Training Log Archive: iansmith

My calves have been bothering me lately - possibly due to shin splits? Because of a busy schedule and so many things going on in my life right now, I elected to take a rest day.

C • Do you stretch? 7

ARDF Training at the Blue Hills. I set control 5, which was at the top of the hill north of the buildings north of the parking lot at Houton's Pond. Making my way up the Skyline trail was a bit brutal.

During my run, which was 8.18 km in 1:08, I had the following splits:
Control 2: 11:44 (on cycle)
Control 1: 9:56 / 21:40 total (:40 after cycle)
Control 3: 16:05 / 37:45 total (on cycle)
Control 5: 11:16 / 49:01 (on cycle, though I found it off and waited for the cycle to start, in the interest of fairness)
Control 4: ?
Finish: 18:59 / 1:08:00

I was converging on control 4 - I was perhaps 200 m from it, but four minutes off cycle - when I decided to bail out so Lori and I could get back to Cambridge. I probably would have found it in five more minutes, but my route from 5 to 4 was not very good.

My left earbud was severed by vegetation while I was running from control 1 (split 3) down to the road, so I finished the rest of the course with only my right earbud. It's also worth pointing out that between setting 5 and running the course (my start is split 1), I rode in Vadim's car to the start. I did not, in fact, run at 63.2 kph (though I did briefly consider it).

Biking to and from a performance of The Magic Flute. The Bermans showed up and seemed to regard the troupe highly. The round trip actually took about 90 minutes, but my heart rate wasn't high enough the entire trip to consider it meaningful training.

I had an unfortunate error in the piece due to a transposition. It is typically for horn parts from the 18th century to be written in different keys, i.e. such that the notes on the staff actually change. That is, for Horn in F (the typical key), the second space on the treble clef is a note I would call an A (and is actually a concert D). For Horn in B-flat alto, the second space on the treble clef is what I would call an D, and is actually a concert G. It's all very complicated, and one of the requirements of playing classical horn is the ability to transpose on the fly. In Magic flute, the part changes notational keys each of the 21 movements, forcing the player to concentrate. At the start of the second act, I read "Horn in E," and so started to transpose down a half step. The part actually said "Horn in F."; the period after 'F' seemed part of the letter in the font. I played one note, realized it sounded wrong, and dropped out to figure out the problem. It was not too obtuse, but it's still unacceptable.

Event: CSU Park-O: Peter's Hill
 

Today, I took an involuntary rest day. I have had a very difficult week, partly because work has been so busy. To complicate matters, before I realized how challenging this week would be, I agreed to play horn in a production of The Magic Flute at the request of my old college orchestra conductor, and I had committed to setting the Park-O yesterday.

So, I procured a Zipcar from my downtown office, drove to the Bermans at 4:20 PM and procured the usual Park-O materials. Unfortunately, as I was leaving, a cloudburst hit Boston, and slowed traffic on the Harvard Bridge and on Columbus and Tremont Ave to a standstill. A trip Google projected to take 22 minutes took me about 55. Fortunately, for the Park-O, the rain abated quickly, at about 5:10 PM.

I arrived at Peter's Hill at 5:30 PM, and hurriedly set the 20 Park-O controls. I did not finish the last ones until about 6:20. Ross, Brendan, and Ed graciously rose to the occasion and ran the Park-O administration. The turnout, despite the rain forecast, was excellent - more children than I have seen at a Park-O, largely due to the recruiting by Barb and her kids.

At about 6:35, after verifying that everything was in order, I drove to my rehearsal in Weston. Unfortunately, I made an error in a traffic circle and went far to the south, delaying my arrival to 7:15. I had told the conductor that I would be there at 7:30.

After rehearsal, I found myself in the rare but delightful position of giving someone a ride. Jason, a trumpet player whom I have repeatedly run into in the music community, had biked to Weston; with some Herculean engineering, we managed to cram his 26" bike with the front wheel attached into the back seat of a Honda Civic. On the way back, we had a delightful conversation about composition, the state of major symphony orchestras, and choices in life. I then returned home to work for several more hours. Despite the frantic and overwhelming quality of the week, Thursday night had many very pleasant interactions with other people - an unexpected boon.

C • Every cloud... 4

I decided to go for a run in the middle of the day to "clear my thoughts" - such a curious expression, as though contemplating life while slightly oxygen deprived would somehow elucidate difficulties and obstacles. It was pleasant to distract myself for a time, which is to say that it increased my happiness.

I noticed small discomfort in my right knee, and I was more lethargic than typical. This is like because of my activity over the past few days. During my run (18 C, with a 20 kph breeze), I continued The Name of the Wind. That gchat and html use different syntax for text modification, like italic, is slightly frustrating, though I presume there was functional reason for making gchats command interface different from html.

I still am morose.

C • morose 3

Biking to a dress rehearsal of a production of The Magic Flute for which I am playing horn. My GPS track is incomplete because I switched the set activity from running to biking a short way into the trip, and evidently the Garmin Transfer function does not support MultiSport activities. The trip was saturated with both hills and traffic lights (typically at the bottoms of hills, so as to most efficiently deprive me of energy).

Leaving the rehearsal, I started spectacularly by making a wrong turn and getting immediately lost. To complicate things, I rode to the bottom of a very large hill just as I realized that I was going the wrong way. I correctly reasoned I was going northeast, so I made the appropriate set of turns to cross I-95, then turned south to link up with my route home, Route 20.

After I figured out I was going the wrong way, when I reached a major intersection, I stopped the track so I could look at my split on the map and check that I was in fact going Northeast. This is the stopped split.

Breaking with my tradition, I went for an early morning run around Fresh Pond. Conditions were pleasant with a temperature of about 9 C - for which I was overdressed. I listened to The Name of the Wind.

Running offers a clarity and respite from the questions that overwhelm me, and even if the respite is fleeting, it is welcome.

Easy run after the Harriman camp. This is my first use of my heart rate monitor during my training session, and it looks like I was pushing harder than I expected - either I'm still weary from the camp or my fitness is inadequate for the pace. In any case, it was a pleasant day. It should also be noted that my pace was very erratic, as is obvious from the kilometer splits.