Training Log Archive: iansmith

Bgallup's log has some interesting analysis of the adventure race, our performance, our shortcomings, and ways to improve.

Easy kayaking cruise around the Basin. I paddled from Kendall up to the BU bridge, then circled back via the Esplanade. Unfortunately, my Garmin died near the end of the trip. The evening was overcast and drizzly, and there was a steady wind from the east. Waves built up on the basin, and my bow was often awash. I was using a Wilderness Systems hulk, which handled like a bathtub.

Easy bike following Ali on roller skis. My body and stamina felt ok on the bike (Ali's road bike), but I felt pretty wasted after we stopped. It may take some time for my body to replenish after the adventure yesterday.

3x15 pushups with Ali
3x25 tuckups

I am feeling fatigue from the adventure race. My energy and stamina have not yet recovered.

The orienteering component of the Bitter Pill Adventure race, which consisted of three loops of three, six, and one (+ three bonus) controls respectively. GPS track from Bgallup, who brought his 305.

C • bitter pill 1

The biking component of the Bitter Pill adventure race, on good, rental mountain bikes. The distance was about half single track, half fire roads/roads.

The swimming component of the Bitter Pill. We were required to wear PFDs - and to carry them throughout the race. There were two controls in the middle of a lake; our team was not adept at swimming. Keja, our third team member, had a particularly heavy backpack that became waterlogged, and was considerably slowed. I fell back to keep the group together, and started to shiver as the lake sapped my warmth.

Morning out and back along the Minuteman; my partially charged Garmin died after 45 minutes. I spent a bit of time waiting for traffic lights on the way to the Minuteman, which reinforces my conviction that bike rides shorter than two hours along the Minuteman aren't really worth it. Still, it was invigorating to get out this morning, and conditions were lovely. My bike needs a bit of maintenance - it's dirty, and making the occasional funny noise.

I'm not sure if the motivating high from morning exercise will wear off later in the afternoon, but this seems to be a fantastic way to focus my efforts and energies for the day.

Bgallup and I went to Metrorock for a productive session of let's-make-Ian-doesn't-kill-bgallup-when-he-tries-to-belay. I hadn't been climbing since June 2010 with Team Brisk, and Ben spent a bit of time refreshing my memory for the belay test. Chris, the belay evaluator, was generous in his instruction and passed me despite a few really dumb errors. Ben then tested my technique by falling about a dozen times on a 5.6.

My climbing technique is still motivating by brute force rather than finesse, but with some tips from Ben, I started to rely less on my arm strength and climb more elegantly. I started on 5.6s and worked my way up to a few 5.8s before the gym closed. Ben rocked several 5.10s and entertained me by yelling at the wall/course designers/universe a few times. Indoor top roping is a fun diversion, but it is too antithetical to my broader athletic goals to indulge more than occasionally. Surprisingly, my forearms are only mildly fatigued 12 hours after the session.

C • Team Brisk 1

I had a fantastic time in Switzerland, at WOC, and at the Swiss 5-Day. While I'm woefully behind on my logging, I was the dedicated US team groupie. I had a few responsibilities, like shuttling people around in a manual transmission car during the training week. I attended most of the WOC races and took over a thousand pictures, which I will post later this week.

The US team was very welcoming, and I greatly appreciate being able to hang out with the group so much. It was especially delightful to spend time with the part of the team - about half - with whom I don't regularly interact. I can't say enough about the quality of social and orienteering time with the team - running on map, discussing courses and routes, crazy spades games, international foosball competitions, beverage orienteering, seeing the sights in Lausanne, cheering at races, and watching the highest level of competition in the world. Watching Ali and Sam make finals, some heartbreakingly close races, the fantastic women's relay, and excellent racing by everyone was a delight. I spent some of my spectating time with the other groupies - Rick and Linda, Jeff and Judy, Lindsey, and the quintet of juniors.

I was able to run on a few of the training maps during the week before WOC. I didn't stay at the team hostel - instead, I rented a room from a Swiss woman whom Tim Parson found during his search for housing for the Juniors. I was a 25-minute transit from the team's housing, and very close to the city center, but the team let me use some of their extra dinner tickets, so I ate with them occasionally. The Canadians were also unsurprisingly friendly and welcoming.

My time was heavily occupied with activities, particularly with WOC spectating, Swiss 5-Day racing, and transportation to and from those events. I wasn't even running any WOC races, and I didn't seem to have time. While I appreciate the desire for more media, I completely sympathize with the team - it's very hard to make time for publicity and information. Cristina managed to squeeze some blog posts and interviews into the schedule, and Eddie was great about posting pictures. My internet access was sporadic - which seriously undercut my efforts to post media on time. I'm impressed with PG's successes keeping everyone updated about WMOC two weeks ago; deliberateness and prioritizing is key. I think having one or two dedicated media people attached to the US team - preferably with their own transportation - would be a huge step in sending information. I had hoped to serve as a correspondent, but I underestimated the logistical challenges and the magnitude of the task. A pair of people could easily post daily updates, an interview or two, some pictures, and plenty of multimedia. I could imagine the US and Canada consolidating their resources and each having a correspondent who would work together. One could be very tall with a monster lens and the other more petite, e.g.

My 5-Day performance was very disappointing, but I'm not particularly discouraged. Physically, I was depleted by Lyme and a cold in the preceding month, and my ambitious tourism schedule the week before did not help. Hanging out with the team, attending WOC races, and experiencing Switzerland was a higher priority for me than optimizing my races; I would have slept much more and invested more time studying maps and model terrain. I lacked the stamina and physical preparation to race well, but I am somewhat shocked at the difficulty I had on days 2-3 in making sense of the Swiss terrain. The vegetation is much more important for navigation than it is in the terrain I have seen in the US. I have never raced in an O-festival of the magnitude of the 5-Day (an apparently paltry 2000 attendees), and that context presented some different challenges - elephant tracks, seeing other runners in the woods, zillions of controls, and so on.

As a combination of insufficient rest, my long hikes on 12-13 July, running in sandals on 14 July, and the 5-Day sprint on 15 July, I aggravated the ligaments in my right foot again. The exact locations seemed different from the GimpyFoot injury from the Team Trials in April, but I suspect the underlying cause - plantar fascia due to tight calves - is similar. I stretched it, warmed up regularly, and took some precautions; despite some discomfort and a limited ability to race, my foot held out for the entire competition. I considered skipping races, especially the two long days, but I'm satisfied with the prudence of my decision given the circumstances.

I will have much more to remark and post about WOC; that will come later in the week. I should note that while I was in Switzerland, my log exceeded 50,000 hits! My training and orienteering performance is not deserving of that attention, but I appreciate everyone's interest in my life. I hope to learn from my past mistakes and not disappoint in the future. At the very least, I hope to keep my activities and my logging interesting.

C • petite 5

I showed up at the sprint site at Lausanne - Dorigny at about 8:30, 43 minutes before my start time, but later than I planned. I was already changed, but the Swiss 5-Day info listed both a 30 minute walk to the start and a 10 minute call up. I made last preparations, bought a nice Vapro control description holder, and scampered off to the start. I ran faster than I would have liked, and arrived just as I was called for the 10-minute call up. It turned out to have been largely unnecessary, as we just loitered in a corral for the 10 minutes before the race, but my legs felt pretty good, and I had time to stretch and mentally relax. Gimpy foot was irritable, probably from my adventures on Friday on Alpine trails and on Saturday running about Lausanne in sandals.

Today's course was on the WOC Quali terrain and was a runner's course though it did have some route choices and reading challenges.

Controls 1-3: I wanted to justify my HE choice, so I started the race fast and aggressively. Read ahead well, checked CDs.
C4: I settled on a winding route past controls 8 and 9 rather than the two run around variants. My route might have been slightly trickier.
C5: Around to the right.
C6-7: Trivial, straight.
C8: I settled on the easier (and seemingly fast) long run to the right. Messed up 15s in the circle when I confused bushes.

Day 1 HE - Splits

Event: WOC 2012 - Lausanne SWITZERLAND
 

I had an ambitious plan for my final day in Interlaken. The first part of my plan was a transit via Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, from which I took a gondola up to the spur at Mannlichen. I hiked a short distance to the point at Mannlichen, from which I had a magnificent view of the entire valley including the Eiger and Jungfrau, which were partially obscured by clouds. I met Jennifer, a friendly Canadian who also had a T2i camera; we chatted for a bit and exchanged contact information. We parted in Kleine Scheidegg; she returned to Wengen, and I continued on to Grindelwald.

The second stage of my plan was to hike from the ridge north of Grindelwald back to Interlaken. I was well prepared for a day hike, with 3.5 liters of fluid, a fleece, a windbreaker, food, a good map, my compass, and two flashlights. I took another Gondola from Grindelwald to First (a minor peak) and ate my lunch overlooking the radiant mountains and glaciers, off which the sun from a clear sky glinted. I set the Faulhorn and Schynige Platte as intermediate waypoints and set off at a fast pace. The hike up to Faulhorn gained about 500 meters of altitude, but the vista of the lakes and valleys to the north was magnificent. The day was beautiful, and I could even see the Eiger clearly. I reached the Faulhorn at 4 PM, and there were still a steady trickle of hikers along the trails.

An intermittent drizzle started by the time I reached Schynige Platte at 6:30 PM. Clouds started rising over the ridge overlooking Interlaken, and visibility was considerably diminished. One of my backup plans was to take the train down from Schynige Platte, but when I arrived at the train station at 7, I learned the last train had left at 5:30. I then found myself in a predicament: with 2.5 hours of daylight left, I had to descend about 1400 meters from Schynige Platte to Interlaken. I was prepared, but my concerns were twofold:
1. I would injure myself on the descent and be forced to spend the night out
2. I would lose the trail in the darkness and haste

A cloud obscured the mountainside as I started my descent, but I pressed on, at times jogging down the trail. I paid close attention to my map, tracked blazes, and was careful not to go faster than I could control. After a somewhat anxious descent, I made it down to the road at Matten at 9 PM, and walked back to my hostel by 9:30. I had e-mailed Ali that I would be back by 9, but fortunately she didn't worry too much the night before the sprint races.

It was a great adventure, and I'm glad I undertook it. It would have been wiser to start earlier, but I was sufficiently prepared to spend the night out if an unforeseen problem had happened. An injury before 5 PM would have been an inconvenience to others and a delay; after 5 PM, it is not clear that I would have been able to get down.

Catching up on European shenanigans: on Thursday, I took the train up from Interlaken to Grindelwald and spent the day in the resort city. The highlight was taking a bus up to Bussalp and beholding the Eiger in all its splendor. I went for a short hike near the Bussalp; since I had purchased a trail map of the Jungfrau area, I resolved to hike from the Faulhorn to Interlaken on Friday.

I spent the rest of the evening in Grindelwald relaxing, walking among the shops and enjoying a band concert by some children.

I am registered for the HE class at the Swiss 5-Day, the spectator races for WOC. It seems I am competing against a few attackpointers, like Mathias Nipen, Thomas Nipen, and Alexei Azarov. There also is some guy named "Matthias Müller" in the class, though whether or not this is the WOC medalist isn't clear (as the name is apparently very generic).

Great interview from Thierry - an indomitable will is your greatest asset. Congratulations to Emily Kemp, the little Canadian that could, for her extraordinary triumph at JWOC.

Today, I hiked around Fribourg for about an hour, taking pictures before taking the train to Interlaken. Ali and I ate breakfast from a baker at a open-air market filled with vegetable stands, cheese stands, bakers, and so on. Two young street performers - on flute and accordian - played some stirring duets and solos.

Upon my arrival in Interlaken, I dropped my stuff off and went for a walk. I stopped at a grocery store and acquired cheese, bread, grapes, tasty beverage syrup, tomatoes, salami, oatmeal, jam, and a frozen pizza.

C • Tasty beverage syrup 12

Middle distance training on Mont Bally.

Middle Distance training course, La Breguette, near Lausanne Switzerland. Quickroute

After a delightful evening in Neuchatel, when I finally met Marc and Sandra Lauenstein, I drove with Boris, Hannah, and Sam to Lausanne. I joined the merry posse because I am adept at driving a manual transmission car. Marc and Sandra graciously lent us Marc's parents' car. The drive was spectacular - driving through Switzerland is an experience I did not expect to have, and I got to see the countryside in a new way.

We stopped at the Breguette map north of Lausanne for some training. The terrain was very different from the Basel middle distance on Sunday - instead of steep, muddy hillsides, the terrain was bumpy with lots of small hills and ridges. There were many open fields, and the woods were thick with challenging footing. Many areas were swaths of felled trees and trashy deadfall.

I struggled to read my map well at first, and even when I grew more comfortable with the map, I was very erratic and jerky. Later in the course, I tended to execute my routes acceptably, but with insufficient information and precision to be confident. I made many mistakes; perhaps it is better to be slow and careful getting into new terrain at first and later try to run at speed.

Control 1: Attacked from the trail junction, but couldn't find the reentrant and bounced off the road. Struggled to interpret the vegetation.
Control 2: I tried to go straight, and found the cliff at the veg boundary to be larger than expected. I didn't have a great attackpoint, and I managed to ignore the bend in the forest boundary directly in front of me.
Control 3: Sluggish approach, as the first clearing had bulldozer tracks and looked like a trail.
Control 4: Concentrated on reading my map - went straight, over the hill, past the cliffs, and over the spur. I was a bit to the left of the control.
Control 5: Scooted left of the cliff, through the depression and to the corner of the field. I punched through some thick vegetation and nettles between the two cliffs, then again just east of the circle. I was hesitant, but accurate.
Control 6: Many of the white woods were felled all but completely, so discerning the open field boundaries was hard. I overshot to the SE and had to circle back to the control from the field.
Control 7: Plan was to go on contour/compass, stay between the descent to the left and field to the right, and catch on the reentrant if necessary. I probably should have looked for the little hill to my right, but I hit the control ok.
Control 8: Oof - plan was to stay just right of line, pass through the two narrow clearings, go between the hill and the cliff, over the next hill, and over the spur down into the control. I instead exited 7 left, and got confused by the clearing patterns. I caught on the tall spur beyond the control and had to circle back. Fail.
Control 9: I paused to let Hannah and Sam cruise past me (didn't want to be a distraction), then went straight over the spur, in at the contour/vegetation bend, hit the first clearing, then sidled west into the control.
Control 10: Plan was to bust out to the big trail, then attack up the left side of the spur. I looked for the rocks, but didn't see anything until I hit the control directly. Hesitant.
Control 11: I should have doubled back and redone this control; I wanted to scoot around to the right and run along the hill; I did ok, but descended too low and was too far north of the control. It took me a minute to figure out my error. Maybe right was a better route?
Control 12: At first, I misread the depression between 11 and 12 as a hill. Corrected and hit it ok, running past the cliff. Yay nettles.
Control 13: Busted through the green slash to the trail, then ran past the clearing to the little trail and in.
Control 14: Clean but very hesitant - north to the clearing, then up left of the line. I skirted the edge of the big cliff, hit the trail bend, and correctly identified the spur with the depression on it. I tentatively explored it before seeing the bag.
Control 15: Out to the trail, then slogging on the trail until 200m from the control. I let myself get pushed right, bounced off the trail, ran south to the hill (which I should have used as my attack in the first place), then into the control.
Control 16: Tricky, punching through thick green to the hill, then descending on a line. I thought I was lost and had to relocate when I hit the bag.

C • Breguet? 1

C • Map 1

Sprint training course, Lausanne Switzerland. After the middle, we dropped stuff off at the hostel, then drove into the city carefully avoiding the embargoed area. We started at 1 minute intervals. My performance was sluggish and choppy, but it was a good challenge and a fun race in wholly new urban O for me. I dueled with Boris (started 1 minute behind me) for most of the run. Quickroute

Note that the 9 CHF maps had their circles off center - a few mm up and to the right. I need to read ahead better and have a good, systematic plan for each control. I also need to practice making sprint decisions, and I need to run faster. I did an acceptable job checking my control descriptions during the race and accounting for their devious locations.

C 1: I chose to immediately run right before noticing the left route; it probably wasn't too costly.
C 2: Through the passageway.
C 3: Obvious way, read ahead ok and executed well.
C 4: Oof, disaster; we all misread the control as low at first. I ran around left and found Sam and Hannah studying their maps. As Boris approached, I realized the control had to be on top of the bridge, and ran around and up the stairs. Fail.
C 5: In the lead, over the bridge and in.
C 6: I ran first to the right, then left of the church. I considered running right of the church; not sure what the best route is. Also, maybe out to the left is good?
C 7: Along the narrow walkway.
C 9: Left.
C 10: Right, left, down the stairs. Thought about running right the whole way, but declined.
C 11: Boris was gaining on me, so I read ahead and quickly decided to run right and up the stairs past the control. As I was running, I concluded that doubling back up the stairs and running past 8 was best. Dunno. The stairs were bloody slow on my route, and I hesitated at the 45° junction just NE of the bag.
C 12: Boris was on top of me; he pulled ahead when he went down the stairs and I went all the way around. Dumb. Neither of us saw the route through the tunnels to 13, so we doglegged 12; I don't think it was too slow.
C 13: Not sure how, but I took the lead out of 12. I "punched" at the end of the green instead of the gate, though. In my defense, it looked like a wall end. MP fail.
C 14: Held off a push by Boris.
C 15: Boris overtook me after we reached the top of the steps. We stayed high, thinking that 15 could be reached from above, when in fact the map has a passageway. He paused when we reached the stairs, but I figured it out first and busted down the steps.
C 16: I took off in the lead, and ran to the right. Boris rolled his ankle going left, so I had a comfortable lead at the bag.
C 17: Right, though thought about left. I think gentle ascent is preferable to stairs.
C 18: Lost lots of time to Boris; I went right at the second street. Boris ran left through 20 and down the stairs N of 18. I saw him as I was leaving 18.
C 20: Left.
C 21. Right. Wonder now if left was better. Heard Boris catching up to me. He got fancy and jumped over the crossable wall at the bag as we thought the bag was in the corner of the building/fence.
C 22: Put on some speed to hold off Boris, and finished first.

Running to the start through urban Lausanne.

Event: 7. Nationaler, Blauenpass
 

Run to the start before the middle distance race at the Swiss national race on the "Blauenpass" map in Zwingen, near Basel.

Dreiländer Stadt OL race in Basel.

Easy peasy run to the start, with a break to chat when we ran into Hannah, Sam, and Boris.

And off to Switzerland! Four cities, seven races (hopefully), sixteen days, and one sexy Nordwand. I am hopeful that my condition is not mono or that my body breaks its current trend, stops failing at life, and recovers quickly. The symptoms have changed slightly in the past day. I have an irritated throat with coughing, infrequent congestion, and a strange stomachache. The possibility of pancreatic infection has occurred to me, but I don't feel as tired as I would expect. Breathing is a little difficult, but I feel strong enough to roam around, even carrying my gear. Fortunately, if anything should happen to me, Switzerland has an excellent health care system.

The past week has been a bit stressful trying to get everything in order before going to Swissistan, and unfortunately, some tasks remain undone. However, I should be able to take care of some business via e-mail. Whatever my condition, I will cheer very loudly for the various WOC persons (wooo go Tove!); hopefully my throat will not be an impediment, and I will be able to measure my cheering prowess against the best in the world.

C • Food allergy/allergies? 9

C • Medical diagnosis 1

I woke up feeling a bit weak and an elevated heart rate, so I decided to rest today. I had a sore-ish throat starting on Monday, and my current symptoms include a mild headache, some congestion, a mild cough, and lack of energy. I estimate the likeliest candidates are a cold and mono. I will drink lots of fluids, take OTCs as needed, and rest. So far, my condition doesn't appear to be severe. It will take a lot more than mild symptoms to keep me from going to Europe for a third year in a row. I'm going to see the Eiger if I have to drag myself up from Grindelwald with an IV.

Note: took acetominophen and pseudoephedrine. I'm on my last four doses of doxycycline, so it's a bit of a party in my liver.

C • Keep an eye out for Lyme sy... 6

Easy run around the river. I ran slower than I expected, and I apparently need to recalibrate my HR zones. My knees and feet were a little sore from Monday's effort, and my throat hurt a bit today - possibly exacerbated by breathing hard during the sprint. I have not put that much effort into a run in some time.

While I know very little about The Newsroom, the first eight minutes of this episode are brilliant.

Also very cool: space-time crystals.

C • Nobody does! 2

Quickroute. GPS track was wildly off, probably due to passing near a number of buildings and breezeways. Controls 3-4 are distorted; I hit 3 directly and ran to the right of 4 through the breezeway. Controls 5-6 are also distorted; I did not make any path mistakes on either leg. I wonder if right out to the street to 7 would have been better; I ran left and through the passageway.

I apparently slowed considerably on the leg to 11. I need to practice maintaining a steady and fast effort throughout a sprint. I made a mistake to 19 - I should have run east of the first building and continued on the left rather than zipzagging through the field. I think the finish might have been faster running left, but I am unsure.

Quickroute. GPS was better than in the previous sprint, though still slightly spurious. The recording mode was set to "smart" recording, which almost certainly increased the granularity of the track. The routes are essentially correct, though the bobble between 13 and 14 is a data collection artifact; I executed that leg fine. Unfortunately, the route choice error to 16 is not an artifact.

Sprint 1 - Splits

Sprint 2 - Splits

While hiking was fun, orienteering was necessary to provide some balance to the weekend. I was tired on Saturday evening - my HR clocked in at 76 bpm during dinner, but rehydrating and a good night's sleep were restorative, and my morning HR was sufficiently low to warrant activity. We traveled to Burnt Mountain to run an exercise that Carl Childs had designed.

Burnt Mountain is a rich area, with good running and complex terrain. Kroum later reported to us that the contours are from a USGS map; while it seems they were improved by the mapper, there were areas that I struggled to interpret correctly. Exactly how much is due to my lack of skill and how much to the map isn't obvious. I found it difficult to concentrate due to the mosquitos and my steady entourage of deer flies.

Ali and I alternated on the first six controls; on her first leg, she started calling out what her plan was, so I subsequently followed suit. Making the effort to describe your plan aloud is great because you must be sufficiently attentive to parse it cogently. I found it also gave my brain an extra opportunity to realize what I was saying was stupid and wouldn't work.

From control 7 to the end, we ran independently. We ran into trouble at 8 (split 9) where we both did a poor job reading the contours and kept stopping short. I went on a mini-adventure to relocate and attack again, and eventually figured the map out. A low-lying area was marshy, and we kept concluding we were elsewhere. I had difficulty at 11 (split 12 and 13) reminiscent of my Day 1 Classic Champs fiasco, where I attacked down a spur and confused myself at the bottom. Finally, the location for 13 was a bit vague, and I did a poor enough job on the attack that I wasn't confident when I arrived in the area. Ali and I wandered about a bit before finding it. Garmin died leaving 13; I visited two locations on my way to 14 and have no idea how I got between the two - Quickroute will be informative.

Maybe I should try Ski-O, where all the insects are frozen.

C • Burnt 1

After a quick refueling stop at Bagel Basement including a delicious cinnamon roll and some coffee, we traveled to Oak Hill for some o-tervals. Carl Childs designed the exercise, and Krum graciously hung streamers for us. Apparently he went to an orienteering secondary school in the Ukraine while he was growing up.

This gps track corresponds to the first interval; I reset my watch before deciding to keep all the tracks together.

The remaining three o-tervals at Oak Hill. The objective of the exercise was to run hard and fast above race pace to practice decision making, map reading, and traveling through the woods at high speed. I was sluggish, and really should be doing these faster. I think I tend to slow down to a more comfortable pace, particularly when there are no adversaries in sight.

Ali's and my courses differed slightly, so we started simultaneously after each stop. My navigation was generally good, apart from two dumb mistakes: at 12 (split 13), I took an idiotic route over an unnecessarily tall spur rather than running around on a trail, costing about 30s. At 15 (split 16), in my desperate effort to catch Ali, I followed her into her control instead of going to mine. Oops. A lesson here, particularly from control 12 is that it is important to have a plan (even a rough one) before you blast off into the woods. A second or two of extra thinking can save lots of time, particularly on the first control of a course, when you aren't in a rhythm.

Oak Hill had some good orienteering - the map is great, the terrain is runnable, but it is very steep.

Picking up the streamers. As penance for my MP, I took the longer loop and correctly attacked the control.