Training Log Archive: iansmith

This weekend brings my O-palooza adventure to a close. It was an excellent expedition - I caught up with friends in three different locales, ran six races, played a handful of 7 Wonders and Dice Game games, and generally enjoyed myself.

The Classic Champs was bittersweet. The terrain was novel for me, and it was liberating to be able to run at nearly full speed for the duration of the races, but it was frustrating to be unable to run faster. The orienteering was physically demanding, but technically straightforward, and the fields were close both days - with most competitors in M21 separated by less than 10% of the winning times. Excluding our visiting Swiss, I finished fourth in the champs, an agonizing 21 seconds behind Graham Baird (though Matt Scott likely would have beaten me, too). My races were consistently unremarkable - I finished 6th and 7th on the two days, 5.1% and 8.2% back of the winning American respectively. Kudos to Swampfox for a decisive performance; there were no prisoners taken.

Canada was more varied, with a solid but slow Middle Distance carrying the day against abler competition, a disastrous but photogenic sprint, and a satisfying but sluggish Long.

Fortunately, a skilled cameraman captured this evidence of an international incident, a flagrant and unprovoked attack on a poor innocent US guy.

One day, I hope I am as fantastic as z-man and KPop.

C • You're getting there. 4

Warmup - jog to the start, then running in circles to loosen up. I did a few drills; I arrived at the start about fifteen minutes before my call up.

Cool down.

Blue - Splits

Event: 2014 US Classic Championships
 

Warmup jog; I already felt the thin air. I arrived about fifteen minutes before my start and ran a few drills and some additional loops near the start that are not on the track.

US Classic Champs Day 1, Badger Gulch, Colorado.

Cool down.

Blue - Splits

Easy run around Garden of the Gods chatting with Boris about life, love, and orienteering.

Model event at Round Mountain. I ran into Boris, Alli, Marc, Sandra, and Matti among others.

The terrain is very fast, but very subtle. The contour features are typically at most one or two contours. The vegetation boundaries are highly subjective, though I think they were in general well mapped - it's just hard to make a well defined boundary between rough open and white woods.

It was also challenging to deal with the elevation. A very fun outing.

After the model, I drove to Alma, CO to hike my first 14er. The plan was to drive six miles on Route 8 to Kite Lake, hike Mt. Democrat, Mt. Lincoln, and Mt. Bross, and return. I made a 30 minute error when I drove past route 8 and had to double back, and "Route 8" turned out to be an unpaved, heavily potholed, rocky death road. I was terrified my rental Versa's suspension would be unable to handle it.

I started my hike quite late - at about 5:30. I reached the Col at 45 minutes, and summited Mt. Democrat - my first 14er - at trip time of 1:15, after my GPS died. I tried to push as hard as possible without redlining, and I only walked or jogged. I returned to the Col at about 1:40 after taking pictures for ten minutes on the summit; at this point, I should have descended - especially since I had forgotten my flashlight. While acknowledging that my actions were stupid, I decided to ascend to Mt. Cameron with a turnaround time of 2:15 - about 7:45. I reached the top at exactly 2:15, snapped a few pictures, and promptly turned around. I hit the Col again at 2:35, and reached my car by 3:15 as total darkness descended.

I hiked minimally - shorts and a t-shirt, a fleece, 1L of water, some trail mix, my camera, sunscreen, and a small tripod. I saw a marmot and some pikas. On my descent on the road of hell, I saw a moose and came across a truck that had lost a wheel. I gave four self described hippies (who may have consumed some marijuana and alcohol) a two mile ride.

Hiking with posse in Stawamus Chief provincial park. We ascended the first peak (600ish meters), then made two abortive attempts on peak 2 from opposite directions before our turn-around time came. Presto seemed to enjoy himself. The views of Howe Sound from the summit of peak 1 were excellent. My legs were a little tired, but I had no real difficulties today. Actual time was probably about 4 hours (8:30 to 1:30 with some stops).