Training Log Archive: iansmith

Jog to the start with a few fast spurts.

US Team Trials Middle, Moreau State Park. At this point in the trials, it was make or break time for me. I had been on Moreau over Memorial Day last year, and I knew that it was tricky, technical terrain. Chatting with ebone, he suggested that compass would be critically important in low visibility, possibly foggy woods. I focused on having and executing solid plans and clean entrances and exits from my controls.

I don't remember the first five controls terribly well, but I was careful and patient. It rained throughout the day, and it was often hard to discern the marshes.

1: I checked off the marshes, but I think the last marsh seemed to fill the reentrant, and I missed a little left. I stopped where I expected the control, then figured out the rise to my right and hit the control for about a 10-15s loss.
2: I aimed on the line, used the marshes to my left, and stumbled through the marshes in the circle; hesitant, 10s.
3: Used the line of cliffs as a handrail, popped over the hill N of 3, then overran the cliff before circling back, probably 10s.
4: Simplified to marsh, left side of big hill, slid down the cliff (unintended), crossed the marsh, and picked off the last two marshes. Hesitant and slow after the last big marsh, with lots of compass and trying to read the other marshes.
5: Over the hill, along the line of cliffs, but my attack was poor. As I spotted the control, Boris (2 minutes back) caught up to me.

When I ran into Boris, my strategy changed - he was running much more aggressively, which prompted me out of my cautious strategy. The control locations also became much less tricky. I reasoned that Boris could easily lose me, so I kept orienteering and stayed in constant, though I ran much closer to the edge of control. Boris was almost always a useful attackpoint.

6: Mostly struggling to keep up; past the marsh, over the ridge, spotted the nose.
7: Boris and I took different lines; I followed him left of the line, then stayed lower after the path crossing. I checked off the nose, reentrant, boulder, bif cliff to my left, and in.
8: Boris and I again diverged, and I lost sight of him entirely. I took straight/right, through the reentrant, past the cliff, marsh, cliff, wide ridge, marsh, line of cliffs, and up. Lots of compass. Boris came streaking in from the left and beat me to the flag.
9: Chasing Boris, compass, straight. Nose, marsh, around the hill.
10: Aimed to keep the hill on my right, chasing Boris, down into the flag.
11: Straight; almost visible from 10.
12: A very tricky control, though easier with Boris in front of me. Passed the spurs, but I probably would have messed up the attack over the line of cliffs with the sketchy information I had. I think I checked off the cliffy nose just right of the line and the two hills?
13: Took a different route than Boris; I liked the line of marshes left of the line, so I immediately crossed the marsh, popped down to the stream, then rode them to the cliffs N of 13. Boris was to my right, and popped in and out of sight. I went up in the circle to try to pop down into the notch, but 13 came sooner than expected and I lost about 10s.
14: I thought Boris was running too low into the reentrant, but I was wrong. Used the cliff left of line to guide into the control.
15: A nice leg; I had planned to run left of marsh, right of cliffy knoll, and up the spur into the control. Boris, maybe 30m ahead, ran right of the first marsh, so I followed him. The final spur seemed very protracted, but as Boris obviously hadn't punched, I was a bit more confident.
16: Down, up, down, up. Compass, expected the control on the right hill, but it was nestled in the left one. Had to slow to figure out the circle details.
17: Decided en route to 16 to cross the marsh; hopped to the island, then twice across the marsh. Sluggish charging up the hill after the marsh's energysuck, but control was right where I expected. Boris put some distance.
18: No sign of Boris; up, marsh + boulder, up, down. Saw the control from the top of the hill.
19: And in.

I obviously had the best start time, and Boris catching me was a huge benefit. I finished third US and won an individual medal that I don't feel I really deserve. I think I had good command of the woods, but I would definitely have finished a few minutes slower without Boris to drive me on. Luck of the draw, I guess. I did handle running into Boris well, and I definitely was orienteering the entire time. I think that if I had ignored my map, I could have chased Boris down; his maximum speed was curtailed by his need to navigate. It was great seeing how he orienteers, because it was blazingly fast in this terrain.

Middle Blue - Splits

Event: 2013 U.S. Individual Championships/Team Trials
 

Warm up + map.

US Team Trials sprint, Camp Wakpominee, New York.

I was very excited about the trials after my twelve hour trip to Charlotte to attend Andrés' wedding rehearsal dinner and a decent night of sleep. Giacomo and I left Boston at about 9:30, and arrived at the event site with a comfortable hour and a half before our starts. I walked around the permissible areas and scoped out what I could about the terrain. I warmed up for twenty minutes, took a Gu, and read a few 1:5k forest maps, trying to warm up my brain. I had one of the last starts at 3:48, and the day was warm and humid.

The controls were basically where I anticipated them. I had very little zip in my running; I felt sluggish. I can't explain the cause - allergies were a problem for me the entire weekend, so perhaps my breathing was impaired? I stayed on top of my navigation, read my codes well in advance, but I couldn't make up for my slowness. My only mistake of note was a poor line into 14; I had to slow fighting through the green. Today was an incredibly disappointing way to start the trials.

Sprint Blue - Splits

I strongly dislike getting the aglets of my shoelaces caught in the wheels of rolly chairs.

The soundtrack for the next Superman movie shows considerable promise; consider the first track.

Behold the majesty, Adamski at Tiomila. He is wearing his battle face.

Running warmup. My right hamstring felt a bit stiff, and my left calf was tight. Anna and I discussed goals for the run today on the drive over; I decided that I wanted to plan in advance, execute cleanly, and leave the controls well. My body is a bit tired after three hard-ish runs in the past four days, so I figured on a more ginger effort than typical.

I thought of this as one last rehearsal at slow tempo to make sure all my technique was lining up before the performance etc.

Giovanni's red course at Lynn Woods, which he asserted was a "middle distance." Listed course length: 6.3 km. I guess Thierry could do it in 35?

I started fairly gingerly - reading the map well, cruising physically. My route to 3 could have been improved; I think the best route with the green as is mapped is to run right to the trail and bust into the control from the west. Brendan, who started a few minutes behind me, caught up to me at 4, and I picked up the pace a bit. I ran low to 5, which apparently was a bad route choice compared to going straight and high.

I relaxed a bit on 6-8, just cruising. Six surprised me; I guess I didn't read the content of the circle very well. Boulders were not useful, as they are undermapped and most are not distinctive. Contours and water features were best; bare rock could be useful, but was often mapped as a clearing. I stopped a bit short of six before seeing it.

Nine and ten were solid, and I was surprised to see Brendan relocate at 10 and come into the control behind me. I focused on running my plan and not being affected by him. I was stymied by a circularly mapped rock pillar in front of 11, and Brendan caught up. We busted down to 12, but he was cruising faster. I settled on the trail to 13, and it became apparent he was running straight.

My attack into 13 wasn't great, but good visibility and the prominent bare hillside mitigated it. Controls 14-16 were clean, and I executed my trail route to 17 fine. All the controls at the end were fine - a few seconds hesitation here and there, but the flags were always where I expected them. A good clean day, if a bit reserved. AP thinks I only lost time on 5 (bad rc), but I definitely shed about 20s at 6 and 11.

Quickroute.

C • Thierry 1

Control pickup. Legs felt ok, though a little tired.

Red - Splits