Training Log Archive: wilsmith

Event: US Short and Long Championships
 

US Short Championships.

For me, this was the major goal of the weekend. Middle distance is my speciality - it's where I consistently have my best results and I enjoy the type of orienteering skills required to succeed - maximum technical concentration combined with a high running intensity over a pretty manageable distance. Now that Micro-O is off the menu at WOC 2006, I'm very much hoping to run in the middle distance there (I had previously wanted to avoid the Micro-O and put Sprint instead - though that's not where I've done my best races).

Anyway, my goal was to run as high an intensity as possible and make no mistake over 20 seconds. From past experience, my best results come not when I make ZERO mistakes (usually that means I'm running a little bit too slowly), but when I make only minimal errors - a few 5-10 second mistakes here and there - usually that means I've been running fast enough to keep up a good pace but have not been quite able to make a perfect race. Not really sure if the "perfect" race exists....

The secondary goal was to at least be the top Canadian, and possibly win outright. With selection races coming up soon, and with them the discussion of who runs what at the WOC, I wanted to demonstrate that the middle distance is the one where I can truly do my best results.

The race itself went very much according to plan. I started out agressively yet clean, and easily maintained a high intensity all the way through the race. I made mini-mistakes (5-15 seconds) at a few controls but did not hesitate anywhere along the way and felt secure the whole time - was never in the situation of not knowing (within 20m) where I was. Missed: #1 (5 sec), #5 (10 sec), #7 (10 sec), #8 (10 sec), #9 (5 sec), #16 (5sec), #17 (15 sec), #18 (10 sec). I'll call these "not spiked", although basically I got them all pretty cleanly.

Results-wise, it was surprisingly excellent - I did manage the outright win. The more surprising element was the gap - there were only 2 of us under 41 minutes, and the next Canadian was a full 6 minutes back. Probably somewhat related to their recent training exploits (they ran intensity on Thursday while I did a 2-hour long hilly run on trails and terrain), but the gap was still surprisingly large. We'll see what happens next time around, but for the moment I will consider that this race was a complete success.

A solid warmup and cool down (part of the specific race plan today) for the above race.

Blue - Splits

Light jog to stretch the legs out. Nothing special.

A nice long run on trails and through terrain while waiting for the car to be serviced. Made the trip down to Sudbury (closest Subaru dealer), and really reminded myself how wonderful the terrain is there - if there was a decent map it'd probably be my favorite terrain in Canada, and among my favorite terrains worldwide.

The "moonscape" is starting to grow vegetation again, but there are still tons of exposed rocks and cliffs to keep it interesting, as well as all kinds of little and big marshes and ponds and lakes. Unfortunately, the existing map was made back in the late 1980's when the level of mapping detail was well below today's standards, and it's frustrating to use the maps now. I conveniently couldn't find my old maps anyway, so limited myself to simply enjoying the undulating terrain as it rolled by beneath my feet.

No problems with the hamstring today so I'll call myself fully recovered and hope that's the end of that.

C • If Canada were to host a WOC... 3

And an easy run while Katta finished up what we hope are her final university exams here in Canada. Now it's to wait until the marks come back and hope that there is nothing more for her to complete before she FINALLY can convert her Swedish teaching degree into one that is valid in Ontario....

Busy day again - various errands plus finishing up taxes (and coughing up a big chunk of change to the government) in the morning, and a slightly better-attended clinic for the evacuees through the afternoon until supper.

My colleagues are starting to call me the Flood Doctor now. I can't even begin to express how happy that doesn't make me....

A mix of strength - mostly legs and arms with some core. I've sadly been neglecting my strength work this last couple of weeks and I could feel it a little when I ran yesterday.

Busy day today - hard to fit anything in. Pre-natal visits in Timmins with Katta plus (finally and despite 5cm of snow and freezing rain last night) switching over to the alloy wheels and all seasons. Then an urgent clinic for the evacuees.... Apparently 35 of them "had to see the doctor today" - but only 14 managed to show up after all. That's where the strength workout came in. Was still occupied until evening, then we had to rusn off to our latest pre-natal class (including a tour, of all things, of the hospital - wow!).

C • Hospital Tour 2

Steady state run just below threshold. Wanted to see how the hamstring was going to behave - last week in DK I would have been in quite a lot of pain from jogging speed right on up through running/racing speeds. Much improved now - although not quite 100% just yet. Some sensation of tightness still, and I was a bit reluctant to try explosive movements or big leaps over streams, etc.... But given the amount of improvement over the past few days I expect to be in pretty good shape for the US Short & Long Champs this weekend.

A second rest day - due to wanting to rest the hamstring, as well as extra work demand on call. Arrived home late last night to discover that about 1000 people have just been evacuated to Cochrane due to the extensive flooding up on the James Bay coast and its effects on the Kashechewan reserve. Definitely some extra load on our local health care system (many people evacuated so quickly that they didn't even take the time to bring their medications with them), and extra clinics scheduled for this week....

But the hamstring probably appreciates the rest anyway. No pain while walking anymore.