Training Log Archive: W

The hardest part of the race was finding the start triangle. After that, I felt like I was lost the entire time. Although it looks relatively easy, the Whistler village map was quite tough because everything seemed to happen so fast. I was most definitely unclear on where I was coming into 5 and 8-9. I think I took several weak routes, too, including 7-8 and 11-12. But, it wasn't all bad, I think that taking the stairs from 10-11 was a solid choice and I had that figured out before arriving to 10. I also wisely invested time from 3-4 by coming to a full stop and figuring out exactly where 4 was, which was the undoing for a great number of people.

I didn't feel the fittest I've ever been, but I tried to channel advice and whenever I felt I needed to hurry I just relaxed a bit and tried to smooth my stride out. However, I'd like to see myself to a bit more planning during some straight running, such as between 10-11 and 14-15 and especially 19-20. I think I would have saved a few seconds on the following legs if I'd done that.

All things considered, though. A solid, if unspectacular race.

Sprint M21E - Splits

Event: 2014 Canadian Champs
 

Nationals Middle, the one national championship that has eluded me thus far.

The rumours were flying around at the arena about how difficult, both physically and technically, this was going to be. Certainly the finish chute suggested it really, really would be. It was twisty uphill sprint with some rocks, logs to jump, and basically a cliff halfway. If the finish is that gnarly, the rest of the course must've been!

I actually found, while running on the warm-up map, that it wasn't so bad, because the mapping was so ludicrously good. Distinguishing between rocks and non-rocks, cliffs and non-cliffs, small marshes, plateaus, it all made sense. It seemed quite easy to completely botch it since it was quite difficult, but I never felt like anything was ambiguous or misleading.

Ultimately, my undoing to Thomas was that I was being too careful. I tried to stay in the moment and not get too ahead of myself, but that required to scale everything back very much, and I also missed key information that would have saved time, especially at 12 when I didn't grasp the sheer size of the hill behind the control, which was so distinct that it should have made finding that particular control a cakewalk. But, I stopped too high and wasted 20 seconds standing still.

I didn't lose that kind of time on many other controls, but there was simply quite a bit of stopping and walking, double-checking, and being sure, possible to an excess. It wasn't feature paranoia, which is good, but I'd still like to be better so I could walk slightly further out on the razor with the confident of not falling off.

Another question, why don't I race like this in Europe? Criminy.

Middle M21E - Splits

Geez, that was a lot of driving. Used Thursday to work and pack and drive to Canmore, then spent most of Friday driving from Canmore to Whistler. I will say, the road from Cache Creek to Whistler is both pretty fun and pretty amazing. The part with the huge canyon with the ? river is quite amazing, and the rest just wanted me to take up (virtual) rally driving again.

But, I finally finally got Whistler and had a chance to toodle off to the training map at Lost Lake, which is apparently not relevant for either races, but, whatever! I found myself distracted and not focused, so I felt that needed to be remedied for tomorrow's Middle.

Shock and awe: it DID!

Orienteering-ish at Whitemud. A "Pick your own course" night, which... umm... well I probably shouldn't go into too much detail.

Nice night for a trail run though. And road run. But definitely not orienteering. Ohhhhh well.

Yesterday I had quite the headache. I assume it was the heat, but I was quite concerned I was getting sick, so I came home from the office and pounded back like 4 litres of water and lay in the basement.

By Tuesday, I was feeling a bit better, better enough to venture out in the heat and go for a nice little run. Generally I felt fine, though it truly is bloomin' hot out here. Venice hot, which, for anyone that was there, was pretty hot. Far less gelato, though.