Training Log Archive: revy

Still in Whistler - did a big Westside loop from Function and then back via valley trail. Was pretty chilly and thought about riding Pemberton instead but once I got going was actually pretty warm. Pretty tired today.

Flank - tough granny climb and a fair bit of road actually. 35 min to Pura Vida
Pura Vida/Baby Snakes/Middle Danimal - fun with some rooty chutes. Overall didn't seem crazy hard.
Lower Darwin's - again a tough climb on tired legs
Rock work Orange/Korova Milk Bar/Wizard Burial Ground - First two were cool trails with lots of interesting rock slabs. A couple moves I passed on - Korova is a little harder. Rock was fairly grippy today. When wet it would be a different story. Both were over too fast. Wizard is double black but only a couple really hard sections. Otherwise rode most of it.

A Cut Above/Beaver Pass - fun new climbing trail
Danimal North/Hot Dog Hallway - these were just OK. A few cool features on Danimal but otherwise trail has seen better days and the forest isn't that interesting. Would only use Hot Dog if parking at Rainbow to do a loop in the area.

Original idea was to cross the valley and do See Colours and Highline to Business Time but was pretty tired. Almost skipped Business Time but decided to climb Tunnel Vision as a shortcut to it. Was reminded that the lower part of that trail is pretty crappy along the old skid road. They are building an alternate route though. As a climb it was OK until the last few hundred meters where I obvisouly count climb the rock slabs.

Finished with Business Time which is still my favourite trail in Whistler. Good tech (down and up), well built trail, nice views, challenging but I can ride everything (drier than last time which made it feel a lot easier). Bonking a bit which probably didn't help the downs but I survived.

Switched the Ride9 chip on the bike to much slacker. Seemed better on the steep down though would have to compare back to back I think to really see. Certainly doesn't climb quite as nice. Bigger bike in the works for next season - Whistler style riding is manageable on the Instinct but would be better with a stiffer fork and a little slacker geometry.

Certainly got my fill of slabs and tech with my rides this weekend and checked a lot of new trails off the to do list...

C • Business time 5

Lots of additional hiking today for the BCOC Long as the Finish/Check in was about 1.5 km from the parking lot and the start was about 2.5km/300m up hill (we went up Yummy Nummy to the CN intersection). The warm up hike was good for my ankle (woke up this morning feeling rather stiff but improved with some use) though I did get a little sweaty which wasn't ideal as didn't time things right and had a 30 minute wait before my start. Thought it would take 15min longer - maybe I should have walked slower;)

BCOC long on combo of Black Magic and Lost Lake map. Cool terrain on the upper slopes - really felt like we were way out there. As per usual mixed up a couple of the early controls. On 2 did not trust my distance estimation and got detoured too early. Then did a 90 degree compass error which luckily I caught pretty quickly and didn't lose me too much time to others. Didn't feel like I was moving fast for the next several controls as was trying to stay in contact with the map (fairly long distances between some controls). Overall had good approaches and was only puzzled a couple times when features appeared sooner than I expected (especially on of the mtb trails). Major mistake was on 10-11 as about halfway I recognized some cliffs so knew where I was then proceeded to go downhill 90 degrees from the direction I was supposed to. Not sure what happened - relocated but lost about 5 minutes here. I blame not being able to see the map as gave myself a corneal abrasion on my right eye (glasses fogged up again). Combined with my recurrent left corneal abrasion my vision was rather crappy. As always when you look back at the map it seems so obvious - it could have been a much easier control had I gone left at the cliff and contoured the dark green to the control (or hit the trail).

After 11 we had a long leg through the residential area to the Lost Lake trails. In retrospect my route wasn't too bad but certainly could have been tweaked in a couple spots to save a few minutes (forgot that shortcutting road swithcbacks is a good idea). Was hard to switch from open forest nav with few trails to lots of route options. Took a few controls to adjust. The Lost Lake bit was longer than I hoped for as my running fitness was failing me and given the plethora of trails running speed would have come in handy. In retrospect would have gone differently from 14-15 and lost a few minutes on 17 when my eyesight failed me again and I thought I was on a different parallel trail than I actually was which meant my bearing off that trail took me nowhere...

Alll in all satisfied with my run. 15 minutes of fixable mistakes. 5-10 minutes improvement if I was just generally sharper with decision making (which sadly won't happen unless I spend more time on orienteering maps). If I was in better running shape could perhaps take another 5-10 minutes off there. 2nd place again but 35 minutes behind Brian May (7th or 8th on the course).

Long Course 7 - Splits

Model map at the BCOC in Whistler (Brandywine Falls). Rocky terrain and tough running in the forest. A bit of a grey and drizzly day but fine for orienteering. Never rained very hard. As luck would have it I rolled by left ankle (of course on a trail not in the forest). A bit sore during the day and stiff tonight. We'll see how it feels tomorrow. Working on two bad ankles now as I keep jamming the right one repeatedly over the last few weeks.

BCOC middle. Kind of went like most of my orienteering events seem to - takes me a control or two to get into things, a couple bigger mistakes, a few smaller mistakes, finish with a respectable time but nothing amazing. One of the bigger mistakes was stupid - found the 3rd control easily but looked at the control description for the 4th control by mistake (3 and 4 were right next to each other with the number 3 being hidden a bit by a lake) which was obviously a different control number and spent 5 minutes looking for the "right" control before figuring out what had happened. At 6 got sucked left too early and at 9 ignored my compass and got detoured by a similar feature that was both off my correct bearing and not far enough. 10 minutes of mistakes - one of these times I'll actually run a middle with no mistakes...

As an aside I got pegged as an adventure racer in the start corral as I chatted up another orienteer. The lack of orienteering specific clothing must have given it away... though I have been tempted to get some O pants.

2nd to Brian May (16 minutes behind). Would have been 7th in M21.

BCOC sprint at Cheakamus Crossing. Both ankles were a bit stiff to start but felt better after the warm up. Ran well but petered out on the last long leg up the hill back to the athletes village. Not in race shape for running. 2 minutes of mistakes - biggest one was in the forest section as I was on a different trail then I thought and lost a minute relocating. Two other small mistakes due to hypoxia. Three minutes behind Brian May.

Late afternoon ride on Secret Trail (first part of CN) and down on Out There. Good loop - the CN climb is fun and Out There was a sweet line. Some good rock slabs. Skipped a couple short steep ones but overall felt like a good hard black trail. A bit drizzly but dry in the trees. Rock slabs were a bit wet but grippy enough. Would make a good loop with KMTM to make it a longer ride.

Middle Course 7 - Splits

Sprint Course 5 - Splits

Good solo ride in Squamish. Was surprised by the amount of climbing I accumulated as it didn't feel like that much. I think a lot of the climbs were quite nice grade which helps (and my legs felt pretty fresh and energetic). Nice dry conditions made the technical rock slabs a lot easier than on our last visit here. Cleaned all of Credit Line for instance. Loop included Rupert-Credit Line-CSHM-Wonderland-Entrails-Rollercoaster. Nice to check out some new trails though the repeats were probably the best ones. CSHM has a couple lines that were maybe doable by me but not solo. Wonderland was just OK though fine to use if you want to avoid the highway. Entrails was great although missed a couple of the rock slabs - you kind of have to know where the main line goes otherwise suddenly you've taken the alternate line by accident.