Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: NEOC: Lake Cochituate Canoe-O
 

Hanging controls for the control pick.

Running the control pick + line-O + control pick that I designed.

Ali's O-tervals; my watch died shortly after the first, so the time and distance data come from Ali's data. I tried to take the O-tervals gingerly and slow, but it's hard to run at an easy pace, even if you position yourself in the start order so that you don't have to run head to head so regularly. I was tired by the end.

Jog to the start of the three sprints at Fairfield University.

First sprint with Ali and Izzy. We thought Andrew, Ethan, and Giacomo had already started; they showed up shortly after we began. I started first, with Ali thirty-ish seconds behind. I was trying to find the balance between not running hard given my Lyme and facing the competition. I ran aggressively, though I felt like I had more to give.

The first sprint was made more tricky because of new campus construction and and Irish festival that made areas around the stadium inaccessible. We astutely avoided both, but I made one suboptimal route choice when I allowed myself to be distracted by the construction.

I botched finding the path between two buildings en route to 4, and took the slower route around to 6.

C • Lyme 2

For the second sprint, we joined Giacomo and the Childs Bros and set off for the best location we could use for the start given the Irish festival. To avoid protracted discussion, I started first and just held off Ali to finish first. I think I took the incorrect route to controls 7 (my second control) and 12 or whatever; I will post routes later. I ran these three sprints without my Garmin because Ali left hers at the car, and I figured with WOC and my Lyme, she needed it more.

For the third sprint, we were able to run the entire course, although we used a modified start location. I started after Giacomo, Andrew, Ethan, and Ali and ran gingerly as I lacked pressure to avoid being caught. I ran an optimistic route to 2 via a stream, even though I knew it would be thicker than running straight. Unlike the majority of our crew, I didn't disqualify myself running from 3-4. I may have at 9, however; I'm not sure I visited the correct fountain, though only one was mapped. The outing was good fun, and I felt generally good by the end. Today's effort is not to be matched in intensity for some time, though.

Run back to the cars, where Barb was stalwartly guarding the fleet.

After lunch, we rendezvoused with Neil at SUNY Purchase and ran a few sprints from the HVO meet. Unfortunately, the map has changed somewhat since the 2011 team trials, so rerunning those courses was deemed impractical. I led the first sprint start and was passed by Andrew at the fifth control.

The division between the first and second sprint was arbitrary - little more than a spectator leg in the middle. After a short break, I set off on the second sprint and ran alone. I decided to punt the third sprint and instead cheered and spectated. Giacomo amused himself with high grass in a planter.

Update from Gimpyville, population: me
A spot appeared on my back on Saturday, blistered, grew, and developed a bullseye on Thursday night. I visited my doctor on Friday; he diagnosed me with lyme disease and prescribed a 21-day course of Doxycycline. The pounding headache I have had since Sunday appears to be related; I have taken a mix of ibuprofen and acetominophen for it.

So, it turns out this wasn't the best week for me. I followed up five days of general malaise with an attack of the time management knucklehead on Friday. I have elected to continue on my journey to Connecticut and New York for the training, for the socializing, and to get out of my apartment. Hopefully I can get some work done while spectating Jukola and watching the clash of the titans between DVOA and CSU.

C • Lyme 3

I have registered for the Swiss 5-Day, acquired housing in Lausanne, and procured plane tickets to Switzerland. Now, I just need to cling to life long enough to enjoy the trip.

I had a routine physical yesterday that fortuitously coincided with me being ill. The doctor concluded my fever and wicked headache were due to a spider bite on my back, and that the best course was to wait for it to heal and take NSAIDs. I was given a doxycycline dose for the tick bite from a deer nymph I found on Tuesday, and I was shot with a TDAP tetanus booster. My body is having a rough week.

Most of the other results were normal; I'm 185 lbs, 72.5", and in good health. As soon as I am done being sick and dying of the plague, I will have blood drawn for a routine set of tests.

Update: The bite on my back, which had previously developed a few small blisters, appears to have a bullseye-shaped rash. Uhoh.

An interesting New Yorker article about the relationship of cognitive ability and the susceptibility to bias.

One of the papers the New Yorker cites.

It should be noted that the article is from the New Yorker, which I guess is like a ghetto survey paper. The original papers are psychology papers and may ironically fail to perceive their own bias to positive results.

C • Jonah Lehrer 1

Which best characterizes the way your foot strikes the ground when you run on a hard flat surface (e.g. a road)?
	Heel strike
	Mid-foot strike
	Forefoot or ball-of-foot strike
pollcode.com free polls

Despite still feeling unwell, Magnus convinced me to go for an easy run by telling me that I was "weak" and reminding me of various motivators. I started very slowly - left calf felt unpleasant, the burrito I had just eaten didn't sit well, and my head hurt. After a time, I loosened up and started to feel better, though I didn't ever get fast.

Update: 5 hours after the run, I am dying.

Found an attached nymph tick on my left shoulder today. Two weeks ago, I scheduled a physical for Wednesday; it seems prescient given that I now have a fever, a tick bite, and what appears to be a spider bite.

I recently acquired plane tickets to Switzerland, so it is only a matter of time before at least one of my bones breaks. Perhaps I should have anticipated this illness when I clicked the "purchase" button.

C • "before at least one of my bones breaks..." 5

C • speaking pf physicals 13

Message from body, post-Skyline: Ow, ow, ow. GimpyFoot feels ok, lending credence to my guess that the ball-of-foot pain was from impact trauma rather than inflammation. Oddly enough, right arm hurts just above the elbow - perhaps from canoeing on Saturday.

Notes on Ponkapoag/Houghton's Pond meet:
This is the first meet I have directed this year (or the second if you count the Blue Hills beginner training camp on 5/12), and I specifically did not delegate it because I wanted to use and investigate the Ponkapoag map south of I-93. As has been noted, the map and terrain turned out better than expected, and despite its age, the map was suitable for orienteering. The Green and Brown courses were challenging, and a number of people didn't finish. I believe the remote start wasn't too onerous, though it turns out the walk to the start was about 800m along a street.

The white and yellow courses were somewhat too difficult; I got overly creative in my control placement and had not visited W8/Y10 before the meet. It's important to remember to make the white course as easy as possible, and this is not a new error for me. That said, despite the difficulty, people seemed to have fun and were generally forgiving.

I worked harder to delegate the work than I have in the past. Ben Gallup and Richard Powers hung the WYO controls on the morning of the event, and I had an excellent group of meet workers including Pete Lane, Andy McIlvaine, Marcie Berkley, Aims Coney, Mika Latva-Kokko, Jeff Schapiro, and Joanne Sankus. Linc Berkley was particularly clutch and worked the results computer - giving Jim Paschetto a well-deserved break. Giacomo, Magnus, Ed Despard, Ben, and Earl LaVallee picked up and organized controls, and Ali was helpful throughout the day - hanging two controls and assisting with control pickup after everyone had left.

One area I can really improve is to have a second principal organizer. I designed all the courses, carried out the water, and printed the maps; having a second person to split up the work and take care of details (e.g. cutting the route on Green, which I overlooked) would have been very helpful. Since I also had board/VP responsibilities at the AGM, having a second person to wrap up the meet would have been useful. It was encouraging to receive such a warm welcome when I was introduced at the AGM.

While there were some mistakes, the meet went reasonably smoothly. The day was a bit demanding for me, for Ali, and for one or two of my volunteers (Ben in particular), but there will always be ways to improve.

C • more fun than demanding 8