Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: NEOC: Northfield Mountain Little Troll Cup
 

This morning, I ran most of the Reservoir trail in the Fells with Lori. In my mind, the Reservoir trail was equivalent to the fire roads that went around the reservoirs, but that turned out not to be true. The trail (orange blazes) is like the Skyline Lite - some rocks and climb, but shorter and less arduous. I felt a bit sluggish, which is perhaps unsurprising given my effort ten hours ago.

On the way home, my streak of never having been pulled over ended when I was finally apprehended for some triviality about my completely expired registration sticker or something. I showed them the notarized post-it written in purple crayon that "This vehicle works good. - Neil," but they were not appeased. I should probably take care of that. The police officer was courteous and friendly, though.

C • trivialities 8

C • Reservoir Trail 1

Double Kayaking with Lori.

Easy evening river run after Border Cafe with the peeps.

Event: Boston Park Series: Menotomy Rocks
 

Menotomy Rocks Park-O. The original plan was to run from my apartment to the park and return, but happily Lori arrived in her Renaissance garb after graduation, and we drove over. Because driving in Somerville and Arlington is slow, we arrived at about 7:10 and scampered to avoid holding people up. Consequently, I ran completely cold, with about 30s of warmup.

I felt a little sluggish for the first few controls - the legs just weren't responding that well. Magnus exhorted me to run faster when I saw him at 4. I ran into Lori at 7, where she made a funny squawk after tripping or something.

I really started to suffer shortly after 7, as my body responded with a physiological "wtf" to the sudden impulse of intensity without a happy fun gentle warmup. I bobbled 12 by a few seconds and unwisely cut and ran through the woods to 10 rather than staying on the trail. There were some small hesitations on 9 and 13, too. I started a trio - possibly a family - gently descending the main hill into 18 when I leapt down the hillside, goat style with a quick audible apology for disturbing them.

I'm a bit disappointed; given the distance, sub 15 was very attainable. Still, it was a pleasant outing. ISSOM map looked great at first glance, though I think a few additional features could be mapped.

Control pickup. I grabbed 7.

Menotomy - Splits

Skyline run with Lori and Brendan. We escaped Kendall Sq at around 4 pm, then fought through the hordes of vehicles to the Sheepfold. Lori had never run a complete Skyline loop, though she's run lengths of the trail on numerous occasions. Conditions were excellent - around 13 C, clear skies, and we chitted and chatted for the duration.

Quick warmup jaunt. Since I was starting a control pick exercise, I figured I could ease into the course without too much warmup.

Control pick course at Bear Brook, designed by Alex. I struggled with this part of Bear Brook at the 2013 Classic Champs, especially on Day 2. Bear Brook is interesting terrain - the contour features have much finer detail than the map can realistically show.

I started with two poor controls in the vague area, though the features were questionably distinct. I wasn't overly aggressive - I focused on good exits, maintaining steady flow, and visualizing and understanding the leg. I still made a few errors in the technical area, but my run was much better than previous efforts.

I caught up to Brendan at control 16, and we sparred a little over the rest of the course. He observed that the lines I would ran - the miniroutes, I suppose - were often suboptimal. I think the solution is better vision at ranges of 25-50m.

Ran back from the start via controls 7-1 backwards. Slowed down to read as much as possible. That particular section of the terrain is sparse.

After a lunch break and cake to celebrate Giovanni and Anne's birthdays, we marched to the start of the mass-start butterfly that Alex designed. I didn't want to go out too fast, so I hung with Brendan, Dancho and Kevin through the first few controls. I took a small lead on the route to 4, then pushed my advantage on the climb into 4 and 5-6. I made a 1 and 1.5 error at 13 and 15; Brendan caught up to me at 15. We ran together through 18, where he pulled ahead, but I caught up at the start/finish (19). Control 20 was a long leg across a marsh and through the linear clearings - where I figured I would have the advantage, so I put the hammer down to try to pull away. It seemed to work, as I never saw him again. I took controls 21-24 deliberately and carefully, as they were tricky and I wanted no errors. My worst mistake was about 20s at 23, though I did slow down a lot. The rest of the course was uneventful, though I was tired and thirsty by the end.

I picked up three streamers and ran back via the trail.

Event: CSU Memorial Day training camp
 

I felt very tired today, probably from insufficient sleep this week.

I watched a TED-esque presentation by Matthew Inman, the author of the Oatmeal. The presentation, titled "How to get a buttcrapload of people read what you write" explains his approach to writing and how he attains a wide audience for his comics and content. Understanding how people consume information is fantastically useful even if you aren't a webcomic. I think the Walker Bros have some of the best insights into this subject from the O-community, and it is evidenced by the impact of attackpoint, Shopping Cart Hero, and Catching Features.

Some of my favorite examples of the Oatmeal's creative works:
Why I run Long Distances (aka the "Blerch")
The Tesla Model S
My Dog, the Paradox

Event: Boston Park Series: Mystic River Reservation
 

Mystic River Park-O. I designed the courses, which consisted of a one-person relay with three loops of 9-11 controls. Kudos to Ed for all the legwork - arranging the courses so they could be printed on one page, taking care of the printing, bringing all the equipment, and running results. The Bermans, as always, were stalwart meet personnel.

After mass starting everyone (and punching a start box to record that time), I waited about a minute before starting myself. The Park-O isn't hard when you have both designed the courses and visited all the locations. I woke up all the controls about fifteen minutes before the mass start. The limiting factor for me was definitely physical endurance, though I did make some bad route choices, like 6-7 on course "A" (my splits 6-7). My legs felt sluggish, possibly from yesterday's weird spinning course. Given the stacked deck in my favor, I'm not surprised I won, though I was hoping it would have been by more. Giovanni finished a few seconds before I did.

ACB - Splits

Running to and checking out Mystic River controls.

Spinning class with Megan and Kevin. I wore my heart rate monitor to provide some context for the intensity. I started the HRM late and failed to stop it when we were done.

I parked at the school at about 7:43, but I already was dressed and had my bib on. I warmed up enough to break out a sweat - which wasn't enough, but better than nothing. The temperature was pleasantly cool, perhaps 15 C.

In a word, glacial. But this is about what is reasonable to expect of my running right now; this is a PR, though the two 10ks I have run had monstrous climb. I haven't raced much at this distance, and I was wary of going out too fast. I decided to run a conservative first two miles, then ramp up and push; there wasn't much of a difference between my initial effort and my ending paces apart from the downhill. I did have a little difficulty breathing despite my cetirizine, so I might find a little time in a non-allergy race. The climb was very mild.

About 5 km into the race, I started hearing a guy chatting with a child; I figured he was on a bike. Shortly thereafter, a man pushing a stroller pulled up beside me and gradually edged ahead of me. He looked speedy and strong. I stayed within about 10m of him until the last km, when I kicked ahead of him. After the race, according to a friend of Stephen Petrikalis, the guy is legit, though I think he was just out for a morning tempo run + munchkin and wasn't entered into the race. I finished tenth out of 487. The pace quartiles were 7:44/mi, 8:38/mi, and 9:31/mi.

Graceful like a charging hippo.

Cool down with Alex + scoring some swag. We had a fail later in the morning: after some delicious waffles at Chez Alex + Ed and Brendan joining us, we set out for Earl's Trails. We were inhibited by two traffic episodes: one residual one from earlier in the day when a bus went partway over the edge of a railing on a bridge by I-90 exit 17 in Newton and some unknown collision which stopped traffic on I-90 near I-84 for about an hour. We decided to turn around after 12:40p, when we were still 40 minutes away. A disappointing expedition, though we had good chits and chats in the car.

Easy longish run around the river. I ran in intermittent rain, and my glasses were quickly rendered useless. I threw in 6x45s reps and 4x15s reps at the end to get my legs moving fast. I need more short, quick speed work to get my legs turning, as they are ponderous and sluggish.

I'm disappointed with my Cat Rock performance - my margin of victory over Giovanni was largely due to my route choice to 12. On the other controls, I was sluggish and ineffective.

Event: Boston Park Series: Cat Rock Park
 

I'm leaning towards attending the Canadian Champs in British Columbia in August for my summer O.

C • Do it! 8

CSU Park-O at Cat Rock. After battling through Cambridge traffic, I arrived at about 7:05. I didn't want to keep everyone waiting, so I rushed through my pre-race routine of dressing and warming up. I felt stiff from my tempo workout yesterday. I had acceptable flow today, though my run had plenty of avoidable hesitations and time losses 10-20m from the controls. Cat Rock could use a revision, as it took some work for the quickroute to match the terrain. There also has been some recent construction.

I was very confused at 1 after I left the trail from a poor mental picture of the circle. I left 2 in a weird direction and ran along the trail to reestablish a clear picture. 5s of "qua?" in the circle at 6 and 7 when I didn't see the flags. I ran low to 9, which was a bit longer near the end; I hesitated at the stone wall before the circle. I was stabbed by my right eye by red briar in the circle at 10 - hence the blood on the map scan by 7. I was very confident on my route choice to 12 via the trail after seeing the swampy vegetation. I almost overran 14 on the trail; I expected the swamp to be much more visible from the trail. I missed 15 right, but that may be due to the map, as my line is parallel to the leg. Some hesitation leaving the trail into 16. Quickroute. All splits were ranked 1-3, lost 49s to Superman. The field wasn't that deep, so those statistics are somewhat misleading.

C • qua 2

Cat Rock - Splits

2x20 minute tempo workout. I felt unusually labored, possibly from pollen allergies. The evening was beautiful, with a radiant sunset and a temperature of about 18 C. I warmed up for 16 minutes, ran my out-and-back with a 3 minute rest, and cooled down. I deliberately ran the second bout at a reduced intensity, as I felt like I was killing myself on the first bout. Instead of trying to hit a particular intensity on the second bout, I concentrated on keeping good form with upright posture and consistent foot (ball) strikes.

5.1 km splits: 19:29 (wee bit too fast), 21:19.

Tennis with Wadz and Luc. We played 2 on 1 and rotated; total playing time was about 75 minutes. Pollen allergies are destroying me despite cetirizine.

Event: 36th Annual Billygoat Run
 

Billygoat at Baldwin Hill set by JJ Cote. It was much warmer than I'm used to: perhaps 24 C. I woke at 8:30, ate a muffin and a banana, caffeinated and hydrated, and arrived at the meet site at 10:30. Quickroute

Strategy: I have a tendency to go out too hard on mass start races and fade, so I wanted to avoid getting out to an early, solitary lead. Contrarily, I expected that the green would favor me, and my familiarity with the terrain would give me an advantage if I could break away from my three chief competitors. My worst fear was ending up in a pack near the end without my skip with competitors who could still skip.

Upon flipping the map over, I saw that 1-2 were far to the south and the correct route was the long N-S trail. In my eagerness, I exploded into the woods and stupidly crossed the stream. When I reached the start of the trail, slower competitors were already ahead of me. Fail. I moved to the front behind Ethan and Adrian and settled in. I debated skipping 1, 3, and 18 before settling on 1 because of the out-and-back distance cut. I was alone halfway to 3, and while I didn't really want to try to lead the whole race, the time advantage of skipping 1 outweighed any tactical considerations.

I ran pretty well for the next few controls, though I dropped a minute on an uphill slog to 4 (after apparently dropping the hammer to 3). I didn't see anyone else until control 8, when I ran into Will running to control 6, about 7 minutes behind me. But then, disaster: out of the spectator control, 10 was an easy trail leg to a control in a green reentrant; I zoned out and read ahead while waiting for a 90' right turn. Unfortunately, the turn was gentler than I expected, and I overran my attackpoint by about 200m. Then, stupidly, rather than doing damage control and returning to a solid attackpoint, I speculated and attacked into thick green without a reliable fix on my position. I was pretty sure I was in the correct reentrant, but I couldn't find the control; I wasted 7 minutes and was passed by Ethan before I followed Will into it.

Eager focus turned to urgency then to despair as I fumbled at one of the easier controls on the course. Coming out of 10, I almost quit the race; I was furious with myself for throwing away my lead. Though I didn't know it, Ethan had already skipped, so I was in comfortable position. But, I don't quit races when I'm physically able to finish them, and this was a great opportunity to practice refocusing and recovering. Plus, my competitors could make a mistake and give me an opening.

Will took a better line to 11, but I passed him en route to 12 where I met Ethan. Speedy, Will, Ethan and I all converged at 13, though only Will hadn't skipped. Still, my worst fear of late pack running was realized. I lost a little time at 15 due to microroute. Running to 16 was brutal; I was totally hosed on the uphill slog. Ethan pulled away, Will made a mistake, and I ran into Wyatt at the flag. I beat Wyatt and Speedy to 17, but Wyatt pulled away from me on the torturous slog to 18, which I lethargically spiked. I was quite surprised to see Ethan and Wyatt take 18, as I figured that was the likeliest skip, but only Will skipped 18. While I saw Ethan and Wyatt at the flag at 18, I had nothing left to chase them down, and ran the rest of the course in clean, slow solitude. I finished 5 minutes behind Will and 3 behind Ethan and Wyatt. This is my best finish, but my race was so frustratingly bad - with poor execution, a huge mistake, and physical inadequacy.

Lessons:
- Though the heat was painful, I don't currently have the speed to race a long course. I fade in the last third of the race; I think long tempo-ish runs and race efforts are suited. As my crew coach said, it doesn't hurt less, you just get faster.
- I botched 10 because I let my attention wander too much. You can't hope to keep laser-like focus for two hours, but knowing when to check back in is critical. I don't do enough orienteering practice; I don't take enough controls to be solid enough in my technique for a clean race.
- Ethan is in way better shape than I am now, and it showed - especially near the end of the race. I'm just not fast enough to compete effectively; I was not ready for a head-to-head battle for the last few kms.
- In long races, I need to start more conservatively. I love the idea of pulling away and holding a commanding lead rather than racing tactically, but trying to lead immediately leads to burnout. Skipping 1 was correct (7 minute gain), but I must manage my stamina and effort better.
- Thanks to JJ and company for putting on a great event!

C • Dude 15

Picking up 8 controls.

I decided to rerun 9-10 - attentively this time, which I managed in about 4:00.

C • Missing 10 -- which I gathe... 4

Billygoat - Splits

Calves are still tight from Tuesday. Given that I de facto Tiomila'd Sunday morning and Monday was a travel day, I haven't really had a proper rest day so far this week. I will rest up for the Billygoat.

Easy recovery run. I probably ran further than necessary, but it felt good to get out. My calves were very tight from the fast running on my toes yesterday. I've switched from a predominantly heel and mid-foot striker to a forefoot runner over the past several years, but the faster bouts with the higher cadence were stressful.

I abandoned Tale of Two Cities on audiobook; the material is just too rich and dense for me to read in anything but print. Instead, I started The Decisive Battles of World History, which is organized like a lecture series, with a chapter per battle. Today, I listened to the battles of Kadesh and Plataea.

Easy recovery run. Posted Quickroute from Tiomila.

Run to intervals. I hopped onto a Hubway bike for part of the journey to reduce leg pounding given this morning's session.

CSU track workout, designed by Terry McNatt, fearless leader and devious mastermind. I met Andy from the ski section and a blonde lad named Matthew before he bailed to run with a woman (presumably significant other). Magnus was in attendance from the O-section.

The workout was an initial 800 at 5k pace followed by 4x(600, 400, 200) at 3k-1.5k pace with one minute rest, and three minutes between cycles. I focused on keeping good form and having quick leg turnover, but I was definitely tired by the end.

Splits:
800 - 2:47ish, as I forgot to hit lap. I led this bout.
600s: 2:01, 1:58, 1:58, 2:02
400s: 79, 77, 75, 75
200s: 36, 36, 35, 33

Cool down with Magnus before biking/running back to work.

Event: 10Mila
 

Third leg of Tiomila: night, unforked, 13.0 km listed. I have much to write up. In short, I ran about as well as I could - perhaps three errors of about two minutes each. While I had access the human meat-streamer for much of the leg, I was alone or leading a pack for about eight controls. I also witnessed a few big errors by the pack.

I had a fantastic experience, and I'm really glad I had a solid run and didn't let the team down. The entire team had strong, solid runs - everyone did their job wonderfully. Giacomo brought us back in 159th, and before Ross's leg, we stayed between 150th and 176th place. I managed to pick up twelve spots during my leg, but I think that was just finishing a few minutes ahead of a big pack that I passed. I finished 171st on my leg, 27 minutes and 36% back of a sick run by Andrea Kyburz.

CSU Results. To our great surprise and elation, while we failed to avoid mass-starting PG, we finished in 145th out of some 330 teams with a net pace of 8:03/km. Many excellent pics were taken - primarily by Greg and Ken, though I grabbed a few. Expect them to be posted soon. Running Tiomila with my clubmates was one of the greatest highlights of my orienteering career so far. Relays are wicked awesome.

My map was an A2 sized sheet at 1:10 - a massive 17" x 23" placemat. Checking codes required flipping to the descriptions sector of the map, but I religiously checked all my codes. I found that I was comparatively strong relative to the pack at punching through dense green (chiefly pine trees) and marshes, and comparatively slower on trails. While the night was chilly (maybe 5 C when I ran), I overheated a bit in LS top, tights, a buff, and gloves. The temperature continued to fall, and the night was uncomfortably frigid after my run - probably not much colder than freezing, if at all.

Quickroute

C • Congrats!! 8

Warmup in the quarantine, checking Boris' status, confirming my shoes and headlamp were in order, and drinking my Gu.

Training on Nasten with Brendan, Ken, and Biggins. Felt good and confidence improved. Nasten is awesome.

To Nasten and back via the Linne clubhouse to drop off two flags.

Boris, Sam, Lisa, Ross, and I went out for a training run; while the others set out on trails, Ross and I ran south to run a training course on Nasten. It was spectacular and tricky Swedish terrain. I found reading the boundaries of marshes and the subtle contour features challenging. I made a few errors, but my confidence grew. Ross followed me through the exercise, and it was very helpful to discuss the terrain in real time as we ran through it. The US map that most closely resembles Nasten that I have run is Moreau, though Nasten has more trails.

Run to/from Nasten solo. It was very dark with a serene solitude.

C • plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose 2

We had a fun-filled day with two gaming sessions. I gamed with Johanna and Kempster (!) again, and met Mats (hey, Mats) Troeng and Marta Zdravkovic. However, I was anxious to get some time in the Swedish woods at night before Tiomila. Ross contacted a clubmate to obtain Night-O control locations and generously hooked me up with a Nasten course. I jogged over and practiced taking Swedish controls in the dark. Unfortunately, my Garmin was dead when I set out. I started with great difficulty, but my confidence increased and my orienteering improved by the end. Compass is critical, and there is too much to read on a map like Nasten. It's also difficult to simplify, and parallel errors are really easy to make.