Training Log Archive: iansmith

Warmup before the sprint. Probably ran another 5 minutes about the field.

Flying Pig sprint blue course; an excellent course at a great venue. The first five controls were in an open, highly visible rolling field the next eleven were in a green network that's a frisbee golf course, and the last six were in another big field. The green was generally penetrable, and some elephant tracks existed (and were probably extant before the race).

I wore Orocs, and when I stepped on a metal bridge en route to 5, my feet slipped out from under me. I had an awkward approach because I was edging past another guy but fortunately landed on my feet in the marsh below. I lost 8 seconds on 13 - a short leg, where I probably made a bad route choice (don't actually remember). I really wanted to win split 14 (haven't seen the splits yet), and I tried to bring it. The last six controls were trivial - visible from very far away, but I couldn't seem to get moving very fast. Finished a massive 1:45 behind Serghei Logvan, in fourth just ahead of the main pack.

Quickroute. Need to remember to switch to 1-sec recording for sprints. On 8-9, I ran around on the trail, not straight. Also was dead on 19, not a miss like the track suggests.

C • treacherous bridges 1

Warmup; the legs felt pretty good, and better than I expected after the sprint. I drank two cups of coffee before the middle; it seemed to help.

Flying Pig middle distance at England-Idlewild. The map was very different from yesterday, with lots of fine, technical vegetation and numerous trails. The organizers printed the map at 1:5000, which while unusual, unquestionably improved readability. I'm reluctant to use scales finer than 1:10 for middles and longs - probably because I'm most experienced with that scale. Also, if readability is only balanced against the size of the map, won't that lead to 1:5k and 1:2.5k becoming typical?

Dense, technical and oft impenetrable green coupled with 28 controls invited errors. I had an acceptable race with a few minutes of error; it could have been a fantastic race but for a few legs. I made a 25s mistake at 1 by immediately overrunning, but was then clean(-ish) until a 25s mistake at 14 fighting through green. I was hesitant at 15, and lost time fighting green at 17. My biggest error was at 22; I executed my plan fine, but was uncertain running through a field and discerning vegetation blobs. I came to a control, checked the code (as I religiously do) and found it to be wrong; I spent about 2 minutes relocating and trying to figure out what had happened, only to return to the same control and realize it was mine. I had had great flow up until then, and I probably lost 15s to 23 being upset with myself. Such a stupid mistake! I finished by losing 45s at 25 losing track of where I was while charging across some rough open.

The thick vegetation terrain was favorable to me; absolute top speed was less important than durability punching through. There was plenty of open running, but it was reasonably technical. My run was good enough for fifth behind runit (in 39 mins), Hammer, Nikolay, and a lad from Indiana. Need to learn to not make mistakes and read codes correctly.

Quickroute. Really had to wrestle the track to match the map, especially in the upper right. I suspect local distortion, but could be bad reception. Sigh for my adventure at 22.

C • reading control codes incorrectly 1

Middle - Saturday8 Blue - Splits

Sprint Blue - Splits

Event: OCIN Flying Pig XVI
 

Flying Pig middle distance race at Middle Creek Park in Kentucky. Apparently the map is a Vladimir Zherdev creation. It was warm - around 27 C, with some indeterminate amount of humidity. The woods were very trashy; there was lots of deadfall, and there were few open areas. The climb was also severe and concentrated on a small number of legs. Between the vegetation and the climb, top speed was less relevant than speed and efficiency pushing through green and climbing over downed trees.

I was tired - I didn't sleep much last night, flew to Cincinnati this morning, and started my race 90 minutes after I landed. A warmup helped, but I didn't feel that awake. I took a GU before the race, primarily for the caffeine. I really struggled on the climb - the leg to 13 had about 50m of climb over 200m; apparently everyone was overwhelmed. I had one error of about two minutes, one of a minute, and a few small bobbles, but no meltdowns.

My result was acceptable but unremarkable - I finished 6th overall. Sergei Logvin (who won) and Nikolay ran in 45 minutes; next were Jon Torrance, Mike Waddington, and Sergei Fedorov. I'm hoping I can put together some good races later in the meet with good sleep. I'm devastated to lose to so many Canadians. I was in the lead for about an hour as we waited for the fast guys to come in; I knew my result wouldn't hold up, but I was still disappointed to find that Hammer had crushed me by three minutes. Races are great motivation to get faster! Kudos to OCIN and Tundra/Desert for the results system, the live updates, and the running commentary. It's worth noting that T/D's vitriol about GPSes is more entertaining in person than on AP.

Quickroute.

Warmup running around the parking area and to/from the start. I hung out with Linear Ice before the race, and afterward learned of Nikolay's driving prowess on the way to the hotel.

8 Blue - Splits

Evening jaunt.

Post board meeting warmup. I guess I got lost - or more precisely misplaced the entrance to Danehy Park - and thus had a longer warmup than expected and ran to the main entrance.

Woohoo: passed 40,000 log hits! Tonight, I ran a 5x1000m intervals session. I speculate that I may have been running my intervals over the past few months too fast. My 5k time this past weekend recommends an interval pace of 3:42/km. Even using my 3k time from December yields an interval pace of 3:36/km. My right hamstring felt tight at first but loosened up.

Anyway, I decided to run conservatively, with a target time of 3:42/km. On paper, this looks painfully slow, and it is. However, if I hang out in this neighborhood for a few weeks and then gradually increase my speed, I think it will yield greater improvement than naively hacking away at 100%+ HR max.

Splits were 3:41, 3:41, 3:41, 3:40, and 3:43 (weak). I felt pretty good, though definitely expending effort. What I find especially encouraging is that my rests were short - consistently around 85s (200m jog). Conditions were cool: 7 C, in a light drizzle. My timing is poor - Flying Pig is in 40 hours - but there's no time like the present.

C • Good plan 3

Easy cool down and return to base. I feel good about an interval session after which I can comfortably run 5 min/km pace.

Legs and Ian felt tired, so after getting home late, I punted the interval workout to tomorrow in favor of a rest day. Poor discipline fail. Maybe my activity on the weekend caught up to me. Oh well; no more rest days this week.

On the other hand, I enjoyed a delightful block of Gruyere cheese - my first experience with it.

I went out for my evening run despite feeling a bit sluggish. Barb hosted Jim Paschetto's Or e-punch training session tonight. I was familiar with most of the content, but I learned a few new things. The target audience for tonight was board members as a first pass - seven of us and Jeff Saeger were in attendance. This should help distribute the workload so poor Jim P. doesn't have to be at every meet for six hours.

At the Flying Pig, I will host a meeting at the Hampton Inn Cincinnati Airport-North to brainstorm all the ways to wreck the sport of orienteering; following the meeting, all of them will be implemented. Everyone on attackpoint except Tundra/Desert is invited.

2 sets of 25 box jumps (+1 step), 25 two-legged calf raises, 10 metzler devils on each side.

I had the first movement of Tchaik Piano Concerto No. 1 stuck in my head for most of the Hammond Pond run, which is an odd choice for my internal music player. I rediscovered Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 "Scottish" recently. Good stuff, though I don't in general like Mendelssohn as much as Beethoven (I mean c'mon).

Words of kenfucius:
"Fastest query is the one not executed."

Some new battle music

Event: NEOC: Hammond Pond
 

For the first NEOC meet of the season, Lori and Stephen set a novel course: the merry-go-score. The race consisted of five score courses, each with five controls. The courses were numbered 1-5, and on the nth course, the controls were worth n points (course 1 controls were worth 1; course 2 controls were worth 2, etc). You were allowed to advance from the ith to the (i+k)th course at any time, but you couldn't go back to a previous course.

My strategy from the beginning was not to maximize my score, but to collect all the controls. The five courses were fairly similar - two or three close controls, two or three remote controls. I was surprised - when I flipped over the first map, I imagined all the controls would be nearby. I immediately considered skipping the two remote controls, but decided to stick to my effort to get them all. I returned to the map exchange at around 11:45, and I concluded that I would not be able to sustain that pace for four more loops. I skipped one control each on courses 2 and 3. I made a silly 30 second error on course 4 (around minute 37) where I ran to the wrong hill. I started the fifth course with 14 minutes left; each control was worth 5 points and critical to a good performance. One control in particular looked like it would have a slow exit. I fought hard to keep up the pace for the entire race, and ran like hell for the two-minute run-in from the last control. I finished with 25 seconds to spare.

I found it helpful to set short goals - e.g. finish this loop by time T, or get to the next control by a certain time. Had I optimized, I would have skipped the two remote controls on the first loop; I think 73 points was attainable. Ross or Giacomo could probably have gotten all 75.

Kudos to Archimedes Stuk, who at his first orienteering event won white and yellow and finished sixth in the Score-O. Thanks to Lori and Stephen for a novel and fun event.

Warmup to confirm the absence of a white control; easy out-and-back.

Between running at Hammond and returning to pick up equipment, I drove over to World's End - of which NEOC has a map, and ran around to examine the place for suitability for a meet. Despite laying the maps out last night, I forgot the O map at home, so I ran with a park map.

World's End is like a larger scale Peter's Hill - few point features, large open hillsides, and a set of prominent trails encircling the hills. There are a few small technical areas with white woods, but they are isolated. The park would be great for white and yellow courses, and perhaps even better for a trail race. It would make a great picnic location. It's a 40-45 minute drive from most places in Boston.