Bike Ride to Work at TR West in Eagan

Rode to work for the first time since August 8 of last year! And what a wonderful morning. Left our house at 6:00 AM sharp. The river, other bodies of water and the park along Interstate 35E between Lillydale and Hwy 110 were covered in a light mist which, in the first hour of daylight, gave the landscape a dreamy quality. I am so glad I had my rear wheel trued and the missing spokes replaced. What a difference that made, though I was with just under an hour more than six minutes slower than last time I did this stretch. Must get my bike legs again I guess ...


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By the way, the ride home was much better, in spite of headwind, higher temps and more traffic, almost 5 minutes. Why? (a) I discovered that the rear wheel was misaligned and scraped along the fork. Like riding with the breaks engaged. (b) Hit some lights (Hwy 110, Sheppard Road and W 7th) in a very opportune way. Does not happen very often and these can be real stinkers. (c) Tried to keep up to, pass and shake off some hard-core recreational bikers. Not bad for my 30+ year old steel Schwinn Super LeTour II! (d) Bicycle legs coming in early? I would hope so but we'll talk about that next time I take the trip.

"Candenza Music Run" North Loop

At Mississippi went right (or north) instead of left. Ran along the Town and Country Club on both its western and northern edge. Then along the freeway through Desnoyer neighborhood. That must sound rather drab, but it is much more quaint and quiet compared to the southern loop along Summit.


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Snelling to East River Rd. or the "Cadenza Music Jog"

This is a stretch I run when James or Colin have take their music lesson at Cadenza Music (the "dungeon of music") on Snelling, across from O'Gara's. Now I could be going to O'gara's to read a book and have a couple of cold ones while waiting for the boys to be done, but besides being publicans they are also REpublicans and I only give them my business when I have guests from the Old Country or when Mischke is playing. More to the point, it would also get expensive to drink a beer instead of just waiting in the car--or going for a run.

There are a couple of issues with this stretch:

1. Three fairly busy roads intersect the run: Fairview, Cleveland and Cretin. And since they each intersect the entire city, I am hitting them twice each. They do provide a nice way to introduce some variation in speed: slow down for a red light or put the pedal to the metal when it's green.
2. There is downhill and return is uphill. No big deal because it's very gradual but there is a psychological effect. I guess this needs to be part of training, too.

Today it was cool and blustery. the Mellster was perky and wanted to check out every squirrel. On the other hand she was very good with her fellow running dogs, i.e. she kept going straight when crossing another canine companion runner.

For a variation I ran Exceter Pl. and saw Max, waved at him and he waved back.

Here is the stretch:


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Orienteering Sand Dunes State Forest

I did the red course, 13 controls 6.6 km as the crow flies. Super weather and leafless trees made this much easier than usual, but I was slow, as evidenced by the results. Nasty prickly ash brought some scratches on my forearms. Only had trouble with #10, which was only 200m from #9. I ended up starting over from #9 and carefully walking the stretch, counting steps. Even then it was not evident.

I used my new thumb compass for the first time. Until now, I had been using the Suunto Arrow 5. I did not like the Suunto because it would stick if not perfectly level. I decided to try the Moscompass Competitor Model 9 short thumb plate left (9XL). I found the short thumb plate very comfortable and after being taken aback by the size of the compass (it is "full" size, like a regular base-plate compass) liked that IT DID NOT STICK, which helped orienteering the map very much! Very happy with my purchase at http://www.866gaiters.com/, which also has a ton of links to useful and free orienteering information.


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Akumal-Laguna Legartos Jungle Jog

This is the trail Map at MotionBased, and this is my entry at Goolge Maps. This was fun, meant to get started jogging in hot weather and explore the area a little bit, Including Laguna Legartos. Even though I scouted out the trail head on the previous night, I needed three attempts on neighboring prseudo trails before I picked the correct one. Smooth sailing to the spur going to the Laguna and to another one, too. The trail is well defined and lined on its sides by lime stones. But pst the last spur to the Laguna it became more and more overgrown. My progress went from running to jogging to walking to bushwhacking. I finally gave up, surrounded by harp-pointed agave and entangled in thorny acacia, still seeing the trail continue in a straight line, about NNW. Returned via the beach from a little park.

Wardrobe Malapropism

Should be obvious by now that one of my secret pleasures is Nordic skiing, with or without canine companion. I have a variety of outfits, including my uncle Harry's 1970s vintage downhill racing bibs, made of spandex or something similar, which he donated to me when his belly grew too portly for this very snug-fitting garment. I like those because on the trail they make me look like I know what I'm doing (I do not) and because they have knee patches which are very nice in colder weather.

It was colder this last weekend and thusly I donned the navy "jet" pants, complemented by a pair of bright yellow (think lemon) ski boots. We dropped Colin of at the barber's with instructions to walk over to Target after being shorn, where we would pick him up. Pooch and I had a wonderful time in spite her repeated attempts to entangle me in the tow rope, and we managed two full laps at a decent clip on the Highland Golf Course track.

Back at the car I noticed that I forgot to pack the mobile phone which I had planned to use to reconnect with my offspring. No prob, I thought, I'll just walk to the Target customer service desk and call him from there, which I did. As I strode confidently across the parking lot I noticed a mom bending to her ten-year old pointing my way and talking to him behind her hand. Obviously I was not dressed for the occasion. Glances of this type came my way while I was on the premises. I was not intimidated, though and wore uncle Harry's trousers as a badge of honor.

When I was able to reach him, Colin had left already, allegedly because he was done with his shopping and did not want to wait around for me. The latter part I believe but I think he did not wait because he wanted to avoid being seen with his ol' man.

Conclusion: you are more prone to be noticed when you are in a sporting outfit than when you wear trousers with a crotch located at knee height, with nails, nose rings and other hardware stuck through various protuberances of your body, your hair in colors that cannot be found in nature, your skin adorned with pictures that would have made your second-grade teacher blush or with your belly-button exposed and your love-handles overrunning your too-tight jeans.

I think I will make a point to go shopping après-ski from now on, maybe I'll be famous one day!

Highland Moonlit Skijor

Highland Skijor
Mellie and I decided on a night time skijor while James was at hockey practice. At 3/4 moon I thought we'd have enough light. Unfortunately it was not, as evidenced by my erratic route veering from the groomed trail. Mellie was a bit distracted by bushes, trees, fellow skiers and finally a pair of good-sized deer that leapt across the trail. I yelled "bogeys incoming from two o'clock," unfortunately my "tail" gunner took this as an order to get into the pilot seat and took off after them, dragging me along. Other than that, beautiful!


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