Training Log Archive: jjcote

US Champs, Red M45, Remarkable Flats.

Three Orange courses, back to back to back.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not complaining. There was nothing abut the map or the course or the terrain that I disliked. To some extent, the whole package didn't live up to the hype, but that may be largely the image that I had dreamed up in my head, based on who knows what. This is very different from other events that have not lived up to the hype because they turned out to be very thick or something. The main thing advertised about this place was that it was fast, and that was 100% true.

Steve Tarry has a philosophy that says, "If the map is bad, blame the course setter, if the course is too easy, blame the mapper". By this he means that the setter should run the course through the good parts of the map, even if that means dumbing it down. Here, the mapper and setter are the same person, of course, but the map was 100% exquisite, and I don't know that I could have set a course here that was any more challenging. I had two mistakes, totaling something like a minute of time lost. One was a minor bobble on #5, missed the feature by about the diameter of the control circle, saw neither a knoll nor a flag, and spun around to see it just behind me and to the right. The other was a control (#20) that I spiked, but misread the control code, and stood there doublechecking until I realized my error.

Other than that, it was pretty damn perfect, and really easy. This terrain simply doesn't appear to provide any opportunity for challenging navigation. I just ran as hard as I could manage across flat places with incredible visibility toward control sites that were visible from hundreds of meters away. It was so open that the scenery seemed to move past slowly, and I had time to verify my location based on lots of features and note subtle mapping decisions. There was no route choice to speak of, and out of 11 km, there was something like 1 km of orienteering, reading the last bits into a few technical placements. There's also a philosophy that says, "If it's too easy, run harder", but I was going as fast as I could manage. I don't think I could have run this course noticeably faster if the entire route had been streamered.

Given all that, you'd think that maybe I got trounced due to my lack of speed, but that wasn't the case. My result relative to others was significantly better than yesterday. This is reminiscent of the APOC Champs in Alberta a few years ago, when the race was in terrain that I liked a lot, but some top-notch orienteers who are friends of mine thought that it was much too easy. In retrospect, one of them noted that he had actually beaten his nearest rival based on route choice. I guess there must have been some opportunity for errors out there, but I'm not sure where they were.

Red Day 2 - Splits

US Champs Day 1, Red M45, Diamond Bay. Very pretty terrain, enjoyable course, running early in the day. A couple of very small errors, and one blown route (way too far left on #3) that still probably cost me less than two minutes. Still, my time was not very good, something like 12th among M45s and right in the middle of the Red list. Obviously just not running very fast.

Red Day 1 - Splits

East Pelican Bay, alternating between pushing a little harder and just jogging, and stopped at one point to chat with a friend for a few moments. The two errors were quite bad and quite stupid.

Walked around to a few controls with Stephen, Nicole, and Nancy, letting the kids get a sense of advanced navigation (they did quite well).

Since we couldn't climb 'Scuse Me Rock on account of the embargo, we went over to Vedauwoo, where Stephen and I scrambled up to a saddle pretty high up. There were other people (Saegers, Boris and Kat) coming down as we were going up, and some rain hit, but we waited it out under a big boulder. The crux move was a long squeeze crack that Stephen fit through pretty easily, but it was a bit tight for me. In general, he did great, and I should look for a small harness so I can take him rock climbing.

Happy Jack Map, relaxed pace.

One Man Relay at Jubal E Spring. I'm using a very high threshold ffor a "spike" here — I never lost more than a few seconds. Pushing harder than yesterday, but still not trying to keep up with the crowd on the last loop (until the last few meters when I sprinted away from JP).

Walked the Jacoby golf couse with the Goodwins and Charlie (they played, I just tagged along), about half of which was barefoot in the short rough, which was the highlight of the day, incredibly soothing on the feet, especially the spot next to the leaking sprinkler head.

Later, on the drive to CoSpgs to pick up the Koehlers, I got to make a Starbucks detour for orthodontic recovery purposes, which was pretty entertaining. Impressively heavy rain on the drive.

Middle Crow's Toe, Red. Just arrived at altitude, so I made a point of never pushing the pace. A couple of little bobbles early on, then at the end it was clear that I had taken a few High Altitude brand stupid pills.

Event: 2008 Laramie Daze & US Champs
 

Christoph's 'biners.