Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: 2016 US Two-Day Classic Championships and Sprint Relay
 

The US AGM was this Saturday after the courses. Based on what I had heard through the grapevine about support from clubs, I was not expecting to get elected. The election result, with vote totals: Boris Granovskiy (795), Alex Jospe (766), Barb Bryant (741), Pat Meehan (559), Ian Smith (559), Gavin Wyatt-Mayer (404), Claire Durand (390), Donna Fluegel (359), Kevin Teschendorf (110). Pat and I were summoned; the options for resolving the tie were a new vote or a volunteer to take the two year term. I volunteered, with no issue of running for reelection in two years.

First and foremost, thank-you to everyone who supported me and the rest of the candidates in the election process. It has been a long and difficult six weeks, with resistance and antagonism from surprising and varied corners. But at the end of the day, we are all working towards the same goal, and the people running for the Board represent a number of prevalent policy views. I think the election results demonstrate that the views the coalition candidates espoused were underrepresented in the OUSA board leadership.

I also would like to thank the other candidates for the Board positions for their candidacy and input into the process. It is not easy to put yourself out there, and I really hope they continue to contribute to the OUSA governance. A board position is not necessary to make a tremendous difference in the organization.

More to come later, including notes on the first hundred days and the board meeting tonight.

C • Congrats! 3

Day 1 at Ward Pound Ridge. I didn't feel very fast throughout the race, and I was definitely tired at the end. I made a frustrating mistake at 11, and some bobbles at 14, 18, and 5. Physically, I felt quite wasted by the end. It's possible I went out too hard at the beginning, but more probable is that my fitness is still not very good. More training is necessary. The result was mediocre, but less disappointing than I had feared. I was passed by Thierry at 10, and it was amazing and all I had hoped it would be. I then ignored him and executed my own route to 11, which was probably inferior.

C • Your next career 1

Warmup and some drills.

Saturday - Blue - Splits

I obtained official OUSA numbers from Robin on starts and membership from 2006 to the present. The numbers paint a clear picture: OUSA is in decline. Link to spreadsheet.

Starts and events from year to year are obvious noisy and subject to fluctuations. For example, I speculate that the ~5% dip in starts around 2009-2010 is due to the recession. National meet starts also spiked by about a thousand in 2012, and NAOC likely contributed. To mitigate these fluctuations, I fit a simple regression of each of these quantities against time (year). The change with time is as a percentage of 2007 numbers is:

Local Starts: +0.3%
National Starts: -2.9%
Club Members: -2.3%
OUSA Members: -1.1%

OUSA and orienteering in the United States is in decline. It's not obvious how much various efforts by the federation and clubs have affected this; perhaps in the absence of some initiatives, we would be down much more? But what is most striking is the fit change over the past 9 years (for which I have data):

Local Starts: +2.7%
National Starts: -26.3%
Club Members: -20.8%
OUSA Members: -10.2%

C • Making numbers dance 23

Run to CSU track workout with Ethan.

CSU Track workout. There was much better turnout this week than last - in addition to the usual crew of Kevin, Amore, Terry, and Patrick, there were about fifteen other people. Alex and Ethan represented the O-crew, and special guest Gswede and Juan also joined us.

I elected to run the shorter workout of 800, 1000, 1200, 1000, 200, 200. It was enough.

Splits: 2:49, 3:32, 4:25, 3:30, 35, 33

Aimless cooldown job with the crew. Mostly chatted with Gswede about stuff and things. You can tell Greg wants to join the North American Tove fan club, but he is disqualified because he lives in Spain. :(

C • Stuff and things 3

C • Tove Fan Club 1

So it turns out Thierry starts 9 minutes after me in the classic champs. He's going to come blasting past me at some point during the race, and I'm *so excited.* It might not be optimal, but I plan to run hard out the gate to try to hold him off as long as possible and maybe cling to him for the 60s it takes him to run out of sight. And bonus! Sunday, TGIF starts IanSmith +6 minutes!

I do not fear death, and I have nothing to lose.

C • being chased 4

Day 2 blue course, listed 6.6 km. Ethan and I decided to mass start to make things more interesting; we also decided that the leader would stop every third control to wait for the trailer. We ran together for the first two controls with slight route variations, but I pulled away en route to the 3rd while Ethan made a big mistake. I chilled at the 3rd control for a bit while he relocated. Despite minor route variation, we came to the 6th control about 10s apart. I exited 6 poorly and executed 7 slowly, so Ethan waited about 90s at 9 for me. I chose a route to 10 poorly, and got to 12 about 30s behind Ethan. He waited a little, and I managed to catch him on the run in. Mass starting definitely motivated us to push harder than we would have running solo.

The shorter, classic length courses are definitely great for camping weekend. The blue courses were under 8 km, and I still orienteered about 23 km in a 24 hour period.

After arriving home, LocalSportsTeam prevailed in its Sportsball match.