marathon PR by 13 minutes at Grandma's Marathon (2:38:47). I also dusted off my speedy legs to throw down a 4:46 at the TNC invitational mile.

First new PR of the year, Stillwater 1/2 Marathon

I found new paddling partners for both of my adventure Triathlons this summer, paddling with Erik Pieh for the Chippewa Triathlon and Dave Rowe for the Tri-loppet. Because these races were the weekends before and after Grandma's neither of them were my best effort, but they were too fun to pass up. There were big waves at both races, but I didn't flip the boat at either, a fact I'm rather proud of.

Dave and I at the Tri-loppet - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

I had my coldest ever running race at the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot in November (8F) before having my warmest ever ski race a few weeks later at the Hoigaard's Relays (42F), which Vakava Skier Sarah Daniels and I teamed up for to win the co-ed division. Yesterday was my last race of this year, but it is still early in the ski racing season, so expect more updates as racing continues on the first day of the new year.

2014 Running down the numbers:
611 Hours total training
1,632 Miles Run
1,156 Miles Biked
831 Miles Rollerskied
697 Miles Skate Skied
403 Miles Classic Skied
76 Miles Canoed
41 Blog Posts

Thanks for tuning in. I want to thank everyone who stopped by to check out this blog in 2014, and stay tuned for more random adventures in 2015. Happy New Year!

A Solo Birkie Journey

My friend Jeff and I have a longstanding tradition of heading up to the Birkie trail the day after Christmas for a big day of skiing. I have been going up every year since at least 2008. I brought my brother and sister up with me a couple years, and Jeff has come with the last 4 years. This year he decided going to work to feed his family was more important than playing in the snow, so I headed up solo. This year it was warm with fresh snow, so it made for slow going. The scenery was absolutely amazing though. After leaving a brown Northfield I was thrilled to get home to a white Christmas, and even more happy to see a snow covered Birkie trail the next day. Here are a couple pictures from the day.

Fresh snow everywhere

Classic Trail High Point, with a classy sign

Powerline - Where the grooming ends

North End Cabin - a vision of Paradise

Birkie Ridge, I really wanted to stop here when running the marathon this fall, so I took the opportunity now. Dropping my camera in the snow was a great way to add a blur filter to this shot.

Hanging out with the coolest cat North of OO

That's all for now. There should be a year end post headed your way later in the week. Until then have a happy new year.

Breadsmithing

Ski racing season has officially begun. Just in the nick of time too, because the snow was fading fast, even as we were racing on it. Saturday was the Hoigaards Relays up at Elm Creek. These relays have been a regular early season destination for many years. The venue, distance, and format change a bit from time to time, but they are always fun and they are always painful. This years race was the warmest ski race I think I've ever done. It was already over 40F at race start and only warmed up from there. It was a sharp contrast to my last running race a few weeks earlier. Nate was gone for a baby shower, so I decided it would be a good year to cherry pick the mixed gender race. I teamed up with Sarah Daniels, a speedy former Michigan Tech skier who just joined the Vakava team this year.

Me off on my first leg - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

The format this year was 6x1.5 km, the same as the world cup team sprint. Sarah took the scramble leg and put us in a very good position on the first lap. I chased down Rob Edman and a couple of Fulton skiers, and we kind of skied in that cluster for the rest of the race. The teams around us were mostly mens teams who started their faster skier first, so they would get ahead of Sarah and I would pass them on my leg. We were both watching for other mixed teams, but didn't see any close to us.

Sarah racing hard - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

By the third leg I was really feeling the fast pace, but managed to pick off a few new teams on the way up the one hill on the course. We got the mixed gender win, 10th overall. A pretty respectable performance, and one that resulted in us winning tasty spice bread. I assumed we had won handily, but when the results were posted it turns out we only pulled off the win by a few seconds. That would have been good to know while we were out racing, but things turned out fine in the end.

Saturday afternoon I got a chance to catch up with my friend Dr. Krystal Math, who I was excited to find out is now engaged. I also met up with an interesting gal from out east for a run around Lake of the Isles and a stop at Sisyphus. I hadn't been to this brewery before, they are popping up quicker than I can keep count around Minnesota these days, and I was very pleasantly surprised.

With the warm weather continuing Sunday skiing was out, so I settled a nice long run instead. The ice was out on all the gravel roads, so with Christmasy hymns in my head from church that morning I headed out to Farmer trail, a favorite long run route of mine. The ground had softened up enough that there was a farmer out plowing. I was running in shorts and a T-shirt, and we both kind of gave each other looks as we went by, probably thinking the same thing "how did you decide to do that, you know it's the middle of December right?" The air was so thick I could only see about a quarter mile in any direction. Usually when I run this route I'm looking out over the fields at the scenic landscape, so it was fun to have my focus brought much closer in. It gave the route a new and exciting feel.

Other highlights last week include heading over to Nate, Nichole, and Greta's for some P90X strength training. We have been getting together every Monday for a few weeks too do strength work. I even convinced my brother to come join in the fun. We often get a laugh at our own antics during these workouts, mostly due to the fact that our "social" get togethers almost always center around some kind of physical activity.

Nate and I doing some sneaky lunges

I've also been joining Nichole for Tuesday lunch runs. I get to push Greta around and find meandering routes through town, and Nichole gets to decide what the workout for the day will be. Last week Jeff came down and was running some intervals, so Greta and I jumped in for the last couple. The chariot stroller is pretty sweet, we were running sub 6:00 mile pace with very little extra effort, and on the downhills she was almost getting away from me (not really though, there is a leash to make sure she doesn't get too far).

A Merry Go Round

The early season snow is fading fast around Minnesota. By next week I'm pretty sure all that will be left are a couple hamster wheels of man made snow.

Hyland Snowmaking Loop

Last Saturday Nate and I (and about 400 other people) headed up to Hyland park in Bloomington to ski on their 5k of manmade snow. Hyland just opened their snowmaking loop last winter, and it is head and shoulders above anything else on offer in the Twin Cities. The trails are wide and well laid out, there is a good amount of climing, including a beast of a hill that parallels the nearby downhill area, and there is 5 whole km of trails. That means that for the 3 hours and 52km we put in on Saturday we only had to go around the course 10 times (plus a little bit extra) and by the 10th time up the big climb on the course we were quite happy to not need to ski it again, or not sure our legs would allow us to. For a fun look at our ski, check out the Strava Labs replay of it.

While we made our goal of getting a 3 hour ski in, we kind of failed at our proclaimed secondary goal of making it an easy, social ski. We kept the pace comfortable, but easy might be a bit of an overstatement. We saw many friendly faces, but didn't really slow down to chat with any of them. Jeff tagged on our train a few times but other than that it was mostly just a brief hello as we skied by. Nate was asked to model his flawless technique for a couple of highschool girls. Oh the burden of celebrity ;)

Other than that I've mostly been confined to running for exercise. A couple years ago I would have lamented this situation, and while I have been missing the snow and skiing running is remaining a tolerable and occasionally even exciting alternative. One thing I've been enjoying for sure is having my running buddy back in action. Nichole is coming back into form very well, and since her paces are a bit more reasonable for the moment we have been getting others to run with us as well. Greta makes a great addition to the running crew as well. I'm sure we make for quite the sight cruising around town. I'm mostly laying off the speed work for the winter, since I get plenty of intensity at ski practice, but I'm hoping to keep up some good winter mileage to make the springtime transition back to marathon training go smoothly.

TNT Tuesday Crew - Photo: Mike Kosloski

I've also been joining Nate and Nichole on Monday for some P90X strength training. My brother is rooming with me right now while he is house shopping, so I dragged him along last Monday. We even got Greta in on the action. She is getting strong, but not pushup strong just yet. Strength training is definitely more enjoyable with other people to chat with, and I push myself a bit harder too.

Nichole and Greta doing some strength work

Holiday eating season kicks off this weekend with the EMVC banquet and my Friend Emily's family tree decorating party both on Friday. Ski racing season also kicks off Saturday with the Hoigaards Relays. Nate is out of town this weekend, so I'm teaming up with Sarah, a speedy Vakava skier for what promises to be a painful and fun event. Now I just need to decide what constitutes appropriate attire for a ski race when it will be nearly 40F. Tune in next week to hear how the race went, and if I ended up skiing in shorts.

An early Christmas gift

I had a blog post started at the end of last week, but all memories of what I was intending to write about were eradicated beneath a pile of Thanksgiving deliciousness and wonderful, beautiful snow. Nate and I headed up to Hyland on Wednesday for some classic intervals with actual classic tracks, and Luke Strauss joined in as well. The man made snow loop was wonderful as far as it was open, which unfortunately did not include any of the bigger hills yet. Or maybe not so unfortunate considering Nate and I both had Thanksgiving morning races on tap the next day. After skiing I met up with a lovely gal for a slice of pie and headed to Jeff's house to sleep.

Thursday morning was chilly, barely above 0F with a steady breeze. I'm pretty sure this was the coldest weather I have done a running race in. As a skier however I was prepared to handle the cold and excited to see how my trail shoes would handle the loose, powdery snow. I was perhaps a bit overconfident for the Turkey Day Trail Trot at Battle Creek, considering I have pretty handily won the last two races I did there. My hubris would turn out to be my demise. Molly showed up to race as well, so we got in our warmup jogging the 1/2 mile or so from where registration was to where the race started. I kept on my layers as long as possible so I would have some hope of starting the race warm.

"Warming Up" is a relative term in this cold

Any hopes I had of working my way into the race were quickly shattered as the pace went out fast. There were 3 of us in the lead group and I settled into second place and tried to run relaxed with fast turnover since the 3" of snow underfoot robbed a lot of power from each stride. The guy leading the race was having traction trouble on the climbs, so I figured he would wear out eventually. We came through the mile at 6:15, and I would hold almost that exact pace for the rest of the race.

Off to a fast start

 About mile 2 the guy in the lead started to lose steam and the third person in the group hit it hard on one of the down hills, the only place where it was possible to gain speed, to get a gap on the other two of us. I gave chase and held the gap steady, but wasn't able to close it up. At the 5k lap mark the guy in front let me close back up while he took off his jacket and sat on my shoulder for the next mile and a half. I kept the pace high, but was feeling the fatigue from the intervals the night before and the power sucking snow, so when he took off on a downhill I had no response. He got about 10 seconds on me and I was once again able to hold the gap steady but not close it. I ended up 2nd in 40:08.

Age group win!

At the awards ceremony I had a slight blow to my ego when I found out that the guy who beat me was in the 15-19 year old age class. Darn those speedy highschoolers. I felt a bit better when I did some internet stalking and found out that he had taken 7th at the state cross country meet a few weeks before, and with a faster time than I ran at state in my highschool days.

After that I headed off to join my family for a Thanksgiving meal or two, then joined the Porath family for a weekend at the cabin that included much more good food, some quality Greta time, and a healthy dose of skiing as well. It is hunting season in Wisconsin, so orange was a popular color on the ski trails. The conditions on the Birkie trail were wonderful around OO. I usually don't get to ski the Birkie trail until after Christmas, so to be out skiing there in late November was like an early Christmas present.

Saturday Morning Ski Crew

Nate and I skied South Friday evening where the trail had been rolled but not groomed. On Saturday we had a chance meeting with several of the Batdorf boys and decided to ski North. There was about 10k groomed heading North on the skate or classic trail so we made a few loops as we traded stories and took in the beautiful scenery. Bjorn pushed the pace on many of the uphills and I was glad to give chase. Saturday afternoon we talked Jim and Nichole into coming for a ski with us (after she ran 9 miles that morning) and we met Rob out on the trails as well, so we had quite the crew for that ski. Rob joined us at the cabin that evening and for skiing and running the next day.

Over the course of the weekend Nate and I put in just shy of 90km of skiing and got in a bit of running as well. It was a really great way to dive into the ski season and start to prepare the ski muscles for the hard training and racing to come. I owe a huge thank you to the Porath family for adopting me for the weekend.

A new season begins

The final Vakava rollerski time trials of the year were on November 9th, and that evening it began to snow, about as good of a seasonal transition as there could be. With the roads less suitable for bike riding (although by no means impossible, I have seen evidence of several bike riders still out and about) I decided to switch over to run commuting. Running to work is nice in the winter, it is warmer than biking, but keeps me cool enough that I don't arrive at work sweaty as long as I keep the pace in control. I do have to wake up a bit earlier to make it to work at the same time, and carry a headlamp for the run home, but it is great to be outside enjoying the weather. The Salomon Speedcross shoes I won at the Birkie Marathon this fall have made great snow shoes so far, the traction is great and my feet stay pretty dry as long as snow doesn't go over the top of the shoe.

Great snow runners

While these shoes work decent for snowy roads, they really shine on the trails. Northfield is fortunate to now have some pretty fun singletrack trails thanks to the Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails (CROCT) group. In the last couple months they've built several miles of fun trails in Sechler park. I've been running these trails every chance I get and since there has been snow it's been great to see lots of bike tracks out there too.

CROCT volunteers trail building

I've been stepping up my cleaning efforts at home the last couple weeks to try to cut down on the amount of random rabbit fur laying everywhere, but there is an amazing amount of it everywhere. With no rabbit running around I'm not sure where it keeps coming from, but I'm making progress. I also had to break down and turn on my heat. When the temp outside sits below freezing for days on end I begin to fear for my pipes, and I have to admit that coming in out of the cold to a warm house is a nice luxury. It is now a balmy 56 degrees in my house when I get home. I have on occasion had guests complain about the cold, so if you are coming to visit give me a heads up and I'll heat the place up a bit more.

I did have one occasion to turn the heat up already. With snow on the way I had a bunch of EMXC folks over for a Fast Wax Party. There was a lot of ski waxing, pizza eating, and FIS World Cup race watching. It was fun getting everyone together to talk skiing and get the boards ready to go.

While there is enough snow around Northfield to ski on, I took the opportunity last weekend to head up to my parents and get some ski time on the already groomed Balsam Branch Trails. The conditions up there were good when I started skiing, and the groomer was out the whole time I was, so by the time I left the trails were gorgeous. It was hard to leave conditions were so great, but figured since I made the trip up it would probably be a good idea to actually spend some time with my parents.

Back in Northfield the EMXC crew has made it out skiing a few days this week in the Upper Arb. There is no grooming and limited options that aren't gravely, but it is great to get out anyway. There is one decent hill for specific strength, so I gave that a try one day. It's really fun to see the newer skiers picking up pretty much right where they left off last season. I'm excited to see how they progress as the ski season goes on.

Jeff came down to Northfield to run with Nichole today, so I joined them and got my first chance to try pushing the jogging stroller Nate and Nichole got. It does roll much easier than the walking stroller Nichole had been running with, especially through the snow or into a headwind. Little G seemed fine, she was snoozing pretty much the whole run, although she started to get chatty the last couple miles. The pacing worked out pretty well with me getting the extra bit of work pushing the stroller, Jeff and Nate running, and Nichole getting a little bit of a pull from Mesa. I'm sure we made quite the spectacle rolling around town.

The middle of the end

So I left off my last post still in Ohio, but I did eventually work my way back to Minnesota. The timing worked out amazingly well so that I could attend my friend Rob Nichol's wedding on my way back through Wisconsin. My original plan was to stay with Sharon on my way back through, but crappy stuff at her lab made that not look like a good option, so I ended up just stopping by for supper on my way through and staying with my friend Bjorn in Milwaukee the night before the wedding. I stopped to pick up a wedding gift and card in West Lafayette and got back out to my car to find the door locked and my keys sitting on the car seat. I called Sharon to come to my rescue and tried to figure out a way to break into my car. Luckily Sharon had AAA (not an organization I approve of, but that is a story for another day) and after we wandered over to Applebee's to eat they showed up and got me back into my car. Not at all the afternoon I had planned, but at least it wasn't boring.

I got stuck in some traffic in Chicago but still got to Bjorn's before it got too late. We spent some time catching up since I don't get to see him often, and headed to bed so we would have time to adventure in the morning. We decided to go running. Bjorn hasn't been doing many long workouts, so I was counting on something short and fun. I had 2 hours before I needed to leave to get to the wedding on time. The run did not end up being short or easy, but boy was it fun. Bjorn has a few great trail routes figured out around the area, and we ran for 1:30 with almost no pavement along the way. There were some great views of downtown, riverside trails, and old buildings. It was also great to chat with Bjorn because he has always been someone I looked up to, and is also one of my only remaining single friends. Relationships have always been a struggle for me, and I have basically no dating experience, so it was good to have someone in a similar place to commiserate with, although Bjorn is far more gregarious than I am. (He's also a doctor, an amazing athlete, and a fearless adventurer in case there are any single ladies reading this blog looking for a good catch ;)

I made it to the wedding with time to spare. It was a great ceremony. Rob is an amazing guy, and Katherine has seemed like a pretty awesome person too the couple times I've met her.

Rob & Katherine Nichols

I spent a long time talking to Ben Kirmse, a River Falls alum who I've had some good PR battles with over the years. We've done similar races, but I'm not sure if we've actually raced head to head before. He did Boston to Big Sur a couple years ago, so I was picking his brain for recovery tips before I try it next spring. They had 13 days between the races the year he did it, so a whole extra week more than I'm going to have.

The next morning I got a nice rollerski in to explore the roads around Marshfield, joined some wedding folks for brunch, and headed back home. I stopped in to say hi to baby Greta, and deliver some very small clothes Garrison and Kristen sent back for her and then happily parked my car for about a week.

The next week was fairly uneventful except for Halloween. I didn't get many trick or treaters, but I headed up to Erik & Elspeth's for a S'more party on the 1st. I was still in a Halloween mood, so I dressed up as a s'more for the party. It wasn't a great costume, but it took all of 5 minutes to put together, so well worth the effort I would say.

Emily took a picture of my S'more costume, I was the chocolate

The next weekend I jumped into the Arctic Commando 5k at Battle Creek. Having just run a pretty decent half a couple weeks before I figured I was in pretty good shape. The hills on the Battle Creek course proved otherwise. I still raced well and won by nearly 2 minutes, but it was barely under 20 minutes, and it was all I could do to keep myself from walking up several of the hills, in a 5k! This was enough to get my motivation for training back up, and I got some good rollerskiing, bounding, and running in the next week. 

Then the snow came. Tune in next time where I will hopefully get this blog caught up to the present day and leave the past in the past.

The beginning of the end

I've been up to all kinds of crazy adventures since I last posted. I'll give a quick rundown of them here. I had this post ready to go last week, but put up the Mozzarella post instead.

After Grandma's this summer I was dreaming of continuing to build on the great spring of running to try for a fast half marathon in the fall. I decided on the Columbus 1/2 because it has a fast course with good competition, my friend Sharon grew up near Columbus and offered a place to stay before the race, and gave me a great excuse to visit my friends Garrison and Kristen out in Ohio who just had a lovely baby girl this spring.

Long story short, my awesome summer of running never quite came together right. I was trying to juggle too many things training and racing wise, plus had my whole schedule periodically jostled around by the study I was participating in, so I never really got in a good training groove. I held on to my spring fitness pretty well though, so I was hopeful that I could still throw down a PR.

I started the long trek out to Ohio with my running gear, bike, and a bunch of stuff for baby Maggie. Before we get to that part of the adventure though, something else really exciting happened. Nate & Nichole gave birth to their first child, a super tiny little girl named Greta. Since this was a pretty big occasion I deemed it cow suit worthy, and suited up to go to the hospital and pay the new parents a visit.

Saying Hello to baby Greta!

Then I headed home to do some last minute baking so I would have a snack supply for the long drive ahead. I made it out to Garrison & Kristen's in time to take a quick nap and visit with them before Sharon and Erin picked me up to head to Columbus. We got to Sharon's parents and pretty much went straight to bed. The next morning we drove into the city to pick up packets and get a bit of a look at the race course. Sharon and I got our shake out run in, Sharon's folks made a good pasta diner, we did some race/cheering strategizing, and that was the day.

I couldn't have asked for much better conditions than greeted us on race morning. It was just a couple degrees above freezing with little wind and clear skies. Sharon's folks drove us down to Columbus and Sharon and I took off to find some porta potties and get a warmup in while the cheering crew headed out to find a place on the course. I packed a lot of warm clothing anticipating a cold race and cold biking while I was visiting Garrison, but besides gloves and arm warmers I didn't need much. Erin ended up wearing most of my warm weather gear for standing out cheering.

The race started well, I dropped right into 5:35 mile pace. Around mile 5 though the pace started to seem like a bit of a struggle. I held under 5:40 pace until about mile 9, then started to fade. The lead women caught me at this point, and I picked up the pace for a couple miles to give them a good pull, but around mile 11 I just couldn't hold pace anymore. The legs didn't hurt all that bad, they just felt blocky and sluggish. I kept all of my miles under 6:00, but ended up running a 1:14:40, less than 10 seconds from a PR. It sucked not hitting my goal, but coming so close at least reaffirmed that I'm holding on to my fitness well, a good sign for ski season.

The rest of the week went by very quickly. Garrison and I got out road biking one day and only got a little bit lost. We mountain biked one day on some fun trails, but the wet leaves made for treacherous going. I rollerskied one day while Garrison biked with the baby trailer and Kristen and her sister Haley both biked along too. That was a merry adventure, there aren't many rollerskiers around Dayton I'm sure, so I got many strange looks. We played a few fun board games as well. Betrayal at house on the hill, Elder sign, and Level 7, which we spent as much time looking at the rule book for as actually playing I think, but which has a lot of strategy to it in addition to a whole lot of rules.

Garrison homebrews, and while I was out there we started his first ever recipe that he created. It will be a Milk Chocolate Russian Imperial Stout, and we decided to call it the milk chocolate caucus, because it is heavy, very black, and uh, the caucus mountains are in Russia. Yeah, lets go with that.
It was fun learning a bit about homebrewing, and this recipe used a lot of materials. We used 20lb of various grains, cocoa nibs, and lactose for the milk flavor. I'm excited to try the finished product out when he is home for Christmas.

This post is getting longish, so I think I'm going to break it off here for now. Tune in next week (or at least not today) for the exciting conclusion of my Ohio road trip and the weeks that followed. One last note though, it is starting to snow here and I'm super stoked for that! Not much in Northfield yet, but the cities are getting dumped on.

Goodbye Mozzarella

Yesterday was a dreary day. The weather was damp, there was no sign of the sun, and I got home from work and there was no Mozzarella there to greet me. I wasn't too surprised by this, I had fed her when I stopped home for lunch and figured she was sleeping off an early supper. I didn't see her out on her rug however, her favorite sleeping spot as of late. I went in my room to change clothes and head out rollerskiing and found her on the floor at the head of my bed. That is her safe spot where she goes if there is company or anything that spooks her. She was not sleeping in a normal rabbit pose however. It was pretty obvious right away that she was dead.

Mozze right after I got her.

I was surprised at first. She had seemed fine when I was home at lunch, she had eaten her breakfast apple core and seemed excited about getting supper early. There were no obvious signs of distress or that anything was out of the ordinary. I wasn't sure how to process this, so I put on my rollerskis and headed out to meet Nate, figuring the workout would give me a bit more time to come to grip with things. This summer Mozze developed a tumor that turned out to be a pretty aggressive cancer, so I knew her clock was ticking down quickly, I just didn't expect her to go so suddenly.

First time out on the lawn

I decided I would bury Mozzarella under the apple tree I had planted a couple years ago, so I wrapped her in an old T-shirt and put on my headlamp to go dig the hole. The cold, dreary weather seemed fitting for this activity.

Out exploring the snow. Mozze loved being out in the cold, my kind of pet!

The rest of the evening and still this morning I was surprised by how empty the house felt without her. I have lived by myself for a number of years now and always been fine with it, but I really loved having Mozzarella around. She was never the most cuddly pet, she wasn't a big fan of being picked up, but she loved to be around me whatever I was doing. She would wander around the kitchen while I was cooking, sleep by my feet while I was on the computer, and sprint laps around the living room while I was reading. She always slept at the head of my bed and almost always sprinted out to greet me when I got home from work. I loved watching her hop around and explore, always carefree and inquisitive. I got used to routines like leaving my apple cores or carrot tops for her when I was making my lunch or closing the door to my office when I wasn't home so she wouldn't go in and chew on my computer cables.

Trying to figure out how to get to her apple

I'm glad that at least she passed quickly and didn't suffer much pain from her cancer. She was cheerful and peppy right up to the end, so I'll always remember her as being excitable and full of life. I'm glad I got to share my home with her and will miss her dearly. Goodbye Mozzarella.

Northfield to Southfields

After the warm Birkie trail marathon weekend the weather has taken a turn towards fall here in Minnesota. The leaves and temps are falling fast. There hasn't been a frost yet, but we're hovering close. I'm starting to relearn what amount of clothing is appropriate for what temperature ranges and activities and getting ready for snow to fall. This is great weather for being active outside, and I did a lot of that last weekend.

Saturday a number of Vakava skiers came down to Northfield for a long ski. Nine of us started out, but Jeff decided to turn back a bit early since he has been pretty run focused to get ready for his 100 miler this fall. The other eight of us ventured South to Cannon City, had a nice tail wind to push us on the long, flat, straight road to Nerstrand, and then took in the great scenery and big climbs along the Valley Grove section of road before dropping back into Northfield and over to the Porath's for french toast. My total for the ski came out to 56km, including 2x up the Ibson climb on the Valley Grove section, so I'm sure everyone who made the full loop was over 50k.

Sunday morning Nate and I headed out early for the cities to bike around and cheer at the Twin Cities Marathon. Twin Cities is the first marathon I ever ran, way back in 2008. I also helped pace a speedy gal named Brooke when she ran Twin Cities as her first marathon in 2012. It is a difficult course, mostly due to the long climb up Summit ave from miles 21 to 25 and the steep drop to the finish afterwards. We were there mostly to cheer for my friend Erik Teig. His goal was to run a 2:24, so to stay ahead of him we didn't have time to wait and cheer for other runners we knew. As is we had to ride pretty hard to get ahead of him, and failed to do so a couple of times. Even so we saw him at several points along the course. He was in a good pack and running very consistently. He came through the half at 1:11:56, about a close to perfect pacing as it gets, but started to fade on the long slog up Summit. He finished in 2:26:30, a 10 minute PR and good for 22nd in the race. He is an awesome guy and a great runner, I had a blast cruising around yelling at him. Afterwards I biked back and forth on Summit cheering on anyone I recognized before heading off to get a rollerski in and meet Erik and friends to hang out for the evening.

What I did not do all of last week is go running. I finally got out today after not putting on running shoes for 11 days. My longest stretch without running since March I'm sure. It was nice to have that down time after the Birkie Marathon, but now I better get my legs back under me before I head East to run the Columbus half in a week and a half.

I have made good use of my reduced training hours though, catching up on some house projects and yard work that had gone neglected for far too long. The leaves are starting to fall, so yard work will kick up in earnest when I get back from Columbus, but late October / early November is usually a good time for working outside and a nice place to cut back on training for a week or two before ski season kicks off.

On a blog related note I realize my posts have been less picture filled lately, I'll have to get back on the photographing band wagon going forward.

Birkie Champion

It has been a busy couple weeks. I tried and mostly failed to taper for my race last weekend. Rollerskiing intensity is ramping up as the ski season gets closer, and my friend Jallie is starting up a Tuesday night rollerski group, so now I'm skiing Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. This has cut into my running a bit, so the Columbus half marathon in a few weeks might be rough.

Even if that race doesn't go well however, it has been a pretty good running season. I typically collect a win here and there at some races depending on who shows up, but this year either I've won a majority of the races I've entered. So even though I had never won a marathon before I went into the Birkie Trail Marathon last weekend with the intention of running for the win.

Start of the Birkie Trail Marathon - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

I knew I wouldn't be ready for the hills, too much running on flat roads, but my tune up half marathon a few weeks ago went well, so I felt confident that I could handle the trails. There were two guys who took off fast, but since the first 3 miles of the race were almost entirely uphill I let them get a gap. I was hiking most of the climbs while they were running. I tried to keep as relaxed as possible while still keeping them in sight. Then the course left the wide open ski trails and turned on to the single track. Racing on singletrack is really wonderful. The trails were flowy with fun curves and lots of places where picking a good line and good footing can let you make up ground fast. So over the course of a couple miles I put in a surge of pace and passed both of the runners ahead of me, and the pace bike.

Holding my lead - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

After I took the lead I felt like I had to keep the pace up to keep a gap on second place. I was confident in my ability to run hard, but wasn't sure how I would hold up in a close race. I tried to be fast on the flat sections and continued to hike the steep uphills. I was bombing the steep downhills, knowing it would take a toll on my legs and just hoping they would hold out until the finish. The high point of the course was about 4 miles from the finish, and then it was all downhill, both the course and my running. I struggled to make my legs work right. I was no longer racing down the hills, I was just trying to keep up with my feet. I wasn't thinking too well and in the last singletrack section there was a split in the trail around a tree. I couldn't decide which way to go, then decided to change directions at the last minute and my feet came out from under me. My hands were way too slow to even think about stopping my fall, so my chest and head hit the ground hard. Luckily it was sand and soft, loamy soil, so no damage was done, but I was shaken up a bit. My water bottle nozzle was entirely coated in sand after this incident, so drinking didn't seem like a great idea. Then I found a water bottle just laying there on the trail! I picked it up as I ran past, but finally my fuzzy brain decided that it probably wouldn't be a great idea to drink from a random water bottle that had been laying on the trail for who knows how long. 

The last 1k of the race goes around a big open field where you can see the finish the whole time but just keep turning away from it. At that point I was just hoping my legs didn't cramp. At last I struggled across the finish line and was so happy just to stop moving for a bit.

Crossing the finish line, with my bonus water bottle still in hand.

After I took the lead the guy in second had me in sight for quite a while. I carried my own water with me however, so I could breeze through aid stations where he had to stop and refuel, so eventually I got out of sight of him. The last I saw him was at the bottom of a large hill just as I was going over the top, but when we got to the open field I could see he was still not far behind me. I ended up winning by about a minute, my first marathon win ever. I'm going by Elspeth's marathon classification rules, since it was advertised as a marathon and run on the full course it counts as a marathon, even though my watch only recorded 40k. I figure that the short course is more than made up for by the hills, so I was pretty proud of my 2:54 finishing time. This is probably the only time I'll get to call myself a Birkie Champion, so I did my best to enjoy every minute of it.

First Marathon Win!

The fun didn't stop there however. Last time I ran the Birkie Marathon was my 28th birthday. Jeff and I decided to run 28 miles instead of just a marathon to celebrate the event. This was a big deal for us, as we had yet to run an ultra at that time. Long story short we missed the start of the race while doing our bonus miles and both had rough races as a result. This year I saved the bonus miles for after the race. Most of the cabin crew joined us for a couple miles when we got back.

Taking a photo for Buckeye on our bonus miles.

These two miles hurt. The very best parts were when Nichole called for walk breaks. After finishing the excursion I had no intention of finishing the 5 miles I had remaining to reach 32 (I just turned 32 last Thursday). We took a boat ride, made some fantastic pizzas and eventually everyone wandered off to bed. It was a gorgeous night out, and I knew I would regret it if I didn't get those last few miles. Jeff needed no prompting to come along for the fun. We wandered off into the darkness. I knew the roads close to the cabin well from running them at the TNC camp this spring, so we ran and picked out constellations with nothing but the stars and the occasional yard light to show the way. It took almost an hour to run those last five miles, but we got it done, and sleeping felt amazing afterwards, a successful weekend!

Lazywork

I missed putting up a post last week for a couple reasons. First, not much of note happened in the week previous that would have made for an interesting post. Second, because I was busy getting ready for the adventure of last weekend. Thursday evening I headed up to the cities after work to my friends Annie and Andrea’s to play some board games and spend the night so I didn't have to deal with traffic driving up to the cities Friday morning. I got up early on Friday to get a run in with Annie before she headed to work, then drove up to North Oaks to meet Vakava skiers Cheryl and Angie for a morning rollerski. The roads around North Oaks are quiet and gently rolling, pretty fun rollerskiing terrain. Then Cheryl and I loaded up in her truck for the trip up to the North Shore.

Jeff fueling up at Tettegouche

 My friends Jeff and Rob were running the Sawtooth 100, a gorgeous and epic race on the Superior Hiking Trail. Jeff’s wife Christina, Cheryl, and myself were planning to crew and pace for these two endurance fiends. The race started at 8:00 am Friday, so Cheryl and I drove up to Tettegouche state park (mile 35) where we met up with Christina and waited for the boys to come through. Rob came through about 15 minutes before Jeff, both of them were running well, eating well, and staying in control. Over that long of a distance keeping fuel in the tank and keeping the pace manageable is vitally important to finishing the race.

Rob and Cheryl at mile 50

We saw Jeff and Rob at a couple more spots down the road. At the halfway point Cheryl and I donned cow suits to encourage the boys to keep Moooving (and because it was getting cool out and the cow suits are warm). I had Cheryl and Christina drop me off at Mile 62 where I would pace for a while. I ran back up the trail until I found Rob and ran with him back to the aid station, helped him move through, and accompanied him for a little over a mile down the trail before turning back. He was running well, taking the technical downhill sections at good speed, even though it was 14 hours into the race and we were running by headlight. I turned back so I could make sure to find Jeff. When we had last seen them the gap was around an hour, so when I got back to the aid station I tried to lay down in the grass for a while and save energy for the trek ahead. I had worked up a sweat running with Rob though and soon got cold. The kind and very enthusiastic aid station volunteers fed me some bacon (they got a kick out of a cow eating bacon) and I hiked around to warm myself up. By the time I saw Jeff at this aid station Rob was over 3 hours ahead of him. Jeff was in good spirits but moving slowly. It took him a while to get used to running the technical trails in the dark. I chuckled when he first came in, because his attire was almost identical to what I was wearing for my Ragnarok ride this spring.

Pretty much how Jeff looked, minus the plastic bag and helmet

I took off hiking with Jeff for the next 10 mile stretch, one of the most technical of the race. It was 2:00 AM and chilly out, I was glad to be running in the cow suit. It was a gorgeous night with a nearly full moon and great star cover. Navigating by headlight was not bad once I got used to it. Jeff was moving steadily but I could tell his enthusiasm and energy levels were not high. These miles were hilly and taking a long time, but I kept reminding Jeff that we weren't getting passed by anyone, so we must be covering ground as well as anyone else out there. Even for me, who was relatively fresh, this section was a lot of work. There were times where I was took a step back and marveled at the circumstances that led me to the absurd situation where I was spending my Friday night literally in the middle of nowhere, tromping over hills and through mud by headlight at 3:30 in the morning, in a freaking mad cow suit.  That this seemed like a perfectly good use of a Friday night may explain why I am still single.

Jeff working on his Selfie skills

Another monkey with selfie skills

When we finally reached the next aid station at about 5:30AM I knew Jeff’s mood was low enough that him going on alone would not be a good strategy, so I made sure he sat down for a couple minutes and refueled and I found Cheryl’s truck to drop the cow suit and refuel myself. I gave Jeff my remaining Clif bars so he would have solid food for the next section and then started to scrounge for things to feed myself with. I ended up filling the pouch on my waterbottle with Peanut Butter M&M’s and stuffing the back pocket of my shorts with a ziplock bag filled with apple cake. Not traditional race fare, but it served me well. I sent the ladies on ahead to find Rob and make sure he was still doing well, planning to meet them a couple stops ahead at mile 90. So what I had planned to be a 10 mile run was now going to be 26 miles. We marched on and it was a very welcome sight when the darkness finally began to give way to morning. This rallied my spirits, and I egged Jeff into picking up the pace a bit. I could tell this was hurting him, but we both knew the faster we could cover ground the sooner the next aid station would arrive. It was also good for morale to be passing other runners. Eventually this good mood snapped though and we were back to hiking. The mud was relentless and Jeff constantly had waterlogged, blistered, and increasingly sore feet that still had to carry him for many more miles. He stuck to his eating and hydration plan though, so physically he wasn't getting too much more tired, the mental battle was in full swing though. I did everything I could to keep his mind off the miles ahead and in the present moment or in a happier place.

Jeff Early in the race (a happier place) - Photo: Todd Rowe

We passed the marathon to go mark about 20 minutes before the marathon started, so we were soon being passed by many marathon runners who were all encouraging Jeff as they went by. Eventually we fell in with a group of marathoners moving about our speed and formed a bit of a pack. I pushed Jeff to keep him with this group and keep him moving. We did a lot of singing and told some fantastic stories, which I’m sure the marathoners around us got a kick out of. Eventually we got to the aid station at mile 90. I left Jeff with his wife and drove ahead to meet Cheryl and Rob at the finish. Rob had already showered and was hanging out in the hot tub. He had finished in 26:49, 12th place overall, what a beast! Long technical Races are definitely Rob’s strong suit and he had a blinder for sure. We headed back to Tettegouche so I could get Christina’s car and they could head home.

I went back to the finish to wait for Jeff and Christina to finish after just missing seeing them at mile 96. I chatted with all kinds of friendly folks, cheered in finishers, and after drinking a beer from Eric Nordgen proceeded to fall asleep in the grass. Sleeping worked much better in the warm sun than it had in the wet, cold grass the night before. I’m sure I looked super classy sleeping in the clothes I had been running in for the last 12 hours with an empty beer bottle laying next to me. When I woke up a couple hours later I went and ate some more food and got my camera so I could take some pictures of Jeff and Christina coming in to the finish. Then I saw a couple guys come in that I had seen at mile 96, meaning they were behind Jeff at that point. I worried that I might have missed Jeff while I was sleeping, so I wandered around a bit to make sure he wasn't in. I didn't find him, so I headed back out to cheer, just then I saw Jeff coming down the home stretch. I managed to get a couple pictures then helped him to the food building so he could sit down and start refueling. He finished in 34 hours 28 minutes, a long haul for sure. I'm really proud of him for sticking with it even when things were not going to plan. Finishing a race like this is a major accomplishment.

We eventually collected up all our stuff and got on the road. I drove a while, and then Christina drove most of the way back to the cities. Jeff slept the entire ride back, no surprises there. We got to bed about 3:00 AM and I got just enough sleep to make it a bit late to Afton for skiing the next morning. I was pretty wiped out by Sunday afternoon, but knew I would have a couple easy days ahead because of the other fun I had planned for the week.

Jeff and Christina coming in to the finish

Tuesday night I went in for my final lab visit for the TrainMeUp study I mentioned in a previous post. This visit was an overnight stay where I was given a marked fat infusion. Then in the morning I had a muscle biopsy done and was switched to a different marked fat infusion. I got to wear a space helmet like thing that measures resting metabolic rate, then I sat around most of the day then had a second muscle biopsy done, was fed a meal, and was turned loose. The muscle biopsies did not hurt as much as I was expecting, or at all actually thanks to the power of lidocaine. So far the most painful part has been removing the bandages to change them, although walking down stairs today isn't super fun. This study has been a fun experience in general, and for the most part I did well with all the needles until the last night where I got a nurse that wasn't very good at putting in IV's and stabbed through my veins a couple times before another nurse finally took over and got things put in correctly. I learned fun things like that if I were to just lay in bed all day and not move at all I would still burn about 1860 calories, and that even if I haven't eaten in 24 hours or more if I'm having glucose pumped into my bloodstream I don't get hungry.

Chilling in the Space Helmet

Biopsy needle going in, can't feel a thing.

This has been a long post, like I said at the start it's been a busy week. For those who have stuck it out this far, a last little bit of fun news. I registered for the first of what will probably be 3 spring marathons on Monday, and got this email last night.

My first major

I guess this means I better run this winter, because racing time comes early next spring.