Training Log Archive: iansmith

I set out to Baldwin Hill for a day of training with Giacomo and Andrew Childs. My sidekicks established that I lack credentials as a driver; I am one of those "Drivers left behind." While I volunteered at the CSU/NEOC A-meet at Baldwin Hill on 23 October 2010, I had been cleared to stop using crutches two weeks previously, and did little besides man the finish. This was my first time on the map.

Boris designed the first exercise for Ali and Alex, and I reproduced it from Ali's QR. I mistakenly transcribed the first part as a control pick rather than the intended attackpoint enlargement, but ignorant of the terrain, I think I would have chosen very subtle attackpoints. The hillside with the first controls of the exercise was intricate, and I took my time reading my map and studying my position. The deadfall at Baldwin Hill was appreciable, and moving was slow.

The second part of the exercise was a straight line running drill; I fared ok, though I tended to get pushed around by contours. The third was a hard, low-visibility control pick, and we finished with two O-tervals. I led the first and crashed and burned. Going from deliberate, careful orienteering to overspeed, downhill intervals was not smooth. Having training partners was helpful; I would have been less motivated to get out to Baldwin alone.

Quickroute

For the second exercise of our intrepid expedition, I set out to run a slightly shorter blue course from the 2010 CSU/NEOC A-meet. I felt tired - from lack of sleep, the first exercise, a lingering cough, and possibly from my dense mileage this week.

My focus for this run was to keep going; my endurance and fitness are vulnerabilities on long courses, and I want to try to simulate race conditions while tired. There were no streamers in the woods. I was sluggish, and I continued to struggle with some of Baldwin Hill. The rock features were subtler than I am used to. I attacked 6 off the cliff to the NE, but I had trouble picking out the control boulder. I made a dumb choice punching through the green to 7, but recovered ok.

I made a huge mistake en route to 8; my plan was to run to the rock wall junction about halfway on the leg, then cross south of the marsh and go straight in. I hit a rock wall, but I thought it was the NS wall, not the lower EW wall. I didn't check my compass adequately, and forced the features to fit my mental image of the terrain. I drifted south to get around what I thought was the small marsh on the line, but it proved to be vast. I pieced together what had happened and corrected, but it was an egregious error. I must check my compass more when I run into decision points to make sure that I am where I think I am.

From the QR, it looks like I selected the wrong knoll when I entered the circle. Oops. On 10, I was great on my compass and checked off features in a tricky area. After passing the pond, I lost track of which knoll I was at and had to try to pick out the rock features. I wasted a few minutes recovering. I finished reasonably well - despite fighting through some thick deadfall en route to 13, but I was slow near the end of the race.

Quickroute

Blue Sunday - Splits

Run to get a burrito.

25 box jumps, 25 tuckups

Are any among my readers interested in designing O-trainings for me (and my peeps)? I can hook you up with OCAD files, and I would be happy to reciprocate.

The Swedish peanut gallery reminded me yesterday that it's time for a haircut. I'm delaying a bit because I want my hair short for the Classic and SML champs to minimize insulating effects and maximize charisma.

C • O-trainings 3

C • Haircut 5

An evening run through a steady rain. Tired.

C • Thanks... 3

Run over to the indoor track workout. I started The Hunger Games on audiobook; while it's nominally targeted at "young adults," the book has been well reviewed, and it lacks vampires.

I atypically arrived in time for drills, and ran 800m of strides and warmup. Among the orienteering group, Magnus, Stephen, and newcomer Alee were in attendance. About half of the 20-25 runners in attendance are running the Amherst 10 mile race this Sunday, so their workout was a relaxed 4x800. With Terry gone and Kevin and John running Amherst, Tom and I were alone in front. He's a bit faster than I am, but I did my best to run my own pace.

The long workout was 800, 2x (1000, 600), 3x 400. The longer intervals were to be run at 5k pace. My legs felt a bit heavy and tired, but I settled into a comfortable groove. We finished with some arduous core and leg exercises involving these large resistance bands. I purchased two of the bands for use later.

800: 2:53
1000, 600: 3:34, 2:06
1000, 600: 3:32, 2:05
3x400: 1:23, 1:22, 1:20

I ran home and stopped for a recovery burrito, which I washed down with some recovery chocolate milk. If I finish my set of tasks this evening, I might play some recovery Starcraft and listen to some recovery R. Strauss.

For unclear reasons, I fell asleep last night at 9 PM (who goes to bed at 9? Madness) before I went out on my run. I woke up this morning and set out on a longer run than I had scheduled for Tuesday. I finished the Fahrenheit 451 audiobook, which was an excellent novel.

I ran in silence for the latter half of the run, and it was serene. The city still slumbered when I started, and activity increased as time passed. A few pairs, doubles and eights were on the water as I cruised past. A cluster of weary rowers at the MIT boathouse set up their equipment while a dog (whose breed Lori probably knows) happily bounded around on the dock with a stick clutched triumphantly in its mouth. Life equilibrates, finds homeostasis. Perhaps that state is happiness? In Gore Park near McGrath highway, I discovered to my horror that the landscapers are cultivating a shrub of green briar. I imagine they will learn their lesson when the shrub eats a few children.

I wonder if I'm running my easy runs too fast; this run was at about 80% of my HR max. While it was clearly below threshold, perhaps a run at 70-75% HR max would yield more physiological benefit. I avoided looking at my Garmin for most of the run; I wanted to run at a pace that felt natural, though apparently natural is aggressive. I hypothesize that most forms of entertainment are enjoyable because they produce an emotional response. Like a roller coaster, entertainment - particularly readily consumed entertainment, like TV and movies - stimulates us, generates feelings, and plays with our sensitivities. I suppose books do that, too, but there exists a class of entertainment that produces emotions without much substance or data and without promoting meaningful analysis or thought. The emotional response, not the content or subtext of the story or presentation, is the objective. I find this deeply unsettling, especially as I find myself drawn to even some shallow emotional content.

A comic.

50 box jumps; 10 single leg box jumps (x2)

Legs a bit tired from this weekend. Friday was an unplanned rest day. It's interesting that yesterday's training is still below the amortized training week needed for my annual goals - 25 m/w, 4 hours of O, and 7.7 hours.

While I reserved an ordinary compact car for the weekend's shenanigans, Avis gave me a stylish orange Mitsubishi Eclipse. It was fun to drive, though impractically small for more than one additional passenger and with gas mileage of about 15 mpg. I drive too cautiously (especially in Cambridge) for such a vehicle.

On my return trip from Nobscot, stopped at the front of the line at a traffic light in Cambridge, a typical small sedan pulled up next to me. The driver, a hipsteresque fellow in his late 20s with glasses and a female passenger, made eye contact with me, inclined his head in greeting, and reved his engine slightly. I couldn't help but grin back at him, as my car clearly outclassed his in terms of acceleration. The road narrowed into a single lane ahead before returning to two, and I decided to err on the side of prudence. When the light turned green, I gestured for him to take the lead, and he raised his fist in triumph. After the road broadened, I rocketed past him at a quick but safe speed. It was an entertaining encounter; though my challenger's performance was dwarfed by my car's, my temperament was not suited to a drag race in awkward Cambridge traffic. Had the street been rural and unambiguously safe, I would have smoked him.

There is a long stretch of highway (Interstate-10, e.g.) in Texas between El Paso and San Antonio that crosses a desert, has very high visibility, is sparsely populated, and is very straight. It is not uncommon to drive that highway at 90 mph. I would enjoy taking a vehicle like the Eclipse to that road.

C • alternatively... 3

Two hours at MIT this morning; I started legitimately practicing Chopin's Prelude No. 4, and worked my entire rep. Oddly, Revolutionary is coming along better than the Beethoven or the Mussorgsky. Left hand really felt good today.

A trumpet player was practicing in the next practice room, and after I had been hacking away at the first "Promenade" movement of Pictures, s/he started playing the opening line. I responded with the broad tutti phrase. We played together for a few moments before I cut out. Good bonding times.

C • Cute. 4