Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Sage Stomp long! Fourth place behind Will, Eric, and a minute back of Magnus. I was really happy with my fitness relative to the field, considering that I generally don't do as well with longer distances. I lost 6-7 minutes and could have easily been close to Eric with a cleaner run.

The first eight controls went extremely well, including top splits on 7 and 8. I somehow got ahead of Nikolay, who had started two minutes earlier than me, on the way to 5, and saw Damian, who had started four minutes earlier, leaving 5 as I was coming in. I was thus encouraged, and endeavored to chase Damian down, which I managed to do at 8 after I took a more efficient route from 7.

The long leg was next, and my goal was to stick with Damian while doing my own navigating. It turns out that he is a very Speedy Canuck. As long as the leg required mere rough navigation, I was able to match him, but as soon as we got into the more technical area nearing the control he lost me, which would have been fine if I had not also lost me. I spent a couple minutes trying to reacquire my bearings, and then made a second, unrelated mistake before finding the control. D'oh!

Nikolay then caught up with me around 11, and we were together off and on for the rest of the course, me being ahead most of the time with him accordioning behind. Sometimes he was all "Will seems to know what he's doing right now" and others, "Well that's a real dumb thing Will's doing, I will go this much better way." I took very inefficient routes on 13 and 14 and lost time, but then hammered 15 and 16, which were both purely physical legs across open fields, and was second-fastest on both.

M21 (7) Long - Splits

Event: Sage Stomp
 

Sage Stomp sprint! Tied for third with Speedy Canuck Graeme Rennie behind his fellow Speedy Canucks Will Critchley and Damian Konotopetz.

I had a largely clean but physically unremarkable race, as evidenced by the fact that every one of my splits was somewhere from third to seventh. Hopefully this was a product of having just finished a 3.5-hour drive 15 minutes before starting the course. I was within a minute of Canadian Will (there is also Junior Will) at the top, so that's cool.

C • Every 60 minutes 2

Sage Stomp middle! Second place among a strong field. This was quite a technical area, with lots of smallish hilltops, some rock detail, and runnable woods of various densities. I was the last starter on Course 7, two minutes behind Nikolay, who I found at 2 and ran with for most of the course.

Side note - the map was extremely suspect in the area around the second control, and many people had big time loss here. There was an unmapped reentrant, and the correct reentrant was mapped poorly. I managed to come out of it with just a minute or so lost, as I managed to find the right reentrant reasonably well, but was somehow several contours low, which didn't make sense to me.

Some other problems with 6, 7, 11, and 13 - no major losses, but anywhere from 10-30s for each. These were mainly errors of contour interpretation and trying to read the map too quickly. I spent the last 80% of the course trying to run away from Nikolay, but each time I put space between us I made some mistake that allowed him to catch back up, which happened 3-4 times.

This course was fantastic practice for quick, pressurized map reading of detailed, technical terrain while moving at high speed - a combination of the attributes of a sprint and a middle. A sprinty middle! Or is it a middly sprint? I think we've invented a new O-discipline.

M21 Sprint - Splits

M21 Middle - Splits

A strange confluence of events has kept me from doing much training this week, including my bike not functioning, crazy work stuff, it being "hot" outside (lamest reason), and, as always, the existential struggle with my inner Blerch, who is constantly lurking somewhere beneath the surface. Sometimes I can push him very far down, but he is never not there.

I hope to do some good orienteering this weekend and get back after it next week.

Northwest University sprint, courtesy of Pink Socks. Recap soon!

C • recap? 1

If you won the lottery, what would be the very first thing you'd buy? Other than lame things like "a house" or "a minor league hockey team." I would immediately get a souped-up Tesla Model S.

Full disclosure - I would do this even if I did not win the lottery and I had 70-80 grand I didn't want anymore.

C • I'd buy... 1