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. 

Sisu Anaerobic Testing at the

Members of the new SISU D-Team and a couple of old guys from the masters' program (including myself) visited the University of Minnesota's Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene and Exercise Science for testing on Saturday to participate in Sisu's physiological testing session. We went through a set of evaluations, including VO2max, lactate, body composition, and Wingate.

I was actually a little nervous, not because I was afraid of the blood samples but because I had never run on a treadmill before. I had this vision of the machine going ever faster and finally ejecting me to the rear. After a quick tutorial I felt like I was ready to go.

VO2 max test (also maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake, peak oxygen uptake or maximal aerobic capacity)
A grad student came by to test a device that measures the oxygen level in the muscle. We should get a little bonus test that way!

Lactate Testing. Ben was pricking fingers while we subjects were on the treadmill. After doing this four times with 17 test subjects, I am sure he was more sore than we were.

Ben's pricking my finger to collect blood for the 

Body Composition test by hydrostatic weighing. The tech who did my measurement said 14% of body fat, that's excellent for a 50-year old male.

Wingate anaerobic 30 second test. I almost skipped that one, they called me back. 3' of low-resistance spinning, 10" sprint and then 30" as fast as you can with x% of bodyweight resistance. This test was short, but probably the hardest during this morning's session.

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!