Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Event: CascadeOC Bog Slog
 

10:25/km

Bog Slog 2016!

Very cold at the start with temps hovering at or near freezing. Started out with Eric and Peteris; E and myself bobbled 3 (one reentrant too early) which allowed P to punch first, then we all split up to 4. Met back up w/Eric into 4, but never saw P again. With E through 9 (we both overran 9 for ~90s loss), then I got confused by a weird trail junction on the way to 10 and fell about 30s back. Tried to hustle and close up, but lost contact with E other than a brief sighting up the hill leaving 10.

Elected to go straight for 11 but drifted right off my line and hit the marsh, losing a bit of time. Hit 11/12/13 well, and was surprised to see Eric coming back down from of 13, estimated it as only 60-90s ahead. Tried to push it to 14 on the chance he made a mistake, and sure enough caught sight of him searching for 14 below me. Bobbled 14 slightly, but spiked 15 and caught fully up, only to stupidly run the wrong way for 10s or so after hitting the trail and fall behind again.

Had glimpses of E on the way to 16; looked like he was choosing to go down and around on the trail, but I didn't like the extra distance and climb so I contoured in, which turned out to be a great choice. Punched 16 with no sign of E; didn't know if he was ahead or behind. Headed for 17 alone; after a bit heard a crack and looked back and there he is. We punched 17 together, but he was stronger on the long downhill trail run and got me by 27s.

Really fun Bog Slog course and a good battle. Had I prevailed, this would have substantially increased my record for longest race (by time) I've ever beaten Eric on. Current record is 74:25.

From the purely self-centered perspective, I care not a whit whether OUSA supports me financially. I view orienteering as a hobby, a pursuit I undertake for enjoyment which generally costs me however much money I want to put into it - like stamp collecting, birdwatching, or fishing (full disclosure - I do none of those things). I'm happy to support myself in orienteering because I've made the choice not to sacrifice other life things (full-time job, career, etc.) for orienteering. This has led me to be a worse orienteer than I could have otherwise become, but I'm good with that too because it's part of the choice.

In other words, I've sacrificed little, therefore I expect to receive little in return - but it's a different calculus for those who have and continue to choose to make the sacrifices, who aim for higher goals for themselves and as a representative of the sport in the US. Surely they deserve some half-decent level of support from OUSA? Very troubling.

Circumnavigation of the northern half/two-thirds of Lake WA. First 4-5 miles were a little rough but once the legs loosened up things went better. Cold out, but dry. Two best downhills around Seattle are Perkins Way from 15th down to LFP Center and Juanita Dr from St. Ed's down to JBay Park.

Pretty beat after about 35mi. I definitely don't have the genes or mental makeup to be an endurance athlete, and I have great respect and awe for those who can crank out mile after mile at 20+ or 6- like it's nothing.

Merry Xmas y'all. All I want for Christmas is two working knees :)

Event: CascadeOC Winter Series & School League #4
 

Winter Series 4 @ Hamlin Park. A disappointing third place, as I thought I had a solid race - but J and Bonesaw ran better ones and got me by 2:24 and 1:14 respectively. I was smashing early on, especially in the first forest bit, and was in the lead through 10, but messed up my exit direction and lost ~55s on 11. Also I took two "around" route choices to avoid climb and forest running (8-9 and 13-14) which appear to have been suboptimal. This is interesting because 95% of the time around here the "straight or around" calculus is pretty heavily weighted in favor of "around" unless the difference in distance is quite substantial. In this case I failed to account for Hamlin's exceptionally high forest runnability, nor did I realize the contours were 3m.

Also lost 20s (AKA the rest of Eric's margin on me) on 15 due to a curious situation which stemmed from the fact that the map is originally ISOM, but the school bits had been updated with ISSOM. 15 was situated on the far side of a set of tennis courts on the outskirts of one of said ISSOM school areas. These tennis courts are mapped as pavement with uncrossable fences, with no gaps. In reality, there were several open gates into and out of the tennis courts such that you could cut substantial distance (say, 20s worth) by taking the gates vs. going around. So, is it legal to take these gates? As far as I can make out, ISOM would say yes, while ISSOM would say no. Maybe the scale of the map should dictate, you say? It's a 1:7500 map, ha. Ah, the wild wild west, where we make up our own rules as we go!

Haven't orienteered at Hamlin since my WIOL days, really enjoyed the course. It's the only place in or immediately near Seattle which offers some true white forest of the type someone not from the NW would recognize as such, where you can use a compass like it's meant to be used.

C • out and around 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HSRY1NkgME&fe...
La mapa

Sprint Qual @ the Presidio. This was the only race of the weekend I felt physically able to do some attacking rather than merely slogging. Made one ~10s mistake on 17, which was silly because I ran right past it on the way to 3 (clearly visible on GoPro) but failed to note its location - then sure enough ran to the wrong corner.

La mapa

Sprint Final. Legs pretty cooked about halfway through.

Presidio Sprint Qualification - Splits

Presidio Sprint A Final - Splits

Presidio Sprint Qualification M-21+ - Splits

Event: Street Scramble At The Market
 

GGP Sprint Tourney, Round 1

GGP Sprint Tourney, Round 2

GGP Sprint Tourney, Round 3/Final
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uUNKSqFyr0
La mapa

No real mistakes but pretty sloppy; needlessly lost a handful of seconds in several places, mainly due to poor reading ahead. Got smoked by a college-age Brit. Pretty rainy most of the day but about 20 degrees warmer than Seattle so I wasn't complaining.

In addition to being slow and out of running shape right now, I also acquired a cold this past week, so I'm feeling less than my best. #excusesfordays

C • Video 4

GG Park Sprint Tournament Round 2 Heat B - Splits

GG Park Sprint Tournament Round 1 Heat 1 - Splits

GG Park Sprint Tournament Round 3 Final - Splits

Event: BAOC: Sprint San Francisco
 

Night relay (combo of two ~10min legs). I'm bad at night orienteering.

GoPro-age from yesterday's race, with cameos from APers Run_Bosco and cmpbllv.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWreOcgExyI&fe...

+LeRouteGadget: http://rg.cascadeoc.org/rg2/#165&course=5&...

C • Nice 2

Event: CascadeOC Winter Series & School League #3
 

Winter Series 3 @ Shoreview Park. Quite slow as to be expected given current fitness, but an okay run otherwise. Nice course by Patrick. The J smoked me by about 3min, but surprisingly I pipped the Bonesaw by 4s for second.

Most importantly, no knee pain.

I started about a minute behind a new guy name of Dusty Caseria, who I'd seen at a couple events but hadn't met. I caught up to him at 2 and then we were back and forth several times throughout. I was impressed by his fitness; he ran away from me twice in the physical sections but was also more erratic. Chatted a bit afterward and turns out he's an Icebug-sponsored adventure racer and former college XC runner who's only ever been to four or five proper orienteering events, and is still in the "learning what all these weird symbols mean" phase - yet can already come within 90s or whatever of Bonesaw and myself on a map new to him but extremely familiar to us. He seems interested in more orienteering - particularly longer races (I have a feeling this guy would be deadly in a Goat). Maybe the Next Big Thing for Cascade?

Today I wore my Cascade jacket for the ride and a coworker compared me to the red Power Ranger; this is notable because it independently corroborates the opinion of someone else (I forget who) who has previously made the same comparison.

C • Legion of Boom 3

C • Go Power Rangers! 1