Craig Cardinal's training/racing/adventure blog.
2013/09/04
A Very Good Bad Idea
Sometimes I do things that I know aren't safe or good for me, because they just sound so good I can't resist. I'm a pretty healthy eater in general, but I also like many foods that are less than good for me. Yesterday I was frying up some bacon that I somehow ended up with. It must have been very on sale or something when I bought it, because in general I'm not a huge bacon fan and I would never buy the stuff for myself. As I was frying it I thought, hmm, it would be a shame to let this tasty bacon grease go to waste, what else can I make in it while it's in the skillet? I had sauteed yellow squash and eggplant in a bit of bacon grease last weekend and then mixed the bacon and squash together to make a pretty good meal that probably wasn't all that terrible for me. I opened the fridge and the first thing my eyes settled on was was some waffles I had made a couple days earlier. This gave me a great idea. Some wonderful Canadian came up with a magical concoction called maple bacon peanut butter. I have not had a chance to try this, but it just sounds amazing, so I thought I would try to recreate the flavor. I grabbed one of the waffles and fried it up in the bacon grease, then put on maple syrup, peanut butter, ice cream, bacon chunks, and dark chocolate syrup. It tasted absolutely amazing, but is probably one of the least healthy things I have ever eaten. Oh well, it's not the worst thing in the world to do a bit of nutritional offroading from time to time, and today my stomach is reminding me that it prefers salads and vegetable stir fry, even if my taste buds prefer peanut butter and ice cream.
2013/08/28
A couple Races
Every winter when I'm off racing every weekend I make a list of projects that I'm going to get done during the summer when it is light out for longer and I'm actually home for a weekend. What I tend to forget is how much stuff is going on in the summer too, and so many of those projects never get done, or get split up into several evenings when I happen to have some time for them. There are tons of great races to do in the summer, and I have had a couple fun ones over the last couple weeks.
Ragnar 8/16-17: I know a few people who are just getting in to running and were struggling for motivation to keep with it over the winter. Since I didn't have any good advice (I don't run at all in the winter if I can help it) I went to my fallback motivation plan, put a race on the schedule. I ran on a Ragnar team a couple years ago and one of the things I liked best about the race was how runners of different fitness and ability levels could all race together on a team and all feel proud about how they and their teammates raced. So I signed up and started to get runners together. If you read Rob's blog post he had a pretty good description of what the race entails and how our team did. I'll give you a short recount of how things went for van #1.
The day before the race Jeff and I decided to have a contest to see who could pass the most teams during our legs. I was the very first runner for our team and since I was ahead of the other 20 or so teams that started at 9:30 with us right from the line I did not count them in my total. I worked hard to try to catch a team from the next wave 1/2 hour ahead, but while I had a couple of them in sight by the time I reached the exchange zone 8 miles was not a long enough leg for me to actually catch any. I did my 13 push-ups and hopped in the van to head to the next exchange. The other runners in my van passed a steady stream of teams as the day began to heat up. We handed off to the other van early in the afternoon and went to find a late lunch.
Jeff sent me a message before my second leg that he had passed 31 runners during his first run, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. I started my second leg at about 8:30 PM and charged off into the setting sun. I set a fast pace and about a mile in decided that maybe a hamburger and cheese curds was not the best meal option a couple hours before my second run of the day. It was a very picturesque run, with a gorgeous sunset over the Mississippi river and a string of blinking runners along the road ahead. I passed 31 runners, enough to even the score with Jeff, and handed off just as darkness was starting to settle in. We drove ahead to a rest stop a bit up the road to cheer on our next runner and I struggled through my 41 push-ups.
I was not as diligent as Rob about getting good sleep, so when I started my 3rd leg at 5 AM, but it was a cool 55 degrees out, perfect running weather, so I took off, headlight bobbing, chasing after the blinking tail lights ahead of me. There were some trail sections where I definitely had to keep my speed in check a little and could only keep the headlight on the trail right in front of me. Then I got out of the woods, the sun cracked the horizon and navigation became much easier. I passed 24 runners and came into the exchange zone... and my team wasn't there. What, where was van, where was the runner I was supposed to hand off to? Well, I didn't have to wait long, a couple minutes later she came sprinting up to the line. The van had gotten a bit lost trying to find the exchange and got there just a little behind schedule. I handed off and did my 36 push-ups then grabbed one of the super chocolatey cookies I had in the van for when I was done running. Once our van was done we made some french toast and eggs and then went to see our team finish and to celebrate a race well run.
Ngede Challenge 8/24: I really like unique races, and the Ngede challenge certainly fits that description. It is a 50km, 4 leg race near my hometown of Amery, WI. The race includes a 10k road run, 10k mountain bike, 25k road bike, and 5k trail run. It is a very small race (14 racers/teams this year I think), but there is some good competition at the front. It can be done as an individual or a relay team, and it is one of the most scenic and fun races I do each year.
I kept a steady pace for the run and was the third person to the bike transition. My friend Erik was about 3 minutes ahead of me, but I'm a better biker than him, so I was hoping I could close the gap. The mountain bike and trail run are on the Balsam Branch Ski Trails, where I learned to ski. They are really great trails and I know them well and ski them whenever I am back in the area. The Balsam Vinterfest race held on these ski trails is the first ski race I ever won. That all makes it that much more embarrassing that I took a wrong turn and ended up adding about 5k extra onto the mountain bike leg. Part of me knew right away when I made the wrong turn that it wasn't right, it wasn't that I was lost or anything, I just somehow convinced myself that I was going the right way. I eventually got things straightened out and went to work making up ground. The road bike was an out and back, so I could tell how many people were ahead of me and by how much. It turns out most of the racers ahead of me were relay racers and so not directly my competition. My friend Erik was leading the individual category and I was in 3rd with second place just ahead of me. Erik had broken a chain on his cyclocross bike so was doing the road bike on a far too small mountain bike. This gave me a bit of hope that I might still be able to catch him. I passed another rider putting me in second place, but by the time I got to the run transition I still saw no signs of Erik and knew I wouldn't gain back time on him in the running leg, but 3rd place was not too far behind, so I pushed as hard as I felt comfortable with after having been out for a bit over 2 hours already and held on to my 2nd place finish. It was a bit disappointing to not win, but gives me extra motivation to come back next year and try again.
After that effort I was pretty sluggish on Sunday morning's rollerski (the heat probably didn't help either), so now it is time for a couple rest days until the temps hopefully come back down a little.
Ragnar 8/16-17: I know a few people who are just getting in to running and were struggling for motivation to keep with it over the winter. Since I didn't have any good advice (I don't run at all in the winter if I can help it) I went to my fallback motivation plan, put a race on the schedule. I ran on a Ragnar team a couple years ago and one of the things I liked best about the race was how runners of different fitness and ability levels could all race together on a team and all feel proud about how they and their teammates raced. So I signed up and started to get runners together. If you read Rob's blog post he had a pretty good description of what the race entails and how our team did. I'll give you a short recount of how things went for van #1.
The day before the race Jeff and I decided to have a contest to see who could pass the most teams during our legs. I was the very first runner for our team and since I was ahead of the other 20 or so teams that started at 9:30 with us right from the line I did not count them in my total. I worked hard to try to catch a team from the next wave 1/2 hour ahead, but while I had a couple of them in sight by the time I reached the exchange zone 8 miles was not a long enough leg for me to actually catch any. I did my 13 push-ups and hopped in the van to head to the next exchange. The other runners in my van passed a steady stream of teams as the day began to heat up. We handed off to the other van early in the afternoon and went to find a late lunch.
Jeff sent me a message before my second leg that he had passed 31 runners during his first run, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. I started my second leg at about 8:30 PM and charged off into the setting sun. I set a fast pace and about a mile in decided that maybe a hamburger and cheese curds was not the best meal option a couple hours before my second run of the day. It was a very picturesque run, with a gorgeous sunset over the Mississippi river and a string of blinking runners along the road ahead. I passed 31 runners, enough to even the score with Jeff, and handed off just as darkness was starting to settle in. We drove ahead to a rest stop a bit up the road to cheer on our next runner and I struggled through my 41 push-ups.
I was not as diligent as Rob about getting good sleep, so when I started my 3rd leg at 5 AM, but it was a cool 55 degrees out, perfect running weather, so I took off, headlight bobbing, chasing after the blinking tail lights ahead of me. There were some trail sections where I definitely had to keep my speed in check a little and could only keep the headlight on the trail right in front of me. Then I got out of the woods, the sun cracked the horizon and navigation became much easier. I passed 24 runners and came into the exchange zone... and my team wasn't there. What, where was van, where was the runner I was supposed to hand off to? Well, I didn't have to wait long, a couple minutes later she came sprinting up to the line. The van had gotten a bit lost trying to find the exchange and got there just a little behind schedule. I handed off and did my 36 push-ups then grabbed one of the super chocolatey cookies I had in the van for when I was done running. Once our van was done we made some french toast and eggs and then went to see our team finish and to celebrate a race well run.
Ngede Challenge 8/24: I really like unique races, and the Ngede challenge certainly fits that description. It is a 50km, 4 leg race near my hometown of Amery, WI. The race includes a 10k road run, 10k mountain bike, 25k road bike, and 5k trail run. It is a very small race (14 racers/teams this year I think), but there is some good competition at the front. It can be done as an individual or a relay team, and it is one of the most scenic and fun races I do each year.
I kept a steady pace for the run and was the third person to the bike transition. My friend Erik was about 3 minutes ahead of me, but I'm a better biker than him, so I was hoping I could close the gap. The mountain bike and trail run are on the Balsam Branch Ski Trails, where I learned to ski. They are really great trails and I know them well and ski them whenever I am back in the area. The Balsam Vinterfest race held on these ski trails is the first ski race I ever won. That all makes it that much more embarrassing that I took a wrong turn and ended up adding about 5k extra onto the mountain bike leg. Part of me knew right away when I made the wrong turn that it wasn't right, it wasn't that I was lost or anything, I just somehow convinced myself that I was going the right way. I eventually got things straightened out and went to work making up ground. The road bike was an out and back, so I could tell how many people were ahead of me and by how much. It turns out most of the racers ahead of me were relay racers and so not directly my competition. My friend Erik was leading the individual category and I was in 3rd with second place just ahead of me. Erik had broken a chain on his cyclocross bike so was doing the road bike on a far too small mountain bike. This gave me a bit of hope that I might still be able to catch him. I passed another rider putting me in second place, but by the time I got to the run transition I still saw no signs of Erik and knew I wouldn't gain back time on him in the running leg, but 3rd place was not too far behind, so I pushed as hard as I felt comfortable with after having been out for a bit over 2 hours already and held on to my 2nd place finish. It was a bit disappointing to not win, but gives me extra motivation to come back next year and try again.
After that effort I was pretty sluggish on Sunday morning's rollerski (the heat probably didn't help either), so now it is time for a couple rest days until the temps hopefully come back down a little.
2013/04/28
The winter that won't end
I've been waiting to put this post up until the snow was gone. It has surprised even me that it would take this long. I have loved the late season skiing, although it hasn't been high quality skiing for the past month or so, and has caused a significant setback to my biking, running, and paddling. Here are some of the highlights:
The skiing in March was still quite amazing depending on location, so I decided to head up to Theodore Wirth on March 16 to get some good skiing in on some lingering snow. I wanted a relaxed ski, so I invited my friend and fellow Pepsi Challenge champion Molly Watkins to get a few km in. She is super busy, so would only have time for 30k or so, that was my plan to make the day a reasonable one. I arrived in the parking lot and Jallie and KJ were just setting out on a ski. Kevin was joining a couple other guys in a 12 hours of Theodore Wirth ski challenge, so he had 50k under his belt already, and Jallie was just going out to join him for a bit. Once Molly showed up we joined up with those two and had a fun little skiing quartet. We soon picked up Tim Dahlberg and later Andy Brown, so there was all kinds of skiing company on the trails. The skiing was pretty low key and easy except one uphill double pole contest, in which the Alaskan animal soundly defeated me. About the time Molly left the classic skiing was not working out so well anymore, so I switched over to skate skis and went out to put in a few more km with Jallie, so much for an easy day. I ended up skiing 60km, and would have done more except it was getting dark and I was out of food. Both Molly and Jallie provided me with tasty cookies along the way, and conditions were really amazing actually.
The next morning I got a call from Nate asking if I wanted to head out for some crust skiing. We met at the arb, but quickly ventured off across the golf course and into the fields southeast of town. The crust was perfect, hard enough not to sink in, soft enough on top to get an edge. We had a vast landscape that was ours for the exploring, and explore we did. The worst part of the whole ski was when we got back onto the trails in the lower arb and ran across a stream that had cut the trail. I saw Nate go down around a corner and was prepared to laugh until I rounded the corner and saw the stream. I tried to jump the gap in the crust and didn't make it, so I also crashed. The crust was rather hard and sharp when I cut through it, but I came out better than Nate, who ended up with a few blood spots. We then went to the gym to cheer on the rest of Team Nichole Training, Nichole and Brian, as they finished up a pretty intense treadmill workout.
A week later the snow was still holding, so I loaded up the skis and headed North. This time my goal was to get one more ski in at Murphy Hanrehan, the hilliest trail system in the Metro area. The snow was still a bit icy in spots, and I had seen trail reports that said there was exposed dirt on one part of the trail, so I was unsure what to expect. The climbing was good, although the ungroomed trail made for difficult balance, and I played it pretty safe. Then I started to hit the downhills, and I was very surprised. Whether by chance or design the uphills are mostly south facing and the downhills mostly north facing, so the snow on the downhills was soft and deep, easy to corner on and really fun. I did a second loop and was much more ambitious on the descents since I knew they were good. It was a great day out, I was skiing in race bottoms and short sleeves, but things were getting pretty soft by the end of the second loop and those hills take their toll. I wasn't ready to be done yet though, so I headed over to Cleary Lake to get in a few more km. Trail reports said there was still grooming, and I was amazed at how good the trails were. I did several loops and conditions were just really amazing, good corduroy, fast snow for the most part, and a very flat deck, I could easily V2 everything and really cruise. Cleary is one of my frequent skiing locations most years because it is the closest system with lighted trails, but it had been almost 2 years since I had skied there, and since it is pretty flat I chose Hyland over Cleary most weekends this year, but it was fun to get on nice trails and just ski fast. The next day I headed back up to the cities to get a long run in with Ms. Molly Watkins. She is in a marathon class and passing the class depends on finishing the Eau Claire Marathon. She has been hard at it often doing a ski marathon on Saturday and long run on Sunday throughout the winter. We explored around the U a bit before heading south on the river road. I finally achieved a goal of mine since I started at the U, that I never officially achieved while I was a student there, of running from campus across the Ford Dam and back. It isn't really that long of a run, but I was not the runner in college that I am now. Molly kept up no problem, even when I made her run up the hill from the east river flats to finish the day. She was even nice enough to feed me afterwards. Then I went to Finn Sisu to demo some new classic skis and got a good 10k in at the U of M golf course.
This is the sad part of the tale where the ongoing winter starts to have unintended side effects. I got in a long run the day before Easter on the roads out by my parents. I ended up a hair short of 19 miles, and the last mile was getting to be a struggle. I don't know why, but the 18 mile long run is never a good one for me. I explored some really fun roads though and in general it wasn't a bad day. I must have picked up a bug from a family member or someone at the Easter pancake breakfast though, because my lungs and sinus were not happy with me the next week. At first I was worried it was maybe due to my adorable new roommate Mozzarella. She is a rabbit I adopted from my friends Erik and Karin who are moving and didn't really have a good way to move her with them. She is just my kind of pet, soft, quiet, and I can leave food and water out and be gone for several days at a time with no ill effect. Luckily time has shown she was not the cause of my stuffy nose, but the week I was sick no long run happened, so my last long run ended up being the Easter 18 miler, which didn't go well and is over a month ahead of the Ultramarathon that I will tell you about below. Snow kept falling, and I kept skiing. I'm a big advocate of making the best of what mother nature sends my way (ok maybe not really. I'm not at all a fan of wind or rain in general) so many additional km were skied in the arb, the golf course, and even in to work and back one day. All in preparation for the zero more ski races I have coming up this year.
I will include my first running race in this post, because there was more snow than anything else on the course. Trail mix was one of the first races over 5k I have ever done. When I started running it my freshman year of college 12.5k seemed almost too long to race over, especially considering the terrain. I have progressed as a long distance runner since then, and now 12.5k is one of the shortest races I do. The last couple years I have felt a bit guilty for doing the "short" race now that I know I could handle the 25k or 50k, but the relay has a strong history for me, and it doesn't hurt that my team, the Nordic Ninjas, has won 8 of the last 9 years. This is also the 11th time I have run this race, so I'm pretty invested. I wasn't sure what to expect this year since we lost our top runner, Matt Liebsch. This meant for the first time since the Nordic Ninjas formed I would be our top guy. This worried me a bit until everyone was lining up near the starting line and I didn't see anyone too dangerous milling around near the front. This was quickly confirmed when the race started and I got pretty quickly off the front, and so did Jeff, Travis, and Kevin Johnson, our new addition to the team. In fact, at the 1km mark our entire team was the top 4 runners. At this point I started to worry less about winning and just relaxed into running a good hard effort. The conditions were a bit tricky, but as long as I watched my footing I didn't have much trouble. I had to adjust my stride some to get grip in the snow, but nothing too crazy. I won pretty handily, Jeff was second, and our team ended up winning by well over 10 minutes in total. It was nice to be back on top after being upset by the Gear West running team last year.
Now the snow is almost entirely gone and Northfield is looking at it's 3rd day in a row in the 70's, so the winter post finally comes to an end (although there is still a chance of snow in the forecast for next week).
The skiing in March was still quite amazing depending on location, so I decided to head up to Theodore Wirth on March 16 to get some good skiing in on some lingering snow. I wanted a relaxed ski, so I invited my friend and fellow Pepsi Challenge champion Molly Watkins to get a few km in. She is super busy, so would only have time for 30k or so, that was my plan to make the day a reasonable one. I arrived in the parking lot and Jallie and KJ were just setting out on a ski. Kevin was joining a couple other guys in a 12 hours of Theodore Wirth ski challenge, so he had 50k under his belt already, and Jallie was just going out to join him for a bit. Once Molly showed up we joined up with those two and had a fun little skiing quartet. We soon picked up Tim Dahlberg and later Andy Brown, so there was all kinds of skiing company on the trails. The skiing was pretty low key and easy except one uphill double pole contest, in which the Alaskan animal soundly defeated me. About the time Molly left the classic skiing was not working out so well anymore, so I switched over to skate skis and went out to put in a few more km with Jallie, so much for an easy day. I ended up skiing 60km, and would have done more except it was getting dark and I was out of food. Both Molly and Jallie provided me with tasty cookies along the way, and conditions were really amazing actually.
The next morning I got a call from Nate asking if I wanted to head out for some crust skiing. We met at the arb, but quickly ventured off across the golf course and into the fields southeast of town. The crust was perfect, hard enough not to sink in, soft enough on top to get an edge. We had a vast landscape that was ours for the exploring, and explore we did. The worst part of the whole ski was when we got back onto the trails in the lower arb and ran across a stream that had cut the trail. I saw Nate go down around a corner and was prepared to laugh until I rounded the corner and saw the stream. I tried to jump the gap in the crust and didn't make it, so I also crashed. The crust was rather hard and sharp when I cut through it, but I came out better than Nate, who ended up with a few blood spots. We then went to the gym to cheer on the rest of Team Nichole Training, Nichole and Brian, as they finished up a pretty intense treadmill workout.
A week later the snow was still holding, so I loaded up the skis and headed North. This time my goal was to get one more ski in at Murphy Hanrehan, the hilliest trail system in the Metro area. The snow was still a bit icy in spots, and I had seen trail reports that said there was exposed dirt on one part of the trail, so I was unsure what to expect. The climbing was good, although the ungroomed trail made for difficult balance, and I played it pretty safe. Then I started to hit the downhills, and I was very surprised. Whether by chance or design the uphills are mostly south facing and the downhills mostly north facing, so the snow on the downhills was soft and deep, easy to corner on and really fun. I did a second loop and was much more ambitious on the descents since I knew they were good. It was a great day out, I was skiing in race bottoms and short sleeves, but things were getting pretty soft by the end of the second loop and those hills take their toll. I wasn't ready to be done yet though, so I headed over to Cleary Lake to get in a few more km. Trail reports said there was still grooming, and I was amazed at how good the trails were. I did several loops and conditions were just really amazing, good corduroy, fast snow for the most part, and a very flat deck, I could easily V2 everything and really cruise. Cleary is one of my frequent skiing locations most years because it is the closest system with lighted trails, but it had been almost 2 years since I had skied there, and since it is pretty flat I chose Hyland over Cleary most weekends this year, but it was fun to get on nice trails and just ski fast. The next day I headed back up to the cities to get a long run in with Ms. Molly Watkins. She is in a marathon class and passing the class depends on finishing the Eau Claire Marathon. She has been hard at it often doing a ski marathon on Saturday and long run on Sunday throughout the winter. We explored around the U a bit before heading south on the river road. I finally achieved a goal of mine since I started at the U, that I never officially achieved while I was a student there, of running from campus across the Ford Dam and back. It isn't really that long of a run, but I was not the runner in college that I am now. Molly kept up no problem, even when I made her run up the hill from the east river flats to finish the day. She was even nice enough to feed me afterwards. Then I went to Finn Sisu to demo some new classic skis and got a good 10k in at the U of M golf course.
This is the sad part of the tale where the ongoing winter starts to have unintended side effects. I got in a long run the day before Easter on the roads out by my parents. I ended up a hair short of 19 miles, and the last mile was getting to be a struggle. I don't know why, but the 18 mile long run is never a good one for me. I explored some really fun roads though and in general it wasn't a bad day. I must have picked up a bug from a family member or someone at the Easter pancake breakfast though, because my lungs and sinus were not happy with me the next week. At first I was worried it was maybe due to my adorable new roommate Mozzarella. She is a rabbit I adopted from my friends Erik and Karin who are moving and didn't really have a good way to move her with them. She is just my kind of pet, soft, quiet, and I can leave food and water out and be gone for several days at a time with no ill effect. Luckily time has shown she was not the cause of my stuffy nose, but the week I was sick no long run happened, so my last long run ended up being the Easter 18 miler, which didn't go well and is over a month ahead of the Ultramarathon that I will tell you about below. Snow kept falling, and I kept skiing. I'm a big advocate of making the best of what mother nature sends my way (ok maybe not really. I'm not at all a fan of wind or rain in general) so many additional km were skied in the arb, the golf course, and even in to work and back one day. All in preparation for the zero more ski races I have coming up this year.
I will include my first running race in this post, because there was more snow than anything else on the course. Trail mix was one of the first races over 5k I have ever done. When I started running it my freshman year of college 12.5k seemed almost too long to race over, especially considering the terrain. I have progressed as a long distance runner since then, and now 12.5k is one of the shortest races I do. The last couple years I have felt a bit guilty for doing the "short" race now that I know I could handle the 25k or 50k, but the relay has a strong history for me, and it doesn't hurt that my team, the Nordic Ninjas, has won 8 of the last 9 years. This is also the 11th time I have run this race, so I'm pretty invested. I wasn't sure what to expect this year since we lost our top runner, Matt Liebsch. This meant for the first time since the Nordic Ninjas formed I would be our top guy. This worried me a bit until everyone was lining up near the starting line and I didn't see anyone too dangerous milling around near the front. This was quickly confirmed when the race started and I got pretty quickly off the front, and so did Jeff, Travis, and Kevin Johnson, our new addition to the team. In fact, at the 1km mark our entire team was the top 4 runners. At this point I started to worry less about winning and just relaxed into running a good hard effort. The conditions were a bit tricky, but as long as I watched my footing I didn't have much trouble. I had to adjust my stride some to get grip in the snow, but nothing too crazy. I won pretty handily, Jeff was second, and our team ended up winning by well over 10 minutes in total. It was nice to be back on top after being upset by the Gear West running team last year.
Now the snow is almost entirely gone and Northfield is looking at it's 3rd day in a row in the 70's, so the winter post finally comes to an end (although there is still a chance of snow in the forecast for next week).
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