Training Log Archive: j-man

Almost the same as last time, but slightly faster at the end, as planned.

Level 8 hills. 7mph through 48, and then to tempo.

10mph at 56, 10.5mph at 58:00, and 11mph at 59:00.

1032 calories.

US Long Course Champs.

No warmup. And that was probably fine.

Not a great race, but these long races are just easier. I was bad or sloppy on a lot of controls, but did a good job of minimizing damage (i.e., keeping mistakes <2 minutes--not a high standard, I guess.) But, I did have a lot of stupid things.

Started off badly on 1. Something didn't seem quite right there. But, as it would turn out, that would be just the beginning of the weirdness.

Many times I felt like I was running through the twilight zone. There were areas clearly not fieldchecked, although it was generally OK at controls.

I had much higher expectations for the map. Also, the terrain, while it got old, with all the pine branches threatening a Martin Johansson, had some interesting stuff. Why do a new map and host a championship on it but cut corners like that? If the map was up to snuff, I would go back there. Now, not really.

On the plus side, the printing was so much better. Ink jet this time. Why the different technology today?

Anyway, physically I was fine. I guess I ran a comfortable pace and never really got tired. But, I guess I could have run harder. Felt fine afterwards and the next day. No real surpise there.

Part 1:



Part 2:

Final thoughts about ROC:

Personal:
+
Speed is decent and getting better.
Endurance as usual.
-
Orienteering continues to be bad.

Meet:
+
Course setting good all three events.
Organization and details very good.
Generated excitement for the sprint in an authentic way.
Food and ice cream was a nice touch.
-
Terrain selection for sprint questionable.
Course printing for middle lacking.
Mapping for long did not meet expectations (but was fair enough, I guess.)

UltraLong: Blue - Splits

Event: US Sprint & UltraLong champs
 

A little time on the model with Dasha.

Good warmup before the sprint.

2009 US Sprint Champs.

Had high expectations coming in, but didn't deliver.



Just sloppy I guess. Speed seemed OK, but not overwhelming. Clean, effective orienteering would have been necessary to supplement things.

I thought the course setting was good enough, but I do question the terrain/venue selection. The terrain was just not that interesting or pleasant. Or dramatic. There had to be better in Rochester. Also, the jiggering with the finish chute to showcase the runners was kind of silly, but completely understandable given the small gathering area.

[Mapping was fine, I guess, although the blobs are weird. I did think the symbol sizes were all wrong, though. For instance, ISSOM spec (I know this isn't an ISSOM map, but anyway) specifies 1.2 MM width for the distinct tree symbol. The symbols on the map were ~4. Clearly, point features are 3 x the size of the 1:15 map. Not quite right.]

Anyway--the spectating was especially effective, i.e., the spectator control and final loop wasn't contrived and did not inject much lost distance or detract from the orienteering merit.

Perfunctory warmup before the middle.

ROC Mendon Pond Middle Blue.

A really bad race. Lost time on 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11. Time loss ranges from 20 seconds to several minutes on each of these. Not inclined to add it up right now.



Not sure what was going on. Seems like compass problems--again--to start.

Ran at a fairly consistent intensity.

Course was pretty good, but I had problems reading the map again. Didn't like #16 but I didn't really lose much time on it.

(Wore yellow glasses)

So, I'm not a fancy printer or anything, but I am convinced that the printing on Saturday was not that hot.

Obviously it is some sort of halftone technology. Not process or offset. Fine.

But, it doens't seem that great, either.

#1) This is a 400% blow-up of a scan of Saturday's middle map:



#2) This is a 400% blow-up of a scan of a map I printed from a .pdf for a park event last year (at the local print shop, with no jiggering or anything):



Setting aside the quality of the map itself, I personally prefer #2. Thoughts?

The Schiminator is brutally fast. #15 on the middle, a ~450M leg mostly through a field, on which I was pretty clean, he was 1:43 to my 2:12. Wow.

Sprint: M/F21 - Splits

Middle: Blue - Splits

I-90 NYS Thruway at I-390
1000 Lehigh Station Rd
Henrietta, NY 14467-9311 US
Phone: 585-359-1630

Ran the forest portion of the last leg of the US Relay Champs from Mendon.

Kept a solid pace, pushed up the hills a bit, and didn't make many mistakes. Had a really hard time reading the map because the contours were really light.

Did have occasional trouble reading up/down. Also, some of the forest had this nasty groundcover which made running tricky. Other forest was very nice.

Time is approximate.

(Wearing yellow lenses)

US Team training with Nate, Eddie, and Hammer.

First exercise was a head-to-head race. Nate was pretty fast but we both got tripped up at a misplaced control, whereas Eddie figured it out and finished ahead.

Second was a control picking. I tried to push hard and concentrate hard, but I was trying to hard to keep the flow and not stop. I had one disaster early, and another one later when I did everything I intended and saw the edge of the feature but didn't go into. Instead, I turned and went the other way.

The final was a memory, tag-off thing. One person (A) would memorize the leg to #1 and do it while the other person (B) would read that leg and the one ahead (#2), with the plan of swooping in and tagging #1 ahead of (B) who would presumably be hesitating, trying to figure out exactly where it was, and then put the map away and take off to #3.

This one was uber tough. I don't know if it was even constructive for me. First, there were no controls. Second, the map was hard to read.

The first time I got to memorize, I just took off. I even forgot I could use my compass. Needless to say, that was a disaster, and Eddie had to talk my way in.

We generally kept a good pace. Eddie seemed to do better at some of the memory things than I did. I would say I had two good legs, and two bad ones, whereas he was good on most of them.



(No glasses)

Tired, after the three exercises.

Mostly at 2%, until the last 5 minutes when I dropped it and increased the speed slightly. Much of this was at 6.5 mph, but then 7mph and a little at 8mph and 8.5 mph at the very end.

Level 8. Started out at 9mph then 10mph at 16, 10.5mph at 18:30, and 11mph at 19:30.

It was a bit tough, but I arrived at the goal of last spring. Now I get to go further.

420 calories. And a lot of sweat.

Exactly the same as last time: level 8 hills. 7mph through 48, and then to tempo.

10mph at 56, 10.5mph at 58:30, and 11mph at 59:30.

Didn't feel awesome, but at least OK. 1,035 calories--one more than last time.

Basic circuit. Same as last time.

This is going to hurt:

(1200, 1000, 800) x 2 @ 8K, 5K, 3K pace

All w/200 rest

To the track. Felt great on the run, but a little GI deterioration at the end. Luckily, the bathroom at Soldiers' Field was open, and things were put back in order.

Stretches and running drills.

Two laps with 4 x 100M strides on the straights.

My goal this week was to run more consistently, or rather not fade hard on the final intervals. Mission accomplished.

Largely, the same guys were here this week. But, the tall, 40ish, skinnyish guy was there (we'll call him "Bob"--not there last week.) He was to prove invaluable.

[Why am I so bad with names?]

I decided to not worry about Terry and the rabbit (tallish dark haired guy). I couldn't do much about them last week, and there were other guys closer to my pace.

I really do think Terry speeds up on later laps. Also, he seems faster (relative to the rabbit) on shorter intervals. The rabbit was far out ahead on the first 1200.

Anyway, "Bob" was great. He seems pretty consistent. I would normally start out ahead of him (except that I drafted off him the whole first interval) but he would pretty consistently pass me on later ones at ~800M, whereupon I would draft on him largely to the end. I think he really kept me going, but not going erratically, as I would have done on my own.

408
139

323
211

240
214

410
146

322
222

237

Average lap times were:
82.67
81.20
80.00
83.33
80.80
78.50

No fade.

Back home. Felt very good this way, too.