Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: OCIN A-meet (Night, Relay, Ultra-long)
 

Ali and I arrived in Dayton at 5:30 PM, then drove down to Mt. Airy Forest for the Night-O champs. I had the last blue start, just after 8 PM, and had plenty of time to register, change, check my head lamp, munch some Shot Blocks, and warm up. Going into the weekend, I was very anxious about my left foot - something had been hurt at Harriman last week when I put my weight on a rock. I reasoned that the Night-O champs course would be a proving ground for the relay - if I couldn't run well enough, we could substitute Mikkel or Biggins for the top team. This was the debut race for my bright Magicshine headlamp, which is legitimately bright for a cool $50. I also acquired a wide angle lens, which turns the bright spot into a horizontal bar of light.

The trails were a bit rougher than I was expecting, and I started somewhat conservatively. My foot, which was initially tight, loosened up during the race and felt solid. Overall, my run was decent - one 2 minute error, a few 30s bobbles, but otherwise good. I had adventures in the steep Cincinnati reentrants. I was quite surprised to find out I was only eight minutes back.

I took a straight but climby route choice to 2 rather than the right-side trail (30s), missed 4 a bit right (15s), got stuck in green trying to get to the road from 5 (45s), overran 10 and had to double back (2:00), missed 12 left (15s), and hesitated into 20 (15s). I was pleased that I took what seems to be the best route to 13, though Ali and ken beat me on the same route.

US_Night_2012_Blue - Splits

Easy neighborhood run followed by 4x30s reps. I had planned on running longer and felt generally ok, but I started to get tired about 30 mins into the run and cut it short. My feet felt a little tight, but I had no difficulty running. I stretched diligently afterward. I started the audiobook The Perks of being a Wallflower, and the writing is compelling and engrossing thus far. Thoughts about nachos for much of the run motivated me.

Ghettotrack.

C • nachos 7

Event: NEOC: High Rock
 

C • Thanks 3

NY Phil, Lincoln Center
Brahm Piano Quintet, Dvorak 9

Ali and I set out for Blue Mountain in the early morning with the intent of running a mix of NAOC training camp courses and the 2011 Team Trials Middles. My left foot was hurting intermittently while running, so I elected to walk a course rather than risk further injury. I strolled through the Brown middle distance course, taking care to read the details and optimize my route. My foot seemed to improve over the session.

After a morning of acquiring a Christmas tree for the Crocker family, we departed for a training session at Harriman. Ali and I had hoped to get in two training sessions, but we only had time for one before nightfall. We were both damaged from the 5-mile run yesterday, but my legs seemed to be in better shape because they had much more time to recover during the race.

We reran the first map from the 2009 Lowlander - the third of four parts of the Highlander, consisting of controls 8-18 on Shoebridge starting from Tiorati Circle. I fared much better today than I did in 2009, finishing through control 12 at a lackadaisical pace in about an hour. I was very careful at 10 and 11, where I met with disaster in 2009. Boris's map.

8: I ran right of the line, but almost reached the water tower (further right than intended) before cutting back left. I think my line was good - I ran over the top during the Lowlander, and around to the right saves a little climb.
9: Mostly contouring and reading contours and boulders; I was a little too high and hit the cliff to the left of the circle.
10: After my 15 minute error last time, I ran to the trail, marched up the hill, attacked from the first bare rock, and deliberately picked off distinctive features just right of the line - reentrant, u-shaped cliff, line of cliffs, steep section, hill flanked by reentrants. I saw Ali run in from the left.
11: I waited about 15s for Ali to scamper away, then decided to attack high. I ran just below the hut, picked up the little stretcho f trail, then scampered up along the bare rock to the line of cliffs running to the control. I ran right of the bare rock knoll into the control from the north.
12: My navigation was a bit coarse, but I ended up running on the line almost perfectly. Ran down the hill, crossed the stream, then contoured to the bare rock under the line in the green. I was wary attacking; I never saw the trail, but saw the marsh to my right and the various cliffs.
13: Careful negotiating the bare rock, but fine.
14: Straight.
15: Up and over. Some tricky green.
16: Something in my left foot popped while my weight was on it on a rock; it didn't immediately hurt, but I had some discomfort. Ran carefully - just left of the line, slightly above the hut. I attacked via the reentrant, but skirted left of the last patch of green and ran into Ali at the control.
17: Up the reentrant, over the saddle, past the cliff monolith, over the spur. I stopped before attacking to go west to see the index contour reentrant west of the control; it's amazing how much of a difference 5m can make in what features you see. Spike.
18: Contoured; hesitated briefly about which nose was mine.

Foot feels a bit sore, but generally ok. It's certainly not the same scale of injury as during TT, but it's unclear how fast I will be able to move. Applying weight to heel and ball is fine.

Pre-Turkey trot warmup.

Mid-Hudson Road Runners' Turkey Trot 5 mile run. The climb on the course was brutal and worse than I anticipated. I had a tolerable run given my current state, but I can't help but be disappointed - I was six minutes back of the winners and three minutes back of Ali. The hills took a bit out of me, and my left knee was still a bit swollen from the Traverse, but the conclusion is that I am currently very slow. I would like to benchmark my current fitness at some local course, then track it as I get faster during the winter intervals and threshold trainings. Despite the tremendous pain, inevitable disappointment, and chill air, I had lots of fun. Kudos to AliC and NanC.

Overall Results. Not even the first Ian S. #Stomped.

Street-O of my design. Ari was the only one who showed up - Thanksgiving is probably interfering with our training - so we ran the course together. I suspect the scale is incorrect, because the course on purple pen was only 9.5 km, and we definitely didn't make 5 km of errors. The central theme of the training was hills, but rather than a simple hills workout, there was orienteering, too. We chatted for the duration of the course, and one of our better ideas was to make a blog about Alex's training written from the perspective of her achilles (or other injured part). Each day, we would parody her log entries by describing them from the perspective of an abused part.

Ghettotrack.

Easy out-and-back to test the logger. I put it in my light Switzerland backpack and sinched it high up on my shoulders. I turned around at Russell and Mass Ave and returned by the same route. My knees were painful at first - the left is particularly swollen from the boulder collision at control 4 - but everything loosened up into the run. Track is extremely spotty; I might try an armband. Another reminder to get 305 repaired.

C • No traverse track? 1

1 min of tuck ups, kayakers, plank, and oblique crunches. Knees were uncooperative on the oblique crunches.

Event: NEOC: Blue Hills Traverse
 

2012 Blue Hills Traverse. In summary, the race was mine to lose, and I lost it - blowing a four minute lead at one control, and finishing third, 15s behind Andrew and Ethan.

I have been looking forward to racing the Traverse since I volunteered to design the 2010 Traverse when I had a broken leg. I had a vague idea of who would be coming, and while they would be formidable, I started the race with the aspiration of winning it. We had a 30 minute delay when it turned out the maps hadn't made the drive to the mass start. I ran out of the mass start hard: the first leg was 250m, Jeff said there were only two punches, and I didn't want to get stuck behind the crowd. I was in the lead to 1, and I held it through control 5. I saw Andrew and Ethan intermittently - from 2-3 and marching over the hill to 6. I missed 6 by about 50m to the left, hit the trail, and doubled back, but Team Childs beat me by 10-15s. We took different routes to 7 which converged, but they missed a trail junction, and they were out of sight when I punched. They took a creative route to 8, hit an unmapped trail, lost two minutes, and fell out of sight.

In the middle section, while I was fairly sure I was ahead of the Children, I unsuccessfully tried to convince myself that I needed to chase them down to secure the victory I desperately sought. I saw Giovanni going to 11 as I marched to 13, but was otherwise alone. I ran alone until control 19, where after a 4 minute error, the Munchkins and I met at the control from opposite directions - they from above, I from below. We punched seconds apart, and I found myself in the situation I had dreaded - fighting it out against the Kiddos in the last 1.5 km - a navigationally trivial 1.5 km. I busted downhill to 20, but lost 10s running the wrong way at the trail junction. They punched 20 ahead of me; the last trail run up the hill was a brutal death slog. I stayed on the trail longer, and reached the paved road first, but I couldn't keep los Niños from inching past me. They reached the last control with a comfortable 15s lead, and I watched powerlessly, with despair in the final sprint as they reached the finish.

The course was well suited to runners; there was much trail running. I must reflect about what I could have done differently and what I should learn from this experience. I think I began the race too frantically; in scrambling over rocks around 3-4, I bashed both of my knees against boulders. I need to practice attacking controls on hillsides from above and in vague, low visibility areas. Physically, I need to practice pacing myself over long distances, running efficiently, running through rocky garbage, and going up hills. I also need to spend more time reading maps.

C • You seem disappointed. But ... 20

Logger doesn't appear to have been effective in my pocket behind a Gu.

I grabbed some rec course controls after the awards to get a little jog in before returning home. The control pickup also provided reflection and some penance. Both knees were a bit stiff and swollen from boulder collisions, feet were hurting from rocks and O-roc(k)s, but I felt otherwise ok.

Traverse - Splits

On October 25, the NEOC A-meet Planning Group (APG) met for the first time. The group currently consists of 7 A-meet proponents in the club, all of whom were at the North American Champs the weekend before. The objective of the group is to plan NEOC's A-meet calendar for the next 1-5 years, including directing resources and mapping efforts to sustain them. The immediate results from the meeting were:

1. A discussion of what criteria to use in event location, event type, frequency, and how much of the club's resources to commit to A-meets. Sustainability is emphasized, with the expectation that as the largest club in the region, NEOC should be driving much of the A-meet activity in New England.


2. Townsend State Forest, based chiefly on map considerations, was selected for a Spring 2014 meet (probably 2x classic). Boxford and Harold Parker are slated for 2015 or 2016.


3. The possibility of a joint SSMM A-meet with CSU for September 2013 is discussed; it is adopted pending suitable map availability.


4. The APG will guide major map updates, with priority shifted to those at the top of the A-meet queue. Mapper resources are discussed.

Oct 25 Notes. The next meeting is scheduled for January, and feedback is welcome.

Tempoish run in a bouncy route between Highland Ave and Broadway. This run has more hills than my typical route.

Ghettotrack.

Easy run around Cambridgeville. The air was a frigid 2 C, with 20 kph wind.

Ghettotrack.

Easy run in my minimalist shoes. My feet felt pretty good given the tenderizing they received at Baldwin. I read the NAOC 2012 middle course; to keep it interesting, I set the goal of counting contour lines on each leg, and I read the legs backwards (control n -> n-1). I finished with 6x40s strides. Ghettotrack

From j-man's pictures: "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!"

Easy run home. I mostly ran on the balls of my feet, and my feet felt ok - much better than they initially did with these minimalist shoes. Ghettotrack.

Event: NEOC: Baldwin Hill
 

Easy warm up around the school.

NEOC meet at Baldwin Hill, Blue middle distance course by JJ Cote. Modestas Bucy, a Lithuanian orienteer visiting the US for a conference, contacted me about a ride, and I arranged to meet up with him. I overslept and was late picking him up, but he was gracious and very pleasant. His best finish at WOC was 37th in the long in 2006, and in the past two years, his has finished in the top 32 teams at Jukola.

Anyway, I was mercilessly stomped. I was 0/8 and five minutes down in the first eight controls. At 8, he thought he was at 9, and lost over a minute navigating to 10 before realizing his error; he also legitimately made a mistake at 14.

My run was lackluster, and I was a bit tired from packing my training week into the two previous days. I attacked 3 very poorly from a trail and wandered around a bit. I was very hesitant attacking down from the hill top into 5 and 6 (should practice), and mentally checked out for a moment on the way to 12. Controls 16 and 17 were rough; 16 had some subtle contour detail, and 17 was in a detailed area with thick vegetation. I also botched 19 by running straight through the green garbage rather than taking the higher, cleaner route.

I need to practice attacking downhill, subtle contour features on a hillside, and going through tricky areas with low visibility.

C • And maybe also get a louder... 5

Control pickup; I grabbed the remote cluster, and all of my controls had been on my course. I was out about 55 minutes, but some of that time was untying and adjusting the controls. Thanks to PG, PBricker, and Dan O'Leary for also picking up controls. About halfway through the pickup, as I was noisily crashing down a hill, I encountered a trio of turkeys who made a very rapid exit. Their skill at negotiating the terrain was impressive, though their net effect on me was far less than the cadre of bears from Oct 28.

Blue - Splits

Easy run around the Esplanade. Ghettotrack. I finished John Dies at the End - an entertaining, albeit confusing read. I saw Izzy and David Bryant about halfway through the run. I felt tired by the end - as though my energy reserves were depleted, but I suppose that's the point.

I finally put a stop to four terrible training days and went out for a run on my morning commute. Monday was an acceptable rest day - I was apparently really tired and went to bed at 8, though a 30 minute run would have been nice. Tuesday was the election, and Wednesday was cold - both of which are disappointing excuses.

C • Lame... 2

Ghettotrack. Slow run home.

Before Nate Silver created his masterpiece political blog, fivethirtyeight, he made The Burrito Bracket: a head-to-head competition to determine which of the 19 cheap Mexican food restaurants within walking distance of Nate is the best. This is brilliant, though I find his method for scoring the burritos somewhat arbitrary. Put another way, I wouldn't have that much confidence in my ability to grade a burrito in any of the given metrics on a scale from 1-5 without variation large enough to change the overall rankings. And I'm about as close as it gets to a professional.

I suddenly feel a profound sense of kinship with Nate Silver. An exercise like the Burrito Bracket can also have tangible results in establishing blogging discipline, though that would be much less useful for me than for Nate. I think the inescapable reality about using the Burrito Bracket in my neighborhood is that the bulk of my burrito fare - Chipotle and Anna's - would probably not hold up very well. I'm not sure if I'm ready to face that.

Burrito bracket rules.

Felt very tired, possibly from a combination of weekend activity and travel. I contemplated an easy run in the evening, but decided to go to bed early instead.

Event: SMOC Pontiac Lake
 

Warmup before the race; an easy poodle on roads with Ali.

SMOC red course at Pontiac Lake, White Lake, MI. I had never orienteered in SMOCland, so I wasn't sure what to expect of the terrain. A glance around during the warmup revealed some interesting contour features and woods varying from excellent to thick. The operation, overseen by director Rick Waldo, was smooth and inviting. Link to map; Ali's quickroute. Winsplits.

I had a solid run with a few errors and poor route choices. The terrain had intricate contour detail, and it had a good combination of open woods running, trails, and bashing through green. Most of the vegetation neither obscured vision nor was painful; it tended to be small deciduous saplings and chest height skinny branches. There were a number of vines that were so entwined around other trees that they dragged incident runners to a dead stop.

Legs:
1: Control was in the campground; I ran across a field before joining the road network and running into the control. Easy, spike. Got to see how thick and impenetrable the dark green was on the map.
2: Shoddy plan; I ran north to the field, crossed the road, ran to the trail, ran west to the first hill, and attacked north. Spike, though apparently the control was about thirty meters high in the reentrant.
3: Like Ali, I ran to the trail junction, but I didn't use the reentrant enough, missed right, and flailed around in the green before coming to the marsh and doubling back south. 1:00.
4: Ran south of the two marshes through a little green to the trail, attacked from the trail junction.
5: On the trail across the road, then straight. I clipped the short section of trail north of the control, but was otherwise marching across the depressions. Apparently slower than the trail route to the right.
6: S of hill south of first marsh, across the flat to the broad reentrant, along the short section of N-S trail, to the hill, down the spur, spike. Some weaving among the veg.
7: Drifted right; had to correct.
8: North along spur, up over trail spur, along the spur S of marsh, skirted the right edge of the big depression, over the saddle, past the cairns, and straight to the flag.
9: Along E-W hill, up the spur, over the N spur, skirted edge of second hill into the control.
10: Basically straight. Checked off trashy reentrant, flat area, square depression, and second line of depressions into the reentrant.
11: Took a mostly trail route: down the spur to the trail, then over the hill top clearing to my attack at a trail bend over a spur. Attacked from the marsh edge.
12: Up the hill; left (non-gimpy) arch hurt on the way up. A little too far to the right.
13: Out to the trail to the right, them attacked between the marsh and the hill. Up the left edge of the depression, over the saddle, and in.
14: Confusing - ran to the trail, up the trail to the hill, then drifted too far south, running up the big E-W spur before reconsidering the reentrant and choosing the correct hill. Vegetation is thicker than mapped. 2:00
15: Straight.
16: Trail.
F: A little confused; the start was actually quite south, and I wasn't sure where the finish punch was (it was on the table by clear/check/start).

Non spikes were 3, 7, and 14; reasonably happy with my woods speed after the 10 mile and long leg.

C • surprised by #2 2

After the course and subsequent chatting about routes with Ali and SMOC member Alex, Ali and I departed to pick up controls and do PG's exercise of map hiking while inspecting reentrants for various qualities - steepness of sides, top, bottom, shape, vegetation, rock features, curviness, tributaries, etc - and comparing map representation to physical quality.

After reattacking controls 2 and 3 from my course, I map hiked for 20 minutes, then picked up 10 and 9 and headed back to the car.

Red - Splits

Easy warmup with Ali before the start of the 10 mile race; we scoped out the transitions between the two loops and ran along a stretch of bike path on the course.

Randy's Race 10 mile, put on by the Toledo Road Runners in Monclova, OH. Results. Ali suggested we run this race, and I was excited, though I haven't really done any specific training for it. I had hoped that I could run 6:30/mile, which is about the equivalent of my 5k PR.

Conditions were cold - a temperature of about 4 C - but clear. We arrived at the race site 45 minutes before the start, checked in, warmed up, and moseyed over to the start line. As the gun went off, the lead pack of Ali, another girl, and two guys set off on a quick clip; I decided their pace was too fast for me and settled in with the second pack of 5. I felt loose and comfortable, and was quite surprised when we came through the first mile in 6:06, about 20 seconds back of the leaders. The pack dissolved in the second mile, and I left three of them behind to take up position about ten seconds back of red-shirt-guy at mile 2. Despite my best efforts, red-shirt-guy kept increasing his lead; I eventually lost sight of him around mile 7. I could see the lead pack until mile 4. I went through the 5-mile mark in about 32 minutes.

Miles 6 and 7 were on a long stretch into a moderate wind, and I was really struggling. Blue--shirt-guy caught up to me around mile 5.5; I fought to stay with him, and held until about mile 7. The last miles were a death slog; I was in 7th after blue-shirt-guy passed me, and a man and woman running together gradually overtook me. I held onto the woman for about four minutes before she started inching away; I couldn't follow. I kept blue-shirt-guy in my sight until just after mile 9. It took considerable will to keep my posture and running form intact - my head lolled sometimes - and I started getting a cramp in my right abdomen. I tried to focus on running just on the edge of blowing up - sometimes counting strides until I passed a chosen landmark. At mile 9, I heard another guy starting to close on me, and resolved to not let him by. He got to within ten or twenty meters when we passed the sign indicating there were 500m left; I opened up, started kicking, and finished with a comfortable 15s margin.

Overall, I'm disappointed. I fell far behind 6:30 pace - which isn't very impressive anyway. The race was great fun, and it is good practice for getting into a race mindset, for enduring through pain, and for knowing physical limits. I will take this as a reminder that I need to train hard over the next six months.

Splits (from memory):
1: 6:06
2: 12:36
3: 19:06
5: 32:20?
6: 39:00
7: 46:56

C • nice! 9

Easy cool down. Legs felt ow.

Best cannon ever.

I am irritated.

C • 76ers! 1

Hammond Pond Night-O set by Pia. The course was interesting, with lots of directions changes and leg length variation. Pia constructed reflective streamers, and challenged me to avoid using trail routes. To my chagrin, I poorly navigated traffic and hills and arrived between 7:15 and 7:20 instead of 7. Fail.

I brought my ghettolamp, but forgot my compass and contact lenses. The course was challenging, and I struggled to keep going in a straight line on some of the controls through featureless vegetation. I definitely paid more attention to the contours than I would have if I had had my compass, though I made many mistakes and had to slow down at times.

Nevertheless, it was a great outing.