Training Log Archive: iansmith

Easy recovery run. I had planned to go longer - about 30 minutes, but I wanted to pick up a burrito from Anna's before they closed. Running did not appeal to me in my post-burrito state.

Bike home from the Skyline trail run. It was actually more pleasant than the way there.

C • Excellent 1

Biking from my apartment to the Sheepfold for the Skyline run; conditions were icy, especially after the rotary. I got off my bike and walked a bit where I didn't feel comfortable riding on the road (e.g. against traffic) and the sidewalks were not plowed. I was rather cold most of the trip.

Skyline trail run at 9:30 AM with Brendan, Clem, and Ross. Conditions were gorgeous: the sky was clear with a moderate breeze, and the temperature was about -5 C. There was enough snow on the ground to mitigate ankle rolling possibilities, but usually not so much that we sunk in. The snow on most of the trail had been compressed from previous users, but there were regions with slogging.

Brendan led the whole way, which I appreciated - I'm not very good at pacing myself; I don't know the limits of my body the way many runners seem to. Conversation was excellent including Rocky IV, the merits of steel wool, the NAOCs, and the inception of the CSU Bowling section.

I felt a bit tired about halfway through, but pressed on without changing my pace relative to the others. My core in particular got an excellent workout; I suspect the snow contributes to how hard stability muscles have to work. Flying on the downhill switchbacks was awesome.

Evening run along Franklin St and back. My plan was a forty five minute run, but I was having such a pleasant time and I chose a longer loop than I thought. Continued K2.

After my run and after some stretching, I noted that my right calf feels a bit tight.

2696

Unplanned rest day because of a long day at work.

When I was contemplating registering for the Georgia Navigator cup on Monday - before the price increase - there were two M-21s registered, so I decided that apart from the expense, the competition was too sparse to justify the trip. Competition doesn't exist merely for psychological value, it also gives a measure of my performance. Anyway, I decided that my orienteering budget could be better allocated elsewhere, since I would have an easier time getting friends to share car and hotel arrangements at other meets, where I know more attendees.

It turns out the registration list had not been updated - that or there are 13 M-21s who all registered on Monday. The West pointers make good racing targets, and I always relish the chance to go for a Jordan Laughlin's scalp, but the competitor who would have been most interesting to race is Sergei Fedorov from DVOA. We raced against each other five times in the Spring of 2009 - QOC and West Point - and he beat me in every race. I'm one spot ahead of him in the USOF rankings, though I have 14 races vs his 5, so I got a little boost.

Unfortunately, the conclusion is the same - I won't be at the Navigator Cup. I will have to measure myself against Sergei at some other meet.

Addendum: Interestingly, Sergei (who is apparently a year older than I am), is 6-1 against me in A-meet races - my only victory was at the 2008 Team Trials Sprint. He was a 65 point runner in 2008, and I was 62. He's not Canadian, but he looks to be a good adversary. I will use him as motivation to train, so that when next we meet, I will crush him.

Clearly my memory is faulty - standard ten-pin bowling pins weigh 3.375 lbs, not 8 lbs as I inaccurately thought. It should have been obvious that if the ball weighs less than the pins (i.e. if you had 8 lb pins and 6 lb balls) that you would observe different collision behavior than if the ball weighs more than the pins - like rebounding bowling balls.

C • bahahah that would be the b... 4

C • proposition 2

Late night run; I have decided to make a shift toward longer, easier runs in lieu of quality for this month. That is, I ordinarily would have done some quality - a tempo run or some threshold or hill intervals - by this point this week, but I am dissatisfied with my fitness. It is my hope that by doing more easy runs - 5:30 km^-1 - of varying distance, I can concentrate on getting my fitness higher and really concentrating on base building.

I'm sort of playing around this week; my long runs aren't significantly longer than this run. My most common workout will still be short, easy runs of 30-35 minutes.

Anyway, I felt great throughout the run. The route was eccentric so as to avoid painfully windy areas along the river and exposed regions. I ran predominantly on Franklin St. from Harvard to Kendall, then around MIT and back to Harvard on Putnam Ave.

Evening run after CSU bowling. I was feeling unpleasant - perhaps from a long day and not enough sleep? - but I forced myself out the door, unwilling to have two consecutive rest days without other factors (sickness, traveling). My plan was an easy run, but I pushed a little bit harder because I was cold. I continued my audiobook K2.

CSU Bowling, with Ross, Clem, Dasha, Brendan, and me. I had disappointing sessions below my previous PRs, but the camaraderie was great fun. I bowled with a 16 lb ball most of the game, with an occasional shot from a 15 lber.

My scores:
7- 8/ 9- 71 8- X 7- 8- 54 7- = 99
X 63 9/ 7/ 9/ 61 72 18 63 9- = 123

Only one gutter ball in the second game!

Brendan had the best session among us, with 4 spares and 3 strikes. Clem and I each "brought it" in the second game - he started with two strikes, but we withered a bit under the pressure. I narrowly edged him 123 - 118. Ross made a clutch move ordering some pro nachos, and Dasha claims to have recovered from her year of residency on her 19 day vacation. I've never really noticed her behavior or demeanor change as a result of stress; she was her usual cheery self (apart from the 76ers not doing as well as they should be).

My left hamstring feels tight.

I have run 17 of the past 23 days, including three rest days from traveling. The past three weeks have been 26, 29, and 27 mile running weeks. While this is hardly remarkable, this is a good step toward consistency.

My plan is to continue my base running until the end of January (with at most one tempo, one VO2/threshold interval, and one hill interval workout each week), when I will revise my running training.

In the interim, I need to ramp up my O-training.

One hour.