Training Log Archive: iansmith

I went on a late night, extremely easy recovery run. I felt fantastic - perhaps better than I have recently running, which is unsurprising given my pace. I continued Into Thin Air and comfortably ran in tights, underarmor, short-sleeved shirt, windbreaker and gloves. Conditions were pleasant and clear, with a temperature of -5 C and an intermittent breeze of 15 kph.

Nineteen days to NC!

3011 (wooo)

I played about three hours of Catching Features this week; for future logging purposes, seconds = hours of intensity 0 stuff.

Running to and from the start of the street-O.

Unexpectedly, my energy level plummeted on my return trip - it required force of will even to plod on. The feeling reminded me of the sensations I had on the 2008 West Point Classic course, where I was so utterly spent that I DNF'd. Climbing the stairs to my apartment on my return was an ordeal; I don't think I could have run an additional ten minutes.

I woke up very late today, and I don't recall eating anything. I suspect that the lack of food combined with the low temperatures brought about my downfall; I rested a bit at the end of the street-O, and my body cooled. Certainly my workout today was longer than much of what I have done lately, but it is not a significant outlier - I ran the Skyline at a high intensity some weeks ago without difficulty.

I finally ran Clem's Charlestown Street-O from 16 November. I knew going into the run that Ross and Brendan had run the course in just under 44 minutes, so I tried to hit that time. I felt very good throughout the run, with a steady 2/2 breathing rate and a threshold-esque pace (though I slowed). The course itself was excellent; I focused particularly on reading ahead and having good flow.

Conditions were clear, with a temperature of -9 C, mild winds, and a wind chill of -16 C. I wore a short-sleeved Underarmor, a short-sleeved shirt, a wind breaker, hat, gloves, and running shorts under tights. Apart from cold fingers on my left hand from holding the map, I had no trouble staying warm and even perspired a bit. Most of the streets were well insulated from the wind. I received a few odd looks from pedestrians, though at 11 PM, the streets were largely clear.

I lost three minutes to Ross and Brendan, though some of that was probably due to the extra clothing and cold temperature. Nevertheless, I was a bit slower than my goal. It was an excellent exercise.

I am torn as to how to classify this; while the running is entirely on roads and clear grassy ground, I was actively using my navigation and orienteering technique. I also attribute a cost to the creation of a new training activity; for that reason, I have reluctantly concluded that the 'orienteering' grouping is most appropriate.

Ken's relatively new "session" feature reveals a contradiction in my logging: the session is mapped to the date, whereas I log by Circadian rhythm. So while technically this was a Saturday morning run, I will log it as Friday.

The weather has been cold the past few days, juxtaposing with Wednesday's pleasantness. The temperature was -14 C with 25-40 kph winds and a wind chill of -23 C; conditions were clear with some ice though no snow on the ground. I ran in tights, a long- and short- sleeved shirt, a wind breaker, a hat, and gloves. I was generally comfortable apart from prolonged periods exposed to wind, which were more numerous on the return trip.

My objective was an easy training session of moderate length (about 1 hour), and I was adamant about training, since my recent schedule has suffered due to work and weather (yesterday). I listened to Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

The run was productive; my clothing was adequate with the exceptions of exposed facial skin and a desperately lacking third glove. My hands, to my surprise, were comfortable with just my worn out gloves and clenched fists.

That there are three weeks until my first A-meet - North Carolina - is a constant reminder and motivator to train. My efforts have been passable at best so far; I must be more consistent.

C • add shorts 1

I worked late last night, so I did not go running - to my chagrin. So, after a good night's rest, I set out this morning with the second episode of my effort to run at a higher cadence. Again, I ran with the 165 bpm "Breeze" track from podrunner, and I endeavored to run with a stride shorter than 1.2 meters - which is a slightly slower pace than 5 min/km. I ran at a steady 4/4 breathing rate, hoping that with less oxygen available, I would not push so hard. I did feel winded much of the run; it was difficult holding to 4/4, and it is clear why - I was running faster than I planned.

Crew is a very different sport from running; the stroke remains unchanged, and speed is controlled with the stroke rate (pain is also tied to the stroke rate). I think my instinctive running speed control method combines both stride length and cadence as regulators. When I run reps, strides or sprints, my cadence is much higher than 165. In a finish chute, I suspect it exceeds 190. I will continue my experiment for some sessions at 165; if and when I become comfortable running easy pace at 165 bpm, I will increase to 170.

C • strides per minute 5

Easy run, short sleeves and tights.

I have been absurdly busy this week, primarily with work; my training has suffered horrendously. Last week was disappointing, with only 14 miles of running and no orienteering. I set out to start this week right, with an easy run. I brought some podrunner techno with the objective of running at 165 bpm for this session. Podrunner has free techno mixes of about an hour length at constant tempo, with a spectrum of tempos. I think that I typically run at about 160 min^-1 at easy pace; according to Daniel's, a higher cadence - closer to 180 - mitigates the risk of impact injury and improves economy.

Running at 165 was much more arduous than I expected; I consciously had to work to shorten my strides to avoid moving too fast. Even still, I broke 5 min/k.

A morning run before five hours of rehearsals with two different groups. My work has occupied me much more extensively this week than I anticipated, and my training has suffered for it. Finding the appropriate balance, particularly when other commitments - like music - demand much of me is difficult. I have thought about dropping some commitments, and I will reevaluate before I commit to more activities - e.g. a CSU A-meet.

Brendan and I arranged a prisoner exchanged where I swapped his violin for my Daniel's book, which I had left in his apartment. I referenced some of it today, though I haven't formulated my training plan much beyond the current "build up base and consistency" stage.

C • yeah 2

Commute. Running with a backpack is unpleasant, but I can accommodate.

C • Packs 5

With eleven days to go in January, my training is a bit behind where I would like it to be. My running has been fairly consistent - I have run 73 miles in 21 days, and I have run or orienteered 2/3 of the days this month. I plan to maintain this rate of running training - about 25 miles per week, with almost exclusively base running, but I want to increase my orienteering and cross training (biking and skiing) hours.

Goals for the last 11 days of January:
- Run 40 miles
- Orienteer at least 4 times, including running the CSU semi-perm course twice
- 4+ of cross training (skiing, biking)
- Orienteer or run at least 9 days
- 2+ hours of Catching Features

C • CF 1

Late night threshold interval session; 3 x (5 minutes on, 3 minutes off). There was some snow and ice on the ground, but the temperature was sufficiently high that I ran in short sleeves. My hands felt cold near the end, but I was comfortable. I was also moving faster than I expected.

One hour.

Morning run. I lengthened my typical 30 minute route slightly so I would surmount 20 miles for the week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WgT9gy4zQA

One hour.

Evening run, river loop. My objective was a slow run - around 5:30/km pace. I held to 4/4 breathing through the run, except for an 8 minute 2/2 stretch near the end at about threshold pace that I threw in for fun.

Traveling from Boston to North Carolina to chauffeur Lori to Boston has made training today impractical. It's not clear that I will have much opportunity to train tomorrow, though I will go for at least a four mile run tomorrow night. That will leave Saturday and Sunday to run thirteen miles and go orienteering - I'll probably run Brendan's Tufts sprint from mid December.

C • Why are you chauffeuring Lo... 10

Evening run while doing laundry. The run felt sluggish at the time, but apparently it wasn't more so than usual.

2758

Ran around the parking lot before the O-course.

A Hammond Pond Night-O course set by Ross. The time is something of a guess, because I forgot my watch - I glanced at my cell phone before and after the event.

I ran pretty well on the course though I struggled pushing through the vegetation from 6-7. I started too fast and was as lost as I could be at 2, though I relocated without trouble (1-2 minute mistake). My execution was adequate - I caught myself making a parallel error at 10 - but I need to avoid hesitation and improve my flow. Avoiding catastrophic mistakes, while necessary, is not sufficient. En route to 13, I crossed a frozen marsh and put my foot through the ice. I had planned to skirt the northern edge, but it was too indistinct for me to discriminate. There were, for instance, bushes growing out of the ice in the middle of the marsh.

C • #2 2

After O-ing, I had a spectacular dinner at Ross's and Sam's apartment with Jeff, Brendan, and SGB (Stephen), whom I met for the first time. We had a random discussion about cooking, Skyline trails, gnutella, marzipan and ATP.

On the way home, I had a productive though inconclusive discussion. Persuasion can be difficult when both parties are convinced of the accuracy of their claims, especially when the vocabulary is so poorly defined. If only we could use math for all purposes, but even then, I suppose Godel's Incompleteness rears its ugly head...

Some Orienteering slogans that are better than the IOF's "Orienteering: at one with nature" -

1. "Orienteering - at one with AWESOME"
2. "US Orienteering: Destroy Canada"
3. "Orienteering: run fast, and for goodness sake, don't get lost"
4. "Orienteering: real world training for Catching Features competitions"
5. "Orienteering: Mens et pedem" (not sure about the Latin)
6. "Orienteering: Because road running is so boring, you'll want to gouge your femoral artery out with a 10 cm stick"
7. "Orienteering: not for pansies"
8. "Orienteering: we're not in Kansas anymore."

Easy recovery run. I had planned to go longer - about 30 minutes, but I wanted to pick up a burrito from Anna's before they closed. Running did not appeal to me in my post-burrito state.

Bike home from the Skyline trail run. It was actually more pleasant than the way there.

C • Excellent 1

Biking from my apartment to the Sheepfold for the Skyline run; conditions were icy, especially after the rotary. I got off my bike and walked a bit where I didn't feel comfortable riding on the road (e.g. against traffic) and the sidewalks were not plowed. I was rather cold most of the trip.

Skyline trail run at 9:30 AM with Brendan, Clem, and Ross. Conditions were gorgeous: the sky was clear with a moderate breeze, and the temperature was about -5 C. There was enough snow on the ground to mitigate ankle rolling possibilities, but usually not so much that we sunk in. The snow on most of the trail had been compressed from previous users, but there were regions with slogging.

Brendan led the whole way, which I appreciated - I'm not very good at pacing myself; I don't know the limits of my body the way many runners seem to. Conversation was excellent including Rocky IV, the merits of steel wool, the NAOCs, and the inception of the CSU Bowling section.

I felt a bit tired about halfway through, but pressed on without changing my pace relative to the others. My core in particular got an excellent workout; I suspect the snow contributes to how hard stability muscles have to work. Flying on the downhill switchbacks was awesome.

Evening run along Franklin St and back. My plan was a forty five minute run, but I was having such a pleasant time and I chose a longer loop than I thought. Continued K2.

After my run and after some stretching, I noted that my right calf feels a bit tight.

2696

Unplanned rest day because of a long day at work.

When I was contemplating registering for the Georgia Navigator cup on Monday - before the price increase - there were two M-21s registered, so I decided that apart from the expense, the competition was too sparse to justify the trip. Competition doesn't exist merely for psychological value, it also gives a measure of my performance. Anyway, I decided that my orienteering budget could be better allocated elsewhere, since I would have an easier time getting friends to share car and hotel arrangements at other meets, where I know more attendees.

It turns out the registration list had not been updated - that or there are 13 M-21s who all registered on Monday. The West pointers make good racing targets, and I always relish the chance to go for a Jordan Laughlin's scalp, but the competitor who would have been most interesting to race is Sergei Fedorov from DVOA. We raced against each other five times in the Spring of 2009 - QOC and West Point - and he beat me in every race. I'm one spot ahead of him in the USOF rankings, though I have 14 races vs his 5, so I got a little boost.

Unfortunately, the conclusion is the same - I won't be at the Navigator Cup. I will have to measure myself against Sergei at some other meet.

Addendum: Interestingly, Sergei (who is apparently a year older than I am), is 6-1 against me in A-meet races - my only victory was at the 2008 Team Trials Sprint. He was a 65 point runner in 2008, and I was 62. He's not Canadian, but he looks to be a good adversary. I will use him as motivation to train, so that when next we meet, I will crush him.

Clearly my memory is faulty - standard ten-pin bowling pins weigh 3.375 lbs, not 8 lbs as I inaccurately thought. It should have been obvious that if the ball weighs less than the pins (i.e. if you had 8 lb pins and 6 lb balls) that you would observe different collision behavior than if the ball weighs more than the pins - like rebounding bowling balls.

C • bahahah that would be the b... 4

C • proposition 2

Late night run; I have decided to make a shift toward longer, easier runs in lieu of quality for this month. That is, I ordinarily would have done some quality - a tempo run or some threshold or hill intervals - by this point this week, but I am dissatisfied with my fitness. It is my hope that by doing more easy runs - 5:30 km^-1 - of varying distance, I can concentrate on getting my fitness higher and really concentrating on base building.

I'm sort of playing around this week; my long runs aren't significantly longer than this run. My most common workout will still be short, easy runs of 30-35 minutes.

Anyway, I felt great throughout the run. The route was eccentric so as to avoid painfully windy areas along the river and exposed regions. I ran predominantly on Franklin St. from Harvard to Kendall, then around MIT and back to Harvard on Putnam Ave.

Evening run after CSU bowling. I was feeling unpleasant - perhaps from a long day and not enough sleep? - but I forced myself out the door, unwilling to have two consecutive rest days without other factors (sickness, traveling). My plan was an easy run, but I pushed a little bit harder because I was cold. I continued my audiobook K2.

CSU Bowling, with Ross, Clem, Dasha, Brendan, and me. I had disappointing sessions below my previous PRs, but the camaraderie was great fun. I bowled with a 16 lb ball most of the game, with an occasional shot from a 15 lber.

My scores:
7- 8/ 9- 71 8- X 7- 8- 54 7- = 99
X 63 9/ 7/ 9/ 61 72 18 63 9- = 123

Only one gutter ball in the second game!

Brendan had the best session among us, with 4 spares and 3 strikes. Clem and I each "brought it" in the second game - he started with two strikes, but we withered a bit under the pressure. I narrowly edged him 123 - 118. Ross made a clutch move ordering some pro nachos, and Dasha claims to have recovered from her year of residency on her 19 day vacation. I've never really noticed her behavior or demeanor change as a result of stress; she was her usual cheery self (apart from the 76ers not doing as well as they should be).

My left hamstring feels tight.

I have run 17 of the past 23 days, including three rest days from traveling. The past three weeks have been 26, 29, and 27 mile running weeks. While this is hardly remarkable, this is a good step toward consistency.

My plan is to continue my base running until the end of January (with at most one tempo, one VO2/threshold interval, and one hill interval workout each week), when I will revise my running training.

In the interim, I need to ramp up my O-training.

One hour.

Morning run, in -10 C with light snowfall, 35 kph winds, and about 30 cm of snow on the ground. Somewhat unpleasant, but invigorating. I took an unusual route through side streets because the wind and cold along the river were unbearable.

Objective was an easy, relaxed run, even shorter than usual, just to loosen up for a flexibility and strength session. I ran with a course from a C meet at Breakheart Reservation. I had to deliberately slow down a few times; when reading a map, I default to 2/2 breathing and some higher intensity than easy pace. Snow was gently falling with a pleasant, ethereal beauty.

Near Harvard, I was splashed by a bus passing through a puddle, which was unpleasant.

I did the Myrtl routine (sort of like this: http://www.fastrunnerz.com/runnerspace/images/runn... ) followed by some abs stuff.

2009 Year in review

At the end of 2008, I finished the year with a USOF ranking of 62.84, and the Long/classic course was my worst discipline. I trained 108 hours in 2008 (48 of which was Orienteering); I resolved to have a more consistent training regimen and to shoot for the 67th percentile in the Blue rankings. My best races in each discipline were a 76 pt sprint at the Team Trials, a 67 pt Middle at the NAOC, and a 62 pt classic run at the NEOC meet.

I have improved significantly over the past year, though not all aspects are measurable. I am much more focused on orienteering, both technically and socially. I was a part of the successful CSU A-meet effort, and I have become much more active in the CSU training group and in the orienteering community in general. I am technically abler, physically stronger (and fortunately, I have not suffered any major injuries), and psychologically more driven.

I finished the year with a USOF ranking of 75.39 with 14 events ahead of Peter Gagarin and Nick Lewis-Walls, and behind Vladimir Gusiatnikov and Dancho Hristov. (Emily Kemp and Andrew Childs both had rankings of ~ 81.5). I attended many more A and C-meet events, including QOC, West Point, CSU, the ROC Sprint/Ultralong, UNO's Boulderdash, and the MNOC US Champs. I set PRs in all three events - a 76 pt Middle at CSU, a 77 pt sprint at ROC, and an 83 pt classic at the US Champs. My training has increased - I more than doubled my training time to 220 hours, including 98 hours of orienteering, and I struggle less with endurance on long and classic courses.

I also got the signatures of Thierry Gueorgiou, Francois Gonon, Jean-Baptiste, and Matthieu on my Team USA O-jersey, when I met them at the Harriman US team training camp. It turns out that Thierry is better than Ross and Andrew at Wii Mario Kart (though I believe I would crush him on Game Cube kart).

I have started playing Catching Features with some frequency this year, though I must play much more in the future (in lieu of Starcraft). I set a 1600m PR of 5:32 in March, and haven't run any significant time trials or races since then. I still struggle with consistency - while my worst race in fall 2009 was a 71 point middle, I typically bobble a few controls in every race. I aspire to first attain a Ken Walker Jr or Will Hawkins-esque level of consistency, after which I can increase my speed.

My goals for the following year:
- Attain a USOF ranking of 87 points by EOY 2010
- Make the US Standing team
- Have a winning record at A-meets against Emily for 2010 (it's on, kid)
- Have at least one 90 point race

- Set a mile PR of < 5 minutes
- Run a half marathon in < 1:35
- Run a 5k in < 18 minutes

- Train at least 400 hours, including 200 hours of orienteering
- Run 25 miles per week (i.e. run at least 1300 miles)
- Spend two days per week on maps
- Play more catching features (at least 5 hours per month)
- Bowl at least 12 times

C • I applaud the attitude but... 5

One hour.