Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: NEOC: Hale Reservation
 

Terrible week due to (1) illness (mancold), (2) busy-ass schedule (not a good reason), and (3) some pain in my left foot that started at the Highlander. At the very least, I should be going to das gym and grinding away on the elliptical or stationary bike while listening to hardcore history.

C • Hardcore history 2

So, there's apparently another Star Wars movie coming out. I'm a fan of the series, but I don't have high expectations for the 7th movie. If JJ Abrams does to Ep. 7 what he did to Star Treks XI and XII, I expect to be underwhelmed.

However, one aspect of the Star Wars universe which is truly extraordinary is the music. John Williams - like Howard Shore and many other modern movie composers - incorporates the leitmotif technique, in which a particular melody or theme corresponds to a character, group, or concept. Three examples are the "Gondor theme" from Lord of the Rings, the Imperial March - Darth Vader's and more generally the Empire's theme from Star Wars, and one of my favorites, the Force theme - which is also Luke's theme - from Star Wars. Leitmotifs can be very simple - for instance, the two-note Jaws theme is the shark's theme and is played whenever the shark makes and appearance.

The latest trailer doesn't disappoint; the music is incredibly powerful. Some nerds managed to find lossless music tracks for the trailer and posted them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooncd-c519A

Pay key attention to:
- Dramatic piano notes and long string notes in the first 30s to build tension
- Gradual crescendo in 0:40 - 0:56, especially among the swelling horns
- Appearance of the stirring Han and Leia theme at 0:56 in the chorus, with more crescendo into:
- The climax at 1:13! The Force theme, played by the French horns in a wall of sound with percussion, a chorus, and strings. An orgasm for your ears. Note that the force theme, despite being associated with the protagonists, is in a minor key, which in this context gives it a very dark tone. The climax ends with hemiola - 3 vs 2 rhythm - in the percussion at 1:47.
- Silence at 1:51; you have to take a break for contrast.
- 1:54 - A slow, soaring appearance of the heroic main theme (good guys?) by a glorious solo French horn over a happy major chord in the strings.

Amazeballs. I really would like to hear this live; the experience is different when the collective ff sound of the orchestra makes your chair shake.

C • Music of Star Wars 4

Brooklyn Boulders with Crystle, who was visiting. The plan was to go orienteering at Lynn Woods this morning. My alarm was set for a luxurious 930 am, but I turned it off, went back to sleep, and overslept. I'm really irritated that I didn't make good on my plans; need to regroup and start actually executing.

After lunch at Zoe's, we did some top roping. Brooklyn Boulders (about 1 km from my apartment) has an excellent assortment of pitches and some neat auto-belayers - which work much like a seatbelt. I did about 7 pitches - 5.6 to 5.8.

Easy hill session on the elliptical to warmup.

4x800 at 3:00 with 3:00 rest.
I decided to do a short interval session on the treadmill. Ken does these, and getting into a light routine for treadmill intervals will be valuable during the cold winter months. I settled on 4x800m, but I found that I had to reduce the intensity to avoid overheating. I aborted my first bout - 800m in 2:45 with a 2% grade - after two minutes. My next four bouts were at easy 3:00 pace with a 1% grade, and they felt really comfortable apart from the heat. The fan on the treadmill was about as powerful as an asthmatic gerbil.

Stationary bike to cool off and get a little more easy cruising in. This seemed useful because my left foot has been hurting a little in the days after the Highlander, with discomfort just behind the ball and on the edge near the little toe.

Five minutes of core and five minutes of playing around with some ten lb barbells. Someone set up a bench press in the squat rack, which is taboo. I had the gym to myself today.

After a glorious night's sleep at Chez Balter (thanks a bunch), I moseyed into Manhattan to hang out with a visiting Peyton and her cousin, Katie. We brunched, ate enormous cookies in Central Park, spent an afternoon at the Museum of Natural History, went out for coffee, walked around the city, and dinnered. A pleasant day, and the legs, while fatigued, rose to the challenge of standing around a museum all day. There were many beasts.

In looking at the Highlander results, I can find much that was adequate about my performance. I picked the far left trail route to 2 and had decent execution despite losing time descending to the trail. I won the split where I caught and passed Charlie. I was competitive with Kenny on many legs, though because we were both running the course somewhat gingerly - in his case to avoid injury, in mine to avoid fatigue, it's inconclusive. I'm most irritated that I didn't pick up the 90s I needed on leg 31 to catch the quartet immediately ahead of me.

Losing ten minutes to Jordan on the trail leg - even with the mandate to run in energy conservation mode - is inexcusable. I need to befriend the Skyline again, for surely running it twenty times before Team Trials is feasible.

Event: Hudson Highlander XVIII
 

Hudson Highlander, my second. Yesterday, I took care of some work and did life maintenance - laundry, various logistics tasks, with the plan to drive to the Highlander in the morning. With an 11 AM start time and a 3:30 drive, I could depart at 6:30 and comfortably arrive prepared. I woke up before dawn, checked all my packing, then decided to look at the meet notes again and confirm whether Tiorati or Kanawauki circle was the start location. And then I noticed the start was at 9. I reacted with surprise.

While this was unfortunate, the Highlander is still great fun, and Surebridge is among my favorite places to orienteer in the US. Since the first map exchange didn't close until 2p, I would have plenty of time to complete the course. I ate breakfast and some coffee, drove to Harriman, arrived at parking, explained my predicament, and ultimately started my race from parking at 11:07. I ran to the start as if it were part of my race, but partly because I was running alone, I was able to keep my pace within my ability rather than burning out in a blaze of glory in the beginning scramble.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course; I wore short sleeves and no gloves despite the ~6-8 C chill (and brief snow/hail flurry on Surebridge), but warmed up easily. I first saw people who were on the trail run when I was en route to 2, and I ran into Alan Young reporting bibs just past the start of the trail run. I started passing people just after the map exchange at control 11. I have done a fair bit of training on all three maps, so most of it was familiar. I made a 3-4 minute route choice mistake to 16, got tangled in mountain laurel (2 minutes) at 14, was tired on the uphill into 25, and apparently made a route choice error (2 mins) going right into 31 instead of trailing around on the left.

I would say that I survived this race rather than I raced it. Unlike two years ago, I was able to keep a largely steady effort, with perhaps five minutes of walking on uphills near the end. That said, I wasn't pushing at all, I was pitifully slow, and my fitness was far too weak to manage this. From the start, I estimate I ran the course in about 4:10 (allowing a 10 minute split to the first control) entirely solo (forgot my Garmin), which isn't far from the pack but isn't what someone racing should be doing. My body held up just fine, with only hints of cramping in the last thirty minutes and no blisters.

Clearly, I need to rethink my life; a logistical failure of this magnitude is absurd. My google calendar clearly says "9a Highlander", but I ignored it. Everyone was a good sport - apparently I made Kenny laugh with my early morning failtext, and I really appreciate the efforts of all the organizers. As Balter remarked at the map exchange, I made a 2:15:00 error to the first control.

C • Legend 9

HL - Splits

Easy cruise. It's been an awful pair of weeks - I have been feeling unmotivated and overwhelmed by life. Nevertheless, it's time to get back on the wagon.

C • That's awesome 5

Boulderdash Blue Day 2; I forgot my Garmin. I felt very tired from the festivities the day before, and my legs were sluggish. The terrain was technical and tricky, and I was very cautious on the first technical leg - 2 - as I settled into the map. My execution was generally clean, though it was marred with hesitations and slowness. I think my route to 5 was good, but sluggishly done after I left the trail. I hesitated noticeably to 7, 8, 12, 15, with errors (~60-90 seconds) at 10 and 16. Surprised to finish second, but really far behind Isak.

Big thanks to the UNO folks for a great event, and especially to the start people for letting me move my start up 30 minutes so I could get back to the wedding.

Warmup jog to the start with Magnus.

Wedding-O; course and map by Ed. I made some mental mistakes - I hesitated for about five seconds en route to 1, and attacked 6 stupidly, losing about 20s. Flow wasn't great - which is ridiculous; sprint technique can be practiced by rote. It's not that hard to stay smooth, read ahead, plan, and fold - especially on terrain as simple as today's.

4x Maze-O, by Barb and Dave. Great fun.

Wedding-O - Splits

Sunday - Day 2 - Blue - Splits

Event: UNO Boulder Dash
 

Fun pre-wedding run around the forest trails of the Diabetes center with the O-gang; Ross, Sam, Alex, Ed, Greg, Zan, Boris, Carol. We were uncertain about our location (i.e. lost) at one point and discussed whom we would eat first in the Donner scenario.

C • eating 4

I haven't yet uploaded my tracks, but I will do so when I get home.

Sunday - Blue Long, 12.0 km, 300m. Yesterday's run had potential, but it also had several dumb errors. A clean run would have won, partly because no one had a clean run. My goal today was to execute cleanly - to slow down when needed, to have a good plan, and to pay close attention to distinctive features along that route, which tended to preclude boulders on the north map from yesterday. I figured route choice would matter, and trails had been substantially faster than terrain on the rocky ground yesterday.

I started reasonably well, with a clean first control. I made a good route choice on 2 with a trail route, but attacked poorly off a vague hill, costing two minutes. On 3 and 4, I didn't notice the contours change direction, so I was expecting a slope rather than a ridge. I overran 4, but the map indicates the controls are at least 75m apart, but the fastest split was like 15s.

The most frustrating part of the course came after control 7, when a belligerent person perhaps 20m away from me in the woods yelled at me to stop. I had just crossed a stone wall, so I thought perhaps I had entered his property. It turned out that he lived adjacent to the cross country ski area we were using (and had permission to use), and runners punching a nearby control had agitated his dogs. He didn't know the race was going on, and he presumed to rush to the aid of the landowner (whom he knew personally), whose rights were clearly being violated. He was livid, threatened to release his four dogs, and suggested that people would be at risk of being shot - intimating he might be the one to do it - because theft and trespassing happens around here.

I started by apologizing in an effort to mollify him, of assuring him that we had permission, telling him who the club was and where the meet headquarters was. I forgot the name of the landowner - as I wasn't thinking about that sort of thing - but mentioned that our headquarters was on Plank Road and indicated it on the map. He responded by noting this was "over a mile away," as if it were absurd that a guy in running gear with a freakin' bib on and a map could have come that far. This took about four minutes; I was annoyed to clearly be hemorrhaging time in the middle of a race, but figured a pissed off landowner was a problem that deserved my attention and could have consequences outside of my race. Also, I didn't know where his property was, and it was certainly possible we had trespassed. Once he seemed satisfied, was no longer homicidal, and was going to our event headquarters, I went on my merry way - annoyed, and very much out of racing focus - in an effort to salvage my race.

In hindsight, I'm much more irritated. I was wearing a bib. We weren't trespassing; his rights were not being violated. The landowner whose property we were using was hanging out at the meet site, hosting us, and granting permission for us to use his land. He wasted my time in a national competition, easily cost me at least five minutes, and virtually threatened me over something that was none of his business. I don't think he would have actually released his dogs or gotten his gun (though that's not obvious); I think he was just making claims to get the attention he thought his concerns deserved. He was apparently particularly furious because he had seen and yelled at more than four other runners who had ignored him; rather than concluding this was somehow official or could be sanctioned, he angrily concluded we were all lawless trespassers encroaching on his freedom loving nature.

Given the circumstances, I think I handled this correctly; it's always possible he goes and does something stupid, someone gets hurt, or we lose permission to use the land. But good-bye my race. Apparently he went to the meet site, talked to the organizers and the landowner, and was mollified; he mentioned my name, which I apparently gave. The meet director thanked me for talking to him, though naturally, he can't deduct an uncertain amount of time from my race nor restore the flow and focus I lost.

The most noteworthy part of the rest of the race was a fair bit of good execution, bad execution on 11, the long leg, and some poor route choice on the north side of the map, especially 22 and 25.

C • Thank you 5

Warmup.

Sunday - Long Blue - Splits

Event: "O" in the Pines A meet
 

Abbreviated warmup.

Saturday - Middle Blue - Splits

It's been a rough week. Legs were sore for two days after leg day on Tuesday, though that didn't inhibit me from running.

In other news, I went to BSO with Keith and saw Shosty 9, Tchaik Piano Concerto No 1 performed by Evgeny Kissin, and Rach's Symphonic Dances. Great show, and my first concert under Andris Nelson.

C • Tchaik No. 1 by Kissin 1