Training Log Archive: iansmith

Rest day. Left foot, which was hurt at Harriman, feels fine even after the weekend's shenanigans. The outer edge of my right foot near the pinky hurts a bit, but it feels like a bruise from impact rather than an acute injury. My legs are a little sore, but not incapacitatingly so.

I find myself wondering if regular strength training would help me lose a little weight.

Route to Christmas is back!

C • awesome 6

C • Kind of 1

US Ultralong championships, blue course. The good: I finished, made mostly good navigational choices running solo for most of the race, didn't injure myself, and completed the longest O-course I have ever run. The bad: I was pitifully slow - losing 43 minutes to runit, and made mistakes in the second half of the course.

Prerace conditions were suboptimal; it was raining for much of the race. My fleece got drenched while I waited in the line for the bathroom before the course, and I was shivering waiting for the mass start. I wore short sleeves and tights in the ~12 C wetness; a hat or long sleeves would probably have been a good idea. While I had a solid breakfast 2.5 hours before the start, I didn't take my usual shot blocks in the haste to get ready. I took three Gus with me on the course.

The first leg was a long trail run, and I was at the front with runit, Mikkel, and Wyatt. The trail went further than it indicated on the map, and I hit ctrl 2 while navigating to where I thought ctrl 1 was, losing about 40s. I milled around in the front group; I was chasing Wyatt and ebone (who was late to the start) on the trail run to 4, but they inched away from me, and I declined to pursue. I navigated the second half to 4 on my own. Apparently the front pack made a mistake, because as I was descending a steep reentrant to 5, I saw ebone and Wyatt ascending on the other side. I reached 5 about 15s behind mindsweeper, and stopped to take my first Gu. I was comfortably warm, but not terribly energetic.

I didn't even consider the road route to 6; instead, I sluggishly bailed to the beach and ran along the lake. The route was good, but I did a poor job getting to the lake - I was in survival mode, not race mode. I executed my route to 8 poorly - running further along the road than needed, and choosing to attack from below. As I popped up into the control, jtorranc approached from above and remarked that above was clearly better. Jon stayed with me through 11, but I started getting away on the road run to 12, and he was out of sight by 14. I took my second Gu at the water stop at 15.

Control 16 consisted of a long, 3+ km trail run; I bobbled it at the end, losing about 90s running to the wrong little reentrant. Ctrls 17-20 were fine, though I was definitely getting tired. I decided to cut a trail corner at 20 to save at most a minute, but totally blew it (bad compass), was AOWN, and relocated at control 16 - losing at least 5 minutes. Jon passed me here. I stopped at the water stop on the way to 21 to take my last Gu. I think my route to 21 was optimal (will upload later), but between my adventure at 16 and exhaustion, I was ten minutes back. I saw Carol on my way to 23, and we exchanged pitiful encouragement.

On the way to 24, I was completely exhausted. I had no more Gu, and I marched up the (navigationally trivial) reentrant system to the control on willpower alone. Steep, wet, muddy reentrants were very challenging on the course, and I tried to avoid them. Ctrl 25 was also a slog, but I tapped my remaining energy for 26 and 27.

I think I realistically could have finished 20% back - where I was at ctrl 20. Had I not botched the trip to the trail at 20, Jon would have caught me, and I would have run with him for a time. Whether I could have held with him isn't clear, but it's disappointing to fall off so severely. This is a reminder to train for distance - if I can run 20 km, a 13 or 14 km long course will be easier by comparison. Kudos to runit for annihilating the field.

C • GU count observations 1

US_Ultralong_2012_8 Blue - Splits

US Relay Champs. I was running the first leg for the CSU 4-pt team (CSU 1) with Alex, Ali, and Ken. Mikkel or Biggins would have been logical replacements - Mikkel is definitely stronger than I am on longer courses, but his point was needed for the first 8-pt team (CSU Primo) with Izzy, PG, and Greg. I was nervous approaching the mass start; COC, Chicago, and DVOA all had strong 4-pt teams. Overall, I had a solid run - no major mistakes, and finished with the lead just over two minutes ahead of speedy from DVOA.

I took off at the start, and was in the lead. I tried to relax and read ahead; the trails were a bit confusing to 1, but I didn't err. Speedy outmaneuvered me through the green and punched just ahead of me. I was faster on the downhills, and we crossed the reentrant to 2 together. We curved around the spur, but he edged past me to punch 2 a few seconds ahead. Ctrl 3 was a trail run followed by a slog uphill to an impossible-to-miss clearing on the ridge; Speedy got to the control first, followed by me and Matthias from CAOC a few seconds back. We took essentially the same route to 4 and punched in the same order. To 5, speedy and Matthias were a bit far to the right, and I punched about 10s up. Six was forked - I noticed Matthias and speedy leave the trail earlier than I thought, but I stuck to my plan and ran into my control alone.

I figured the fastest route to 7 was taking the low trail along the reentrants, but I guessed that speedy and Matthias would go high along the spur. I pushed on the trail, but had to negotiate some downed trees. As I rounded the final spur before the big uphill climb to 7, I saw speedy to my left, and we dragged ourselves up the slope together. He punched first into 7, but I squeezed past him through the green to 8. I kept the lead on the short legs to 9 and 10, but I was wary of trying to break away too fast and make a mistake. I misread the contours at 11 and ran up the wrong reentrant about 30m to the right; speedy punched the control first, and I had to fight through some green to get to it. We were together to 12; 13 was a longer leg, negotiating some ambiguous hillsides. We were cautious, and reached the control simultaneously. He then ran low to 14, while I stayed high - my route was better, and once we reached the road free of vegetation, I kicked up my speed. Control 16 was forked, but I had a comfortable head start at 14 and never looked back. Speedy finished about 2:30 after I did, followed by Matthias, Balter (Team Water Dragon) and Will from COC. Hearing the roar of the crowd as I came into view of the arena was magnificent.

My race was pretty safe; I didn't break away from Vadim until the end. It would have been nice to finish with a 5 minute lead, but even if I had the physical stamina to do that (unclear), the risk of navigational error would be high. Running first leg was great fun, but the lead pack of Matthias, Vadim and I broke away quickly. The last time I saw anyone else on the course was on my dogleg out of 6. Alex, Ali, and Ken all had great runs, and we finished with a 2:30 lead.

Warmup, starting about 25 minutes before the mass start. I changed clothes, put on my bib, took some shot blocks, warmed up and stretched. I felt nervous, but my feet felt excellent.

Green - Splits

Event: OCIN A-meet (Night, Relay, Ultra-long)
 

Ali and I arrived in Dayton at 5:30 PM, then drove down to Mt. Airy Forest for the Night-O champs. I had the last blue start, just after 8 PM, and had plenty of time to register, change, check my head lamp, munch some Shot Blocks, and warm up. Going into the weekend, I was very anxious about my left foot - something had been hurt at Harriman last week when I put my weight on a rock. I reasoned that the Night-O champs course would be a proving ground for the relay - if I couldn't run well enough, we could substitute Mikkel or Biggins for the top team. This was the debut race for my bright Magicshine headlamp, which is legitimately bright for a cool $50. I also acquired a wide angle lens, which turns the bright spot into a horizontal bar of light.

The trails were a bit rougher than I was expecting, and I started somewhat conservatively. My foot, which was initially tight, loosened up during the race and felt solid. Overall, my run was decent - one 2 minute error, a few 30s bobbles, but otherwise good. I had adventures in the steep Cincinnati reentrants. I was quite surprised to find out I was only eight minutes back.

I took a straight but climby route choice to 2 rather than the right-side trail (30s), missed 4 a bit right (15s), got stuck in green trying to get to the road from 5 (45s), overran 10 and had to double back (2:00), missed 12 left (15s), and hesitated into 20 (15s). I was pleased that I took what seems to be the best route to 13, though Ali and ken beat me on the same route.

US_Night_2012_Blue - Splits