Training Log Archive: iansmith

Because walking was painful and required modifying my gait, I brought my crutches out of storage and started using them. I have four to choose from, so I picked my two favorite. After analyzing my melancholy tale, the doctor considered two possibilities - a tear in the fascia, or a fracture in the bone spur connected to the fascia. An X-ray revealed both that I don't have a bone spur in my heel and that my heel is not fractured. He advised me to avoid applying weight to it (i.e. make friends with my crutches) and RICE it. The prognosis was that if the initial condition was plantar fasciitis, my foot my be recovered in a week. Based on the magnitude of the pain at the time of injury (it bloody hurt), I don't think my foot will be ready for the Billygoat in two weeks. I will arrange to see a specialist later in the week.

Based on my admittedly limited experience, the flowchart for treatment is quite simple. If the injury doesn't require surgery, the patient should suitably reduce the activity on the injury site, RICE, and wait. Follow up with generic and plausibly (though not definitively) beneficial physical therapy.

C • Get well fast. 9

Cruising.

Event: NEOC: Powissett
 

Even with 4x naproxen, ice, and rest, my right foot was a mess when I woke up. The front inner edge of my heel the arch were considerably swollen, and walking was a painful struggle. I resigned not to race - there was no cause to risk further injury when I clearly could not run and was well outside of contention for the team. I camped out at the meet site with some ice and shouted myself hoarse cheering for people running through the spectator control and finish. I talked to lots of people, which was encouraging; it was harder to despair with so many friends around. Nevertheless, this was not the outcome I have been hoping for over the past year.

After the races and announcement of the team, a group moseyed over to La Hacienda, a quasi-Mexican food place, and ate. My group retired to an airport hotel to shower before our flights, and Magnus, Giacomo and I parted company at Harvard.

I procured two noteworthy pics with my phone's ghettocam:
Diggin' the threads
A stochastic rivalry

Pertinent to conversation today:
http://xkcd.com/1039/
http://xkcd.com/793/
Just because I like the perspective comics: case studies in visualization.

Congrats to everyone who made the US WOC Team!! Particular congratulations to Giacomo, who continues his M-21 debut, adding a fourth overall finish at the team trials to a third place at the Classic Champs. He and BigE chatted at the awards ceremony on Saturday, and I had the impression of two fighters circling each other warily before the inevitable confrontation (Oct 2012). If Giacomo were a boat (or form of fictional currency), he would be the Italian Galleon.

Warmup before the long, much of which I spent in line for the bathroom.

C • 5 min/km 1

US Team Trials Long: it could have been a fantastic race, but my body and I failed. I was running very well until just before 10, when I felt a pop in my right arch along the medial edge of the heel. Continuing was difficult; pressing on the toe or the heel was agony. Concentrating a challenge because my foot hurt, and I was worried I would injure it worse.

I ran to the right to 1 and caught up to Gerald Yip on the big trail left of the line. I passed him pushing through the woods to the trail junction to 2. The route I chose to 3 was via the trail along the river, then up the trail on the spur. I held the lead except for a stretch on the trail up the spur, and passed him again charging down into the reentrant to 3. I tried to break away running to the field at 4, but he stayed with me; we ran into Jon and fumbled around in the woods a bit. I led the way into 4 and tried to run away to 5, but Gerald and Jon were not far behind heading to 6. Gerald and I ran straight while Jon went to the right; Gerald hit the control first. Figuring Gerald was faster on trails, I ran straight through the pine plantation to 7, but he pulled ahead on the trail. We attacked differently, and I retook the lead through the woods. Jon somehow appeared, but I was higher than the others and hit the control first. I had decided to run to 8 via 3, but Jon and Gerald were faster than me on the trail. The three of us attacked from the building near 3 separated by maybe 50m and ran up the reentrant on the line from 2-3. We passed over the clearing-trail junction-hill and ran down into the reentrant; Jon and Gerald were too low, and I found it first. I ate my Gu, pounded a cup of water, and hauled off towards nine. I stayed ahead the whole way and punched maybe 15s ahead.

I planned to attack 10 from the trail SW of 1, so I took off down the trail. I did not want to get caught; I cut a trail bend through the woods hoping to gain a little time. Jon left south of 2 (on the apparently better route), but Gerald caught up to me on the cut through the woods by 1. I pulled away on the way into the woods at 10, and my right arch popped about 100m into the woods. I ground to a halt with some expletives, and Gerald passed me. I hobbled to ten, exhorting myself to not be a pansy. I started running again (sort of), and hobbled my way around the rest of the course, but I was not moving fast. I messed up the control after the spectator loop (1:30) because I didn't have an attackpoint, and I messed up 17 by drifting too high.

I thought my race was shot after popping my foot, but my result wasn't terrible. Whether I can run tomorrow remains to be seen. I was in third after nine controls; it was an excellent race to me. How much that was improved by encountering Gerald and Jon isn't clear; I pushed harder to three because Gerald was near me. Jon led the way into 8. It was hard to completely blow a control because the people near me would have caught me. Even with these potential caveats, I'm satisfied with the first half of the race.

C • That's unfortunate 1

Long - Blue - Splits

Event: US Individual Championships (Sprint/Middle/Long/Trail)
 

Event: US Team Trials for WOC 2012
 

A warmup, though not terribly disciplined - should have been longer and better planned. I ran at mostly an easy pace with a few strides. It would have been good to look at an ISSOM map like BigE.

US Team Trials Sprint race: a disappointing run. I felt ok physically at the start, and was prepared with plenty of time. I started acceptably, though not moving fast enough to contend. I lost about 10 seconds in the alley at 8; I thought the stair went down to the alley level, and lost another 10 at 9 from a silly route choice.

I lost about 1:15 at control 18; I read the building correctly and planned to run along the fence into the bend. I didn't really comprehend that the fence entrance was so close to the building, and the gate was open, so I ran down the road into the construction area. The bulldozer ahead of me was confusing, but it took me way to long to figure out what had happened. I punched about 10 seconds ahead of ken and successfully held him off until the end, but the race was a disaster. A combination of mistakes and not moving fast leaves me far outside of team trials contention. I hope to redeem myself tomorrow and Sunday.

Despite being bib 1 (because I registered first, months ago), I was somehow overlooked in the course system. While my bib and the interwebs has the correct information (e.g. my start time), neither the start line nor download seemed to know I was racing. I had a few minutes of stress as I had to convince all three lines that I was legit.

Kudos to Giacomo, who has a great chance of making the team. Ali also raced well and obliterated me on our shared course. Since we are running different courses for the rest of the weekend, I will have to avenge today's loss at the Billygoat.

C • Good idea. 2

Sprint - Red/Blue - Splits

Running around Hale Reservation hanging streamers for this weekend's meet. I define this as orienteering rather than course setting because I was navigating to a set of points I had already selected and placing streamers rather than vetting or evaluating possible legs.

It turns out it is patently unwise to orienteer in Powissett without pants. I also saw about a dozen ticks. Powissett is near the top of the areas I want NEOC to remap; it's a large area, and the map has problems and distortions. The area is conveniently located, large, and reasonably technical (apart from the copious trails and linear features). However, the vegetation is awful in places, and I must concede that the map isn't irredeemable. The east side, which has worse vegetation, seems to be more thoroughly mapped than the west, which is predominantly open woods.

I have had a few sources of discomfort which have troubled me recently. There is a slight pain on the bottom of my right foot just in front of the heel that is induced by pressure. I initially suspected my O-shoes had aggravated the tissue - perhaps bruising it, but the pain has lasted for two or three weeks. I can still race on it without much trouble, but it's disconcerting.

Starting last week at Prospect Hill, I did something to my left foot, and now my big toe is numb - it intermittently has the pins-and-needles sensation, but predominantly feels asleep. There also seems to be a strand (nerve? tendon?) in the left ball of my foot that hurts if I step on it in a particular way. Weird.

C • :-) 3

Late night intervals session. I felt a little tired and sluggish, but managed to push through the session. Session was 4x1000, 2x400. It was cool and breezy. The elevation on my track is bizarre, but systematically so. Apparently, there is a ten meter hill at a point on the track that I didn't notice. Either the HR data is spurious or I am about to have a severe cardiac episode.

1 km: 3:37, 3:43, 3:42, 3:40
400: 1:20, 1:19

C • hill 9