Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: NEOC Rocky Woods
 

After a night of spontaneity, I ran my first blue course, and the first major orienteering event of the year. I'm ambivalent about my performance; some of the course went really well, whereas some of it was disastrous. Jeff Shapiro set up a solid course, particularly given how small the park was (about 2 km x 2 km) at the Rocky Woods Reservation.

I manned the registration booth until 1 PM, so I started last - leaving at 1:30 PM. Fortunately, Jeff Shapiro knew I had been working on improving in the fall and was ambitious, so he wasn't concerned when I wasn't back relatively late in the day.

What went well:
- My compass worked great
- I was strong on about half the course (controls 4 - 11, 13, 14), navigating and running pretty well.
- I didn't give up. While this may be a trivial point to note, I was considering abandoning the course after I hit the wall.

What went poorly:
- There were four controls with tremendous error - 1, 2, 12, and 15. With a fifth control - 18 - I amassed 86 minutes (just more than half my total time) over about 30% of the total course length. What's particularly distressing is that I missed controls 1 and 2 - setting an unpleasant, diffident tone for the rest of the course.
- I stopped running intermittently on the way to control 15 and a bit afterwards.

What I need to work on:
- My pace was unacceptably low. My target is 10 min/km.
- I need to eat much more before a race; that morning, I ate half a peanut butter sandwich and a few cookies at about 10 AM. I should obtain goo or some other mid race calorie source.
- Better route choice. Several of my errors cost me much elevation - for instance, control 12, wasting much more time than even a distance error.
- Consistency: following the set procedure on each control - plan route to next control, memorize control code, and so on.
- Psychology: encountering other runners in the woods has always been a great weakness of mine. There were few runners in the woods as I ran, and I didn't actually know any of the other blue competitors, but had I encountered the usual crowd - Brendan, Sam Saeger, Ross, and so on - I would probably have been thrown off even more.
- Better distance judgment and intuition on a 1:15000 map.

I'm glad I ran this course, even if I wasn't quite adequately prepared for it. Now I have a (very generous) baseline against which to improve and prepare for the 19 April Middle Distance Champs. I'm done running classes that are not M-21.

Blue - Splits

*Went to Waterville Valley, NH to cross-country ski with Lori. We left a little later than planned and then got lost along the way, so we got to Waterville Valley about an hour later than we wanted to. It had snowed about 8 inches the day before we got there, so the snow was really nice. We were planning on doing a longer loop, but my pole broke, so we decided to turn back a bit early.

*The source for this entry was the 29 March 2008 training log of attackpoint user Lori.

After 36 hours of respite, I resumed my regimen with a brisk morning run (ambient temperature 27 F, -3 C). I planned a staple route: a 7 km loop around the Esplanade, but running counterclockwise - opposite to my usual method. I really need to diversify my running routes, with emphasis on running in parks with maps and similar orienteeringesque terrain, but time constraints make this a logical choice.

My target pace was 8.5 - 9 minutes per mile (I still think of pace comfortably in english units), [5:15 - 5:30 per km], but unsurprisingly, I pushed harder than I planned. I think this was exacerbated by a stiff headwind (15-20 kph) while running along the river; I didn't want to give up. I was encouraged by some poor kids in crew shells rowing along the river preparing to face the agony of drills - as they faced their challenge, so should I.

I pushed my breathing rate to a steady 3 steps/breath about a third of the way through the route, leading me to believe that my breathing rate strongly influences my pace. The running pace given by four steps per breath feels slow, but that's probably near my training objective of a steady 9 minute mile.

I felt strong throughout the run; my muscles felt good albeit tight, stamina was solid, and breathing was consistent - if more labored as I pushed the pace near the finish. I am far from ready for the blue on Sunday, but at least I'm reacquainted with the challenges I face as a runner.

My original plan was to run a long midweek, but as I ran a longer route than planned on Sunday, my goal is to run 6-8k for the next three days, then take Saturday off for the meet on Sunday. As skiing plans for Saturday solidify, I may take Friday off instead.