Training Log Archive: iansmith

Warmup with some drills and stretching. My left achilles felt inflamed this morning. The pain first appeared on Friday during my easy jog with Greg and Will, and while it held up through the long course yesterday, it was tender after the race. I iced it on Saturday night and stretched it, but I was concerned going into the race today. It seemed to loosen up, though I did run less aggressively as a result, particularly on downhills.

US Championships at Ward Pound Ridge, Day 2 Blue. After yesterday's 13.6 km course, I was tired. Yesterday, I may have started too hard; at control 11, 46 minutes into the race, I was 31% back, and within 42 seconds of Greg and Will. Thierry (9 minutes back) caught me at 10, 39 minutes into my race. But most importantly, my left achilles was feeling tight and hurting. I warmed up, stretched, and did some drills. While I wasn't at 100%, I felt like I could run conservatively, though I would have to be careful on downhills.

Overall, it was an unremarkable performance; I had a few route choice errors, and I generally was moving quite slowly. Part of that was definitely the achilles - I couldn't really open up on trails, but I was also tired and unfit. Still, I had some moments of good execution, and to my great surprise, I held up a touch better than my competition and managed to pick up 2nd place (US). Over 23.5 km, I was 1:00:13 behind Thierry, which is incredibly disappointing. I was about 20 minutes behind Greg (epic fail), and 3rd through 5th were within 63 seconds of my time - suggesting I should actually kick on the last few controls.

RouteGadget, Overall Results

Good on: 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21

1: I was really hesitant; I came across what seemed like an extra stone wall, and things didn't look like I expected. Amusingly, I was basically exactly on the line the whole time. 30s
2: Planned and executed running a bit right to bounce off the trail. Probably cost 5s; unnecessary given the collecting feature.
4: Ran a little lower than I planned; Thierry's route popped up due west, was a bit shorter, and didn't involve so much sidehill. Greg and Kenny's route left of line through the reentrant is also good. -45s
6: Elected to take the wide left trail, but I don't think I gave enough thought to attacking slightly left of line down the line of water features. My route would have been better if I had been able to haul down the trail. -60s
9: Good line, but missed more right in the last 100m than I thought. Should have sucked it up and gone over the top. -10s
11: Route disaster. I think left (ken, TGIF) is a better line, but my execution was crap. Climbing the nose to the trail would have been much smarter than wandering around, for no savings on climb. -2:00. Dumb dumb dumb. I think best line is left, south of the slashy pond guy, up the small reentrant, and straight in.
12-13: Fine on these, just slow and tired.
14: I contemplated this for a bit before settling on the north, trail route. I figured right would be faster, but I was wary of the green at the end, and the climb to the trail looked unpleasant. I wasn't moving that fast on the trail, but this was clearly the best route. I passed a cadet by 2, who hung with me into 14. Better speed on the trails might have saved 60-90s for a decisive edge. Even still, I was only 26% behind TGIF, which is basically a win for me.
15: Caught Torrance and Kevin at 14, so I put on some speed to try to pass them and the cadet. Very clean execution.
16: Good through the green, but missed a little high exiting and ran above the control. 60s
17: Pissed about 16, ran fast. Also trying to lose Kevin.
18: Hesitant through the green, but ultimately solid. -20s
19: Clean albeit unspectacular. Caught up to Ethan.
20: Not the best execution by me, and caught by GSwede. Followed him and Ethan into the control; pissed.
21: Ran to trail. Better route than GSwede and Ethan.
F: No special effort; cruised in.

Sunday - Blue - Splits