Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Event: Ultimate Orienteer #7 (Score-O') - Lick Creek
 

"Nothing justifies embracing a dangerous buffoon simply because his lack of political correctness is cathartic." The anti-PC thing is clearly a major part of this disaster; the depressing thing about it is that most of what Idiot America derides as 'political correctness,' the rest of us merely call 'treating people with the basic dignity and respect all human beings deserve.'

Ultimate-O Score-O at Lick Crick, the map which is my longtime nemesis. I headed to 104 and 121 first; sure enough I lost two minutes on 104, then what should've been a 3min leg ended up taking me 12min after I was enveloped by a swampy wet morass of greenness. It quickly became one of those situations where you abandon all designs on finding the flag and care only for freedom.

After that things settled down and my early hardships turned out to be the worst Lick Crick would throw at me this time. I did bobble my final three controls, which hurt me in the end as I finished 18s late and thus lost 20 points. Side note - I happened to punch 103 a few seconds after Siri Christopherson, then pursued her down the road to the finish. Though I was caning it hard in the attempt to stay under time, I was surprised to catch up only very gradually, and we finished almost neck and neck. Her kick was impressive.

Overall, the first two controls took me 17:49, while the final 22 averaged ~3:18 per control. 90min time limit / 30 controls = 3min per, so even discounting my first/worst two legs I wasn't hitting the course-clearing pace. However, most of what I skipped were more like 2min than 3min legs, so it's possible someone of my ability could have gotten within 3-5min if they wasted litte or no time on planning or nav errors.

Interestingly, if we throw out the Bonesaw's first control (to discount planning time) and my first two controls (to discount Lewis & Clark Mode time), he and I averaged mighty close to the same speed while going opposite directions:

Bone 121:50 / 25 = 3.273 / ~3:16.4 / control
Enger 112:29 / 22 = 3.295 / ~3:17.7 / control

Event: Ultimate Orienteer #6 (Classic) - Teanaway Forks
 

Ultimate-O "Classic" at Teanaway Forks. The Bonesaw smashed me by 3:50, most of which (some 2:30) was lost when I didn't check my compass leaving 9 and headed off along the slope heading downhill to the right just like the plan said - only problem being I was on the wrong hillside, going north instead of east, about 90 degrees off. Also lost ~45s overrunning 4. There were three or four legs where Eric took 10s out of me by going straight, while I took safer, less direct routes, so it's possible that I was at times navigating too conservatively.

Been several years since I've run on this map; the forest is excellent and the map holds up tolerably well.

Squiggling my way around North Seatac Park.

Knee was bugging me today for some reason.

From Seward Park up to Madison Park along the lakefront. For my money that is the best cycling route in Seattle.

I have a working theory which states that each athlete, given enough repetitions in any athletic endeavor, will every so often enter what I have provisionally dubbed Power-Up Mode - a fleeting period of time when he or she unexpectedly and inexplicably gains a surfeit of additional speed, strength, stamina, or the like and performs well above and beyond the normal limits of his/her abilities. I hypothesize that modern science can neither predict nor precipitate these episodes; when, where, why, and how they occur remain shrouded in mystery even to the athletes who experience them, and all attempts to manually re-enter Power-Up Mode by replication of conditions end in failure.

There are many things we do not yet know about Power-Up Mode. How long can it last? With what frequency do Power-Ups generally occur? What, if any, are the variance factors from athlete to athlete? It may well be that the majority of Power-Ups are "wasted" during random training sessions (since athletes generally spend far more time training than racing/competing/playing) and go unnoticed beyond "Hmm I feel really good today for some reason." In not pushing themselves to the limit, they are unable to take advantage of their temporary athletic largesse.

However, the laws of probability also state that some number of Power-Ups must indeed occur during full-effort competition; this may be where the proverbial huge PR, the Beastquake run, or the 82-point game come from. Unfortunately, to date the Power-Up theory provides us with little actionable information, but one can hope that further physiological advances will shed greater light on the problem.

C • Hot Hands 7

Bonus training at Long Pond in the Fells with Ian; we did the blue middle from the 2010 (?) A-meet. Quite an easy pace, just trying to work on good map-reading habits. Hit most control locations well but wasn't sure about two or three spots. Lovely woods and sunny day out. The notorious mountain laurel don't impress me much, but this greenbrier stuff is nasty enough to earn my respect.

M: O-training
T: Easy cycle
W: Cycle commute
T: Rest day
F: Easy run
S: Teanaway O'
S: Lick Creek O'