Training Log Archive: iansmith

Warmup on the model map. I cruised by all the controls and did a few drills.

Welp, then this happened. I am not the fastest crayon in the box, and with so much hesitation in this weekend's races, my plan was to be aggressive. I flipped over the map, was shocked by the first leg, and promptly made a bad route choice through the cemetery. I compounded my first control failure by not reading the stairwell leading into it correctly and instead running left around the building. S. Ryzkov, my +1 minute, punched the control 5 seconds after I did. Epic fail.

There was nothing for it but to keep running balls out (made easier by the US team's tinyshorts™). However, on today's campus course - very much a question of speed rather than navigational trickery - I was soon left in the dust. I was generally 20-30% back of superman on every split, and my tired legs did not have much oomph.

I am thoroughly unsatisfied with this; I'm just too slow to be competitive in a race of this format. The tinyshorts didn't help as much as could have been desired. My sprint execution is also weak, and I'm hemorrhaging seconds on each leg through poor microchoices. Need more sprint camp.

Easy cooldown with ebone, chatting about races. Stopped occasionally to check in with various peeps, including the unfortunately broken (and occasionally Canadian) BigWillyStyle.

Jogging little loops of the quarantine and some drills before the sprint relay. I was put on the fourth team, behind Anton, GSwede, MLaraia, Ross, ebone, and Brendan per the order of our sprint finish. My team was Siri, myself, Kevin, and Katrina. Sprint relays are great fun and really exciting to participate in. Despite the feeling of melancholy from the seemingly unstoppable Canadian team juggernaut, we were resolved to not go gentle into that good night. And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered - we few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

NAOC Sprint Relay! Siri ran a fantastic first leg; there are few race moments as exhilarating as getting tagged off to in a relay. Overall, I ran aggressively, but I was really tired. Splits; I probably didn't punch the finish for about 30s after tagging. I was mostly clean to 1, with perhaps a few seconds loss to running around the wrong side of a building. However, my brain stopped working momentarily on my route choice to 2, and I took a super safe but slow loop around a building rather than going straight. The Canadian junior (Svoboda?) behind me punched 2 just ahead of me. I did what I could to keep up with him - including a few different route choices, but he had pulled away by the spectator control. Jordan caught up to me around 8. I did my best to drop the hammer on the second half of the course, but there wasn't much left in the tank after a weekend of racing. Again, running speed was the limiting factor on this course. During the spectator loop, a 9-year old girl sprinted alongside me, which probably will make the photographs seem less exciting.

It was a fun experience, but I was outclassed today. That said, my team ran well - with a great anchor by Katrina, and finished fourth after some unfortunate MPs.

C • 9 year old girl 8

Quasi-cool down running around the field cheering for people (including Canadians).

Sprint - Blue (WRE) - Splits