Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Event: 2015 Gold Rush - USA Ultra-long & Western States Championships
 

In the boarding area they were offering $600 to take a later (noon) flight to Boise. I was super tempted. By the circuitous logic in my head it will now be costing me 40 bucks a minute to run a 15-minute sprint this morning. Shoulda taken the $...

C • plane 2

Boise sprint. Came second behind an Aussie guy. So many of the heats. Lost ~40s mainly due to an unfortunate episode of brainfry (opposite of brainfreeze) plus a couple small mistakes. Heat was getting to me physically by the halfway point.

Blue-Red-sprint - Splits

When I google "WOC 2015" my first hit is this. When I google "WOC 2014" my first hit is this.

Also, check out the leaderboard of the 2015 Global Peace Index. With a couple notable exceptions either way, it correlates strongly with the results of your average international orienteering event. Maybe we Americans need to become more peaceful to become better at orienteering! Although it hasn't worked for Canada...heyyyy

C • Sigh 1

Somewhat easy ride along the waterfront to the library and back up. Still resting my foot but optimistic about its progress.

I investigated Bellevue College for sprint-mapping potential the other day. It's got a somewhat complex network of buildings with above-average occurrence of canopies and pass-throughs. A handful of funky monuments/artworks which would make for fun CPs. Lots of scattered trees but few woods, and those little runnable. PLP (parking lot percentage) is high, but mainly concentrated separately from the worthwhile parts. Total area is not large. Would be cool if there were a race-fair way to traverse 148th to Robinswood. Petition the city to build an overpass, everyone.

Grade: 3/5. Not destined to be a great sprint venue, but certainly worth mapping. A prospective early-round SART 2017 (Eastside edition) venue???

C • Race fair? 2

Micro 1

Micro 2

Micro 1 backward

Micro 2 backward

Rode along with Eric out to some training at Salmon la Sac, also known as "Land of the Thirteen-Minute Kilometer." Salmon la Sac is a true orienteering meat grinder, offering the ideal combination of giant rock cliffs, scree slopes, massive hills, horrible vegetation, waist-high slash, and Scandinavian technicality. Starting a course at Salmon la Sac is known as "going over the top." Finishing a course at Salmon la Sac is an accomplishment in itself.

However, scattered amongst the carnage are areas of true brilliance that make you feel like an orienteerer is meant to feel. I've seen nothing to compare to it in my (admittedly limited) orienteering travels.

Event: COC Ultimate Orienteer #6 (Goat) - Moses Lake Sand Dunes
 

6:41/km

Moses Lake sand dunes sprint-goat. We've invented yet another orienteering discipline.

The red group out of the mass start was Eric, Jourdan, Peteris, and myself; with the short distance this was our best chance to dethrone the Bonesaw from his longtime reign as goat champion, but we fell short once again (Bonesaw is my new nickname for Eric that I'm attempting to put into mainstream use). I made three ~30s errors which cost me - leaving 6 the wrong direction and hitting the road in the wrong place, overrunning 9, and on the way to 15 getting stuck in a swampy thicket that looked friendlier on the map than in reality. My legs didn't feel good, but then my foot didn't hurt, so call it a wash. I've been doing lots of massaging and stretching (and not running) the past few days, which seems to be helping.

On the way home we discovered the racing forecast in Idaho this weekend: Fri - 99. Sat - 104. Sun - 108. 108! We're all going to die grisly heatstroke deaths.