Comments on: Route to Christmas: Day 21 2016

By: Air

Air — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 23:01:39 +0000

It is good idea to make some adjustments of specific routes according to the overall individual performance of athletes by use of some data statistics analysis. Then some red options will be more grenish I suppose…

By: Terje Wiig Mathisen

Terje Wiig Mathisen — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 07:09:43 +0000

Thanks Knut & Wojciech for restoring my belief in my ability to judge routes at least somewhat accurately. :-)

I was sure that I personally would have lost too much time climbing up to the road but realized that WOC class runners are far stronger uphill. I was still surprised by Jan’s initial conclusion so it was good to learn that the right-hand choice was at least very close.

By: Knut Wiig Mathisen

Knut Wiig Mathisen — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 06:34:53 +0000

Wojciech, Jan. Thank you for responding to my comment. I suppose this is an example where the optimal route-choice actually depends on individual strengths and weaknesses and perhaps also on the overall route-choice strategy the runners see as preferred for the competition. E.g., some runners may select the left road to save mental energy, be able to prepare future legs or to get rid of lactate from running continuously on soft ground. Other runners may select the right choice because they run better in the terrain than on road, or to save energy for later in the race by avoiding the tough climb up to the road.

By: Jan Kocbach

Jan Kocbach — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 22:55:35 +0000

Thanks Knut & Wojciech for your insight! I guess the rightmost option might be a bit trickier to execute, and you may also risk to lose time in the wet areas – but as I understand is faster if executed well?