Training Log Archive: iansmith

I was feeling rather tired today, so I decided to rest. I ran six catching features courses. I'm only 0.22 points (77.95 vs 77.73) behind Steve Gregg, the top American CFer. The top North American CFer unquestionably is BigE, with a 90.74 ranking. I'm curious whether I can reach 80 points more quickly in CF or in the USOF rankings, but given my disastrous sprint race at BOK, I may not reach USOF 80 points before the North American champs.

After a concert and with some hesitation, I went for a run. Thursday's time trial has reinvigorated me and prompted me to return from my training hiatus earlier and with more vigor than otherwise would have been the case. Before my Friday night run, I estimated that 25 miles was unattainable for this week, but it may yet be possible. I would like to go for a long run Sunday night, if I am feeling well - the New Bedford half marathon is in two weeks and my training has been derelict. It would be good psychologically to get in some long runs between now and then, though the physiological benefit is questionable.

I went on my bread-and-butter run with an extension - over my hill to Highland, through Davis, Porter, Harvard, Inman, and back on Prospect/Webster Ave. It was a good run - starting with a hill was motivational. Just as I pulled onto Highland Ave, I noted two girls on bikes moving parallel and slowly to my path; I stepped up to tempo pace and tried to keep up with them, but they had gained about fifty meters by Davis Square.

It is my tendency to push aggressively when I see someone ahead of me, both in running and orienteering. While it may be motivational for physical training, I need to discontinue this practice in all but Go-control and finish chute O-situations. I lost about a minute on the Sycamore Scramble Middle (control 13) due to this behavior. I confess it would be tremendously exciting to encounter any of the usual suspects in Go-control or finish chute O-situations - Ross, Will, Brendan, Ken, Emily, Eric, Jon and so on. Given his recent successes, I'm hopeful Andy Dale will become one of the usual suspects.

I continued No Shortcuts, and I'm finding chapter 2-3 suggestive of a much more promising book than chapter 1 impressed. Conditions: 5 C, tights, gloves, short and long sleeves. I'm still sniffling profusely.

- Got a haircut today (logged for purposes of tracking frequency); no doubt Lori will think I have joined the military.

- 3414 visitors; 400 since January 31. Woooo.

- Suppose we partition map reading into essentially disjoint categories: large scale reading and reading of focused, detailed minutia. The large scale reading is most relevant, in my judgment, to route choice legs and getting an overview of the course - e.g. at the start of the race or vaguely reading ahead. The small scale reading is important once a route choice has been arrived at, for technical legs, for collecting features and for choosing checkpoints. Note that in general, any particular course or indeed particular leg might use both techniques.

Is this partition realistic? Can the two skills be practiced independently? Is this an informative and meaningful decomposition of map-reading skills? Are there other categories of reading that are not covered by this breakdown?

C • Sure 1

Commute. Every light seemed to be red when I reached it on Cambridge Street.

Late night run. My right arch and calf felt tight - probably from the 3 km yesterday, so I ran gingerly. I started Ed Viesturs' No Shortcuts to the Top. Thus far, I prefer K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain, though the audiobook narrator for K2 sounds less pompous and haughty than that of No Shortcuts.

I had planned to run for about 45 minutes, but I didn't measure the route before I started, and it was longer than I expected. I ran from Franklin St to MIT to Land Blvd and to home. It's interesting that a sentence can be grammatically correct but syntactically incorrect or meaningless - a much less common error than a syntactically meaningful but grammatically incorrect sentence.

Conditions: 1 C, tights, short- and long-sleeved polypro, and gloves.

Travel to and from the Harvard indoor track, a few 200s for warmup and cooldown.

With Brendan and Ross (though after them), I ran a 3 km test time trial, in anticipation of the official 3 km time trial in mid March. I did not expect to run particularly well, since I have not run over the past two weeks due to illness. My mile PR was 80 second 400s (10:00 3k), so I figure 85 second 400s might be attainable. My target today was 90 second 400s or 6 minute mile pace; I just slightly overshot. Not a bad performance, but unremarkable at best.

Ross started running with me at my ninth lap, which was encouraging (though discouraging because it was clearly so easy for him :)). I contemplated stopping after 2 km, but I asked myself "Would Marit Bjørgen stop after 2 km?" and pressed on.

Goal for mid March: sub 11:00, or 44 second 200s.

200s;
1st km: 45.7, 45.1, 45.0, 44.8, 45.2 = 3:45.8
2nd km: 46.7, 44.8, 46.0, 45.3, 45.8 = 3:48.6
3rd km: 46.5, 46.6, 46.8, 43.9, 38.5 = 3:42.3

C • handicapping too 2

Commute to Lexington via the Minuteman bikeway for the MWS dress rehearsal. The bikeway was pleasant, though biking through regions of total darkness was ominous.

Commute to trio rehearsal.