Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: Flying Pig XVII and Eastern Interscholastic Champs
 

Downloaded data is pending my return to Boston, as my ANT stick is there.

The good about the race: I generally made good decisions, both achilles' tendons held up fine, and I was doing an adequate job reading ahead. I was in second place halfway through the course, but just couldn't hang on.

The bad: I felt sluggish physically, I apparently slowed down after the spectator control, and I hesitated twice when I wasn't sure if a particular feature was crossable. I lacked any zip in my legs, and it took an unusual amount of will to run with any speed. I had already decided that given the questionable achilles, I wanted the option of bailing without affecting my ranking, so I told Valerie to exclude this race from my rankings.

Control by control:
1-3: big open field, no challenges. I ran left of the lake and hopped the walls between 2-3. This was all running speed. The start triangle was at the start, so I was a little cautious for the first few seconds while I oriented.
4: Contour lines were printed over the paths, so I wasn't certain the rightmost path through the olive green existed. Fortunately, it did.
5: Right, up the stairs. I didn't notice the stairs when planning my route, but they weren't terribly costly.
6: Left around the building. I passed two other runners here.
7: Right around NCC-1701, then left into the control. I wasn't sure which stone wall corner the control was in, and left seemed to be the best option.
8: Through the breezeway; in hindsight, I figured this was an error, but it didn't seem to matter.
9: Straight, hopped two crossable walls. Straight to 10.
11: Right around the building, which I had settled on even without considering the stairs.
12: Up stairs, straight.
13: Left around the first building, around the arcing path, past 20, and straight in. I used the small building as a visible guiding feature.
14: Only 1 route.
15: I saw lots of olive green and uncrossable walls, so I stayed high until I cleared all that before attacking. Ali and I were tied here, so I lost all my time on the course to her over 16-24.
16: Apparently, I started slowing down here. There was a guy ahead of me into 16.
17: Took extra care to miss the olive, then ran unnecessarily up and down along the path rather than going straight.
18: Ran to the path, then winded. Saw the tree from far away.
19: Straight.
20: Straight.
21: Probably overly concerned with the paths; I was smoked by Eric, who looked for the bridge and blasted down to the control.
22-24: Trudge and into the finish, briefly into the lead before Ali.

C • I wanted the option of bail... 6

Warmup. HR data is clearly wonky.

Flying Pig sprint race. HR data is still bad, but the pace shows my sluggish movement at the end; perhaps I was more tired than I thought. Some of the speed penalty emerges because controls 16-23 were in a semi-wooded area and had lots of direction changes relative to the earlier open running.

Cool down run with Clem and Ali.

I was displeased with the last third of the course; I hemorrhaged time from controls 16-23, so I reran 14-23. I had rested, so I was fresh, but between running faster and smoother navigation, I shaved 40 seconds off the 6 minutes I spent on this during the course. I need to focus and dig deep for all possible speed at the end of sprint races, which are somewhat opposed goals. The sprint was a little long, but not so much that I should bleed off a minute without any major errors. I wobbled a bunch around 17 during the race primarily because I was concentrating on avoiding some olive green flower beds.

IU_Campus_Sprint_2013_8 Blue - Splits