Training Log Archive: iansmith

Flight home.

Travel day - drive to Stockholm with Andrew and Neil.

The final event of the Oringen was a chase start. I was well outside of the 90 minutes behind the leader required to be in the chase start, so I started with the set of people out of the chase at 15 second intervals. The course was 10.2 km. My right achilles flared up a bit while I warmed up, but apart from that and my fatigue, my body was holding up fairly well to the physical demands of the week. Still, I did not have as much stamina and vigor as earlier in the week, which manifested strongly during the race. I started strongly, but melted down about 60% into the race.

At control 9 (36:12 for me), I was about a minute behind Boris and Andrew - who were also quite tired - and 9 minutes behind the leader. At control 14, I was 14 minutes behind Boris. I was slow and tired executing a longish leg to 10, chiefly running on trails. Control 11 had another long trail run as the approach, but I botched the attack and lost about 2 minutes. Control 13 and 14 were short legs in a much more technical area; I didn't adequately adjust my orienteering and lost 9 minutes between the two of them, completely losing contact on both legs. I think I tried to simplify far too much, and did not adequately understand the map or the terrain. I chose poor routes, disregarded my compass trying to rationalize what I was seeing, and I was exhausted (68 minutes in). I was a bit shell-shocked, so I took 16 and 17 conservatively. The remaining controls were largely straightforward, and my race was just a battle to keep going.

As with other races, there were inklings of what for me are good races. I made some good decisions, and at times my physical performance was adequate. I think I was ultimately too aggressive given my fatigue, and I was insufficiently flexible coping with dynamic challenges. I am happy to have run under the arbitrary goal of 10 min/km, but finishing almost 25% behind Boris is unacceptable - especially since he was as tired as I. I must both improve my conditioning and practice orienteering when tired.

Tove ran past me (closest approach of about 10m) on the way to control 2, Valentin ran past me on a trail near 3, and I punched control 3 with Simone. Emily and I crossed paths just after 10 at the top of the hill, which was also fun. I made a point of focusing on my own race at each of these moments, but it was nonetheless very, very cool.

C • A good finale to your Swedi... 1

Warmup to the start of Oringen Etapp 4: the Middle Distance course. I started at 10:05. I also ran about 5 minutes in the woods behind the start as woods warmup that I didn't record.

Etapp 4: Oringen Middle Distance, H21L. The course length was 4.9 km. I had seen an old map of the course at Thierry's 7 Wonders gathering last night, so I had some inkling of what to expect. The map scale was 1:10 for the first time this week, and the area turned out to be fast - runnable, visible, and straightforward. It was a challenge to be perfectly precise, and I was not completely clean.

I had a few major bobbles - chiefly poor route choice errors - that were costly. Physically, I could tell I was tired - I wasn't able to run at 100% the entire race. I really think that I should have been able to run under 39 today, but if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

1: I was reluctant to attack with abandon, so I took a safe but costly route over the hill left of the line. I knew exactly where I was the whole time, but probably lost 20s.
2: I drifted too far right again, reluctant to give up elevation. I cross the marsh and spotted my boulder in the reentrant. 10s lost to deviating right.
3: Straight, reasonably fast and confident. Spike.
4: Up over the top of the hill; spike.
5: Straight on the line, between the marsh and boulder pair, and across the open marsh. I saw the control from the edge of the marsh, but was slow marching up the hill.
6: Cut left to avoid the boulder field, but was sluggish negotiating the rocks. I was tired and slow from my charge down from 4.
7: Right around the cliff, over the spur, attacked down from the cliff/boulder pair. The rock slide was very visible.
8: Side hilled, checked off the cliffs and bare rock. 10s hesitation in the circle about which was my boulder. Slow running.
9: Poor route choice. The first half was ok though not perfect; on the second half, I attacked over a hill and climbed an extra 3 contour lines rather than the riskier but faster attack via the terrace. Maybe 1:00.
10: Right of the marsh, spike. Some hesitation on the approach.
11: Blasted down from 10, checked off the hill and bare rock. Fast.
12: Bad microroute: I entered the rough open immediately and had to fight to march across the stumpy and logged ground. I drifted a little low and was struggling physically; probably 30s lost.
13: Very tired, walked some of the uphill. I drifted right marching through the green and hit the boulder on the spur. This seemed like a fine attackpoint; I crossed the marsh and then became confused in the circle. What I was reading as a hill was actually a depression; I spent about 45s trying to figure it out before spotting my knoll.
14: Around to the right, past the big boulder, over the hill, through the marsh, and down in. I was quite tired, and probably lost 30s on an inefficient route.
15: Hesistant, reluctant to overshoot the control. 10s.
16: Down the hill.

Lessons: I thought this was a fairly easy middle distance, but I made many small mistakes. I was tired and tended to make mistakes after exhausting legs (e.g. crossing the rough open at 12 -> error at 13). I think o-terval training in technical areas would be best for dealing with these short fast legs. I was about 40% back of the winner for my best result this week, which is disappointing.

Tremendous success.

Day 3 of Oringen, H21L was in a new arena location a few km north of Boden. I started strong, but had a weak second half of the race and ran out of energy. I finished 136/173, six minutes behind Boris, ten behind Andrew, and a whopping 46 (60%) behind the winner. While there were glimmers of proficiency, I am overall disappointed with both my physical conditioning and my technical navigation. It is remarkable that my splits almost never broke into the top 100 - out of the 185ish competitors who started.

I began the race very well, nailing the first three controls. Control 4 was a long leg, and while my route choice was good, I executed it poorly. Coming out of a tough physical climb in rough open, I was too sloppy on my traverse over a hill and ended up too high on a spur. I wisely pinpointed my position before attacking, but I lost three minutes on the route and another minute in the circle. I also lost a minute at 5. Control six looked to be tricky - a watering hole in vague green - so I took it carefully. I spiked it, but was slow, almost 100% behind the leader.

Control 8 was a well executed long leg through some of the most pristine woods I have ever seen. I was actually ahead of Boris at control 9 and about 47% behind the leader. I think the best routes to 10 and 15 were long reciprocal side hill traverses of a boulder field; while I chose those routes, I executed the start of 10 poorly and lost 2-3 minutes. More crucially, these legs were grueling, and I was spent 1:40 into the race. I egregiously erred on 16, disregarded the best route on 17, and got lost in a thick green area around 18 for about 7 minutes of loss in the last four controls.

This course was very physical, and I lacked the stamina to complete the course aggressively. Early errors - chiefly at 4 and 5 - were costly and prolonged my race. I needed more strength to handle the rough climb and sidehilling today.

Oringen stage 2. While I was cleaner than yesterday, running conservatively and taking a few safe route choices was slow. Overall, it was quite an improvement over yesterday, and I felt much better in the terrain. The woods were fantastically gorgeous. I finished 11 minutes back of Boris, 27 of Andrew, and a ridiculous 43 of the winner.

Lessons:
- I need much more practice reading 1:15 maps at speed.
- Today, I took a few more trail routes to be safer than yesterday - at 1, 3, and 10. Trail routes can be good for starting races - they build confidence and let you read the map, but they're in general costly. Control 3 probably was four or five minutes slower than running straight.
- I didn't have the stamina for a two hour race today. I was much less able to run aggressively as the race wore on.
- I need more practice attacking each control aggressively and confidently. While I need to improve my ability to stay in perfect contact for an entire leg, I also need to practice knowing when I can lose contact with a "full speed, no mistakes" approach.

Warmup with Alli, Boris, and Martin.