Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: Blue Hills Traverse
 

My second Blue Hills Traverse. My training over the past year and general exposure to orienteering left me far better prepared for this course than the previous one, and I went in with high - though ambiguous - expectations.

First, the good:
Overall, I had a solid race. My track record on long courses is very poor. My time last year was 3:31; I improved by over an hour. While that's not that difficult given my poor condition last year, I finished 43 minutes behind the winner this year. Apart from my performance relative to the field, I was not overly pleased with my individual performance. I did not have the energy to push as hard as I had hoped all the way through the race. I still have many weaknesses in my conditioning and orienteering, and my training regimen is inadequate.

Nevertheless, today was a good day (to die).

I did not take as much advantage of the following options as I probably could (should?) have, partly because I started too quickly and so was part of several different groups. I strictly followed to controls 1, 2, 5, 14, and 18; I took advantage of information from others at 3. 6. 10, and 17. At all but 1 and 2, I was actually navigating. I saw Pia at the refreshment stop; we had a splendid (though brief) conversation. I hope her leg is feeling better so she can qualify for the US team and pwn some Europeans.

At no point during the race was I lost; that is to say, at no point did I need to abandon my search or route. I never stared at the map with confusion as to my location. It is true that at times my zone of uncertainty grew too large to hit the controls precisely. Specifically, at 19, I attacked from the south, overshot the control, and hit the trail about 100m to the west of the control. I knew I was within the pentagon denoted by the trails, but I was struggling to make out the contour features precisely. At 20, I had an esoteric route, running to the southern rock wall and contouring around. It is true that I was unable to pinpoint my location, but I was following the orientation of the gradient and had a massive bank of cliffs as a quasicatching feature. I hit the control after overshooting by about 30 meters.

Overall, this was my cleanest long run ever (facilitated in part by numerous trails, a grant from the John D. and Katherine T. Macarthur foundation, and support from readers like you).

Second, the bad:
My training was inadequate for a race such as this. I started quite strongly - at 7, I punched with the Saegers, Eddie Bergeron, and a large group of people. However, I could not sustain the pace I had kept up to that point, and I hit a (waist-high, as opposed to full height) wall en route to 8. I plodded on with the help of sheer will and GU, but by 8 I was alone.

My expertise lies not with running uberlong distances, and 13.2 k orienteering certainly qualifies as uberlong for me. Yet, I had hoped I would be able to push as hard as I could the entire way; it's disappointing that my cardiovascular fitness is so inadequate. I will have to work on this extensively during the winter training so I can be ready for the spring A meet season. I want to win.

I need to practice my map work; I cannot glance at terrain and see in my head what it would look like on the map as quickly or precisely as it seems most elite orienteers can.

Finally, the amusing parts:
I have "tradition" of missing the mass start - though two events do not define a tradition. Last year, I had dropped my compass and was frantically hunting for it. This year, I scurried off to urinate and was preoccupied as Ross called the start. I started about thirty seconds behind the pack, and had effectively caught up by the first control.

Bob Lux is a tank. He is an unstoppable warrior who makes me ashamed of my lack of running speed and orienteering proficiency. The leg to control 22 was long, and I was tired and eager for the end. I was running on a trail when Bob Lux - a 60 year old man - cruises up beside me and passes me. I decided this was unacceptable, so I put on more speed and caught up. He passed me again at the control, but I overtook him sprinting in to the finish. Massive props to Bob Lux.

C • physical training 2

Traverse - Splits

I woke at 6 AM for a long, low to moderate intensity run; I was not enthusiastic about the run when I woke, but I dragged myself out the door anyway. In general, the run was quite pleasant; while my route was heavily modified from previous runs, I covered much of the same ground. However, all the previous runs had been at night, so it was agreeable to see the path in the light of dawn. For most of the run, my breathing was 4/3 (perhaps 15 minutes at 3/2).

I ran with the 2007 Blue Hills Traverse map to study the park's general topography, practice route choice, and so on. I did a bit of that, but the 1:15 scale and the fine details make it difficult to read on the fly.

The temperature was about -2 C.

C • Nice job getting in an earl... 2

A pleasant river loop very late at night. Armed with my flashlight, cell phone, and blockbuster card (if I were for some reason incapacitated, it has my parents' contact information on it), I ran to the JFK St bridge and did the Gerrys Landing Rd/Weeks Footbridge river loop. I saw 11 small rabbits, all of whom were on the south side of the river near the BU boathouse.

My goal for the run was to push my pace to competition pace; I wanted to run as hard as I could in a sustainable way. I had a two minute warmup with 4/4 breathing (4 steps inhale, 4 steps exhale), then switched to 5 minutes of 4/3, and ran the rest of the time with 3/2. In orienteering conditions, I suspect I would use 2/2.

Overall, I felt strong throughout the run. I focused on staying upright and memorizing the sequence of streets I saw and reciting my journey back in my head - for concentration tests. My hamstrings feel a bit weak; I may do some butt kicks before the Traverse. At the end of the run, I (just barely) felt like I could do it again (though probably more slowly). I reason that if I can push myself at this level of intensity for two hours and navigate well, I can finish the Traverse in that time.

Breathing in the cold is moderately painful. Clothing was my tights, a t-shirt, gloves, and a fleece. At pace, I felt slightly too warm. I'm considering ditching the fleece for a long-sleeved shirt and wearing a hat. The temperature was 29 F/-2 C.

Cool down and stretching. Later, I applied a heat pad to my legs; the heat felt good.

C • Traverse 1