Quote:
Originally posted by nordique14
Some people take the practice laps at full speed. I'm not sure why.
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My theory is that of starting at a higher level. I make sure I know the course start to finish and have a plan for how I'm going to do it before I run my first lap. We don't get 'practice' runs here, so if my first run is slow, I've only started at a lower level than I could. Now, since I've learned a lot over the past several events, my improvements come in a more compressed manner (it takes me fewer runs for the same improvement). But for me, being prepared before my first run makes the most sense. If you take the first run slowly, in my opinion that's a wasted run because you could have learned something useful.
But I also know that some people have a hard time visualizing the course in their heads and need that practice run to understand it. I work in 3 dimensions all day long, so maybe that helps me.
As for novices, I don't recommend my approach. Not that I'm real 'advanced' or anything - if you find yourself frequently requiring a few runs to figure the course out, then don't go out there at full tilt. Follow Matt's technique.
