Training Log Archive: iansmith

The USOF rankings were recently updated and my rank on blue advanced from 61 (65.59 points) to 58 (69.91 points). This is deceptive however, because the total number of ranked runners increased from 73 to 84 due to the local density of A-meet events - six A level events were added for M21 since 7 April, while only one was removed. I also blame the recent Canadian invasion for the swelling.

In any case, I passed the 7 runners immediately ahead of my on April 7, and I'm just outside of striking distance of Neal Trump, Brendan, and Gerald. It clearly will take a lot of work to make a 10 point gain in rankings; I was assisted this run by the recent density of events from QOC, West Point, and CSU (I now have 20 ranked events, so my 8 lowest scores are dropped). This relatively large sample also gives me a glimpse into my performance relative to the field on the different types of courses. It's not a perfect measure because terrain types, environmental conditions, and personal mistakes are uncontrolled variables.

My data points are five sprints, seven middles, three longs, and five classic courses. Because of ambiguity of classification, I consider classic courses and long courses as part of the same class.

The ranking confirms that sprint is my best course, with a mean score of 74.9 and a standard deviation of 2.3 (ignoring the MP). This is unsurprising; it is disappointing that my best individual result is STILL the Team Trials sprint from 2008. I surmise that the standard deviation is small because the range of sprint navigational difficulty is relatively small, and the comparative ease of navigation reduces the probability of large errors. Also, my error rate on sprints has been approximately constant. I need to do more intervals to try to get my speed up and more armchair orienteering to practice quick decisions.

My middle performance is markedly improving but is highly variable; I have seven data points with a mean of 61.8 and a standard deviation of 10.4. If you fit a linear model of my score versus how many A-meet middles I have completed, the coefficient of the index of the middle distance course is 2.82. According to this crude model, each subsequent middle distance course I run will have a score of 2.8 points higher than the previous. I surmise this is due to improvements in my navigational abilities. My best middle so far was at the CSU meet, which is terrain I'm familiar with. I need to practice navigational choices (as my error rate is unacceptably high) and wood speed.

The eight data points for my long courses are illuminating; I have five typical values, two DNFs, and one outlier from the e-punch drop epic fail of May 2008. The DNFs reveal my great weakness - I have endurance problems. Ignoring the three anomalies, my long average is 65.1 with a stdev of 4.53. When I do finish a long, I am fairly consistent, but large navigational errors and inadequate maintenance before the race inflict insurmountable penalties. I think merely increasing my running fitness, I can improve my long course result by about five points. Otherwise, I need to be careful to eat well, hydrate effectively, and bring GU before my future long and classic competitions.

A promising statistic is that I have a 70+ point result in each of the three categories, and while my middle and classic results came from CSU, it's not clear what the systematic shift in my result was. While I was on home turf, I was preoccupied with meet organization, my training had been defunct the week of the meet, and I was running on very little sleep. Also, the temperature was extremely high, and while I do not have enough data to support this thesis, I believe that I respond more adversely to heat than most competitors.

At the end of May, once West Point '08 (at which I met with disaster) and Team Trials '08 are removed from the ranking, my remaining 14 scores give me a score of 71.0 (the top 9; admittedly the ranking method will adjust that slightly). My goal for the fall needs to be consistently running 70+ point runs. My (very ambitious) goal for 2009 was to reach the 67th percentile in the rankings (at the start of the year, that was Baltero). At present, that would require an unattainable score of 88 points. I expect to attend 7 A-meet events this fall: the ROC meet, UNO's Boulderdash, and the individual champs in WI. Ignoring the dynamics of the model, if I ran 80 point runs at all 7 events, I would end the year with a ranking of 78.2. That's probably impossible (since my PRs are 76 point runs), but it's a nice goal to reach for.

C • I would like to suggest tha... 3

A note on modeling:

I find the trend in my progress rather interesting. The signal is extremely noisy - the variance on my courses is extremely large. Discounting my two long DNFs and a sprint MP, my average score is 64.8 with a stdev of 10.1. I decided to model this with a linear regression using two different methods - one which fit score to the ordered index of the course (i.e. the first A-meet of the past 12 months has index 1, the second has index 2 and so on), one which fit score to the date.

I then applied these two models to the 7 A-meet events I expect to run in the fall. A more thorough model would consider the course types (4 classic, 1 middle, 1 sprint, 1 ultralong), but I don't really have enough data to record anything meaningful. The linear model is only really useful for examining the projected average because of the high variance.

Modeling score versus index gives the following score projections:
69.7, 70.2, 70.7, 71.2, 71.7, 72.2, 72.7; i.e. an average of 71.2. Modeling score versus date gives the following: 71.8, 71.8, 72.1, 72.2, 72.6, 72.7. I consider the latter model more reasonable because it accounts for the long time interval between now and the next A event. The latter model also has a slightly smaller error, of 9.2 vs 9.37.

CSU Classic Distance.

Sunday Blue (raw) - Splits

Sunday Blue - Splits

Event: CSU Pine Hill A-meet
 

CSU Middle Distance preliminary race.

CSU Middle distance final.

Saturday Blue Semi - Splits

Saturday Blue Final - Splits

The preceding three days have been unintended rest days; I have been far more preoccupied with the organization of the A-meet than I intended. In particular, my three primary responsibilities - arranging the volunteer schedule, devising the start lists, and figuring out the results system with Catherine and Ross - have had simultaneous, significant demands this week. Unfortunately, I have made some mistakes, and my turnaround on all three tasks was excessively long.

Because of the damage control I have had to do, I will be extremely averse to any self-extolling by a particular individual.

C • A-meet 3

Event: CSU Pine Banks Park-O
 

Since the following video was produced by the Canadian government, I assume all Canadians decorate their homes like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDeDQpIQFD0

Setting and retrieving controls for my CSU Park-O at Pine Banks park. Conditions were spectacular - the sky was overcast, the air was cool, and visibility was excellent. It is clear I should set harder courses in the future. Turnout was good - about 25 runners came out, including some people who were new to orienteering (courtesy of Alex Jospe). It just started to drizzle when I returned with the last controls.

A big thank-you to Audun Botterud who helped pickup controls, and to the Bermans for being clutch in every possible sense.

C • Harder? 4

Running to Kinko's to print maps for the park-O, then running to rendezvous with the Bermans.

Warmup for the long. I took a GU about twenty minutes before my start.

West Point Classic Course. Of the three courses at this year's meet, this was my best, both measured by my assessment of my performance and my time relative to the field. In my judgment, the terrain and configuration of this park was easier than that of last year; relocation would not have been overly difficult on most controls, and features were generally prominent.

Overall, my approach was slow but conservative - I stayed in solid contact with the map, though my zone of uncertainty did become sufficiently large at times that I had to pause to ascertain my precise location from local features. I moved somewhat slowly at times; I need to practice retaining rigid contact, planning and executing routes, and observing features while still moving quickly. I never had to relocate; my biggest mistakes were on the order of 1-2 minutes.

On the first control, among three route choice considerations, I chose what was probably the worst, but it was an acceptable route, and I executed it well. I have done that exact process - enumerating three routes and choosing the worst, usually a compromise of the other two - several times in the past year, including on control 14 on the Ran-It Granite Classic in March. Controls 2 - 4 were fine; on control 5, while aiming for a prominent cliff on the edge of the map, I drifted slightly off and climbed too high. It was a common mistake.

I was especially pleased with my long leg execution - control 7. While I was far from the fastest on that leg, I chose between the two obvious routes - a long road detour or over the top of a large hill - and chose the hill. I then executed the route cleanly, effectively, and conservatively. I could probably have run faster, but I wanted to make sure I stayed in rigorous contact; I arrived at my attack (a saddle), found my simplified visible feature (a knoll), and found the control easily. I estimate I could have executed my route in about 15 minutes had I run more aggressively.

I was sluggish (and conservative) moving through vegetation down a spur to control 8 and traversing some cliffs to control 9. On control 10, I planned to visually locate via some large cliffs on the eastern side of a hill, but a smaller set of cliffs obscured them and confused me momentarily. I paused for about twenty seconds, guessed what had happened, and found the control for a total loss of about a minute.

I felt fantastic navigating from controls 11 through 17, which were of moderate technical difficulty. Everything was making sense, and though my pace was not the fastest, I was moving well. I made a thirty second error at 16 drifting down while contouring.

I started slowing down after control 18 because of fatigue, but I was aware that I was set to run in under 2 hours, and pushed near the end to keep that limit. I took a Gu twenty minutes before my run, and took one at controls 3 and 11.

Clearly, I need to work on my wood speed; also, armchair orienteering exercises and extensive catching features practice are in order.

Classic: Blue - Splits

Event: West Point A-Meet
 

The West Point Red/Blue Sprint. Conditions were sunny, clear, and warm. My run was not especially clean; the winning time, for reference, was Erik Nystrom in 15:27. I made about two minutes of mistakes, and generally should have moved faster.

My most spectacular error was the Go control - Ross punched control 18 four seconds behind me, and I had seen him closing on control 16. I had the fastest split to control 19, but I misread my map running to control 20 and overshot high, costing at least 25 seconds. There were two features that were monumentesque that I confused while running. This is especially troubling because the Go control is visible from the start, and I had watched runners come in. Also, if I had enough stamina left to push it so hard on 19, I should have been running faster throughout the course (particularly on trivial legs). I was also looking forward to challenging Ross in the finish chute.

I'm relatively unimpressed with my run because sprint courses are my relative strength, and I could have run sub 18 minutes. The first ten controls were relatively gnarly in rocky, thorny woods on a steep hillside; the latter ten were urban.

Warmup for the sprint.

The Middle Distance course at the West Point A meet. I am thoroughly disgusted with my performance on this race.

The Middle Distance is a race I regard with some trepidation because of the technical nature; given what I know about the West Point terrain - that it is particularly rugged, and that this particular venue was going to be difficult for relocation - I planned to run a more conservative race to maximize accuracy.

My Middle start was 2.5 hours after my sprint start; I would have benefited from more rest and more food. Conditions were also warmer and sunnier than I would have preferred.

I ran a very conservative route and pace to control #1 (Jon Torrance caught up to me though he started five minutes after I did), but navigated cleanly. The basic routes from the start to control 2 all involved lots of side-hilling on very rocky ground. I was again quite slow to 2, but I navigated cleanly. Controls 1 and 2 were tricky; Emily and Eric Kemp each made a ten minute error on one of the two. However, I was moving so slowly that I only gained a minute or two on them. In retrospect, I should have moved faster, particularly given how long the legs were.

I had a two minute error on control five where I kept missing the knoll on which it was hidden; I relocated on some cliffs and reattacked without difficulty. I spectacularly failed on control 6 - a short, 250 meter leg. I attacked from a known location, but didn't pay enough attention to my compass and drifted north to a parallel feature (hill) on which I was looking for the control. Nothing made sense, so I relocated with difficulty and attacked again more gingerly off of a marsh. I doubted the bag location (I assert it was not on the correct feature, but I'm unsure). I ended up losing ten minutes. I think I was reluctant to admit I had missed because my two minute error on five was entirely within the control circle.

At this point, Dylan Thies - whom I am comfortably faster than, and whom I just recently passed in the USOF rankings - had caught me, and we moved essentially together to 7. I tried to make a move and pass him at 8, but though we took different routes, we arrived about simultaneously. Control 9 was uphill, and I put on a burst of speed to get ahead of him. I pushed to 10 and lost Dylan, though he apparently saw me make a thirty second mistake at control 11. I was feeling sluggish on the remaining controls, but I navigated them successfully.

The lessons from this race:
- While it is a worthy goal to have a solid, conservative first control, on long legs with conservative routes, it's important to move fast, too.
- Pay very close attention to compass on tricky legs, especially short ones.
- When things don't make sense, quickly admit you've erred and relocate.
- Hydrate and fuel before the race
- Don't race with less than a 3-4 hour interval between races

Warmup and run to the start for the Middle Distance event.

Sprint: Red Blue - Splits

Middle: Blue - Splits

I went on a late night run (3 AM), with the objective of 50 minutes of moderate intensity running. I brought a headlamp and the West Point Long course map from 2008 (on which I met my Leipzig and DNF'd); I was inspired by Gerald's similar exercises.

The West Point map is non-trivial to navigate; I have concluded that the contours are the most reliable features for navigation, but they are often difficult to interpret. Last year, I had just come off a 16 minute/km middle distance course; I am better prepared physically and navigationally, though I need work in both areas. My goal is 10 min/km on the long, though I would be content with 12 min/km. I will go well armed with GU.

The work for the CSU A-meet and my job this week have coupled to completely wear me down. I don't expect to get much sleep tonight and Friday night as I struggle to finish the volunteer schedule and start list before West Point. It is unfortunate; the demands of my current circumstances (exacerbated by my sluggishness to execute them) have stoked my fury at a certain director. I hope to be judicious in all that I say and do in the next few weeks.

Event: CSU Hammond Pond Park-O
 

My old, destroyed pair of trail runners is the same model and color as my new pair; I accidentally grabbed my old pair this morning. As a result, I orienteered in my sneakers (running shoes).

I had a clean run, with no major errors; I had about 15 seconds of hesitation at 7, a dumb route choice at 1, and a moment of confusion microrienteering at 12. I was slow. Ross started a minute behind me, and we punched together at control 3 (which I blame on my crappy route choice at 1). He made an error, so I beat him to 4, but he caught up at 5. I might have lost ten seconds to traffic, but he was unquestionably faster. I saw him leaving 7, and that was it. I didn't really warm up for this one, which probably contributed to my sluggishness, but I am nonetheless disappointed in my running speed. I think Ross finished in just under 18 minutes; Clem was slightly over 18 minutes.

Lessons for future sprints: concentrate and focus before you start, warmup physically, bring correct shoes, and run fast.

Vadim set up five radio transmitters for ARDF so those who were interested could try it. The controls were about one hundred meters apart and each transmitted for one minute. I had never tried radio orienteering, but it was very interesting. I had no real difficulty navigating while I was far from the control, but near it I struggled. Each transmitter was a small black box - flags weren't up, so visibility was a problem. Vadim also suggested holding my arms out with the receiver when I get close to triangulate.

I hope to try it more in the future; it was fun.

C • ARDF 6

I ran about with Ross picking up controls. We had pleasant conversation. Apparently he sometimes sings to himself as he's running if he's running well and in a good mood. It suits him; my conversation with myself while I contemplate route choice options is peculiar.

Advanced Course - Splits

Afternoon run. Conditions were sunny, 4 C, with winds at 35 kph. I ran in running tights, a sweatshirt, and a hat; breathing was 3/3 most of the time.

100 pushups in sets of 25, with up to ten minutes rest between sets. The time is an approximation, though I usually do pushups at approximately 1 Hz. I seldom log these small sets of strength activities, like crunches, pushups, calf raises, and so on, but this seemed sufficiently novel to warrant comment. Keith, a friend of mine, recently challenged his friend to complete 1000 pushups first; I know only that their times were on the order of days. I do not know how quickly I could do 1000 pushups - perhaps 3 days?

With Dasha, Clem, Ross, and Brendan, I helped Clem move his furniture from one apartment to another within the same building. Dasha was moving all the little stuff at the time; the rest of us moved a small set of heavy items, including a bed, sofa, loveseat, dressers, and so on. In general, the task was not strenuous - we had an elevator and sufficient manpower; the difficulty was moving the furniture delicately so as to damage neither the walls nor the furniture. Some of the larger items - e.g. the sofa - required manipulating the furniture in nontrivial orientations to overcome geometric constraints, like door frames.

The experience was pleasant socially, though it lacked the physical rigor of many other moving experiences I have had. Clem lacks my fault of overpacking cardboard boxes with books - moving 100 lbs of books in an 18" cube is a particularly poignant memory I have of my past moves.

Late road run. Ran in a t-shirt and running tights; conditions were clear, 10' C.

Given the high volume of orienteering I have had lately (much of which was low intensity), I elected to rest today. Since the QOC Long course last Sunday, I have banged up both of my knees in various ways (2x on the right, 1 on the left), all of which have broken the skin and bruised the tissue. I don't think the joint is mechanically damaged, but there is some swelling. I plan to wait until my knees feel perfectly fine before I attempt any arduous training sessions.

Visiting control sites and scoping out legs on my Pine Banks Park-O concurrent with moderate rain. Some of my legs were rather ambitious, and the advanced course in particular requires some extensive redesign. Also based on the swampy conditions and forecast for rain, I elected to postpone the event (tentatively for 20 April).

Amusing conversation from Sunday's NEOC Event:
Ian Smith: Do you ever talk to yourself during a course?
Ian Finlayson: Only in expletives.

Event: NEOC Estabrook
 

NEOC local meet at Estabrook Woods, Red course, set by Ian Finlayson. There exists a network of rock walls and trails at Estabrook that makes it relatively easy to catch yourself if you overshoot; while I did use that network for navigation, I never needed to catch myself and reattack (progress!). Many thanks to Mark Webb, who loaned me his thumb compass and saved me from much delay waiting for a rental compass to settle.

I had what for me was a generally clean run. I hesitated near control 6, but my route choice and attack were good - I just struggled with the micro-orienteering at the end. Apart from that, the first 11 controls were solid. I was running well through at times inhospitable woods, and I projected that a 50 minute time was attainable - with a remote chance of beating one of the Saegers (e.g. if she got hurt or was fasting from the previous Friday).

Unfortunately, I then made an error at 12. My attack was fine (even conservative) - to the trail, the junction, the rock wall intersection, and along the rock wall - but I stopped short when the contours on the map didn't seem to match the terrain. I figured I might not have gone far enough, so I advanced and found the control in a thicket (thanks, Ian F).

I was a bit shaken by 12, so I proceeded to mess up 13 and 14, too. Thirteen was in an enormous depression that was all but impossible to miss, so I took an obscenely conservative route to get there, traveling directly and then hitting every trail in the vicinity of 13 to specify my location. At 13, a large black dog bounded out of the woods, probably motivated by my running, and seemed to want to play. I heard yelling that probably corresponded to his owners trying to summon him back, but I decided the dog would lose interest, and went merrily on my way.

At 14, I hit the trail and observed a nearby rock wall, but I didn't immediately realize I was about 50 meters to the north of the control at a different junction. Sigh.

Anyway, I hope to have the fastest finish leg when all splits are recorded. I am generally pleased with my results; I ate only a zone bar for breakfast, but had plenty of stamina and fitness to push hard through 6 km.

Picking up controls at the NEOC Estabrook woods meet. I left my compass in my backpack in my office, so I didn't have a compass for this section. I chose safe routes and had no difficulty. I also picked up 3 full gallon jugs at water controls. Interestingly, I suffered my worst injury at the meet during control pickup, where I banged my knee against an unyielding log while reading my map. The skin is bruised and broken, but otherwise ok.

In other news, while volunteering at the start, I showed Mori how to operate a latch on a box; he proceeded to delightfully repeat this technique many times.

Red - Splits

Event: NEOC Sprint Doubleheader
 

NEOC Needham Sprints: Sprint 1 (technical).

NEOC Needham Sprints: Sprint 2. Navigationally simpler than Sprint 1, but the optimal routes often suggested longish detours on trails.

Warm up and cool down.

Sprint 2 - Splits

Sprint 1 - Splits

Checking out possible control locations at Pine Banks. Unfortunately, I arrived late and the sun fell before I completed my examination; I will return later.