Training Log Archive: iansmith

United has a neat program called farelock that I am using for my Tiomila plane tickets. Basically, you can reserve a fare for a week for $9; after that week, you have the option of purchasing the fare. The $9 doesn't deduct from the fare, but for highly variable plane ticket prices to Europe, it's a pittance to try to find a cheaper fare.

Unrelatedly, I cleaned up at guys' poker night on Friday. It should fund my laundry for at least the next two weeks. In one big hand, I had tens against fives with a 7-7-10 4 5 board. Poor kid couldn't get away.

C • CSU is putting on a Tiomila... 6

The plan was for this to be a long run to and around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir via Comm Ave, but I was not feeling up to that today. I felt wasted, listless, and tired. My left shin ached a little in what is hopefully not an injury.

After dragging myself down Vassar St, I decided to do a river loop that turned out to be shorter than I thought. I set myself a target of running ~7:00/mile pace, with about fifteen minutes on each end at easy pace. I was a bit slow, though on the third interval, I ran mostly off the pavement on soft, squishy mud. I listened to Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. My lackluster energy may have been due to not enough food and dehydration; I rectified both with water and a recovery burrito.

I have been putting in good training for me so far this year, and I was wondering how much of an increase this has been compared to past years. The answer is not much. In the first 54 days of the year, I trained the following running, orienteering, and cross country time and distance:

Year	Time	Distance(km)
2012	32:44:46	337.5
2013	43:32:44	446.7
2014	51:04:56	509.2

However, I have been putting more emphasis on workouts this year rather than just accruing base (partly because team trials is earlier, partly because of wisdom and whatever), so the increase may be more than it seems. I've been averaging 66 km/week so far, and it seems to be plenty given my current fitness.

C • Since when 2

I went to the Middlesex Fells to run a pair of exercises I designed: control pick and no-stop, both middle distancy. I parked at Sheepfold and warmed up by running over to Long Pond. It was warm - 8 C, sunny skies, but the accumulated snow at the Fells is over 40 cm in most places. With the warm temperatures, the integrity of the snow has broken down. On trails, I was post-holing 15-20 cm in most places. In the woods, I averaged 30-40 cm. To further complicate matters, the layer of snow smoothed contour features and concealed boulders and stone walls. One of the few aspects of the woods that was not compromised was the green briar, though fortunately, it was sparse. I called it a day after control 16, though I had a handful more controls and a second exercise yet planned.

Stymied with my grand plans to go orienteering, I decided to tack on a second workout this evening: hill repeats on my very own Walnut St. In discussion with my spiritual adviser, we decided to set a conservative target of 600m of climb for this week based on last week's 400m. It turns out that this is a relatively easy mark if you do anything besides river runs.

As I set out, my back was discomforted such that I had trouble running with a straight back. I scrubbed the workout after running about 50m, but decided to stretch it out and see if things improved. Ten minutes later, I was warming up without discomfort. I suspect my back was tired from the snow battle this afternoon.

I ran 8x(Walnut), with a target split of 1:20. To better simulate O-conditions, I kept running through the ~200m flat section of Summit Ave rather than just stopping at the top of the hill. I definitely wasn't running the flat as hard as the hills, but it was still a good mental goal to push to Summit and Vinal. I tried to run on 4:00 cycles, but managed about 4:20. I listened to today's Wait, Wait. Faith Saile's delightful laugh always brightens my day. The temperature was a pleasant 7 C.

Hill splits: 82, 82, 79, 82, 74, 81, 78, 81. Some of the variability can be ascribed to ice and getting out of the way of the occasional car.

The following might be controversial.

I propose a logical division of Olympic sports into two groups. It is very difficult to define a sport; I suppose I might use the SportAccord definition, but the exact definition is beyond the scope of this entry.

Consider the set of competitive athletic activities, especially those that are in the Olympics. The activities can be divided into two classes depending on whether subjective evaluation directly influences the comparative metric. Enforcing rules is subjective (e.g. referees in team sports), but only indirectly influences the comparative metric like the score or whether someone is disqualified. Most sports have some officiating to enforce rules, and the spectrum of rule violations ranges from the almost unambiguous - like false starts or stepping out of your lane in track - to the arguable, like whether a foul occurred as in soccer or pass interference in American football. However, while subjective rule enforcements can change the state of the activity (which can in turn affect the score, e.g. if a goal or touchdown is rescinded, or race result if DQ), they do not directly affect the result metric. A referee cannot add 10 points to the score of a football team because it is his judgment that they deserve it.

In contrast, many sports have subjective judging - for example, gymnastics, figure skating, ski jumping. In these activities, judges directly influence the score. Many of these activities have hallmarks like the term "style points," the presence of non-functional ornamentation, music accompanying the activity, and strange hand gestures that are not functional.

This partition of the set of athletic activities isn't as perfect as I would like because of some ambiguity on officiating and can probably be contested. I would describe many of the subjectively scored activities as [athletic] "performances." Certainly figure skating, gymnastics and others are incredibly demanding athletic activities which require years of disciplined training, focus, etc. But objectively scored activities like basically all races and most team competitions are much purer and less ambiguous to me. Either you won the race or you didn't (if you followed the rules). They also are much less prone to "controversies" like the recent one out of the Sochi figure skating competition. Even objectively scored (or indirectly-subjectively influenced) activities are not without complaint, as any search of "NFL referees" will reveal.

Subjectivity is inherently undesirable because it increases the uncertainty of the competition given the set of events from the activity. The latter case can be somewhat rectified by simplifying rules and adding technology - false start sensors, instant replay - to try to get the call right. The subjectively scored case can sort of be rectified by defining deductions, penalties, additions - i.e. using well-prescribed formulas for scores.

C • what I'd like to see is 7

Run to track. I felt a little questionable, but seemed to improve on the run over.

Since many CSU folks are running the Amherst 10 miler this Sunday, the workout was very short. I arrived just as drills concluded, and ran 4x200 strides to loosen up.

Workout: 800, 4x400 with 200 rest between. I added on 2x800 at the end. I hung with but behind Kevin, Tom, and Patrick. Terry is away preparing for the Birkie. I couldn't see my forerunner (per usual), so I was running entirely on feel. The 400s felt quick and light. The solo 800s felt slow - I was running alone, and I could feel myself fading. I expected 3:00, so I'm happy that I was able to keep up the pace. After the second 800, I decided I was done for the day. Maybe I'm coming down with something?

Splits:
800: 2:43
400s: 77, 75, 74, 73
solo 800s: 2:43, 2:49

Run back, followed by Chipotle because I can.

Strides and recovery time.

Commute. I felt tired this evening, so I took it easy and biked home in lieu of a more substantial training run. Tomorrow's interval workout is a bigger priority than anything today. I received some good advice from the Bone about long distance O.

Run through new fallen snowy mush to the War Memorial gym.

Today's workout was a threshold run (and heat training session ) on a treadmill. I warmed up for 10 minutes at 10 min/mile at 3% grade, then set out to run 20 minutes at 6:18 pace and 3%. I backed off to 6:22 pace after ten minutes when it was clear that I was suffering, but had to take a 1 minute break at 12:00/mile at 16 minutes. It was just too hot and maybe too fast. I finished the last four minutes and cooled down with 4 minutes at 12:00/mile. I was light-headed and a sweaty mess when I got off the treadmill.

C • Tpace 5

Some kettle bell action:
- Clean and presses, 25 lb
- Squats, 2x25 lb
- Kettle bell-impeded jumpies or plyometric squats

Observation: while not as good as fresh veggies, a microwave bag of a frozen mix is an excellent addition to a meal. Tonight, I had broccoli, carrots, snap peas and water chestnuts.

C • frozens 1

I like this word: smøreskandale - Norwegian for "wax scandal."

Revisiting fond memories:

C • smøreskandale 2

Evening easy run. It was very cold: -10 C, clear skies; I wore SLL/LS with gloves and balaclava and was just warm enough. I planned to tack on four Walnut St hill repeats, but after two I decided I was cold and done. I like finishing things, but tomorrow's scheduled threshold run is more important. My target hill time is 80 seconds, so the first two bouts were spot on.