Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Got another flat tire, or rather the flat tire that I just fixed continues to have a slow leak, which I realized about three miles into my seven-mile ride. I managed to get almost all the way to work, and only had to walk half a mile.

Run home, Jack. No part of my body was happy with me today; I pretty much felt like death all the way home. I'm classifying this 6.5-mile run as "Long" because it felt like I was playing Oregon Trail, my oxen kept dying, everyone had dysentery, and we were only in Nebraska.

C • At least you made it through Kansas. 4

Well done, Adam Silver! Some kind of suspension and fine was almost certain, but few predicted a lifetime ban and a forced sale of the team. This seems to be one of those rare situations where morality and common decency actually coincide with the self-interest of corporate America. The cynic in me thinks the Commissioner's decision is based more on the latter than the former, but I want to believe that the opposite is true.

In other news, my OUSA ranking is above 90 for the first time in recorded history. A year ago I was at 73.17. Now I'm at 90.23, which is still way behind most of the other guys. In particular, everyone seems to have gotten crazy high scores on the middle at the 2013 US Champs. Must have been a great race.

C • Silver Unis 7

I drew up a quick course for an easy recovery run in Bridle Trails. I always try to find trails or routes I haven't run before, which is getting harder to do.

C • Think backwards 5

As if the relay wasn't enough, I also got my very first M21 A-meet win this weekend - even if it was by one, two, three seconds. I had a really good race overall; AP says I lost no time, but I definitely bled 15-30s two or three times among the first five controls - mainly 3, 4 and 5, on all of which I made some sort of minor compass or route choice error which caused me to travel more distance than necessary. I also took the first control slower than usual, not wanting to start things off poorly.

After 5 I was basically clean, without anything that could rightly be called a mistake. My legs felt springier and less sluggish than yesterday, and I was able to run up most of the hills. I think I need to alter my taper routine to guard against whatever happens to your legs when you don't train for 4-5 days in a row.

Assorted other notes from the weekend:

-- I get to add no less than THREE states to my orienteering list after Saturday's courses took place in Pennsylvania and most also crossed the Mason-Dixon Line into Maryland (in my case, we forayed about 50 meters across, then went straight back again - still counts!), while Sunday's was in Delaware. Delaware! First in the First State! I am irrationally excited about this. I believe my list is up to 15 states.

-- My ongoing campaign to actually meet in real life everyone else associated with the U.S. team saw some solid progress. I met Ken Walker Jr, Alex Jospe, Sergei Zhyk and Peter Gagarin. Naturally, they are all interesting and friendly people whom it's a pleasure to know.

-- Books: I finished Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres and The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman on the planes. I thoroughly enjoyed both and would highly recommend them.

White Clay Creek - Blue - Splits

Event: 2014 US Relay Champs and Intercollegiate Champs
 

National Champions!!!!! This victory is for every Cascade member - everybody back home in Seattle and those spread out elsewhere.

C • Yeaaaaahhhhh! 8

You know how sometimes when you're training, you visualize things like crossing the finish line first with everybody cheering, or that Eric or Ian (shout-out) are breathing down your neck on the run to the finish, and so on?

I'll have to think up a new motivational scenario now, because mine was entirely fulfilled and indeed surpassed by this relay - brought to life in brilliant, brilliant color. I only wish the moment hadn't passed so quickly, the better to remember it. It's true what (real) athletes say about not being able to hear the cheers. When I reached the last control, I honestly wanted to just stop and take everything in for a minute or two, or whip out a Go Pro. Incidentally this may have caused great consternation among Tori and Eric, who were waiting at the chute to run in with me.

That's another thing - having relay teammates, and a whole club of teammates in Seattle, to share the happiness with makes everything so much better than merely running for yourself.

My actual race is a bit of a footnote and was nothing special, but hey I'll talk about it anyway! We were fourth after Tori's run; she wasn't happy with her race but we were still in a solid position only six or so minutes back of CSU in first, and less than three back of SVO and DVOA 2. Eric brought us back into a virtual tie for second, as he and Eddie finished together, and made up about half the gap on CSU.

We had hoped SVO's third leg runner wouldn't be a huge threat, so I basically went out with only one goal in mind - make up three minutes as quickly as possible. I had a bobble right off the bat, going to 9 instead of 1 - only ~20s lost. The next couple were clean, then I saw Izzy across an open field in front of me. I managed to pull ahead just before punching 4, then completely overran 5 and she took the lead back - close to 1:00 lost. I actually got lucky here - the control feature didn't at all match what I thought I saw in the terrain, but I realized I had gone too far and happened to look back and see Izzy punching. Back in second by ~20s. I was able to jump ahead up the hill to 6, then to 7 and across the spectator field (don't trip, look faux pro) to the final section of short legs. I took the last few controls at a notch or two below top speed - just trying to be safe and avoid a complete blow-up. Triple-checking every control code, taking an extra second at each glance of the map, but I still managed to lose ~30s on 9. Then out of the woods to the finish!

I probably lost about two minutes total, which is obviously not ideal on a sprint-length course, and could have broken 20:00 with a good clean run. But no complaints, I'm a national champion! This is something that has never happened before, if you couldn't tell already. Eric said he has been trying to win the relay champs for 20 years now, and it's the only U.S. championship event he hadn't won, so we're happy to help him finally get it done.

C • Izzy... 6

I was watching one of the Hobbit movies the other day. There were some landscapey shots of some bad dudes chasing the good dudes across woods and fields and whatnot, and the thought popped into my head how nice the terrain would be for orienteering. Very open pine forests - it reminded me of the old central Washington maps, or even the Rocky Mountain 1000 Days.

This is how you know you think about orienteering too much.

Today I put in for time off for both COC/WCOC and NAOC, woohoo!

I'm taking the entire week of August 4-8, which is awesome because my parents will be here/there. The one O-regret I have is that my dad hasn't been around to witness my orienteering improvement first-hand, because I know he would have enjoyed it. I'm also taking October 9-10/13-14 off, to get a good four full days in Ottawa.

I have too much vacation time allocated to other stuff to be able to take both the COC/WCOC week and the USOC/NAOC week off. Being able to do three of the four, in effect I'm choosing the Western Canadians over U.S. Nationals, and the Canadians over the U.S. Classics.

What does this mean??? Am I turning Canadian? I really think so!

C • Just cover me in syrup already. 16

Event: Ultimate Orienteer #4 - Magnuson Park
 

For some reason, the Magnuson Park map and I never get along well. I always have an extremely difficult time reading the large and small green patches among the rough open. They are starkly contrasting on the map, but somehow seem much less clear when you're running around out there. I also dislike running through constant mud and ankle-deep water.

I had lots of time loss on the first map, very little on the second. I only have the second map, but my biggest issue was with the northern-most control next to the dog park, where the map didn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense. I also lost significant time on the one next to the out-of-bounds area (I think it was 10?), a place where I ALWAYS lose time, and the one on the small green patch NW of the start/finish. Finally, I lost 20-30 seconds when I ran to the mapped finish, only to find that it wasn't actually there. I saw many other people do something similar.

Overall, not the greatest experience. But hey - it's still orienteering!

This went much more smoothly than the Score-O, although I was very tired and it felt longer than a flat 3.5 km should feel.

Eric lent me a couple Fair Hill maps, from the 2007 Interscholastics. Based on the look of the area (rolling open woods and fields) and the min/k times at that meet, the courses this weekend portend to be FAST, which means I'm going to approach it like a sprint and blast right out of the gate.

Miles:
1. 3:59
2. 2:36
3. 3:49
4. 4:09
5. 3:25
6. 3:39
7. 3:10 (0.79)

I had to pull a "Run home Jack" after my bike mysteriously acquired a flat tire at some point during the workday. I didn't particularly want to do any running today with a meet coming up tomorrow, so I took it easy.

Well it's alright / Remember to live and let live / Well it's alright / The best you can do is forgive.

Miles:
1. 3:58
2. 2:31
3. 3:52
4. 5:27
5. 3:00
6. 3:04
7. 3:54 (0.79)

Miles:
1. 4:27
2. 3:41
3. 4:59
4. 5:05
5. 5:33
6. 4:14
7. 4:12
8. 1:02 (0.26)

Will it ever stop raining? Who can say? The internet, that's who. The internet says it will stop raining tomorrow. We'll see.

Miles:
1. 4:03
2. 2:44
3. 4:29
4. 4:19
5. 3:19
6. 3:21
7. 2:48 (0.79)

Miles:
1. 4:30
2. 2:57
3. 5:04
4. 3:24
5. 4:59
6. 4:08
7. 4:02
8. 0:52 (0.25)

Rainy. Wet. For some reason cycling in the rain is exponentially more unpleasant to me than running in the rain (which I actually enjoy most of the time).

Actually, this is the reason: When you're running you only have to deal with the stuff coming down, but on a bike you also have junk getting thrown up off your tires, into your face and soaking your shoes and socks. Not a fan of that, especially when you get annoyed and try to go faster to get there quicker but then going faster only intensifies the kickback.

End of complaint.

C • Fenders? 3

I guess this is what those in the biz call a "recovery run," although I'm far less sore than I expected to be after the Ramble. I went meandering around Bridle Trails, loosely running the reverse of the 2012 WIOL Course 7. This on the theory that if you're going to run slow, you might as well run slow while paying lip service to the directives of a map. I own you, map! I make decisions now!

My goal was to maintain a perfectly constant pace, as if on a tempo run, while keeping extremely close map contact and planning ahead at all times. I mostly succeeded - just a couple of two-step slowdowns at trail intersections after losing concentration and letting the mind wander.

Rock Creek Ramble. Ramble, Ramble, Ramble. I was hoping to do 20 miles, but fell ~3.3 short of that (albeit with 12 minutes to spare). I was very close to 5 mph after two hours, but then the long uphill run from 102 to 63, followed by a long road slog to 49 and a steep climb up to 66, dropped my pace down to 3-4 mph for the remainder. So yeah, turns out that two hours is indeed my limit for moving at speed before the wheels start falling off.

Course: 46-61-28-105-48-33-56-47-102-63-49-66-32-45-57-103-22-44-35-24

Miles:
1. 12:31
2. 12:56
3. 11:50
4. 10:42
5. 10:06
6. 12:39
7. 13:03
8. 13:04
9. 10:18
10. 15:08 (122:17 at the ten-mile mark)
11. 17:09
12. 15:15
13. 15:03
14. 16:09
15. 14:35
16. 18:41
17. 8:48 (0.78)

C • Original Plan? 2

Event: Rock Creek Ramble
 

Rock Creek Ramble practice course. That's a real sexy min/k for 8+ kilometers, but the terrain was actually faster than Frenchman Coulee due to a lot less rock underfoot. Also, the course only had 12 controls. I treated it like a race and kept my own time and splits, but without anyone to compare with it's hard to take anything from them. I navigated well, with just a couple small bobbles on 4 and 8.

1. 3:15
2. 6:25
3. 6:56
4. 7:34
5. 3:41
6. 1:58
7. 3:01
8. 6:23
9. 1:18
10. 2:29
11. 4:40
12. 3:21
F. 2:52

Miles:
1. 3:58
2. 2:35
3. 3:15
4. 3:54
5. 3:30
6. 3:09
7. 2:43 (0.79)

Miles:
1. 3:22
2. 3:20
3. 4:58
4. 4:44
5. 4:01
6. 4:10
7. 4:08
8. 0:53 (0.26)

I think I passed Greg Barnes on the overpass over 405 today.

Miles:
1. 4:06
2. 2:34
3. 3:52
4. 3:46
5. 3:22
6. 3:06
7. 2:49 (0.79)

Miles:
1. 3:43
2. 3:13
3. 4:54
4. 5:29
5. 5:07
6. 4:03
7. 4:04
8. 0:52 (0.25)

Now that course lengths and notes are published, Cascade's team is officially discussing our relay strategery. It will likely involve elaborate political maskirovka and to some extent be based on the theme "run as fast as you can and find all the controls." ...Or will it?

Also, new most delicious treat possible: refrigerated mint chocolate Milano cookies, dipped in chocolate milk. Oh My God.

I wonder when our uniforms will come. Hopefully soon, because once I put that shirt on I'll be giddy as a schoolboy on Christmas morning and I'll pretty much never not be wearing it.

C • Riddle? 2

Rest day.

In order to practice my sprintyness, I am issuing a call for course designers. I will send you the map of my local college campus, and you can draw up a course/courses, and I will run it/them and report back on how excellent it was and how many times you tricked me, you sly dog. Said map is decidedly lacking in ISSOM detail, because I'm lacking in motivation, but it's good enough right now for these purposes.

To be clear - you don't have to actually set the courses in real life, or do anything other than click your mouse some times! Yay course designing with no consequences! Everyone loves course designing. This is also your chance to get back at me for all the mean things I habitually do. I promise to run your course at full effort no matter how dastardly it is.

C • Sprinty course designs 24

Miles:
1. 7:38
2. 7:01
3. 7:11
4. 7:14
5. 6:55
6. 7:19
7. 7:41
8. 8:27
9. 7:01
10. 6:50

Long tempoish run. For some reason I started feeling like death around mile eight, but pushed through it and brought the last two back down under 7:00/mile pace. The trail I was running along was called something like "Rock Creek Greenway" - foreshadowing of next weekend!

Warm down back to Andrew's place.

I cruised down to Portland for the weekend to visit some friends, and there happened to be a CROC event going on. How serendipitous! They advertised this as a "brand new" map - I guess they got that right. The map was...creatively impressionistic. No offense to anyone, but if COC ran a meet on a map like that, the workers of the world might finally unite.

Overall I'd say the meet was somewhat lower-key than a Sammamish meet. I'm not even sure they recorded times. But hey, it's still orienteering!

Also, the CROC veterans are in a bit of an uproar over Ali's impending arrival. This might be the biggest O-thing to happen down there since they hosted the US Champs in...2008?

C • 2005! 5

1. 3:59
2. 2:35
3. 3:28
4. 4:27
5. 4:29
6. 3:47
7. 3:20 (0.79)

I wasn't planning to ride today, but there is an old Confucian proverb that goes something like this: "When it is a sunny morning in Seattle between November and May, even for five minutes, you must ride a bicycle to your place of employment, because that doesn't happen very often."

Miles:
1. 3:24
2. 2:54
3. 5:02
4. 3:24
5. 7:19
6. 4:25
7. 3:40 ***PR***
8. 0:55 (0.26)

Feeling lazy and unmotivated.

Miles:
1. 4:03
2. 2:35
3. 3:41
4. 5:03
5. 3:13
6. 3:12
7. 3:09 (0.79)

Miles:
1. 3:41
2. 3:39
3. 4:52
4. 4:51
5. 3:34
6. 4:04
7. 4:10
8. 0:51 (0.26)

Strong hill climbs today!

Miles:
1. 3:59
2. 2:28
3. 4:05
4. 3:56
5. 3:49
6. 3:16
7. 3:14 (0.79)

Miles:
1. 3:51
2. 3:22
3. 5:04
4. 5:13
5. 3:58
6. 4:16
7. 4:12
8. 0:55 (0.26)

Thought of the day: If you ever played Mario Kart on Super Nintendo, you know that in Time Trial mode you could race against ghosts who represented your best times on each course - there would be you as whoever, plus Ghost Bowser, Ghost Princess or Ghost Luigi, etc. I would like this to happen on my rides to/fro work, so that I could race against a whole mob of Ghost Wills spread out in a 5-6 minute long peloton. I feel like this technology might actually be feasible - somebody get Google on the phone.

C • Close? 4