Training Log Archive: wilsmith

Event: West Point A-meet
 

This was the shadowing of Mia (who probably forced me past Z2 but also went slowly at times), plus trips up to the start twice - forgot an extra SI so that Sofia could punch controls too. Boo to the course setter, who put the second half of the course through thorns and brambles and mud, after a lovely first half of typical West Point rocky but open terrain. Had to carry Sofia for a good chunk as she was unable to keep up with Mia through the brambles.

West Point Day 1 Blue. Very frustrating race. At a certain level, I should probably dial back my expectations a bit. Orienteering is a sport that I only do 2-3 times a year now. It's been over 5 months since I even looked at an orienteering map, and I can't even recall the last time I ran in terrain. However, it's a real struggle to find much satisfaction with a run like today.

It was not a brutal race, by any means, but I wouldn't call it good either. Somewhere just south of acceptable I suppose. I never ever had flow going at all, and essentially was forced to come to a complete stop at every control just to determine what I was about to punch, and again to decide how I was going to complete the next leg. Missed between 10-45 seconds on virtually every control. The AP error calculator has me as the only error-free Blue runner! I guess that's what happens when you make mistakes on nearly every leg. I did manage to spike controls 3 (accidentally ran through it en route to 2), 19, 20, and 21. The debacle on the remaining 17 controls was not very encouraging.

Physically, felt fine on the bigger trails and roads, with the exception of steep climbs (haven't worked on that yet). But felt quite clumsy and awkward in the terrain and on small paths, which comprised the large majority of today's run. I probably wasn't too far off the rest of the field's speed even in the forest, but it did feel very odd to be stumbling about out there.

Based on my training, the above result is probably only to be expected. But it's a bitter pill to swallow. Simply put, training for triathlons does not an orienteer make.

Warmup and (frustrated) cool down for the above.

Saturday Classic, Blue - Splits

Very slow (as in really forcing myself to be slow) Z2 run by Niagara Falls, just as a recovery/rest run before breakfast. But good to do something before driving to West Point (water sliding probably doesn't count...). Walkway along the gorge nearly deserted. Just net one other runner. Pretty cool to be out and seeing the Falls in the fog and must with nobody else around.

Easy Z2 spin for recovery.

Watched the end of 24 season 8. Now have to switch over to something else (maybe finish off Sherlock season 3) while they trundle the latest season of 24, due out next month.

Supposed to be strict Z2 recovery spin but initial HR a bit high. Still not fully recovered but hopefully able to run intervals this afternoon as planned.

TRX. Shoulders and arms.

Fartlek intervals again. Probably not fully recovered for this, but since we will be heading off to West Point tomorrow (via watersliding in Niagara Falls), today was a better day to get it done.

Did alternating 1000m sessions - run/slow run - simply because it's convenient in that my FR620 automatically spits out the 1000m splits every km. There were 5 intervals, all between 3:36-3:39. Satisfied with that. It's nowhere near what D-MAN is cranking out, but it'll do for now. Got to ease back into the speed stuff gradually when you're an old man, else risk needless injury.

Hopefully I can be better recovered for the weekend.

Nice workout. Main session was a whole bunch of 25m intervals on a 60-second cycle. Main goal on my new doctrine - focus on propulsion instead of streamlining. Definitely faster like this, but also more tiring. Need to work on swim-specific strength, and transform those lats and deltoids into semi-useful body parts I guess. Anyway, the lengths took anywhere from 22-29 seconds, depending on how bad my form was and how much energy I wanted to expend...

Note that I need to average 1 second per meter to get through the Olympic distance triathlon swim in 25 minutes. Not sure if that's a reasonable goal for 2014, but I won't rule it out until I've been in open water for a fair bit. Which, at this rate, won't be until July...

Easy Z2 recovery. Legs felt a little tight from the weekend, but surprisingly good overall.

Fartlek run after work. It was +13C and sunny so I couldn't waste such a nice day, despite not being fully recovered from the weekend. Plan was alternating 1000m from slow run to fast run. Maybe 5-6 min/km slow, 3.5-4 min/km fast. Worked ok but fairly tired so less quality than I had hoped for.

Spectacular XC skiing conditions on the Bay again today. Imagine that two years ago it never froze and that kids were already swimming by this time. Shocking!

Anyway, lovely day for both running and skiing on the Bay. Katta, Vic, and Nick did the former while I did the latter.

Partridge Island 2.7km
Wall Island 2.28km

Was warm enough to get out the new hardtail and go on the roads - still too snowy to go on the trails, and will be for a while yet. But nice to pedal something that actually moves, for a change... Am looking forward to the transition to spring/summer and outdoor training. My TV watching will fall off considerably, but that's not such a bad thing.

Then a solid little run to make it an honest brick. Was pleased to hold sub-4:00 kms even directly after the longer bike, especially on a slightly hilly route. Now to work on stretching that out to 10k instead of only 2k, and then we are getting somewhere..