Training Log Archive: iansmith

Tonight's workout was my usual cruise interval run on the Kennedy - Eliot river loop. I had planned to run it yesterday evening, but I aborted it after my 30 minute easy run trebled in duration. The night was clear, with a temperature of -5 C. I wore LS shirt, tights, gloves, and the Russian wool hat speedy gave me over Thanksgiving.

I ran 3 interval bouts of the little 2.6 km loop, with a two minute recovery on the Kennedy Bridge edge. Splits were 10:41, 10:27, 10:33. While it was chilly, I turned into a furnace on each bout and was sweaty and steaming on the recovery sections. I felt one with the universe in my zen-like, oxygen-deprived state. I listened to a 178 bpm podrunner techno piece, and because of my musical training, I find it very difficult not to run with the beat. That was exactly the point, and my cadence was quick and light.

I decided to go exploring to better fill in the "Here Be Dragons" area of my mental map of my neighborhood. What was intended to be a 30 minute easy run because a 90 minute jaunt through Charlestown in which I encountered surprising fences a few times and probably trespassed. The contrast between the gloomy industrial areas on the northern side of the town and the refined, posh, clean neighborhoods on the south was stark. Charlestown would make a more accessible urban orienteering map than the North End while still being interesting.

C • maps 7

Alt text: It was the funniest 6.5 seconds of my life, although as usual like 80% of it was just Tom and Ray's gasping, hacking laughter.

I decided to take a rest day; my stomach felt turbulent.

C • Georgia 12

Ah, my beloved Middlesex Fells Skyline. After a lazy start to the day, I did a few miscellaneous tasks, then headed to the Fells for a longish run. The Skyline is rugged enough that it's almost a terrain run, and I think it much more beneficial for orienteering than an 80-90 minute river loop. Today felt like a fall day: sunny, clear blue skies, 8-10 C. There will many people in the woods, and the parking lots on South Border Rd were packed, so I parked at the high school and moseyed through the woods to the Skyline. I think this is a good strategy in general, as parking at the high school is much less challenging than the nearer alternatives.

My audio player - tuned to Wait, Wait ran out of energy fifteen minutes into the run, so I mused in contemplative silence. When I was young, I would read about great scientists and philosophers in my encyclopedia, and I aspired to the same notion of immortality and impact on the world as Aristotle, Augustine, Newton, Faraday, Tesla. I didn't want to be forgotten, but even if I were to have such a memorable impact, no one hundreds of years hence would have any inkling as to the reality of my life. It seems pointless then to commemorate my life with something like a gravestone; I have always found cemeteries and crypts inefficient and needless indulgences. Even if my acts echoed through history, a gravestone could aspire to be little more than a tourist attraction for all but those who were a part of my life - and I think I'd rather they remember me by my places of import, like the Skyline. Cremation has always seemed more efficient, though my knowledge of alternatives is limited.

At the end of my run, I got lost trying to get from the Skyline to the high school. It turns out that my sense of direction and navigating by the sun are inadequate; if only there were some accurate map of the region that I could use to get around. Fail. My digestive system was discontent for much of the run.

Swan Lake - there are few pieces I have more often had stuck in my head and been able to identify so infrequently. It is a sublime ballet, with the characteristically majestic and emotive rising Swan's Theme which one would expect from Tchaikovsky. The delicate oboe contrasting with the ponderous horn echo and the tutti strings... delicious.

I like the pace of the oboe solo, but the descending brass line later is far too fast:


Less passionate intro, but appropriate gravitas to the brass:

C • Swans 2

Easy run to work, then a quick jaunt around the Charles. Today was a gorgeous though unseasonably warm day: sunny, 8 C. I felt ok.

Tempo workout. I felt impossibly slow, and the GPS data supports that. I'm not really sure why I felt so sluggish. Working out in the early morning is atypical for me, and I've definitely lost some fitness over the past several months. I'll see how my tempo efforts feel over the next few weeks.

I planned to do 2x20 minute tempo on about a 5k stretch of river, but I split the second one up into 3x6 minute cruise intervals. Conditions were bizarre today: 13 C, a steady drizzle, and breezy. I listened to Science Friday and Car Talk.

I need to add some regular 30-60s quick reps to my easy runs to try to get my legs turning over fast, and I'm about 10 kg heavier than I would like to be. There aren't many elite 185 cm, 86 kg orienteers out there.

I have often have an aberrant sleep schedule, but I seem to have adopted a 48-hour cycle recently - staying awake for over 24 hours, then sleeping for 15-16 hours. I will make adjustments, though this is quite fascinating. I wonder if data on my sleep patterns would be informative for someone's research. Perhaps I will log my sleep patterns - to observe changes as I ramp up my training, for future analysis, and for public shame about how ridiculous they are.

C • sleep cycle 17

Morning run. Felt lethargic. Added 50 box jumps at the end to get a little plyo action.

Hill workout - 8x Walnut with recovery on Vinal. My stomach was a little irritated, but my cardiovascular system, muscles, and joints all felt ok.

Long run, easy pace. I started listening to Capital in the Twenty First Century. Economics texts - even somewhat populist ones - are a little too substantial to consume in audio format, so I may need to reread a physical copy. I am compelled to listen to it at normal speed, but it has proven engrossing and informative so far. I will likely need to discuss it with a subject expert to properly digest and analyze its theses.

Easy river cruise home. I listened to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, featuring Patrick Stewart. My legs felt a bit tight - especially my calves. My back was normal.

"We wanted someone profound, wise, and charismatic. Instead, we got Giacomo." :) Harvard Commencement, student speaker.
Part 1
Part 2

C • Giacomo 1

Run to track workout. I felt meh, but I want to make it to all the track workouts this year, so I went anyway.

CSU Indoor track workout #2. I arrived just as everyone was finishing the warmup drills and received my usual disappointed Magnus smirk. I introduced myself to Danny, who works at Brigham's Women's Hospital and does research. The workout was 3x 1000, 600, 200. I considered aborting because my left leg wasn't feeling great, but I managed to make it through all but the last 200, which I omitted out of discretion.

I was tired - not directly from the Raid, but perhaps from some secondary malaise that left me fatigued yesterday. Dunno. I ran at my own pace, falling a little behind the lead pack on each bout. I met Neil, an orienteer from DVOAland and a professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School. He and I ran together for most of the workout, and he has two kids, 5 and 7. I also met Danny, who is a researcher at Brigham Women's hospital. He attends MPG meetings at the Broad.

Splits: (1000, 600, 200)
3:26, 2:04, 39
3:37, 2:09, 39
3:42, 2:07

Looks like I didn't pace all that well. Oops.

Easy jog back followed by a recovery burrito.

Easy neighborhood cruise with 4x1 minute reps thrown in for good measure. Garmin died during the run from low battery.

Raid aftermath: my lower back, hamstrings, and various leg muscles were very sore on Sunday. My muscles felt better Monday, but I was still tired - it seemed that returning to an energetic state took longer than the soreness going away, though that may have been from some sleep deficit. I felt ok today. Surprisingly, my left achilles pain has been absent, so perhaps a 5 hour plod has some therapeutic effects. All my stabilizer muscles (and core) were seriously stressed by the terrible footing and slippery conditions on Saturday. Gaining purchase of any kind on some of the terrain was laborious.

Event: Dover Raid 2014
 

2014 Dover Raid, put on by Untamed New England. As with 2012, this was an excellent and challenging race well organized by the Untamed Team. Unlike two years ago, I ran solo - bereft of my fearless companion bgallup. Conditions were unpleasant - several cm of new snow on the ground and loading the trees, light freezing rain for the first half of the race, 2-3 C. Fortunately, there was no wind. I started very well and was in the lead for the first 2.5 hours, during the linear forest section. Two teams - including Untamed - and Ernst caught up to me, but I tended to outnavigate the others and held a lead of a few minutes for about an hour at 3:30 - 4:30. However, I started to fade despite nursing watered down gatorade and eating jelly beans and shot blocks. Ultimately, I swept the course, but I was four minutes over time and so finished sixth instead of second. I forded a few streams during the race and because of drenchings from loaded branches, I was basically wet or damp for the whole race.

One incidental benefit of the perpetual cold and wet in my shoes and ankles was mitigating ankle inflammation. I had no problems with my left foot.

Lessons/Notes:

• On days with wet, melty snow and slippery hillsides, running shoes are grossly inadequate. X-talons or my trusty Bare Grip 200s would have been preferable, though running 6 hours in the latter is unappealing.
  
• My clothing was adequate, but only just. Today's were the worst conditions; if it had been 5 C colder, I wouldn't have been perpetually soaked. I wore tights, SSL technical shirts, gloves, and a buff. I had a balaclava in my backpack that I never used.
  
• I consumed 3 100-calorie jelly bean packets, 3 200-calorie shot block sleeves, and about 1.75 liters of 50% gatorade, 50% water. I would have given good money for two more packets of jelly beans at the end. Shot blocks are good, but the jelly beans are like crack cocaine.
  
• My map sleeve had 7 maps and the control descriptions; shuffling them was tedious. I don't know how to solve this. Because I had an 11x17" map case, I was usually looking at three sheets at once. I didn't care for the two aerial photo maps, though they did add to the challenge a little.
  
• I don't lack ambition, boldness, or enthusiasm; when I have run with bgallup, he has tempered all that with a healthy dose of prudence and restraint. Running alone made me faster from the simpler logistics, as waiting for the slowest person was equal to going full speed. Bgallup is especially good at optimizing routes in these weird score-Os; I think I found the correct solution, though I was a little slow at it.
  
• I realized that going for the last control up in the observation tower was suboptimal, but I decided to go for it because yolo. This race had no consequences besides fun and good competition, I wanted to test myself, and I wasn't certain that it was out of reach. Ernst was killing it today - had I skipped the last control, I would have finished but a few minutes ahead of him with the same total.
  

C • way to go! 2

The buses arrived at the start at about 11:25, but the course was still set to close at 5p. On the bus, I debated about three different routes to take the first five controls, and when the race started, I committed to 11-10-12-13 and tucked into the throng. Quite a few teams overran the first point, so I punched second and was alone in the lead to 10. I lost some time on an off-trail cut, and arrived at 10 just behind a quartet; I didn't realize it at the time, but they were Untamed. I passed them on the trail run to 12 and took 12-14 alone, with about 30s lost in the circle at 14. I opted for the trail run to 15 rather than trying to hack through the woods. As I arrived, I saw many footprints and concluded there must have been others ahead of me; Untamed bashed out of the woods just as I was leaving. I ran 16 and 17 alone, with a glimpse of Untamed behind me as I was leaving 16. The race organizers had some coffee at 18, and it turned out that I was alone in the lead. I ran the first few hours conservatively, trying to ration my stamina, so I was quite excited to have the lead.

The rest of the woods course was essentially linear with only one plausible order. Controls 19-20 were a spectator loop where I glimpsed a long train of about a dozen runners a few minutes behind me. After 21, I came to a 20m snow-covered log crossing about 4m above a steady river; it was a terrifying crossing in running shoes. I took great care to shove the map and punch card down my shirt so they wouldn't fall out, and I slid on my butt for the second half of the log. The next 35 minutes and handful of controls were solitary; I stumbled upon a mishung 24 and made a two minute mistake on 25 when I didn't find the trail. There was another mini-spectator loop at 29 and 30, followed by a long road run. I again saw the train of a dozen runners a few minutes back, and pleasantries were exchanged. After the 3 km road run (that apparently took me 20 minutes, ugh), my lead was about two minutes.

The course continued along a rail trail by the river and with sojourns into the woods at intervals to find vague control locations. I owned this section, with clean navigation and steady plodding. I was conservative, losing perhaps 30s on two controls. Near route 16, I had an epic struggle with a resealable bag of jelly beans - I tore it open, ate a few beans, resealed it, and couldn't reopen it. I took off my gloves, but simply couldn't get enough leverage with slippery cold hands; I finally succeeded after a few minutes. I hit 20 km exactly at 2:37 and transitioned from woods to street orienteering.

Leaving 51, I foolishly spent about 5 minutes trying to get to 52 instead of continuing on Prospect St to Washington St. Some of that time and 3 minutes leaving 37 was spent organizing maps - figuring out how to get from the street-O to the aerial photo maps was challenging, but it was a great waste. I saw Ernst at 37, and Untamed caught up en route to 41; we punched it together. I made a better exit out of 41 and picked off two aerial photo controls before I saw Untamed coming from a different direction. Aerial photos don't give you enough information: I changed the order in which I swept map #1 once I got into the terrain. I hit the southern control by the high school with Untamed, Ernst, and two guys' team, but I had already visited their next control and so retained a few minutes lead. I swept the second aerial map alone, but I saw the trio of teams again on the long out-and-back along the turnpike. The river crossing was somewhat unpleasant, as were the cm-thick red green-briar relatives.

Finally: the last street-O section. I updated my plan as I ran up Stark Ave, which meant that my previous decisions were not optimal. I again saw my trailing pack as I left 52. I attained a decent cruising speed - about 6 min/km - for this section, but I found my stamina depleted as I approached the river control at 38. A group of us were in the circle looking for it, with most people navigating off the telephone wires. I hopped down to the bank and used the river bend, found the control, and shouted to Ernst that I was at the flag. I would never do that in a competitive orienteering race, but I guess AR is more about camaraderie, joie de vivre, and the like. I ate my last pack of jelly beans on the trudge back to Portland Ave. I had about 40 minutes left with about 5 km and three controls - including the tower control. I wish I could have that 11 minute km back.

The first control was in a wide gully with extremely slippery and snowy sides. Crawling back out was arduous, and there were maybe fifteen people in the gully with me, including Untamed and Ernst. Untamed slowly passed me on the run up Portland Ave; I pulled out my headlamp, but made a 3-4 minute mistake in the circle. The map just didn't have enough detail. So I faced my last decision: I had 22 minutes, one control, 3 km, and a tower on a hill. Had bgallup been there, he would have argued for skipping it, but while I realized my chances were slim, I resolved to go for it. I hit it with everything I had left, pushing 5 min/km on the road run leading to the hill. I bashed my way up the hill rather than looking for a trail; the tower was trivially on the top. The tower climb and descent took me about two minutes, which left me with about a mile run in 6 minutes. Push as I might, I finished four minutes over time; this wasn't a certainty, as I didn't actually know what my watch's offset was relative to the race clock. After handing in my punch card, I collapsed at the finish pub for a few minutes to catch my breath before eating and sharing in the good merriment.

Run from home to BU track. I forgot that indoor track started today, so I didn't have any kit in my office.

CSU Indoor track workout #1 at BU. Perfect attendance so far. Tonight's workout was a ladder of 600, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4 for 4.2k. I had planned to run the longer workout (an extra 10 and 2), but I decided that my speedwork has been lackluster enough lately to start conservatively. I also don't want to be hosed for the Dover Raid on Saturday.

I ran in the lead pack for most of the workout, but I backed off about 5-10s on the 1 km bout relative to Patrick and Kevin. I met Ute and Rahul. I was not wholly depleted by the end, and I kept my pace up without too much difficulty, so I think this was the correct workout. Patrick, Amore, Rahul, Terry, and Kevin were killing it tonight. Tom was ginger, but he's running 5 Fells Skylines on Saturday for a grueling 40 miler because he likes pain.

600, 800, 1k: 1:55, 2:47, 3:35
800, 600, 400: 2:47, 2:03, 1:16

Run back to the office. I was suitably tired.

C • Eh? 3

Run home followed by an easy loop. I am listening to The Lean Startup.

In many ways, NEOC is like a startup. Eric Ries' definition: A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. One big difference is that NEOC's product is not new or ambiguous: we are promoting orienteering. There are degrees of freedom and parameters that can be varied. I think the central problem for NEOC is spreading orienteering and engaging the broader community.

Consider the NEOC points series; the set of people who are going to 8-12 events are the die-hard core members who are going to keep orienteering almost no matter whta we do. Our challenge is to add new people to that list and bring the 1-4 event people to more races.

A few ideas I have for 2015:
1. Implement an interclub New England Cup series to promote cross-club activity. How many NEOC members have been to a WCOC, CSU, or UNO event? Again, the target isn't the die-hards, but the casual members. This is in progress.

2. Publicity: probably with one person to generate content (Adobe Illustrator, etc) and one person to orchestra the distribution.

3. Repeat event at the same location for several weeks. This is similar to the CSU Iltarisat event, but with a different target. When I was VP Events, I was reluctant to use a map more than once per season to promote variety. I was also intimately aware of overused maps - like Blue Hills West, Breakheart, Prospect - which draw a large crowd and have been used more than 1.5x per year. While I want NEOC to have events on diverse maps, I think these overused maps can be a strength. For a casual or new member, a series of four weekly or biweekly events at the same location could be a very attractive way to get them hooked. The most obvious candidates to me are Breakheart North, Blue Hills West, Nobscot, Great Brook Farm, and Prospect Hill. Suppose we had four biweekly WYOG races at each of these locations. With suitable marketing, the measurable quantities are what fraction of attendees come to more than one event and how many newcomers come to one event.

Roles at the Harriman camp this weekend.

In what could perhaps be called an impulse purchase, I have decided to go to the Vancouver sprint camp this February! It promises to be a hoot; I will bring dice game, 7 Wonders, Canadian Taboo, two good pairs of shoes, and the tiniest shorts I own.

C • Sprint Camp! 21