Training Log Archive: iansmith

Easy neighborhood run followed by 4x30s reps. I had planned on running longer and felt generally ok, but I started to get tired about 30 mins into the run and cut it short. My feet felt a little tight, but I had no difficulty running. I stretched diligently afterward. I started the audiobook The Perks of being a Wallflower, and the writing is compelling and engrossing thus far. Thoughts about nachos for much of the run motivated me.

Ghettotrack.

C • nachos 7

Event: NEOC: High Rock
 

C • Thanks 3

NY Phil, Lincoln Center
Brahm Piano Quintet, Dvorak 9

Ali and I set out for Blue Mountain in the early morning with the intent of running a mix of NAOC training camp courses and the 2011 Team Trials Middles. My left foot was hurting intermittently while running, so I elected to walk a course rather than risk further injury. I strolled through the Brown middle distance course, taking care to read the details and optimize my route. My foot seemed to improve over the session.

After a morning of acquiring a Christmas tree for the Crocker family, we departed for a training session at Harriman. Ali and I had hoped to get in two training sessions, but we only had time for one before nightfall. We were both damaged from the 5-mile run yesterday, but my legs seemed to be in better shape because they had much more time to recover during the race.

We reran the first map from the 2009 Lowlander - the third of four parts of the Highlander, consisting of controls 8-18 on Shoebridge starting from Tiorati Circle. I fared much better today than I did in 2009, finishing through control 12 at a lackadaisical pace in about an hour. I was very careful at 10 and 11, where I met with disaster in 2009. Boris's map.

8: I ran right of the line, but almost reached the water tower (further right than intended) before cutting back left. I think my line was good - I ran over the top during the Lowlander, and around to the right saves a little climb.
9: Mostly contouring and reading contours and boulders; I was a little too high and hit the cliff to the left of the circle.
10: After my 15 minute error last time, I ran to the trail, marched up the hill, attacked from the first bare rock, and deliberately picked off distinctive features just right of the line - reentrant, u-shaped cliff, line of cliffs, steep section, hill flanked by reentrants. I saw Ali run in from the left.
11: I waited about 15s for Ali to scamper away, then decided to attack high. I ran just below the hut, picked up the little stretcho f trail, then scampered up along the bare rock to the line of cliffs running to the control. I ran right of the bare rock knoll into the control from the north.
12: My navigation was a bit coarse, but I ended up running on the line almost perfectly. Ran down the hill, crossed the stream, then contoured to the bare rock under the line in the green. I was wary attacking; I never saw the trail, but saw the marsh to my right and the various cliffs.
13: Careful negotiating the bare rock, but fine.
14: Straight.
15: Up and over. Some tricky green.
16: Something in my left foot popped while my weight was on it on a rock; it didn't immediately hurt, but I had some discomfort. Ran carefully - just left of the line, slightly above the hut. I attacked via the reentrant, but skirted left of the last patch of green and ran into Ali at the control.
17: Up the reentrant, over the saddle, past the cliff monolith, over the spur. I stopped before attacking to go west to see the index contour reentrant west of the control; it's amazing how much of a difference 5m can make in what features you see. Spike.
18: Contoured; hesitated briefly about which nose was mine.

Foot feels a bit sore, but generally ok. It's certainly not the same scale of injury as during TT, but it's unclear how fast I will be able to move. Applying weight to heel and ball is fine.

Pre-Turkey trot warmup.

Mid-Hudson Road Runners' Turkey Trot 5 mile run. The climb on the course was brutal and worse than I anticipated. I had a tolerable run given my current state, but I can't help but be disappointed - I was six minutes back of the winners and three minutes back of Ali. The hills took a bit out of me, and my left knee was still a bit swollen from the Traverse, but the conclusion is that I am currently very slow. I would like to benchmark my current fitness at some local course, then track it as I get faster during the winter intervals and threshold trainings. Despite the tremendous pain, inevitable disappointment, and chill air, I had lots of fun. Kudos to AliC and NanC.

Overall Results. Not even the first Ian S. #Stomped.

Street-O of my design. Ari was the only one who showed up - Thanksgiving is probably interfering with our training - so we ran the course together. I suspect the scale is incorrect, because the course on purple pen was only 9.5 km, and we definitely didn't make 5 km of errors. The central theme of the training was hills, but rather than a simple hills workout, there was orienteering, too. We chatted for the duration of the course, and one of our better ideas was to make a blog about Alex's training written from the perspective of her achilles (or other injured part). Each day, we would parody her log entries by describing them from the perspective of an abused part.

Ghettotrack.