Training Archive: feet

Orienteering 1:03:11 [3] *** 9.8 km (6:27 / km) +380m 5:24 / km
spiked:18/20c shoes: esa-pekka olsson

Slightly less good, but still ok; rockier and steeper terrain on the western end of the map meant slower speeds for blue, and I had to be careful with blisters from half-way around. Three bobbles: lost concentration dropping into reentrants on a flat slope and chose to check out the first one despite being 80% sure that it was wrong (as it was), a similar error at a slightly different error earlier, and a 30-second loss at a dubiously-described depression control (no. 3, described as 'foot of brown dot knoll', but the brown dot knoll, on top of a spur in mining, didn't have a separate foot, and the control was not on the spur); also, less sure of some route choices' optimality than yesterday.

C • Nice 11

Orienteering 45:00 [2] *** 3.5 km (12:51 / km) +150m 10:35 / km
spiked:11/13c shoes: esa-pekka olsson

Picked up controls from a Thursday training session at Chimney Rock, high up the hill east of Tucson up a dreadful road. Rather rockier and more cactussy than the A-meet terrain, and also much too much fuller with people shooting at stuff. One control was pretty close to being in the firing line...

Hiked down to and up from the river below so as to see some saguaros in their natural habitat.

C • That's not really fair to e... 1

Blue2 - Splits

Event: Western States + Intercollegiate Championships
 

Orienteering 58:23 [3] *** 10.4 km (5:37 / km) +300m 4:54 / km
spiked:17/17c shoes: esa-pekka olsson

Tucson A-meet day 1. Pretty close to flawless - the only improvement would have been to run faster, not check out for insurance purposes an extra control near number 4, and run straighter at number 16 rather than ducking into one too many reentrants. Winsplits agrees: no mistakes. Orienteering is a very zen pursuit - the search for a perfect run. This, given my fitness at the moment, was very nearly it.
Terrain: open spur-gully, just like Australia but with even higher visibility. Temperature: low 60s, hefty W wind.

C • The search for the perfect run 1

Orienteering 14:28 [4] *** 2.9 km (4:59 / km) +90m 4:19 / km
spiked:13/13c shoes: esa-pekka olsson

Sprint. Another excellent run. Same terrain as the other two races, although not in the rockiest part of it, so that slightly faster times were possible, but I'm extremely pleased to be (2 seconds) under 5:00/km on this kind of course.
Today was one of the most satisfying pair of races I've ever had.

Blue 1 - Splits

Sprint - Splits

Running 40:50 [3] 5.7 mi (7:10 / mi)
shoes: johann brutus bach

Waugh loop. Much better day for running: 61F, dp 45F, clear and sunny. Traffic a little much, though: seemed to have to stop at every road crossing (San Felipe * 2, Kirby * 4, Shepherd * 2, Westheimer * 2).

Running 1:02:00 [3] 9.0 mi (6:53 / mi)
shoes: johann brutus bach

Lazy Lane - Sabine St loop. Unpleasantly humid (72F, overcast with ceilings around 75-100m, dp 70F), but a good time. Not too many people out, given the weather and the (essentially expired) tornado watch.

Running 55:00 [3] 7.33 mi (7:30 / mi)
shoes: esa-pekka olsson

Canal loop. 23F, extremely icy, so much so that almost all off-paved path running was dangerous, and some uncleared paved paths weren't exactly safe either. This diminished both speed and training value a bit, but since the real purpose of this session was to introduce esa-pekka to the world, not much lost. (esa-pekka didn't think much of it.)
There was a brief partial eclipse of the clouds by blue sky towards the end, but at least the beginning was cloudy, so I didn't feel too disconcerted.