Race - Turkey Day Trail Trot 10k - Battle Creek West, St. Paul

Since I was in town I had to come out to support my club. Signed up for the Turkey Day Trail Trot 10 km distance.

Lots of friends, Donna and her husband, Heather, Matt, Tom, Margie, Jim were running, Chris, Dayton and John were part of organizing.
The course was about 3/4 on the ski trail and 1/4 on single track. I liked the layout because it provided variety and was not quite as heavy on the hills. That doesn't mean that this was not primarily a hill event. Great challenge, especially passing the 5k runner and walkers on the single track section. They were very polite and stepped aside to let us pass. I ran much of the way with a couple of guys. One, in an orange jacket, climbed like a goat but was a little cautious on the steep downhills. That's why I was able to stick with him till the last 750 m or so. Great event, happy with my result.

Summary

Name	Turkey Day Trail Trot 10k
Location	Battle Creek West, St. Paul
Start Time	11/28/2013 8:04 AM (UTC-06:00)		Category	My Activities:Running:Race
Distance	9.93 km		Time	00:49:05.0
Time Moving	00:49:03.0		Stopped	00:00:02.0
Average pace	04:56 min/km		Max. pace	03:42 min/km
Average heart rate	165 bpm		Max. heart rate	170 bpm
Total Ascent	189 m +19 m/km		Total Descent	-194 m -20 m/km
Weather	Sunny; -5.2 °C

Heart Rate

Splits: Recorded laps

Pace

Splits: Recorded laps

Elevation

Splits: Recorded laps

Created with Activity Documentation Plugin for SportTracks
(see http://www.sporttracks-plugins.com)

Race - Arctic Commando 5 km Trail Race - Battle Creek West, St. Paul

Fun, as always, a lot of friends from various walks of life. Of course Sisu Skiers, including Dayton, Matt, Paul, Kitty, Tom and assorted kids. I sure did not feel this. And Central Parents, like Theresa Kendrick, John Hering and Dave Bergstrom. Fun to see the Central kids, too, but not as fun when Colin's classmates were cheering me on. 

Ran a good race though it did not feel like it. It never does, as this is one tough course. But I had a new PB on the course, in terms of pace maintained. Monika Sattler won the women's race.
Even won a raffle prize, stone grinding at Finn Sisu Good deal! I never win, but tey had a prize for pretty much everyone!

Summary

Name	Arctic Commando 5 km Trail Race
Location	Battle Creek West, St. Paul
Start Time	11/9/2013 9:02 AM (UTC-06:00)		Category	My Activities:Running:Race
Distance	5.06 km		Time	00:24:07.0
Time Moving	00:24:06.0		Stopped	00:00:01.0
Average pace	04:45 min/km		Max. pace	03:36 min/km
Average heart rate	168 bpm		Max. heart rate	174 bpm
Total Ascent	106 m +21 m/km		Total Descent	-107 m -21 m/km
Weather	Cloudy; 6.1 °C

Heart Rate

Splits: Recorded laps

Pace

Splits: Recorded laps

Elevation

Splits: Recorded laps

Created with Activity Documentation Plugin for SportTracks
(see http://www.sporttracks-plugins.com)

American Birkebeiner 2013

My first Birkie! What can I say, there were certainly some cons, like big crowds, long lines, slow shuffling up the steep hills and other mass-sport related distractions but they were fare outweighed by the pros, like physical and mental challenge, fun tag games trying to weave an ideal route while passing the big crowds and being with many friends.



I passed a few of my club mates and it was nice to give and receive encouragement at those time. I actually bumped (very lightly) into our host John, who let us stay in his family cabin in Minong. I had descended a hill and following coach's orders I maximized glide from the momentum and did not pay attention, ever so gently touching the last guy in line up the hill. When I passed him, it turned out to be John. I was passed by fellow Sisu Skier Per, who due to big gap since his last Birkie (he likes the crowds even less than I do) and without a time from a qualifying event found himself in Wave 6, one wave behind my own. He caught up to me after the first 10 km in a particularly crowded passage and I heard him coming: "Passing on your left! Passing on your right! Oh hi Christian, looking good!" He finished in 2:55. Awesome!

Last and certainly not least there was the great instruction, coaching and encouragement we received from Sisu Skiers and the warm welcome we received from our club mates at the finish line! I will certainly do it again!

  Conditions: with an average temp of around -2 it was very mild, lots of soft, fresh snow which made me think of Sisu Ski Fest and most skiing I've done in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

  Waxing: Gear West Birkie wax service, not cheap but better than I could have done. It felt like that by the time I began the last third it had been skied off. This is the wax review by Gear West (I inserted the actual wax type in parentheses which I received from Tom at Gear West):

Sat and Sun we applied a low fluoro basecoat (Swix LF6) based on current trends and forecasted temps.   Swix Team tested on the Birkie trail Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday morning we applied the recommended HF Wax (Swix HF5), loaded the skis in the van and hauled them to Hayward.Swix, Matt Liebsch and Gear West wax techs tested Thursday and Friday mornings. Friday after testing we determined for Waves 1, 2, 3 we would apply a top coat appropriate for the new fresh snow. Waves 4, 5, 6 we choose a top coat (Swix FC100) for corn snow conditions and for Waves 7, 8, 9 we applied a top coat best suited for heavier and wetter snow.

   Skis: Atomic Worldcup Skate '11, bought on sale at the beginning of this season. Nice step up from my '10 Race Skates, several ounces lighter.

  Boots: '11 Salomon S-Lab Carbon Skate. They fit my foot, my second pair of this type of boot.

  Poles: Yoko 8100, the orange sticks. At km 40, something detached on my right hand strap and I did not have a good hand grip any longer. I decided to finish with the poles in spite of this inconvenience. I have not closely investigated, but it may be just a Velcro strap that came undone.

  Clothing: thin waffle shirt, vented Nike Pro Combat shirt, Sisu skin shirt, X2 compression tights, Sisu skin tights, Fit socks, Sisu ski fest hat, MNOC buff, Yoko WindStopper gloves. Close to perfect, everything was wring-out wet at the finish.

  Goggles: Oakley Half Jacket XLJ with yellow tint glass, very good. Have had those for a very long time.

  Nutrition:
  Breakfast: 1 1/4 cup of oat meal with brown sugar and raisins, 1 banana.
  During race: Hammer gel: 70 g of Hammer gel berry, 14 g Hammer gel espresso from squeeze bottles. This corresponds to less than 3 gel packs but I think it is easily more. I never can get everything out of the gel packs. 1.5 L of Gatorade from powder in S-Lab XA Advanced Skin 12 Set, which I tried out extensively during longer skis prior to the Birkie. 3-4 cups of energy drinks I picked up during the second half and a couple of banana pieces.
 Never hit the wall and never cramped, so I must have done OK in the nutrition and pacing department.
Post-race: Since the line for the free chicken noodle soup seemed too long, I re-hydrated and fortified with 3 pints of beer, a hamburger, a brat, a Snickers bar and a Twix bar.

  Physio Observations:
  Garmin HR monitor: Average HR, at 157 bpm definitely closer to race pace.
  Omron body composition scale: A couple hours after my beer and junk food binge I weighed in at 81 kg, which is normal for me, high after such an effort. However, my body composition showed body fat of 10.4% over 42% of muscle mass. Typical is more like 15% for body fat 39% for muscle mass. New record.

MNOC friend Darryn worried that I didn't have enough fun. How does this look? I hope my
technique looked a little better most of the time but at least I look like I'm having a good time.

Some analysis, with an eye on next year's Birkie:

Here are the official results from birkie.com: Bib # 5276.

I created a spreadsheet file for the skate results from the pdf available at the official site. It can be accessed here. Based on that,

• I finished 6th from Wave 5 starting from the back of that wave.
• Faster than 94% in Wave 4, 76% in Wave 3 and 35% in Wave 2 
• Physically passed at least 650 skiers from waves 2, 3 and 4. 

Based on the Birkie's current wave placement rules (see wave placement tab I created on my spreadsheet) I should get into Wave 3 next year. That aught to gain me at least 10 minutes I wasted being stuck behind masses of slower skiers. On the other hand, being stuck probably helped me pace myself.

One question I have is whether a highly technically skilled skier has less of an advantage in these soft snow conditions over a less skilled but physically strong skier such as myself. I dropped several competitors who looked like much better skiers than me. I'd pass or catch up to them in the hills but they pulled ahead on the flats. Bitch Hill did them in ...

During the last uphills, there had been a hint of a cramp building in my inner thighs but it never materialized. When I reached the lake, I was able to cruise past another good number of skiers. At the finish, I was greeted by my friends from Sisu Skiers.

Done! Thanks for snapping the pic, Ben!

I walked to the bag pickup and based on the overwhelming number of bags still there for wave five I sensed that I had done pretty well in my wave.

A see of bags awaiting the skiers. (Photo by Emily Green)

Como Park Championships 2012

After last year, when the Como Park Champs had to be moved to Green Acres for lack of snow and I did not participate because of the mother of all colds, we had 5 cm of fresh snow on a decent base. In addition, Ben and Co shoveled to add more snow at some weak spots, notably the open sore in the steep downhill and the City of St. Paul did a super job grooming. Consequently the course was in great shape.

Como Park bare spot in steep downhill, BEFORE trail 

work and Championships

This was also the first time I used my new Sisu skin suit. The only time I had worn it was when the package arrived in the mail last summer, when temps hovered around 35ºC. Now, I was a little concerned on how to dress for temps around -10ºC. I decided on a tech short-sleeved tee (the old green Sisu summer tee), my trusty Nike Pro Combat Hyperwarm Fitted Dri-Fit Max base layer and the Sisu race top. I did wear a warm-up jacket and a down parka on top, shedding the latter when I started my warm-up after bib pick-up and the former a couple minutes before race start. There were quite a few people decked out in the new Sisu suit, good to show your colors!

As usually I hung back at the start, fully knowing that I wasn't here to win any prizes. But I had a good start, passed some people and fell in with a group who looked like they were around my strength. The snow was maybe a little slower than two years ago, when the course had been quite icy. But it was a pleasure to skate getting a good edge in the firmly rolled fresh layer. My choice of layers turned out to be right on, not too cold and not too hot.

The top women, most of them college age from what I could glean, started to pass during the first uphill slope along Lexington, they were moving at a great pace. Margie passed me someplace in the back bowl, shouting out some encouragement. I was waiting for Heather, Kitty and Sarah to be next, but they never materialized.

There were a few wipe-outs, fortunately nothing serious and never hindering me. During lap two, I kept with an oldster in a City of Lakes Loppet 10th anniversary suit. Several times I thought I'd be able to pass him but it never quite worked out. When we got to the steep downhill, there was somewhat of a crowd at the needle's eye between the trees and Odd, the guy in the suit decided to attack to pass. He wiped out, I was able to avoid the confusion and passed left, zipping through the narrows for the steep hill. But for that I do not think I would have been able to pass him.

About 50 m to the finish.

I was able to hold off a young woman who was trying to pass me and made it in, wading through some pretty soft stuff before of the finish line. I somehow missed Heather, who must have been right behind me but was quickly joined by Sarah and Kitty.

Great event! Ended up finishing 60th of 84 in the men's, 6th of 12 in my age group. My pace was a bit faster than last time, too. Results can be found here.

Arctic Commando Trail Run 2012

As far as I know the results have not been posted yet. You can access a copy here. There are some pictures on the Central Nordic Team pages, including the following, showing me at the finish:

Checking my time and making sure the darn timer is stopped.

Drizzly morning for the race and mild temps, excellent conditions! I was able to make it through the field of little ones quickly. A group of young fast runners dropped me quickly and Jake passed me around the 1 km marker. I soon noticed that I hadn't purged as well as I could have this morning, must have been that late Mexican dinner at Pepito's on Chicago Ave yesterday evening. Sorry guys, I had to leave in a hurry after the event, would have loved to socialize a little after ...

Even though I felt like I was dying, I finished well, welcomed by Jake. And, I was able to hold off John K after he beat me last year. Turns out I had a new PB on the route, 15"/km faster over last year. All that track and hill work with Kitty, Erika, Nancy and Jake paid off, not to forget the Sisu MYR workouts. Very happy with Inov-8 Mudclaw 330s for this even, no issues with heel blisters. Must be the constant stop and go in orienteering that causes these.

Results haven't been published on skinnyski.com yet but I secured an advance copy which can be accessed here: Arctic Commando 2012 Results.

Link to all Arctic Commando trail runs.

Mille Lacs Kathio State Park Orienteering--Blue

A hot and windy day for this meet. Decided against better judgement to do the blue course.

CP1: went along E side of wetland instead of W. Knew where I was when I came across connecting ditch.
CP2: Headed for overgrown beaver dam to cross wetland. Spiked 2.
CP3: Still under the illusion to be able to preserve my dry feet for a little longer I rounded the pond S and got wet feet crossing narrow stretch of wetland. Spiked 3.
CP4: After wet feet wet knees Oh well, at least I spiked 4.
CP5: No trouble with 5 and 6, either, carefully following small wetlands and contours. Starting to feel rather cocky about this course.
CP7: First longish leg, proceeded with caution and spiked 7 as well. Skeeters are an impediment to map reading. Glad for the little breeze.
CP8: Took a little sightseeing detour and got very frustrated. Ended up heading for one of the larger ponds to get re-oriented. It worked but I lost 15'
CP9: Wetland-hopping in the right direction, but what happened. I misoriented the map and without realizing it I headed back towards whenst I came from. I decided to call it a day and clicked the lap button on my Forerunner. I turned around and spotted a CP. Could this be 9? Oh the agony, had returned to 8! Stephen arrived, punched and left again in the direction I had initially taken. I decided to take a longer and what I thought somewhat safer way, with lots of handrails. I made it to 9 just after Steven punched and I was back in the race.
CP10: Beat Stephen to 10, the only time I beat anyone anywhere during this event.
CP11: Spiked. Is this where I ran into Jim for the first time? I yelled "Hi Jim" and fell on my face.
CP12-finish: no further issues except my exhaustion.

I was sopping wet from sweat when I got in. Picked off the first tick when I was changing at the car, four more while I was driving and one last whenI got out of the car at home. I am so glad I hung in there, better to finish slowly than not to finish at all. Some nice flowers in bloom, large-flowered trillium and some others. Multiple deer, woodpeckers and tons of mosquitoes about the size of pigeons.

Distance noted on the map: 10.1 km. Distance clocked on my Garmin: 14.1 km. Pete did a great job setting a technical course and it was a treat to run in a pretty much trail-less area.

Results at Attackpoint
Results at MNOC (I like that one better because I am not as far back)

Some souvenirs from Kathio:

I found this deer tick latched on to the crook
of my elbow. Called my doctor who suggested
prophylactic treatment with Doxycycline. 

Afton SP Orienteering--Red

Great course but I was slow. Overtraining? Possibly. Made it back wet, but from sweat. It started dripping when I got in the car and it was pouring by the time I got to the freeway. 


1 Cut down the hill. On way back I saw that the elites were running the trail down and across. 
2 Bushwhacked again. I should have probably returned to the trail and closed in that way, in spite of the extra elevation. 
3 Took trail to open area, across knoll, headed for gully to N of straight line. Spiked it. 
4 Took trail on top, headed to NNE where trail veered NW. Spiked. 
5 Hung to right of dark-green reentrant. Looked for open area. Could not find CP5. Went to open area and headed straight for it. Lot of wasted time. 
6 Climbed up the spur of W fork of creek. Did not want to go back down and up again. Seemed the right choice at the time, but when I see the big detour I made on my Garmin track I wonder. 
7 Took long way N to trail and then on trail near CP7. I think this was a good choice. 
8 Went around reentrant and straight to CP8 
9 Looked for most comfortable way down and towards trail NE. Crossed knoll and spiked CP9. 
10 Went around spur near lake, should have probably followed the erosion gully near line. But it worked OK. Attacked from bench on trail and got there. 
11 Backtracked to trail and followed to knoll. 
12 Followed reentrant down, climbed spur to S of erosion area. Spiked. 
13 Followed dry ditch up. Got mixed up with camp sites and hung too far S. But I corrected and found quickly. 
14 Followed deer trail. No problem. Spiked. 
15 Tough return to Finish, all uphill. That's Afton! 

Orienteering: 90 Minute Score O at Nerstrand Big Woods SP

No snow-no problem, for the first time this winter. I headed for the second of MNOC's two winter meets, at one of my favorite parks, Nerstrand Big Woods. Format was a 90 Minute Score O. This is only my third, and one of the previous one was part of the 2010 Adventure Race Tune-Up which I did with Bryan. Andrei set a beautiful course and Pete W as vetter, who made sure that the controls were in place. Pete also created a promotional clip for the event.

Pete's Nerstrand Woods Score O Trailer

We had a good turnout and after we received the maps, about 5' before the start I was able to plot an approximation to a route. One of the issues with these type of events is the mass start and the associated inevitable pack running. I have to admit that I probably got a little help from some stronger orienteerers who happened to start along the same route as I did. But I kept my errors to a minimum even after the initial five or six CPs, when I was finally on my own.

Sequence showing my approach to CP207. (Photos Andrei Karpov) 

I hit 20 of the 24 CPs, in sequence, returning 3:35 to spare. My one real map reading error was with CP208, coming from 207. I overshot it by 100 m and lost probably 3 minutes in the process. I should have followed the creek bank, then I would have found it without any problem.

Punching in at CP211. (Photos: Andrei Karpov) 

I decided to cross the larger creek and tick off some of the CPs to the north. I think that was a good decision but in hindsight, I could have easily taken along CP215 before doing CP213. I lost some time thinking about how to get to CP222. The reentrant is in dense woods and not that easy to see from the grassy area to the south. I ended up crossing the woods, climbing to the open area N of the woods and then followed the vegetation boundary to the corner and ran straight to it. That made it very easy. I skipped CP223, too far to the north, and CP226, on a rather shallow reentrant in a dark green area.

Now, back on the S of the creek I picked off 214 and 216, followed by 217 and 219. No more time for 224, which I could have made if it hadn't been for missing time on 208. All in all quite happy with my result. Andrei was out taking photos, a treat to have pictures of yourself while running through the woods.

Done! (Photos: Andrei Karpov)

Also quite happy with my result, 6th place, see at MNOC Results.

Red is the actual track from my Garmin FR305, blue is what I could have
done if I hadn't been pressed for time. Note my error at CP208: ran too far
and had to backtrack.

City of Lakes Freestyle Loppet

Like Chuck & Don's skijoring event yesterday, today's freestyle loppet was a shortened substitute for the full event. I parked at Mortenson's Construction (quite the campus for a builder) right next door to Breck School. I had been in that parking lot for Colin's high school hockey games a few times but it had been at night in the dark and I would have never guessed that it was adjacent to Wirth Park.

After taking the school bus (did you know that school buses have "Body Fluids Cleanup Kits?") shuttle to the main parking lot, I hiked back to the lower stadium area. On the way there, the classic skiers who had just finished were coming towards me, including Vinu from work, whose wife and in-laws had participated. Fun to see him! I now recall that he had told me that his wife and entire family were big time into the sport.

I switched from shoes to ski boots and parked my stuff in the coral. In order to kill some time I went to the vendors tent and checked out the wares. Chatted a bit with the owner of RollerSkiShop.com. I do own a pair of theirs and am quite happy. My only regret is that they do not have any classic models or even wheels. To my question on that subject he said that it was too big of an investment for poor chances of return. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and acquire a more expensive model. 

Start of wave 5/6. I'm in center, bib 5029.

By now it was about 15 minutes to the start and I headed back. The 5xxx wave was allowed to line up ahead of the 6xxx skiers and I found myself next to MNOC club-mate Jim Mullins in the very front row. On the other side was a kid sporting St. Paul Central HS Arctic Commando suit and I chatted him up. Turned out he was a 2003 grad. Looked like a strong and competent skier and he ended up being the only one to round me, during the fifth lap. 

After we got going it became very quickly apparent that this would be a hard five laps. The entire loop, especially the uphills were solid ice, covered with very lose sugar. On stretches with deeper snow, it felt like the skis sank and it required some effort to pull them out again. On the steeper downhills, the sharp turns quickly lost this cover and became bare ice. The trail-side volunteers heroically jumped into gaps between skiers and raked snow back on. After the early frenzy of passing stronger skiers, I settled into a routine, staying with a lose group for quite for quite some time. I seemed to be doing better on the uphills while the others had an easier time on the downhills and the few level stretches. Towards the end of lap 2, I began rounding the first of  my cohort. During the following laps, the slower skiers became thicker and it took some effort during the uphills and some daring during the downhills to keep passing. There wer not too many falls, I was glad for that especially on top of the hill adjacent to the tubing area, as the choices were deep snow that could stop you cold in your tracks or bare ice. 

The official City of Lakes Foundation clip for my race. Afraid I look the best at start and finish ...

I think I managed my stamina well, as I was able to accelerate during the last lap. A kid from NDSU stopped for water at the upper stadium, I passed him and didn't see him again till we finished. I felt it was a good race, finishing a little ahead of the middle of the pack overall, in men's and in my age group.

My results--Overall Results

City of Lakes Loppet Chuck & Don's Skijoring 7km

7 km is the original distance, two laps on Lake of the Isles. The two ersatz laps at Theodore Wirth added up to only 4.2 km, as per my Garmin watch. Shorter for sure but also zestier, because of the hills.

After joining the Sisu Masters Year-Round Group and starting preparations for the next ski season in May '11 I went out on a limb and signed up for a few races early: the Sisu Ski Fest in Ironwood, MI, which I later upgraded from 21 km to 42 km, both the Test Your Lungs skijoring and freestyle events and the City of Lakes Chuck & Don's Skijor and Freestyle Loppets. I was tempted to sign up for the Birkie, too, but changed my mind when I considered the numbers. As my buddy Gestur said, "that's 18,000 elbows and 9,000 a**holes."  I decided not to sign up for the Vasaloppet, either as it became obvious that this winter's snow remained mostly a pipe dream.

I couldn't do the Test Your Lungs because of my lungs, a nasty two-week cold with ear infection that put me out of commission. I declined to sign up for the Como Championships and the King Boreas skijoring race because they had to be moved to man-made loops at Green Acres. The Sisu Ski Fest Marathon was great, on fresh and real snow and I along with most other metro-area skiers was holding my breath about the City of Lakes events. One week before the event the organizers decided to move the events to Theodore Wirth Park man-made loops and it seems amazing that we are having the Loppet at all. I think if it hadn't been for the fog that blanketed the area for most of last week even the solid base at Wirth would have melted away.

For the first day skijoring event, which is normally held on Lake of the Isles I was a little worried because of my dog Mellie's propensity to turn around in steep downhills to grab the rope and there are plenty of downhills on this course and also because this would only be our third time out as a team this winter. Mellie was a trooper.

I took Mellie on a short warmup run but she was so excited that she made us fall in the first sharp downhill turn. So I brought her back, tied her up and reconnoitered the loop on my own. Turns out that the organizers did a good job routing the trails to make the hills more gradual for the event and my concerns evaporated.

Tractor-pulling dog

Because of the barking (including Mellie, the darn dog) I could not understand what was going to happen at the start area, which was quite narrow. The three first teams lined up abreast and were sent off, Mellie, who saw this from the third row went right after them. The officials jumped in the way and I looped back where they asked us to take of immediately. By now, Mellie was confused and had to be coaxed across the starting line. Once we got going she took things and the tow rope into her muzzle and we got going at a good clip.

That dog's got sisu! The first couple hundred meters I'm always pulled by
mouth. (Picture at Skinnyski.com by Marc Lahtinen)

Mellie's pulling the rope with her mouth got us delighted cheers from the spectators in the starting area. The woman who started with us had some trouble getting her dog to stay on the trail, whenever there was a turn, of which there were many, the dog wanted to go straight. We soon left her behind. We even caught up to a few people who left ahead of us or who had passed. Chris Sachs, one of of our sometime Sisu coaches and his German shorthair left us in the dust (and ended up winning the race).

Working hard



Fun with the turns. What a dog! (Thanks to Sarah Gutknecht for letting me
post this photo!)

Closing in on rivals

We actually had fun on the curvy trail, I just wish the snow had been a little better. In places, the sugar was ankle deep and the skis sank like in quicksand. Avoiding the occasional fallen skier added to the excitement. Mellie kept pulling hard during the first lap and about three quarters of the second. Only on the last hill did she slow down but did not hold me back. Great race, even though our nemeses Dallas and Comet Johnson and my doppelganger Chris Franken finished ahead of us.

Almost there!

Results

A nice video from Youtube. Mellie and I are about 2:08 min. into the video, look for the sweaty bearded guy with bad hair.

Sisu Ski Fest Marathon

I had signed up early to participate again in the Heikki Lunta Half Marathon in Ironwood, MI and planned to do the Birkie this year when I realized in September that the Birkie has 9000 participants. Since I am not one for big crowds, I switched from the half to the full distance when I got a re-confirmation email from the race organizer. As the date approached I became a little worried of having committed to the longer distance. On on side, the lack of snow and consequent missed opportunity to have long distance training sessions worried me, but on the other I had participated in one of Sisu Skier's Year-Round groups and also trained some on the Twin Cities' various man-made snow trails (Theodore Wirth, Green Acres and Elm Creek Park Reserve). On the last weekend prior to the race I had a couple of fast and long (25+ km) sessions at Elm Creek, and the only reason this did not cemented my confidence was the fact that there were no hills.

I had come across the Sisu Ski Fest because it coincides with our traditional ski weekend together with four families of the Lexau clan, which has been going on for more than 20 years at one location or another, the past half dozen years or so, when we escaped the multi-year snow drought in the Cable, WI area. When I arrived in Ironwood, I heard that the trail conditions were soft again, due to the 18" of snow the area received in the past couple of days. However, it was still much better than the previous year.

Joel kindly gave me a ride to ABR and took the "before" picture. I did a few warm-up lengths and immediately noticed that the base felt soft and the skis felt slow. I wondered whether the Rex LF Black plus  RCF White had been the right combination. I spent some time in the warming house, waiting for the departure of the freestyle 42K. It came quickly enough, as I walked out, the Elites were sent on their way with the blast of a shotgun. Ten minutes later it was my turn. I started farther back in the pack, not wanting to get into some sort of a pile up. But no worries, there weren't that many in the second wave and the field stretched out quickly.

Fairly early in the game, no ice in the whiskers yet. (Photo: Linda Slining)

I did not have very good glide but I was hanging in there. Soon, we were doing the Peltonen Pass Out outside loop for the first time and the steep uphills were testing my cardiovascular system. The soft snow was rather helpful during the equally steep downhills, providing good control in the sharp turns. I heeded coach Ben's warning "Snowplows will be shot on sight" and quick-stepped on the outside of the turns. Overall it seemed that I was doing generally better during the downhills, open field and gradual climbs while I was really struggling during the steep climbs. I am generally a strong climber and wonder whether everyone else had better hill training or better glide wax.

I took one small tumble on the Coyote Canyon loop, near km 13 or so, a moment of inattention. I was back up quickly enough and unscathed, but the incident left me winded. I took a moment at he km 14 aid station to suck my first gel pack and drink a couple of cups of water.

Beginning to pass the classic skiers who started 30 minutes before us in Coyote
Canyon. Told #115 that he must be my Doppelgänger because of the orange top.
(Photos: Linda Slining)

The climbs were moderate, until we returned for a second round of Peltonen Pass Out. Boy, those were hard and I was glad when we moved onto the easier portions at the north end of ABR and then into Norrie Park and the long stretch connecting to the east side of Ironwood. I started also to notice a soreness on the outside portion of my right deltoid muscle, which stayed with me for the remainder of the race.

I was mostly skiing by myself now, only occasionally catching up to another skier or being caught by a pursuer. A couple of the elite classic skiers from the 21K event caught up with me, and as I reached the outskirts of town, some of the skaters passed. I did quite alright and I passed one of the skiers with whom I had been playing tag when he took a breather at the bottom of a hill. Feeling rather cocky and knowing that I only had about 3 km left, I kicked it up a notch. Maybe I shouldn't have, as all of a sudden I felt the start of a cramp on my right inner thigh. I immediately slowed down and a group of four skiers including the guy I had just passed zipped by. This was the last serious uphill of the race and I was cautious not to aggravate the cramp. By the time I made it to the top, the cramp had subsided but the group was too far away for me to catch them. So I did my best to make an effort on the last 1000 m through the city of Ironwood.

Passing the "Finnish" line. Must have left my form behind where I started to
cramp up. (Photo: Joel Alter)

 I was glad to pass the "Finnish" line, glad for the helpful volunteers undoing my skis and for Joel's friendly face and camera work. I was tired and sore but had no trouble walking to the place were our gear packs awaited our arrival. I quickly changed into a dry top, impressed with the good organization which included ministrations to an exhausted skier who looked who was shaking and looked rather grey in the face.

As evidenced by the frost I kept my cool throughout the race. Thank you for
operating my camera, Joel!

I was rather behind on my expectations for myself and I am not sure where I was lacking. The snow was a lot better than during the previous year, even doubling the distance, I improved my pace by 15 seconds from 4:56 min/km to 4:41 min/km (4:34 min/km for the first half, which was much hillier than the actual half marathon distance).  Of course, the snow conditions were quite a bit better than last year but I do hope that part of the improvement is due to my Sisu Year-Round group's relentless work on technique and specific strength and endurance training.

Another disappointment was that I finished farther down in the field as I expected. (see the results, here, Individual and Full) My expectations must have been way too high, all I had for comparison was my one other race, last year's Heikki Lunta Half Marathon, an altogether different distance and a much smaller group of competitors. Based on the first half of my race I would have finished in the middle of the pack of my age group and closer to the top tier in the men's division. So this is a learning experience and I do have to work on improving my long distance performance.

Sadly, I am not sure whether I will make the Sisu Ski Fest next year, as it is held on January 12, on the weekend before Martin Luther King Holiday, which falls on the 21st in 2013.

This was a success, after all, I am not doing this to do better than others but to improve myself. I finished the race, was able to walk away from it and put in a nice 11 km loop with quite a few good climbs in the Wolverine Nordic Ski Area the very next morning. I do have to say that the glide was much better ...

Arctic Commando Trail Run 2011

For the last three years I have been looking forward to the Arctic Commando Trail Run. "Arctic Commandos" is the nickname of St. Paul Central Sr. High Schools XC Ski Team and for the last four years they have been conducting a trail race at Battle Creek West in which I have participated every year. Since I started blogging, I wrote about it, too (see here). Outside of orienteering I do not participate in any sanctioned running events except for this trail run. I like the low-key atmosphere, the absence of crowds and the challenging terrain. In the past, the 5k loosely followed the ski trails at Battle Creek, occasionally switching to the single-track MTB trails. This year, the Sisu Nordic Ski Foundation worked hard at pulling a sanctioned event to this location and the 2.5 km and 5 km loops were homologated by the International Ski Federation and by the US Ski and Snowboard Association and the runners followed the new loops, benefiting from an additional 20 m of climb. (Ben Popp of Sisu said during last Thursday's Year Round Group that Doing 50k (or 10 laps) at Battle Creek at m will trump the Birkie's 1188 m easily with its 1900 m of climb, though I do not know whether I'd want to do 10 laps of anything, hills or no hills.

Off we go on this beautiful late fall day.
(Photo courtesy of  Ed Swain, available at skinnyski.com)

It looked like a good crowd again, a new record, according to co-organizer John Kendrick. It's good to see so many young kids participating in physical activity. We lined up across a wide open area just before the finish, as always slightly chaotic. And off we were. One guy took off like a rocket, he ended up winning, a good 7 minutes ahead of me. There were the usual suspects, athletes younger and/or faster than myself, that started to build a distance between me and them. I passed John, with whom I had a friendly rivalry over the previous years. Until now I had been able to keep him at bay.

Working hard to keep the next generation and some competitors closer to my
own age at bay (Photo courtesy of  Ed Swain, available at skinnyski.com) 

One guy passed me confidently on the slight incline early on in the race. I let him go but caught up with him on the next hill. we stayed together on the down hill and when, approaching the next upward slope I heard him mutter "what, another hill?" I knew he wasn't going to be serious competition, since this was just the third out of seven or eight serious climbs. During the next climb, one of the young 2-milers challenged me. He looked like 10 and when I checked the results, he turned out to be eleven. We ran together till the split, he having the advantage climbing and me, taking it back on the downhills, thanks to my longer legs. He will doubtlessly have a career in xc running and track, a talented athlete.

I did the initial 2.5 km at a 4:34 pace, then I stared slowing down and that's when John K overtook me. I could not keep up and regretfully had to let him go. I finished in 26:06, with a pace of 4:58. As usual during peak efforts like this I started suffering from a runny nose. But it felt good to have participated, Improving my pace over that of previous years, in spite of the added climb and the slightly longer course. If there was a regret, it was not having Colin's (my older son) classmates cheering me on from the sidelines. They have all graduated from Central ...

The results are available at www.skinnyski.com, as are a series of photos of the event.

Link to all Arctic Commando trail runs.

Lake Maria Orienteering Meet, Red Course

I don't generally get disheartened with my blunders during O races, but this time I did. I had few if any problems on the well-laid-out course at Lake Maria SP until I got to CP11.

On the long leg to CP11 I had decided to play it safe and run the last portion on the trail a little NE of the connecting line. I chose the man-made feature (a bench) at the T intersection/clearing as my attack point. When I got there I made the decision to follow the trail west and to attack from where the trail veers from NW to due W. I think this may have been my main mistake. As it often happens, it was hard to tell where exactly the trail veered west and of course, I did not find the wetland withe CP 11. I made matters worse by searching for about 10 minutes until I finally gave up and returned to the intersection with park bench. Now I took a careful bearing and walked straight to the CP, which took exactly 2 minutes.

My self-confidence badly shaken by my search for CP11, I was probably overly cautious when heading for CP12. I wanted to be sure I took the right approach and hesitated to take the path towards the road. When I finally started moving down, I had to stop at a tight spot to let a group of about a dozen horseback riders pass. I found the CP without much further ado but decided to see if the wetland to the N was crossable. It was not, given the thick vegetation this was another few minutes lost.

My last blunder was on the home stretch. After punching CP14, I did not take a careful bearing (not that it had to be very careful) and ended up on the trail moving almost due W from the Finish. Instead of heading home, I took the opposite direction. This was definitely my worst run of the year.

Orienteering: Minnegoat at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park

I went to bed at a reasonable time but ended waking up at 1:30, tossing and turning till about 4:00. The 5 AM alarm chased me out of bed and after some coffee, a breakfast of leftover Thai and a banana/protein shake I hit the road. The farther north I got, the wetter it got. By the time I reached Onamia a fine drizzle was falling.

Start and finish were at the horse camp a few trailers were there and things were just getting going. The MNOC members who had spent the nigh were gearing up and others, like me, were arriving.The first guy I saw was Andrei, he was still in shorts and flipflops. He had don the day 1 races and warned me that the terrain was quite technical, but also that the woods were open and runnable.

The half hour between my arrival and the pre-race meeting went by fast. A couple of labs around the parking lot and some stretches and we were lining up at the start. Apparently the organizers were a little worried over having enough maps for everyone. Extra benefit of doing the online registration: getting in line first to get dibs on a map, welded into plastic no less.

But there were maps for everyone and when the countdown was over, everyone picked up their map and the mad dash for this mass start began. Even by CP1, the crowd had started to stretch out and there was hardly a wait to punch. Mass starts do invariably cause some small groups to form. I was with Todd Peterson, Pete Wentzel, Chris Svoboda from Chicagoland and another couple guys for a while. Pete dropped us at CP6 or so and a guy whose name I do not know fell in a deep mud hole between CP9 and 10. It was one of the very few stretches where one could actually gain some by following a trail for a couple hundred meters. For inexplicable reasons he was a few meters off the trail as we crossed what looked like a dry creek bed. He sunk up to his hip and followed up with a nice belly flop. Man, am I glad that wasn't me. I arrived at the map exchange together with Todd, a Canadian fellow and the Chicagoan. I took a few sips of water, a nip of nut bar and off I went, deciding to leave my hydration pack behind. I went with the Canadian for a while and lost him someplace. Todd and Chris passed me. I found myself alone, especially after I did the one permitted skip from 7 straight to nine.

By now I started regretting that I had not taken more time at the map exchange to eat some more and to take the water along. I was running low on fuel and I felt it. I reached CP10 together with Todd, who had skipped 9. Since Todd runs better than me, I assume that I made a good choice skipping CP7.

I did not even try to match Todd's pace and instead concentrated on not making any mapping errors. Everything went well till I was closing in on CP13. Somehow I misread the map thinking that the small wetland was on top of a hill. That's where I looked for at least 5 minutes, losing precious time. I revisited the map and finally noticed the depression indicators. What a bummer. I have to face the music and get the magnifier for my Moscompass. I saw Chris S waving his bifocal running glasses at me when they were fogging up and Julia, who wears flip-ups on a pair of racquetball goggles told me about the fogging, too.

The rest was a breeze, I am very glad I made it!

Some final thoughts:

I thought that the course layout was excellent. As mentioned above, there was hardly ever a way to follow trails, streams, even contours. The terrain provided handrails in form of the many wetlands, but they were varied enough to keep me on my toes. I do prefer the regular O format but I do understand that with a long event like a goat it would take forever.

Results: 9th of 15, 2:47:40, see also MNOC 2011 Minnegoat Results

Orienteering at Chester Woods Park, Eyota, MN

Brand-new map in Chester Woods Park, near Eyota, MN, less than 20 miles E of Rochester. On a gorgeous Saturday morning I drove down there from the cities. Quite a few MNOC runners made it down here, from the looks of it a few were camping here, too. I chatted with Andrei about his August packed with a trip to Utah (hiking), South Dakota and Wyoming (orienteering). The pictures posted on FB were gorgeous and made me want to go.

After gearing up, I ambled to the start and got going. To get to CP1, it looked like I needed to round the northern arm of the lake. I am saying "it looked like" because there is a bridge from the first parking lot inside the park. I noticed the bridge where the park road goes along the lake and I even remembered having seen it when entering the park, but by then I felt it was a wash to return or continue on around the lake. In hindsight, I should have checked the map again and returned, I think I cut have cut a couple hundred meters from my first leg. Other than that, CP 1, 2, 3 and 4 did not present any challenge.

Andrei, who had started behind me caught up at CP4 and went straight up the hill where I decided to follow the trail, making a hairpin turn and climbing more gradually. I followed the left fork of the trail till where it exited the dark green on the map. here, I followed the vegetation boundary and got to CP5 without too much delay. I rejoined the trail, missing the remnants of another trail heading straight for CP6. I eventually found the trail and went straight for the CP, passing it a couple of times without seeing it. This is probably the one place where I lost most time. Instead of looking for the overgrown trail, I might have been better off to follow the contours N from the open area. but who knows, the woods were pretty thick here, too.

I also wasted some time at CP7, but not too much. CP 8, 9 and 10 weren't too difficult either. It was exhausting but also pretty cool to run through the prairie, with grasses higher by a few inches than my 6 ft towards CP9, a very obvious single tree. I might have been better off following the trail closing in and coming back out. Again, hard to tell. CP11 did not present any navigational challenges either but again, the last stretch through "open" terrain was the hardest. Here, very tall yellow flowers probably Jerusalem artichokes grew even taller than 2 m grasses I had encountered earlier. The understory was formed by some kind of golden rod, in keeping with the theme of yellow and green. More striking even than the the yellow were a few blotches of blue, soapwort or closed gentian. The air was filled by the buzzing of many bees and other insects and butterflies were lazily fluttering through the sun-heated air. All of this impeded my progress but delighted my senses.

CP12 and 13 were easy, this time I DID take the foot bridge. CP14 and15 weren't that difficult either, but I was slowing down. I had not worn my Inov-8 Mudclaws since the spring and, together with the thick socks I was wearing they started two nasty heel blisters.

All in all, I am glad that I did not completely mess up any of the CPs. One of the advantages taking it a little easier on tempo, but probably also a testament to the somewhat easier course.

Orienteering at Nerstrand Big Woods State Park (Red Course)

2011 MNOC spring orienteering meets seem to be marked by water. It rained yesterday during the day, at night, overnight and this morning. It rained hard during the drive to Northfield and more rain from Northfield to the Big Woods. I hurried putting my O-gear on in the parking lot, unsuccessfully trying to dodge raindrops. I hurried to the shelter for registration and to the tent where I waited for my start. As I started the clock at 11:18 the rain stopped but I knew full well that this would be a wet one anyway.

The short jog across the parking lot should be one of the few dry areas I would encounter during this meet. As I dropped into the first valley, the runoff from the from the parking lot stayed with me. In spite of the steep grade there was standing water everywhere. Game trails and later park paths were worse, typically sporting ankle-deep water. I jumped the creek, from a high bank to a sandy area, delaying fording for a while. I hit CP1 square on the nose. Following the lead of an ROTC kid, I used a downed tree to delay fording some more. CP2 was not difficult either and CP3 didn't seem difficult either. Boy, was I wrong.

I had promised myself after the last meet that I would take the initial controls easy, but I must have thrown caution to the wind after success at the the easy CP1 and 2. Somehow I veered too far to the east and got completely turned around. I finally found my bearings again near the falls/dam on the creek. I made 2 extra kilometers and lost about 25 minutes. Major bummer, but as usually in orienteering I had only myself to blame.

Fortunately and as usual, things were looking up from here. I have a sense that the more out of breath I am the better my brain works, I have to put this to a test sometime, maybe by running a Yellow before my main event. The route I plotted to CP4 worked beautifully, following one of the submerged trails. I was on the right track to CP5 as well, aiming for the corner of a rectangular open area. I was looking for the ruined fence and thought I had to move a little further east when the fence told me by way of a deep gash that I had arrived. No further issues with CP5, CP6 through 11 were easy, too.The constant sloshing through water and muck were starting to take their toll on me, though. I made one odd observation at CP9, which was a fork in a stream: one of the arms of the stream had a completely dry albeit soft sandy bottom.

I think that going from CP11 to 12 I made the wrong route choice by returning to the trail and bridge instead of wading across and taking the direct route, using the edge of the plateau to move towards CP12. I did find it without difficulties and had except for starting to feel quite exhausted no trouble with CP13 and the finish either.

Running the course in 2:03:41, I finished 11th out of 25. My one major screw up on CP3 cost me at least 25 minutes and 3-5 places . Learn to live another day ... See results here.



Spent, at the finish. Photo courtesy of Andrei Karpoff

My Inov8 Mudclaw 330 did not give me any trouble this time in spite of constant immersion in water, mud and several waded stream crossings. They collected quite a bit of silt and sand on the way, which did not bother me. The deepest stretch of wading was from CP5 to 6, where the water reached up to my waist.  Despite the wetness and my poor performance from CP2 to 3, I liked the the course a lot.

Orienteering at Lake Elmo Park Reserve

Great day for the meet at Lake Elmo: steady driving rain and fortunately not too cold. It seemed like getting into a cold pool or lake before a swim workout: the initial moments were chill but when the blood started pumping through my veins it felt not bad at all.

Tom and I left at around the same time, Tom doing orange and I did the red. As usual, I needed to warm up my brain rather than my body: I overshot CP1 in spite of some clear vegetation boundaries that should have been easy to pick up and follow. I muddled around, backtracked and need 8+ minutes for a distance that should have taken me no more than 2-3'. The split analysis confirms it: finishing 15th overall, my split for the first control was second to last. Reminder to self: WALK to the first couple of CPs (or to more technical CPs) after getting to the attack point. I hit the attack point right on and did not take the time to move to fine orienteering. I am making this mistake all the time, especially early on a course.

I think I made the wrong choice at CP3, going  the long way around the pond. But I am not sure, since I would have had to go through a rough area the shorter way.

CP4 to CP9 were easy. There are not many places with this type of open land. I appreciated the fact that the flags were not visible from afar, but picking a beacon in the distance for a bearing was never difficult and the grass had not yet grown to be a hindrance.

CP9 required a weighty decision: "dry" (by now there wasn't a dry spot left on my body) detour around the north end of Eagle Point Lake or wading through a "Crossable: deepest point 2.5 ft" strait, promising a slightly more direct route. I think I made the correct decision by picking the northern route, which seemed just barely longer. Gregg, a much stronger runner and orienteerer (he passed me at CP12) than me asked me after the race if I had swum.  I didn't get it right away, I thought he was making a joke on the weather but he meant the strait, which he had crossed wading with water up to his waist. His split for the leg was 7:23 (12th) to my 8:35 (14th). Not sure how much of this can be attributed to his overall higher speed or the wet shortcut.

On the leg between CP9 and and CP10 I ran into Tom, who had overshot one of his CPs. It does not happen very often to meet a friend who is doing a different course, though I had met my colleague Bryan  at Lake Elmo a couple years back. Maybe due to the open terrain?

CP11 was less than good, I should have done a better job taking a bearing instead of using the wetland to my NE as a handrail. I was too far E from the pond and consequently had to make a short correction W to get to the CP. CP12 was OK, but I second-guessed myself on the footpath I took from the roundabout parking area, losing a minute or two. My problem was again the transition from rough to fine orienteering. The short loop sequence of CP12 to CP16 was straightforward, helped by the contours an open terrain. I could have probably done better from CP17 to the finish, remaining on the trail instead of bushwhacking it.

In the end, I finished 15th out of 39 starters, see results here.

Some gear notes:

• I continue to be impressed with the responsiveness of my Sportident SI-9 e-punch stick. Much faster then the loaners from the club. Ian programmed it after today's meet. 
• On this wet day my Inov-8 Mudclaw 330 gave me a blister on the left heel, after a few races without any trouble, including the snowy Arctic Commando Trail Run last fall and the Tamarack Nature Center O-meet this spring.