Westside Run, from Boys & Girls' Club

Nice new place to run, While Colin and/or James are at soccer practice. It's along Hwy 52 but I don't see too much of it because it's heavily wooded. Good place to do some hill training. Next time I will try to make it down to the river to take a look at the pivot bridge.


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Orienteering at Lebanon Hills East

What a beautiful day! I did the red course, 8.4 km as the crow flies. Pretty happy with my result, placed in the middle of the pack: Lebanon Hills Results The controls were not too challenging, thanks to lakes, topography and an abundance of well established trails. I took my time to pick the best (not necessarily shortest) route and had no instances where I had a hard time finding the control. Hit a little less than hip-high fence at full speed and got an ugly gash on my thigh. It does not hurt and seems to be healing well. One odd thing was the prohibition to use the horse trails. I did not realize this until I noticed the red Xs when reading the map while jogging on one of them. I got off immediately. Rather this way than one of the guys who was stopped by a patrol on horse-back.


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Fort Snelling Run

Colin needed to be at Ft. Snelling fields 45 minutes before game start. Plenty of time for one of my favorite runs in the Twin Cities. Last year, one of the first time that Mellie came along, she treed a racoon! Today, she took a dip in the Mississippi and did some serious wading. Only negative: too close after dinner, there was quite a bit of sloshing going on ...


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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.