Training Log Archive: iansmith

Very easy jogging around the start to loosen up.

US Championships Long Course, Letchworth State Park. I didn't feel particularly energetic, but I was well rested and fed. The middle of my left foot near my arch had been intermittently hurting coming into the race. I spent about ten minutes checking out the model area in the parking lot and getting into the 1:15 scale, and I had glanced at the old version of the map.

I wanted to take the first control cleanly even at the expense of taking it slower, as I botched the first control at the 2012 NAOC long. Unfortunately, while I was basically on my line, I lost around 90 seconds when things didn't make sense and I backtracked. I took a weaker route choice to 2 compared to most Americans, and quite a bit worse than Theo for a loss of 1-2 minutes. I was very solid on 3 and 4, but lost 20s on 5. To 6, my left arch started acutely hurting while I was running on the trail, so I backed off a bit.

I chose the obvious best route to 8, and took the 30s slower, higher trail route to 9. I ran back through the start triangle to 10, which I think was a solid route. I missed 11 by 30s to the left and hit the stream. To 12, I got a little creative and was slower, though correct for a loss of ~30s from hesitation. I was aggressive to 13 and 14; I caught and passed Ian Jones and a Canadian. My foot started hurting again as I was climbing after the road to 15, and Jones and the Canadian caught up to me. We ran together to 16, and I pulled away to 17. I ran too high too 18 for 15s, and an intrepid cadet pulled ahead to 19. Schirminator caught me at 19 to my great chagrin, and I chose a stupid path to descend to the trail.

Overall, it was a decent effort, but my fitness was too poor to be competitive. I'm happy to have beaten some people and placed as well as I did, but to quote Tove, the results don't determine the race quality. Many of the other Americans had messy races. I finished 4th American, 8 minutes behind ebone, and an eternity behind visiting Big Frenchman Theo.

C • ...results don't determine the race quality... 2

Easy cool down jogging around the parking area with Boris. We played splits, ruminated on Boris's breaking of Kenny, and talked trash. Good times.

C • Sleeping bag 3

Long Blue - Splits

Event: 2014 US Nationals
 

Easy run to wake up the legs around Rochester with Giacomo and French visitors Teo and Robin. Good times.

Jog to the start followed by some drills. I felt a bit sluggish.

US Sprint Champs, Genesee Valley Park, Rochester. My training has been laughable over the past few weeks as a combination of injury, illness, work, and poor life organization. I'm very disappointed with what I have done, but these are still the biggest two weekends of 2014.

Today's course was not particularly technical - it was a runners' course, with not much climb, in a wide open park not unlike Boston Park-O parks. I felt ok at the start after a good warmup, and I pushed hard with confidence the whole race. I caught Sergei Fedorov at control I had a few small mistakes:
- at 3, I unnecessarily took the left stairs for 5s,
- Some small hesitation at 6
- 15: an uncrossable fence transitioned to a crossable fence, but the crossable fence wasn't on the map. I looked at my map, saw double hash marks, and ran perhaps an unnecessary 100m around the edge when I could have hopped it. I'd guess I lost 20s.
- 20: route choice; I didn't think to punch through the green, 10s.

Overall, a good effort, but lackluster physical conditioning meant that I was too slow to contend. I'm happy to have been only a minute behind Eric and Ethan, but we were all shellacked by the Canadians today.

C • Nice run! 2

Cool down.

Sprint Blue - Splits

BAOC Calero State Park A-meet Day 2, Blue course.

C • Nice race! 1

Blue Day 2 - Splits