Training Log Archive: wilsmith

Rest day - I need one I think. Seems like I'm riding the razor's edge between getting sick and not.... Better to rest and build strength, methinks. Probably a very easy week coming up training-wise (makes up for being on call this week and subsequent expected lack of sleep).

Flying Pig - Classic. Again, only a so-so race. Not great but certainly not terrible either. Was not physically 100% - partly the knee, and also had a really stuffed nose the whole race - maybe I'm coming down with the same bug that Hans has. Cross my fingers. Also possibly because this comes at the end of a 14-hour training week - but that was to be expected. Anyway, I misinterpreted a vegetation boundary on the very first control which funneled me into the womens' first control instead - down 90 (? - no splits yet) seconds right off the bat. Got through the rest of the hilly terrain pretty clean, decent routes I think and certainly able to get up and down the hills OK. But the final 70% of the course was basically flat - lots of the blind compass bearings through greenish vegetation trying to keep an eye out for ruined fences, subtle veggie boundaries, and flooded trails. Certainly not my favorite type of orienteering - and potentially huge errors lurk there for all who stray much off the course. It got a bit boring there too - and I managed to lose a couple of minutes on at least two controls, plus a couple of smaller bits of time lost on uncertainty and hesitation, despite trying to be attentive and careful. Anyway, I ended up with 74 minutes - could have been worse. Wadd came through in 65 minutes, followed by Duca in 67 minutes. I don't have the full results but Griz was between Nick and me, and Jon Torrance was about 75 minutes. I didn't hear Hans' time but he was a fair bit behind, having had some difficulties in the flat subtle area. Patrick took a branch to the face and was DNF. I had to leave early to catch a flight (barely) from Columbus. Guess the rest of the results will be up soon on the OCIN site.

All in all, they did a very good job organizing the weekend, IMHO. The maps were decent, and although I would have opted for more hills and less flat green on the Classic day, the courses were quite good as well.

I felt tired today, but also felt good. I ran fairly consistent races all through the weekend, generally the 3rd or 4th Canadian in every race, amongst a pretty strong field. Had the legs to be in second in every race, but there always seemed to be one guy who put together a very tough time to beat. My own navigation wasn't as crisp as I would have liked, but that's to be expected after going through a winter where the closest map is 400km away. We were in general comfortably ahead of the Americans - pretty good after coming out of a snowy winter. Hope we can repeat that performance at WOC too.

Looking now towards adding in speed training (and sacrificing some of the volume I suspect) - it showed that the Hamilton crowd had done their fair share over the last little while. And the navigation will come on-line soon enough, with a nice training camp in Denmark coming up plus some well-timed races in April/May leading up to the Barebones. All seems well so far.

C • magic shoes 3

Warm up and cool down for the above race.

C • Training camp in Denmark? 3

Clasic-Blue - Splits

Pig Sprint in the AM. Not a great race, though not truly terrible either. Just didn't seem to have the "eye of the tiger" out there - not attacking and pushing very hard. Missed on #2 (went up wrong spur - maybe 15 sec lost), then two other poor routes in which I went straight and crossed largish valleys when going around was not only faster but didn't cost as much energy. Total loss of maybe 1:30 today, without looking in too much detail. My time of 16:16 put me in 7th place - but Patrick was on fire today. He caught up Hans by 2 minutes and went on to run through him when Hans overran a control - and won in 14:22. A very good time, no doubt about it.

Warm up and cool down for above race.

Pig Relay. The real saga of the day. We put in a team meant to challenge GHO for the open title - Jon Torrance, then Pia Kivisakk, Mikell Platt, then myself. Jon opened up with a 2-3 minute lead on Hans, then Pia extended the lead to about 12 minutes. Mikell, unfortunately, had been suffering significant injury problems over the weekend with mysterious leg-cramp-like pain and was unable to complete the course, so I was relegated to the mass start after pretty much everyone else was out on the course. Just didn't have the spirit to race hard, so was a bit sloppy early on. Then, about 40% of the way through, I jammed my left knee while leaping across the bottom of a ravine. It reduced me to a limp, especially going downhill, but I managed to just cruise the rest of the course without getting too much worse. it even felt pretty decent by the end of the race, but once we sat down to dinner it really got sore. No swelling though, so I'm hoping that a solid dose of vitamin I will take the edge off and let me compete tomorrow.... GHO walked away with the victory, followed by DVOA and HVO. Maybe we'll be able to field a Falcons team at some point and have a shot at the title too....

Warmup and a very little cool down from the relay. Unfortunately, most of the warmup was done about one and a half hours before I actually started....

Sprint-Blue - Splits

Event: Flying Pig X (OCIN)
 

Flying Pig Middle. Not a great race, but a decent result all things considered. Getting up at 3 AM, packing frantically, and then traveling for the next 14 hours is just not ideal for race prep. Arrived late for the start so warmup consisted of rapid Superman-street-clothes-to-lycra change in the parking lot and a quick run to the start, where they were already dismantling things. Coaxed them to take the start/clear/check controls back out of the trunk of the car, they gave me enough time to tie my shoes, and then I was off. Not a really smooth start, but things went fine. Overall not too technically taxing a course - mainly a running race I guess. Will post splits and leg comments later. Hans won in 33-mid or so, followed by Mark Adams (34-mid), and then me in 34:57. Wadd and Patrick very close behind. Generally feeling a little tired at the end, not pushing as hard as I should have been. Will be interesting to look at the splits and see where I dropped my time.

C • ... 2

This was the combined warmup and cool down for the above race (mostly cool down obviously). Because I delayed their takedown of the race apparatus, I had offfered to pick up controls so spent an hour out in the bush again hauling down flags and ribbons and packing up a couple of water stops. Probably not exactly the ideal way to recover from a race, but it seemed to go smoothly. Will see how the legs feel throughout the rest of the weekend. My overall plan was to carry a heavy week of training into this weekend of racing, and carry on some volume for the next little while as well (i.e. no taper). Hopefully the body will hold together - so far so good anyway.

Blue - middle - Splits

Fun night, non-stop playing time. Probably should have been home packing instead, but hey - gotta have fun some days too. Guess I'll sleep on the plane....

Morning commute in - one of these days I'll actually get rolling early enough so that I can extend my journey into something a little more respectable. It's only a mile in to work from home, so I really should be doing an extra loop or two when time permits....

A good long day of Z1 stepping before coming home.

Natural intervals, mainly on dirt roads. Some time in Z5, a tiny bit in Z3 during "recovery", but the vast majority was in Z4.

Tried out my new VJ Twisters. Have been having a rough time with my (previously faithful) OLWAY Tigers, which gave me major heel blister problems during the winter camp with Team Hott Johansen, as well as the recent mini camp in Hamilton, so Katta agreed to pick up a pair of Twisters for me. I've previously used VJ (dis)Integrators between 1998 and 2004, with pretty good success - only switched to the Tigers because Katta's VJ sponsorship ended, and we could get great deals on Jalas and OLWAY products through Colin Kirk. Decided to try Twisters to see if the narrower last would feel as if it was giving more support. I can say the 2006 Twisters feel different and more snug then the 2004 Integrators, but it's too early to tell if one is really better than the other. I mainly hope the quality and durability has improved - I used to go through 2-3 pairs of Integrators a year, even with only running 40-50 days/year of races and little training in the shoes otherwise.

C • shoes 8

Moderate run into work - feeling good today after "resting" yesterday (a.k.a. "too busy on call to train").

On the stepper - knocked off some time without even really trying.... Nice! Good to feel the quads burn too.

Quads and calves at work.

And a brief commute home.