Training Log Archive: iansmith

Easy evening run after a day playing 7 Wonders with Brendan, Ross and the Saeger clan and a bout at the office. I felt good, though I am still aware of the niggle in each of my feet - left ball, outer right ball near the pinky. Neither is a serious impediment to running, but I am taking care to stretch and rest them lest they become problematic. I finished with the usual stretching - hamstrings, quads, calves, and adductors.

I listened to Sense and Sensibility, which has the distinction of being the only audiobook to date I have listened to at regular speed on my mp3 player. Most books I can absorb readily while running, but Jane Austen's romantic prose is so convoluted as to demand more concentration than can be mustered at fast replay. I hope I do not absorb too much of her writing tendencies.

A magnificent horn solo from Rach 2, I. For context, consider the brilliant, glorious passage leading into the quiet, contemplative, nostalgic rich tones of the horn.

Ghettotrack.

Ross, Jeff, Brendan and I met up to rerun the 2012 Blue Hills Traverse. Jeff set off on his own, and Ross, Brendan and I decided to run together. The intensity was certainly lower than race pace - at one point, Ross was singing. We occasionally diverged on routes, but always met up at the controls. We skipped the last control on the ski slope because it was in use by a few hundred downhill skiers. I stopped my watch whenever we weren't moving, and I estimate the total rest time was about 10-15 minutes.

I felt strong physically and had plenty of stamina throughout the run. I had a painful spot on the left ball of my foot from tight shoes on Thursday, and my right foot was sore. Neither of those troubled me during the run. Running with others was illuminating, and while we weren't aggressively competing, there were a few legs where we diverged. Ross smoked me on 14 by going essentially straight on the line.

My splits from the Traverse were in my map bag, and we were 4 minutes back - about 58 minutes - at control 11. We did save a few bobbles I made during the race - we started a bit more conservatively, I didn't bang my knee to 4, didn't drop a minute at 6, 30s at 10, 30s at 13, and 4 minutes at 19. Still, I'm surprised I was so little ahead of our merry trio. I think the implication is that it's easier to run a course with people and when you know the course and that I wasn't pushing as hard or efficiently as I could during the race. Lessons to learn; I plan to rerun a few more long courses this winter.

In other news, Ali had a very speedy race today at the WREs in Swissland!

Yesterday's workout left me feeling a bit tired, so I will take a rest day. It turns out that I haven't taken a rest day in the past 14 days, so this seems reasonable. I will spend some time this evening evaluating 2012 and planning 2013. I expect to pick up at least 25-30 km of O and running this weekend, which is adequate.

CSU indoor track workout, featuring the newly recovered mgb and special guest Rosstopher. Also in attendance was Tom D, who had been absent due to work commitments. There was a high school track workout tonight just before our workout. After watching a few heats of 4x200 - with some high school girls smoking the hypothetical CSU performances with times of 24-25s, we warmed up by running outside. I had only brought shorts and a shirt, so I ran in my big puffy jacket.

Terry's nefarious workout was 4x (400m, 600, 200), with the 2s and 4s at mile pace and the 6s at 3k pace. My guess for my pace was 40/80s for the 2/4 and 2:05 for the 6s. I ran slightly faster than that, with an average of 3:53 for each 1.2 km cycle. My 6s were at pace, and my 200s and 400s were faster - usually around 77-78/400. Everything felt comfortably hard, and I finished adequately.

Drills before intervals, led by our fearless track coach.

Commute. Ugh, mornings.

Ghettotrack.

Conditions were cold and windy tonight: -11 C, 32 kph. I left work with the intent to run a 15-20 minute easy run home, but after six minutes of warmup, as I found myself in the relative shelter of the buildings of East Cambridge, I decided to do a cruise interval workout. I ended up running 6x 3.5 minutes, with about 30 seconds of rest between each one. My track is absurd, but I'm happy to have gotten in the run. I didn't realize the temperature was so low when I started, but I was comfortable in SLS top, tights, gloves and a hat. My legs felt good, and my pace was a modest 6:35/mile on the intervals.

Ghettotrack.

I need to complete and post my analysis of 2012 and the resulting goals for 2013. I ran or orienteered 265 km in December, and I think 300 is a reasonable goal for January. I'm not orienteering enough, and I think having a combined mileage goal rather than separate O and running goals will motivate more orienteering. In other news, I recently passed 60k log hits. Woohoo!

After Ali started her long drive to Toledo, Eric, the parentCs, and I went to Ole's for a morning of cross country. I was planning to drive to Boston from Ole's, so I devoted most of my attention to packing my belongings - and managed to forget Larry's skate ski boots, which he generously had loaned me. On previous days, Ali had brought the ski boot bag, so I had had few responsibilities. Eric was exceptionally clutch and let me use his skate boots while he skated with his classic boots. His ankles were more wobbly, but he soldiered on. Since we skied together and he is a faster skier than I, the boots handicapped our arrangement.

Conditions were chill and windy; we stopped after about 90 minutes - including stops to chat and gaze at the scenery. My drive back to Boston was via VT routes 100 and 107, and took about 4 hours including a stop for a sandwich. Today was a fantastic way to start the year.

I experienced some stomach discomfort from drinking a glass of old chocolate milk; the pain and gas was almost instantaneous. I may switch to chocosoymilk in the future.