Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: US Team (unofficial) 3K time trial
 

Run to and from the Harvard track. It was cold and rainy; I was unenthused.

I'm tremendously disappointed in my performance today. My goal was to stay below 0:45 200s - with the expectation that I would average < 0:44, for a total time of less than 11 minutes. I failed, only exceeding my previous effort on 4 March by 4 seconds. I gave it my all - I had a good warmup, ran a few fast 200s before I started, hydrated well, and adjusted my schedule for the past few days so I would be fresh. I wore running shorts and a short-sleeved running shirt, and ran at the Harvard Indoor track.

I will wait a month, then try again on 11 April at the indoor track. I am determined to break 11 minutes, and I will not be deterred by this defeat.

200 m splits:
1st km: 42.30, 44.63, 44.81, 44.59, 44.35 = 3:40.68
2nd km: 45.82, 45.68, 44.47, 46.03, 46.40 = 3:48.32
3rd km: 46.40, 45.92, 45.95, 45.42, 40.07 = 3:43.76

C • I'm pretty sure 2

C • Varying Vdot. 1

3000m run - Splits

It was my intent to take an easy day in anticipation of the time trial tomorrow, and the rain disenthused me sufficiently that I chose not to go out.

C • ok 2

Late night recovery run. I finished No Shortcuts to the Top.

3521

Commute to work.

To and from the Tuft's track.

Cruise interval workout, Tufts' track. My VDOT from my most recent time trial (a mile) is 54-55, which puts my 400m threshold pace at about 95-96 seconds. My plan was to do 4x1200 m cruise intervals (4:45-4:48 pace) to get a sense for the workout. I decided to run on a track to very precisely hit my predicted threshold pace.

I felt fantastic both during the workout and the following day; I think I will incorporate more threshold workouts on tracks into my regimen in the future. I didn't have much difficulty holding to the pace simply by checking every 400m and adjusting. Sometimes my first 400 would be as fast as 92-93 seconds, but I would adjust a bit.

I started by running a 400m at 1:46 to calibrate my speed, then set off on the first interval.

1200 m Interval time / 200m rest:
4:48.3 / 1:18
4:45.7 / 1:17
4:45.8 / 1:26
4:48.3 / 1:26
4:43.4

I decided to add a fifth cruise interval because I was feeling great (a la Marc Lauenstein's bad counting philosophy), even though I did exceed the 8% of weekly mileage. I look forward to a time when I can run 6:00 mile cruise intervals (mile TT of 5:02).

C • Mile PR 2

Commute.

I had planned to run cruise intervals when I got home, but I still felt tired. I fell asleep while I was doing my laundry and slept blissfully for about ten hours. I am disappointed, but I'll just replace Wednesday's workout with Thursday's easy day. Marit Bjørgen would not have fallen asleep while doing laundry before she trained.

C • Marit Bjorgen sleeps enough... 1

Setting the first 13 of 21 controls on the March CSU semi-permanent course at the Blue Hills. I was compelled to significantly redesign parts of the course because I felt certain features I had chosen were too bingo-y, especially small reentrants formed by small bobbles in the contours. I was moving a bit sluggishly, but I spent quite a bit of time standing around, checking nearby features, and verifying my position. The 1:15 scale is very difficult to read for technical areas.

I set with a bland orange streamer tape that is hard to see; I will probably run the course and place a more exotic color, like neon green or pink streamer tape.

I started almost two hours later than I planned, and it turns out that I-93 traffic into Boston is miserable as late as 10 AM. I'm inclined to confine my course setting to 2-5 AM.

C • Orange Tape 4

Biking to Peter's Hill via the insidious Washington St. I arrived about fifteen minutes late.

I arrived for our CSU training, which consisted of two 2.5 km sessions each with a set of 5-6 hill controls and a set of 5-6 "forest" controls. Unfortunately, I had designed the forest controls to be too difficult to reasonably accomplish at night, and in some areas which were nigh impossible to traverse. Ross attempted some (without a headlamp, even) of the more arduous controls.

I found that I was too wasted from earlier activity in the day and from sleeplessness to train effectively, and I aborted after 2 sets of hill controls and 1 of forest controls.

In my judgment, Peter's Hill is not useful for a technical training session because the park is too simple and lacks sufficiently many point features for any complexity. Some possible workouts for Peter's Hill:

- a purely physical hill exercise; up and down, with some nominal navigation

- a dog-bones exercise incorporating significant climb, and largely based on the hill

- (Night only) a compass exercise: starting from the top of the hill, aim for a point at the base of the hill based on compass only, trying to stay on track while descending at high speed. Run back to the top and repeat with a different point. Since the objective is a compass exercise (and a physical hill workout), the points don't necessarily need to be set on point features, provided they are accurately placed on the trail encircling the hill. It has to be at night so you cannot see the points while descending.

- a massively fast sprint, involving lots of trail running (e.g. a Park-O).

Training plan for the next two weeks:
T 9 March: Orienteering.
W 10 March: Cruise intervals, tempo pace, Tuft's Track + reps
R 11 March: easy recovery run
F 12 March: 800m VO2 max intervals
S 13 March: rest day/easy recovery run
S 14 March: 3 km time trial; goal: sub 11:00.

M 15 March: easy recovery run
T 16 March: Orienteering.
W 17 March: Long run
R 18 March: tempo run
F 19 March: easy run
S 20 March: easy run/rest day
S 21 March: New Bedford Half Marathon

C • Nice plan 3

I planned an easy run, but while I was running along the Charles River going west, I noticed a Harvard men's 8 in the water just ahead of me, so I accelerated to tempo pace to try to keep up. They finally pulled ahead at the turn to the south.

The day was so beautiful and pleasant (13 C, sunny), that I decided to run in the afternoon rather than at night. I wore tights and a short-sleeved polypro and continued No Shortcuts to the Top.

Most curiously, I felt some mild but sharp chest pain near the end of my run. I'm not sure what to make of it; I need to get a routine physical in the near future, and I will inquire.

C • random chest pain 1

To and from Brahms Trio rehearsal at Longwood.