Training Log Archive: iansmith

Ali and I got up at the insane hour of 8 AM to go for a trail run in Blue Mountain. Her ankle is delicate and is still recovering from the WOC Relay incident, so we ran gingerly to avoid landing on it hard. While I was slightly grouchy given the hour, I rose in short order. Blue Mountain is a beautiful place - even a ginger trail run was sublime. While it was tempting to go orienteering, my training plan now is focused on base, and my decisions can reinforce Ali's and keep her from boldly going where no ankle should go. GPS track and HR data are Ali's.

While at Neil's, we hung out with some of the usual suspects and met a few new people, including Giacomo's girlfriend, Camilla. Apparently he is a better cook than she is.

Event: Bye bye Peekskill
 

After loading furniture and driving to Poughkeepsie, Ali and I went on an afternoon run through the hilly New York countryside. Note that the track data is from Ali's Garmin.

Topics of conversation and stuff to look up included:
- Np-hardness
- The number of seats at the shed at Tanglewood

C • tanglewood music school 4

Basic statistics about the 2012 Bridge of Flowers 10k:
Reported finishers: 551
Mean finish time: 56.6 minutes
Stdev: 11.6 minutes
Median: 55.4 minutes
Mode (rounded to minute): 50 minutes

Yesterday was an unplanned rest day. I am wholly disappointed in myself, but the only course is to get up and try again. The path to victory begins with discipline.

Typing Test Results: (wpm, keystrokes, rank/total in past 24 hours)
147, 733, 33/74684
142; 709; 60/74717
139; 693; 87/74716

A one minute typing test is like a 400m. Perhaps I should build up my base before doing intervals lest I invite a hand injury.

C • woah 6

Easy run around the river. My body seems to be less destroyed than it appeared earlier this week - possibly restored by two accidental rest days. I think the neighborhood of 5:20-5:30/km is a great pace for me to be right now. Whatever is tweaked in my bum was more cooperative, though I still don't have full strength and control throughout the range of motion of my leg. It feels like a smallish muscle is hurt - perhaps a strain; it doesn't hurt while I run, but I sense weakness.

It's a busy time for me right now with NEOC logistics; I'm further behind than I planned to be, but I'm trying to delegate and recruit help. I decided to direct the race at Menotomy Rocks in 9 days because it was a bit impromptu; two sprints on a Saturday morning will be about the same amount of work as a Park-O on a more convenient day. Still, I don't plan to direct more than one meet this fall besides the sprint - and if I can get away with it, I won't set any. While I hope to thoroughly use all communication avenues, I want help - if you're interested in directing, co-directing, or volunteering at registration, control pickup, or results, please let me know! Every bit helps a bunch.

My weight has lately been steady in the range 180-185 lbs. I have to wonder if 170 is possible by the end of the year with a nutritious diet given my current training plan. Once I have settled into a steady running schedule, I will add weights to build up my leg and ankle strength.

To future Ian reading this log: current events over the past few weeks have included the London Olympics, the nomination of Paul Ryan for the Republican VP candidate with Mitt Romney, and it was suggested that the 2012 US men's olympic basketball team would beat the Dream Team (lol).

The British built three Invincible class battlecruisers in the early 1900s. They were classic battlecruiser designs - Dreadnought style heavy armament, lightly armored, high speed ships best suited to chasing down smaller ships. Ironically, the Invincible was the only one sunk, annihilated in a magazine explosion under the combined fire from two German battlecruisers at Jutland. One of the Invincibles was the HMS Inflexible, which always struck me as an odd name for a ship, even from the British. One of great weaknesses is excessive flexibility - I can mold and adapt to most perturbations, but in so doing, I lose contact with the various points of regularity that characterize a typical schedule. I can endure shifts of 6 hours in my Circadian rhythm without much noticeable ill effects, but I can't consistently maintain a 24 hour period. This must change. And perhaps, like the Inflexible, I will sink a pair of German armored cruisers along the way.

Training aspirations.

I have posted the NEOC schedule both on the NEOC website and on attackpoint. Show your support for orienteering in New England by indicating whether or not you are coming to the events listed on the AP schedule! The schedule this fall will include three or four sprint events to kick off the season, two Night-Os, at least seven standard local events, and the Blue Hills Traverse. I have included several maps not seen on schedules in the past few years: Turtle Pond, High Rock, Boxford, and Townsend.

Easy peasy really slow run around the river. My life has fallen into some disarray over the past week - insidious chaos has seeped into my schedule with a weak justification or perturbation. I expect myself to be stronger, more resilient, to have the self-control to endure through periods of stress or difficulty. I have not met my expectations, and I hope to remedy that.

Yesterday's inadvertent rest day may have been justified, as a niggle in my butt has become a tight bundle of ouch. After a diagnostic jog, I deemed the discomfort and probable damage sufficiently mild to continue running; time will tell the prudence of that. If I only trained when I felt perfect, I would train even less than I do now, and it would all be for naught.

Wildlife count was unusually high - two raccoons (on Mt. Auburn St of all places) and about twenty or thirty rabbits, almost all of whom had poor strategies for avoiding detection. Fortunately for them, I was a plodding, gimpy runner and not a hungry, unleashed whippet.

I signed up for the CMOUSA Classic and Relay championships; I have never run a race of the style of PG and Mike's Maze, with multiple route choices. My fitness is deplorable, but hopefully the event will still be fun, and the company will be brilliant.

Yo' running is so slow, old ladies help you across the street.