Training Log Archive: Tundra/Desert

Event: US Short and Long Championships
 

As I got off the airplane this morning, looking to catch a cab for the 14 miles from ALB to the start, there was a car of Chicago OC people waiting for Charlie S at the terminal. I got into the car, and Orlyn, navigating, promptly made a 180° that I then had to fix using a ghetto map I had printed out for the taxicab driver.

Warmed up running to the start of the US Short Course Championships. Passed Sharon Crawford on the run, who was late to start.

The Short Champs. Every year I look forward to the Middle distance Champs, as it is my strongest discipline, the one that emphasizes quick decisions and detailed navigation, both of which my reactive style fits well.

The race went just fine until Control 9. I made a couple of small errors, but was moving ahead confidently and the course did not seem hard at all. At #9, though, my race was broken. I misread the control description, totally my fault. But, as I ended up a cliff below the control, I could not relocate because the most obvious relocation feature was covered up by the magenta (not purple) circle. I did a loop.

At the next control, I caught up with Jon Torrance who had passed me at #9. His pace was a tad faster than I was going, and I put it all together and finished the course fighting, staying mostly ahead of Jon and only making one mistake, bad route choice to the last control.

At the finish and the event-center shelter, the results were coming out looking a touch funny, a few good times and a bunch of mediocre ones quite a way back. It was learned from talking to most Blue runners that more than 50% of them had some issues with Control 9. It seemed that this single control effectively decided the race, which is not an evidence of appropriate planning even though there were no problems with the control site selection and the mapping around it. To me, the leg was significantly harder than the rest, and what I'm trying to say is that probably the rest of the course could have been slightly harder, not necessarily that this particular leg should have been easier. Congratulations to Wil and John who certainly aced #9, through superior skill.

The map printing quality was not good, the colors were way off. The length is preliminary, but the climb is firm, from the Polar.

For the rest of the day, Mindsweeper and I first stuck around the finish, hoping that whoever had taken his warmup jacket with the rental car keys in it would realize the mistake (or not). As the hope faded, we relocated to the hotel where we watched Tiomila and I drank lots of beer.

Blue - Splits

To Wells Fargo from work.

Then, from the Wells Fargo to the nearest BofA.

Back to work.

Felt even more tired in the evening than yesterday.

Another jog to Caltrain with the computer, in the absence of buses.

Was tired in the evening, so the recovery run was on beer at the Safeway.

An early morning jog to Caltrain once it again became obvious that neither #30 nor #45 was forthcoming.

Home to Kezar. Hurting a bit.

A 20-minute continuous T session. Mikkel was a touch late and joined me after about 1.5 laps, and we ran together. I was shooting for exactly 13 laps, 92 s/lap, but was a touch slower at 93. Mikkel ran 20:09 for 13.

Hobbled home.

Had a long day on UAL. Woke up on time in the morning in ATL, got to the airport fine, got through the insane security line—I knew how long it would take from my Navigator Cup experience ("This sure is a long line..." "No, sorry m'am, it's sure a paranoid government..."). Got to the gate and the door was closed.

Apparently the new UAL policy is to close the door at least 10 minutes before departure, regardless of what's going on outside, and for the rest of the day (they did put me on priority standby) I observed the policy uniformly enforced. Reminds me of the underwear gnomes. Step 1: close the door.

Warmed up by running from the trail junction in the NE corner of the parking lot to the trail junction right by the start of Day 2 of the COK event. I was sort of pushing it, as they'd said it was a 30-minute walk and I had spent some time listening to Mr. Meehan discussing the merits of a particular HS team scoring method with the event director.

The run. Disgusting. The map was just bad. Starting with the first control, where it's supposed to be to your left as you go along the ridge, and it ends up well to your right. I somehow had more problems than others, and in the middle of the run, passing near the finish field, was considering quitting. But then Eddie caught up, having 14 minutes on me, and just for the fun of it I tried to keep up.

I actually managed to, for over 20 minutes. It was only easy on downhills on trail or through nice woods. On uphills Eddie had a sizeable differential, and my attempt ended when we finally got to a band of dark green. Eddie took about 30 seconds to get through it, while I took over a minute and a half. For contrast, it was easy keeping up with (actually ahead of) Swampfox for a short while, until there was a control in unmapped laurel.

As Eddie ran away, I was morally broken and made a regretful surrender decision to go all the way around any and all green on the leg to Control 20. I lost about 4 minutes. Also, was not moving too fast in the end but faster than in the middle, before Eddie, and the HR was not too low.

The length and climb are preliminary.

Blue - Splits