Training Log Archive: iansmith

Running from the top of the lift to the start. I did a few drills and stretched my calves before starting.

Canadian Champs Long course, WRE. Note that control 19 was a very steep descent through a river gorge; up to five minutes off the clock could be spent on this leg. I spent about 4:50.

Long M21E - Splits

Canadian Orienteering Championships, Whistler BC. The sprint course was held in the Olympic village at Whistler. The temperature was quite cool and comfortable, and even at 9 AM, there were many pedestrians wandering around the village. The map was interesting and nuanced, and the presence of unmapped furniture and other movable fixtures added to the complexity.

My race was very poor. I made a 25s error running through the wrong corridor to 3. I was caught by a trap at 4 and lost 45s running to the low side of a tunnel; I read my descriptions, but misinterpreted them. I had a small 5s route choice error to 11, and a 10s route choice error to 12. I lost 20s botching 13. Finally, I was just too slow - even with a clean run, I would have been over a minute behind the leaders. I seem to have tweaked my left heel, which has been aching today, but it didn't seem to hamper me much after I warmed it up and stretched.

The obvious question is why? I warmed up for about 20 minutes, and arrived at the start about 20 minutes before my start time. I read a map from Mills College to try to engage my sprint subroutines. I was very slightly perturbed by the fact that Eric was starting a minute behind me (and he caught me at 12); I should learn to ignore such facts. For comparison, ebone and BigWillyStyle ran around 14:30, and their runs were not completely clean.

Ultimately, I must conclude that my execution was poor because my preparation has been poor. I have not done much sprint training, and running in a crowded urban center is unfamiliar to me. At the very least, practice would help considerably. I'm still too slow to legitimately contend in sprints, but I shouldn't be 25% back of the winners in North America.

C • Why? 5

Loosening up the feet, some drills, reading my Mills College map.

HPP fundraiser sprint high on Mt. Whistler. The views were magnificent; I shall post pictures soon. I did not orienteer particularly well, unfortunately. My log suggests to me that I need to spend more time warming up and cooling down. I ate gelato, blueberries, and sweet potato fries with COC (the "Evil Empire") and biggins + cwalker. I also introduced myself (apparently for the second time) to Thomas Nipen and Megan the fearless Canuck.

C • second time 1

Sprint M21E - Splits

Event: 2014 Canadian Champs
 

About fifty minutes before my start, I scooted over to the warmup map, scoped out the terrain, and ran a few legs. I felt suitably warmed up after this session, so I didn't do any additional running before the race.

Canadian Championships, M21E Middle Distance, WRE. Map: One Duck Lake. Overall, I had a very solid but not spritely quick race and turned in a good performance when many others had errors. I finished fifth out of 50 and beat the other two Ians in the competition.

The terrain was very technical - apparently like Salmon La Sac map, and much like Harriman's rock and contour features but with thicker vegetation. I was incredibly happy to jog around the sample map, a 0.25 km^2 chunk of map adjacent to the course. The temperature was over 90 F, and I was definitely feeling the heat by the end of the course. The woods had a lot of ankle busting rocks and log scotch from dense patches of fallen trees.

The good: I ran a very clean race - I had some bobbles near the end as I started to get tired. My biggest execution error was about 45s at 15, but otherwise, I had nothing bigger than 30s. With one or two exceptions, I did a good job reading ahead, choosing good attackpoints, simplifying intelligently, and interpreting the map quickly.

The bad: I lacked much oomph, and near the end wasn't able to keep up with Will Enger and another guy whom I had caught. While I'm thrilled to have finished as high as I did, I was over seven minutes behind Thomas Nipen and Will Critchley. I also failed to meet my (arbitrary) goal of running under 40 minutes.

Stuff to work on: wood speed with bad footing (O-tervals), low-visibility navigation (Night/corridor-O), endurance and tenacity in the heat (tempo and long runs in hot conditions), executing "full speed, no mistakes."

Results.

C • F? 5

Middle M21E - Splits

Easy run around Creekside Village in Whistler with Will Enger. I drove up with Lori to Seattle today, picked up my passport from Alee, and wandered around Discovery Park with Presto. We then met up with Patrick and Gina Nuss and Will Enger, drove through some stunningly beautiful vistas of Howe Sound and the Strait of Georgia, and arrived in Whistler just after 10p.

I decided to go out for an easy run to loosen up my legs after hundreds of miles of driving, and Will decided to tag along.

Let it be known that I have joined the illustrious ranks of people who have forgotten their passport while departing on an international orienteering expedition. It wasn't so much that I forgot my passport - just that I forgot I needed it going to Vancouver. I discovered this after I had landed in San Francisco. Fortunately, I have amazing friends (Keith and Alee) and a great landlord who collectively got into my apartment, obtained my passport, and SuperUltraMegaFast Priority mailed it to Alee in Seattle. Had I failed to get my passport, I would have loitered in Seattle until Wednesday, but it is far preferable to get to the Canadians.

Preliminary photos.

C • passport story? 4

Run with Peyton around Stanford. GPS didn't locate satellites for a little while; we started at the finish location.

Actual time: 2:40. Hike with Veronica in Mt. Diablo State Park. We ascended quite late, so the sun set just as we crested the ridge. We descended with flashlights. It was an improvised adventure, with no well defined objective.