Training Log Archive: iansmith

The 2011 Blue Hills Traverse is done, and the event was largely a success. The weather was fantastic - even warm, with a high temperature of 66 F and an average of 58; the average wind speed was 15 mph.

I designed the course with the intent of making it differ from last year's course. My objective last year was to minimize time spent on trails; I wanted the optimal route to be through the woods. The density of trails in the Blue Hills puts a soft upper bound on the length of a leg given the trail minimization criterion, so the distribution of leg lengths was very narrow. While I was happy with my design, I was disappointed to find that there was very little route choice on the course; the route gadget data and glancing at people's gps tracks revealed that everyone generally took the same routes. (E.g. Neil's route; basically straight on every leg. Boring.)

So, I decided to expand the leg length distribution and incorporate more route choice, even at the expense of trail running. My assessment is that the result is a much more interesting course, with considerably more variety. While there is more unavoidable trail running than I would have liked (especially on the competitors' loop, which I think is silly), there are many more possibilities. Controls 8, 10 and 15 were the most interesting choices, with minor decisions at 2, 9, 22, and 24. While there exist possible Traverses that are more interesting, I'm satisfied with my effort. I interspersed control pick-esque technical sections with the longer legs, and I experimented with loops.

Leg length distributions (lengths are convolved with a gaussian)
2010 vs 2011 - note the cluster of legs from 2010 with mean 450 meters
Comparison of 2010-2011 (Ian) with 2008-2009 (set by Ross)

Year	Avg Leg Length	Stdev of Leg Lengths
2011	513 m	368 m
2010	483	201
2009	723	478
2008	571	315

I began planning the course in earnest in October - later than I had intended, primarily due to the stresses of the CSU A-meet. I designed three drafts for each map (west and east). While the west drafts used similar areas of the map, the east designs were widely varied. I spent a few days vetting in November, and based on that discarded some of my drafts and refined the legs and control locations further. Alex Jospe kindly agreed to design the recreational courses, so I was able to focus entirely on the Traverse. I solicited Ross and Neil for course critiques, and Jeff made some changes (including the addition of the 'competitors loop' - controls 12 and 13).

The course was basically completed on Friday 11 Nov - later than I had hoped, but with some margin for error. Jeff and I discussed a few other modifications, and I sent the final courses to Ed on Tuesday. He sent the data to the printers the next day, and we picked up the maps on Friday.

My familiarity with the Blue Hills after setting the event last year greatly simplified the work this year. While I would have preferred to be done at least two weeks in advance, everything was prepared with time to spare. Jeff and I set the Traverse controls on Saturday afternoon, which had all been streamered in the preceding weeks. I had hoped to run the Traverse early on Sunday to wake up controls and experience the course, but I needed to set a few rec controls and be at Houghton's Pond at 9 AM to deliver the cache of equipment I was carrying. With a little more foresight, it would have been achievable.

I haven't been very consistent about logging this, but I suppose inconsistent measurements are more informative than none at all. Read about cases - accusative and dative in particular. Currently on Level 1, Unit 2, Lesson 2.

While I had planned to take a rest day, I felt restless, so I went out on an easy recovery run this evening. Something in my lower right calf - possibly the Achilles tendon - hurt yesterday, though I don't recall any trauma. It still feels tight as I rotate my ankle, but it felt fine while I was running. The temperature was 5 C, and I ran in long sleeves and shorts.

I pondered social contracts as I ran in silence, as I have completed all the audiobooks I was reading. I considered the problem of social contracts that interact - instances of three or more people entering into a contract. My proposition is that all interactions can be modeled as contracts between two parties - two individuals, or an individual and a group entity (e.g. an individual and society). Conflicting social contracts resolve almost trivially; one contract must supercede another, and that hierarchy must be codified. Coupled social contracts are somewhat more complicated, but I still think pairwise modeling is possible - sort of an Ising model of society.

Event: NEOC: Blue Hills Traverse
 

Setting the remaining 8 recreational course controls from the set I allocated to myself on Saturday.

Waking and verifying Traverse controls 12-14.

After streamering the walk to the start, I woke and verified Traverse controls 1-3. It is delightful to run without carrying a bunch of stands.

Hauling four gallons of water and cups to Traverse control 8.

Setting five rec white controls.

After starting the Traverse runners, I drove to a road crossing and ran into coach, who was doing the same. We saw Ali run by in the lead, with Dancho about a minute behind and Andrew in third. Dancho shouted to us as he passed that "Ali was too fast!"

I then drove to Houghton's Pond and visited controls 15-26, waking them up and confirming their presence - that they were in the right spot and had not been disturbed overnight. I moved three flags a short distance (< 3m) to make them more visible, and probably should have moved the deviously hung 26. I had given Ali my garmin for the race, so I ran without data. The leg to 21 was very hard, though I knew this, as I had run it twice before.

C • Great looking course! 3

Calm mornings with a hot mug of tea invite reflection, and I find my thoughts wandering at length this morning.

1. While I haven't made up my mind, I am considering stepping down from the NEOC Board of Directors when my term expires in June. I have accomplished some of my policy goals, but the Board functions as an oversight body. I believe I can accomplish much more personally and as a club member if I focus on the VP Events role. I'm even looking towards stepping down from that after another year or two, but there isn't infrastructure and training in place to compensate for a sudden change in leadership. This deadline will make more acutely aware of my policy goals and what I mean to accomplish before I'm done.
2. What I really need as VP Events is a second person just like me - to whom I could confidently delegate any number of tasks. The problem with delegation is that it rapidly increases communication costs. I think there is a lot of advantage to centralizing much of the responsibility - e.g. for permit applications, scheduling plans, insurance data, and general awareness of the club machine. With a second copy of myself, the workload for each of us would become manageable. It's unlikely that a club member would be amenable to investing fully in the role right now, and I'm not good at recruiting. I will start training a replacement, and figuring out the optimal way to distributing the tasks among many rather than one or two. For the "Events department", I really think a group of three superstars is preferable to decentralizing the responsibility among ten or twenty.
3. It turns out that I have difficulty sleeping past about 8:30 or 9 in my new apartment; the windows let in much sunlight to my bedroom. In general, this is good - it's harder to oversleep, which is a cause of difficulty. Conversely, this requires me to be more disciplined about when I go to bed, because otherwise I will just break down as my sleep deficit increases without the relief valve of oversleeping. This is a good exercise.
4. The military industrial complex is a fascinating system that has existed in this country for more than sixty years. While there has been considerable effort to make the system more efficient - e.g. the Arleigh-Burke class destroyer consolidates five or six warship classes from thirty or forty years ago; the F-35 in principle provides a single solution to the multi-role fighter needs of the armed services - the military system is constrained to a minimum size by a vast set of requirements, including some cyclical requirements. One of the reasons stated in this NPR article for avoiding cutting weapons programs is that it's costly to restart them, and in the absence of a continuous flow of cash and acquisitions, industries like nuclear submarine production will be unsustainable and fail. I find this interesting because other capable navies, like the Royal Navy, have instances of classes of specialized weapons systems, like nuclear submarines, in smaller numbers than the US considers unsustainable. I haven't studied the economy of scale problem, but the claim that the defense industry cannot be sustainably shrunk seems spurious. I have long advocated, e.g., that an eleventh supercarrier is unnecessary. The US's eleven supercarriers are more than half of the twenty in the world, and the most powerful and capable.
5. I refuse to live an ordinary life. "You can settle for a less than ordinary life. Or do you feel like you were meant for something better? Something special?" "I dare you to do better."

After getting some work done this morning, including resetting the NEOC e-punch units, updating the codes on the recreational controls, and typing up course notes, I set out to meet Jeff Saeger to set controls. There are 60 total controls distributed among the Traverse and recreational courses, and I took 26. After finishing the Traverse controls, I started on the recreational controls, but decided to retire after setting four in the dark. I have eight to set tomorrow morning, and I need to put out water at two controls and streamer the walk to the start. If I finish everything in time to my satisfaction and am feeling strong, I will run the Traverse - ostensibly to wake up controls and ensure they are all there, but really just because I want to run the Traverse.

I spent considerable time doing what bgallup refers to as "prospecting" - jamming the stand into the ground hoping to find purchase in dirt and not rocks. I usually had to spent at least a minute finding a stable location for the flag. I brought out my brand new pair of X-talons for this outing, primarily because the severe degradation of the 201006 X-talons coupled with the severe rockiness of the Blue Hills hurts my feet. I want to save my Orocs for races, and the new X-talons felt delightful. My shins hurt at the very start of the outing, but after a few minutes of running in the woods, they improved considerably. I may cut back my road mileage in favor of trail running as I ramp up my base during the winter.

I felt a little lonely at the end, wandering through the dark with my pitiful headlamp in search of recreational streamered locations, but I found solace in the tender and thorough embrace of a stand of green briar at the bottom of a rocky hill.

C • Burnout 5

Eight minute core + supplemental exercises. My emphasis today was on obliques.
Leg lifts, cherry pickers, 2x oblique situps, kayakers, plank, kayakers, tuckups; 2x side plank, 2x supermans.

Easy run around the Charles. I ran much further than I expected; I underestimated the distance of the route I selected. I stopped for a burrito at Anna's near the end of the run, as Chipotle in Harvard Square had already closed. At around minute 45, a girl gingerly riding her bike passed me, and I deliberately increased my effort to keep up. She must have turned shortly after I retook the lead, because I didn't see her afterward.

Conditions were cold, with a temperature of 4 C and a 20 kph west wind. Near the end of the run, it started to drizzle, and I was grew quite cold. A sauna would have been delightful when I returned to my apartment.

I reflected on the need for balance in life. An individual must work hard and diligently at tasks and goals but balance that drive with consistent rest. Self-sufficiency must be balanced with interdependence for a romantic relationship or a team context to function. A need for introspection and self-awareness must be balanced by the ability to focus entirely on a task at hand. Ambition must be balanced by restraint, and discipline with fun. My life is less balanced than I deem necessary for the personal progress I seek in the near future, and I must address this.

Learned a new Spanish word: la llovizna - a drizzle or light rain.

C • ὁ δε ανεξετάστος βίος ... 4

I have a task for the NEOC Board concerning club policy on which I seek the input from the broader O community, or at least that component which reads my log.

At the August 2011 Board meeting, I was charged with proposing a specific plan for the club to make donations to the US Teams (specifically WOC and JWOC) for 2012 to be discussed at the January meeting. I haven't given the proposal much thought, since I have been preoccupied with the fall schedule. NEOC is among the larger clubs, with over 250 members. As we are a 501(c)(3), much of our financial information must be made available for public disclosure and copying. You're welcome to request any of those documents from our treasurer, Jim Paschetto. NEOC's annual revenue is approximately $15k - $20k, and the net profit is usually about a third of annual revenue. Due to lack of spending over the past decade, the club has accumulated more funds than it really needs.

The board is working to address this - chiefly by spending more on mapping (Andy McIlvaine and I are tackling this), equipment, and educational programs. Nevertheless, the club is not hurting for resources, especially given that our main expenditures are maps, equipment, and OUSA dues.

According to my figures (a bit buried in loads of paperwork) and memory, NEOC has given $2575 in stipends. Club and JWOC/WOC team members Carl Underwood, Meg Parson, and Samantha Saeger received grants, as did CSU members Alex Jospe and Ross Smith. In 2010, I made a motion to donate $500 to each JWOC and WOC teams to take advantage of the QOC matching campaign; this didn't pass unanimously (as was required), and $100 per team was given. In 2011, partly reflecting our increasingly comfortable financial situation, $250 per team was donated with unanimous support.

While I think that NEOC in the past has been more concerned with looking after it's own interests - a reasonable proposition, especially given all the "fiduciary obligation" language in 501(c)(3) law, the board members have grown much more receptive to the idea of NEOC contributing to the O-community and supporting the US teams in that regard. As VP Events, I have discretion to schedule team fundraiser meets - events at which the profits will be donated to the US Teams, though it's generally recognized that US team members need to organize such events. The US Senior team has already made plans for such an event in the spring, and I am contacting the juniors in our neighborhood to arrange a corresponding junior event.

I support the US Team because I think that elite orienteering is the pinnacle of the sport. Recreational and enthusiast orienteering is the lifeblood of any national organization; we participate in this sport because it is fun and has benefits. Elite orienteering is the apex of what is possible, and I want to support those athletes and the elite community with the resources available to the club, including map access, training camps, publicity, and money. At the same time, NEOC exists to educate and cultivate the sport in New England. Whatever donation policy NEOC establishes must be sustainable and consistent with the stated objective of the club.

New England has the advantage of much higher density of orienteers than many other regions of the country. There are several individuals who have earned US team apparel and wear their regalia at local events. Their presence alone has a tangible effect; what club member hasn't seen Ross or Sam blast by in the woods? I plan to advance the interface between club and team by promoting training camps, US team events, and generally encouraging sharing of information between the two groups. I assert that the club benefits from the successes and advancement of US team members, and the team benefits from the support and encouragement of the club.

What is the appropriate mechanism and quantity of donation from NEOC to the US Team? Should the club make a regular, constant donation, or should it incentivize certain reciprocated behavior (like training camps, local meets, general appearances to psych everyone up about orienteering)? Conditioning a donation to the US team on a presentation by team members to the club, e.g., is helpful to everyone - apart from the money, the interaction with recreational orienteers and added publicity is of great benefit to current members and to recruiting new elites.

All thoughts welcome.

C • Burritos for all! 3

Track workout, 8x400 reps, at "11 PM." I failed to partition the gps track into the warmup/cooldown runs and the track component, but the two logged types are sufficiently similar that I don't care to fix it.

I deliberately haven't been to a track since my stress fracture in May; I wanted to build up my base to strengthen my muscles and bones before attempting high intensity training. I have been partly successful - in the past 75 days, while I have only run a miserly 150 miles, I have orienteered over 200. My base and fitness are inadequate, but I deemed myself ready for some speedwork today.

I was also motivated by word of a 3:10 km interval and my own aspiration for good races at Cemetery Hill. I considered running 5x1000 to mirror Ali, but I decided reps were the next logical step given my current state. I felt pretty good, but my recoveries grew longer, with the first at sub 5:00/km, and the seventh at a walk. I also ran faster than I planned; I calculated a 1:18 400 rep for an 18:00 5k. I focused on running fast and easily, not hard, with good form. By the end, I was quite tired, and the last two reps were a struggle. I ran the first six counterclockwise and the last two clockwise. I listened to my pre-race playlist during the reps to psych myself up. My legs felt good, though I did note some minor pinching in my lower calves at the end.

400 rep/400 recovery:
1:15.2
1:14.6
1:13.3
1:13.4
1:16.1
1:11.2
1:18.7 (stopped watch about 3s late)
1:14.5

Note that 191 is the highest non-spurious HR (I think) that I have recorded on my garmin to date.

C • Calves 6

C • Standard Deviation 2