Training Log Archive: bgallup

still trying to dissect CP19 from the traverse. click through to embiggen.



Didn't want to torture the route in QR - but that's the best two-point fit i could make, based on the trails before and after. I don't think 18 was that far off, and I didn't drift off the trail like that, it was definitely a turn. I did, though, relocate off of the northern stone wall thinking it was the southern, and about a minute later realized the error. So I think the track's decent.

game plan going in was hit the trail, take a right on a trail (that would probably be vague) after the green on the right broke up, and after the trail flattened out a bit. i was walking up the cliff out of 18, tired, and my estimation of distance was total crap. i wasn't working too hard on estimating, either, thinking the trail junction was a solid bet. Got fooled by a whiteish gap after the medium green and thought it was a leaf-covered trail. Realized I had gone far enough north and started to wander east. Then I got caught up tracking Ernst in hopes he was being smarter. Gave up on that after a bit, relocated off of the (wrong) wall with Aaron, found a cliff where and when we should have, but I didn't realize how well our features (cliff 50m E of the S end of the wall) mirrored the control, and were just pissed. Eventually realized that we were at the bald rock with broken bits NE of the control, and were joined by katia and PG.

In the beginning, I should've realized that uphill was to the south, and not to the SE, meaning I was more NE than I should've been. A smarter Ben would've turned uphill, and either found the tiny hilltop just east of the control or recollected the trail, hit the spur, and put this thing in the bag. That Ben would've beaten Magnus the Magnemisis.

and it wouldn't be a special o event without gratuitious nerd-mongering. For the NAOC sprint, Clem estimated winning times based on expected paces and known leg lengths, with a different pace guessed for each leg. in the absence of route lengths, AP spits out times for each leg - times that seem like the average of the top three (or so, can't be bothered to actually figure that out). Back at the traverse, those times plus leg lengths equals winning paces:

Leg	Distance [m]	Fast Time	Fast Pace [m:s/km]
1	250	1:39	6:36
2	1360	9:00	6:37
3	880	6:16	7:07
4	420	4:04	9:41
5	370	2:27	6:37
6	980	8:26	8:36
7	1020	8:14	8:04
8	490	4:37	9:25
9	370	2:23	6:26
10	390	3:28	8:53
11	380	2:37	6:53
12	170	1:17	7:33
13	170	1:05	6:22
14	1180	9:22	7:56
15	940	6:16	6:40
16	240	2:07	8:49
17	140	0:59	7:01
18	880	6:58	7:55
19	340	5:14	15:24
20	610	5:07	8:23
21	870	5:47	6:39
F	140	0:40	4:46

Only outliers were 19 (a short leg starting with a steep climb and ending in technical terrain) and the finish (down a ski slope). 4 had a bit of a hill, too. There may be subtle insight about train-versus-bushwack or roundabout-versus-direct buried in there somewhere.

and then there's Ben:

Leg	Fast Pace	Ben Pace	Ben Lost
1	6:36	6:44
2	6:37	7:02
3	7:07	9:13	0:46
4	9:41	11:51
5	6:37	8:25
6	8:36	10:41	0:35
7	8:04	9:21
8	9:25	9:37
9	6:26	6:29
10	8:53	10:20
11	6:53	8:01
12	7:33	9:42
13	6:22	7:38
14	7:56	8:35
15	6:40	7:12
16	8:49	11:56
17	7:01	7:37
18	7:55	9:16
19	15:24	50:17	10:57
20	8:23	9:20
21	6:39	8:37	43
F	4:46	6:54

Far too lazy to color-code the cells, but there are a few legs of nearly hanging with the cool kids, a majority of ambivalent legs, and a few truly crap ones. So no news, but one more way to look at things, I guess.

Event: NEOC: Blue Hills Traverse
 

woo traverse! almost got magnus and tim, but blew it blundering around 19. i could feel it slipping away...

short version, one epic fustercluck on 19, one crap route choice, one meh route choice and three near-pin meanders.. back-and-forth with Aaron from 7 through the end. He was definitely the stronger runner, but I got back at him on micro- and medium- (meso-?) route choices.

1) Pushed out in front to avoid a conga line at the first pin. In right behind Ian.
2) Planned to take the southern trail, was curious what the Brothers were up to and followed them cross-country to the northern trail
3) End run around the north, drifted into the easement, caught the obvious terrain features (30s)
4) Back to the easement, up the hill third (or second-and-a-half, then third) left, to the hill. (20s)
5) Straight off the end of the trail. Not perfect at the end (15s)
6) Stupid route over the top. Not too slow, but a waste of energy. Bit of a wandering search party (Tim, Aaron, Will, Magnus, myself) at the stick. (2:00?)
7) Took the trail route north. Saw Aaron in the distance, made up some time cutting tangents. He was doing what I planned on, but he cut in a little late, on worse features. I just followed the spur.
8) Went off the apex of the trail, nailed. Aaron went a little low and fell behind.
9) Easement up to the drop, bang. Cut in a little early, to no loss.
10) Across the street, and stupidly up to the trail. Shoulda just went straight for it. Aaron stayed low, made up time, but I moved more decisively to the control. (30s)
11) Easy
12) Brief turn to 13. Nice. (10s)
13) Put some distance on Aaron. Drifted a little north, unexpected stone-wallish thing. (10s)
14) Solid trundle along the trail. Aaron finally caught up to me within meters of the flag.
15) Easy trail run, slowly losing distance to Aaron.
16) Took a second to reboot the o skills without any trails around. Went a little north, saw Aaron punching (20s)
17) Easy do
18) Saved a couple contours on Aaron, did some planning en route, and caught him right at the end.
19) Split up, both got epically lost, reunited saw ernst a number of times, PG and katia (caught ya?) caught up, we all punched together.
20) Trails. Dropped maybe 50m on Aaron.
21) Grinding it out. Passed Aaron in the woods when he took a wrong turn, got passed on the ski slopes. Tired knees hate downhills.
F) Man, slapping down this ski slope was the least fun finish leg ever.


Wish I had considered plain old running shoes instead of spikes. Took a bit of a beating. The entire map could use a sprinkling of rocky ground. Mapped rocky ground was a war zone. Some trails were brutal. Ate two gu. Very (very!) definitely helpful, but I'm worried I've killed my dog with the Gu-farts. Epic.


colorized splits. You know, in time for christmas. Got the Brothers Childs on a few splits, but only where they screwed up. Beat Magnus on a lot of splits. Just sayin'. Definitely didn't beat him on one, though.

interestingly, the bonus-paid-version-freebie at Winsplits for this race is the pack index

C • Quite happy seeing you come... 9

Traverse - Splits

No more worrying about filling up the GPS watch memory. Two full battery charges, 125000 trackpoints, ~35 hours of once-per-second sample, and the watch says the memory is only 51% full. I like. Call the capacity three solid days of logging, given a healthy external battery. The watch almost certainly has 4MB of onboard memory.

Although, the download speed actually does suck. Downloading 1MB took just over half an hour. That's barely than this guy. From 1973. And ANT allegedly does 1Mbit/s - 250x faster than this. Granted, I'm a one-sample-per-second-using edge case weirdo, but it just feels dated.

Fun fact, that wikipedia article implies that HR strap coin batteries should be good for three years. Or maybe that's 250x lower too and anything more than four days is a gift.

Heh. Did not see the end coming. Made in Australia, but light on the stereotypically Aussie deaths. Watch for superglue guy's waddle during the chorus.

decent bouldering, but a bit of a mixed bag - didn't get some stuff i thought i should, but did alright on some of the harder stuff. found another 3 that needs work, and no doable 4's in sight. continued improvement on the newer/wider/bouncier slackline, and got some solid toproping in. one-hung a 10d, cleaned a 10a, and grappled up a really burly, stemmy 11a. couple good poses for the calendar in that last one.

also got the 310xt. certainly seems like a step up from the 305. going to see how much memory it's got tonight.

also, two burritos. it was a good day.

calves are almost not sore. just a little twinge at the end of full contraction. this prolonged recovery (six days!) is either proof of training unpreparedness, or the onset of old age and slow recovery. one foot in the box already, eh?

C • 310xt memory 4

good bouldering. real clean on (most of) the 3's, and smooth on the 2's. two of the 3's still stump me. good slacklining, and even got some toproping in. some antics on a 10d/11a (two hangs), and three or so 10's of varying degree. felt strong on toprope.