Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: NEOC: Blue Hills Traverse and Regular Meet
 

2014 Blue Hills Traverse. I finished second, five minutes behind Ethan. In the 2012 Traverse and the 2014 Billygoat, I felt like I grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory and managed to find a way to lose the race. This race was different; I just didn't have it today, and despite my relatively clean run, Ethan easily had the better performance. I think I lost this race in the past eight weeks of poor training and the past week of poor sleep.

I arrived at Houghton's Pond at 10:35, quickly registered, and bummed a ride from Aims. We made it to the start with five minutes to spare. I settled into the trail run to 1 just behind Ari, and I felt crappy with no warmup. The course this year was built around two large butterfly loops, which did a great job of chopping up the field but setting up interaction among runners across the field. I ran the first butterfly almost alone among the leaders; only Giovanni was with me for the first few controls. I saw Ed, Jeff Schapiro, and Dean near the end of my second loop.

I arrived cleanly to 10, where I saw Ethan for the first time since control 2. I was glad to see him, as I suspected I wouldn't be able to keep up. We took slightly varied routes to 11 - I ran on the road, while he took some trails - but I came into the control 50m behind him. He spent perhaps 45s at the water stop at 12, while I took my Gu on the run in, downed a cup of water in 10s, and continued on my merry way. My strategy was to keep up a steady pace the entire race rather to try to break away, as I figured the second butterfly would split us up again. Ethan caught up to 13, and we took similar but separate routes to 14. Apparently I passed him, as he caught up to me again on a trail. We punched 14 and 15 together, then as expected given our assigned maps, had different loops.

The long trail/road run to my 16 (171) was tough. I did not feel the reserve of strength and energy that I'm used to, and it took a lot of mental determination to slog up the hill. I was clean but unspectacular to 16 and 17 - I overran 17 by about 20s before turning and seeing it above me and to the right. I made a 45s mistake on 18 - overrunning it and bouncing off the trail when the contours didn't make sense to me. I ran left to the butterfly control, taking the trail running from due north. Controls 20 and 21 were nothing special - I ran into Ed again, and I pushed hard in the off chance I had built up some time on Ethan. As I ran into the finish, to my dismay, I saw Ethan munching on cookies. C'est la vie.

I managed to lose about 1 min/km on the second butterfly to Ethan. Some of that was small mistakes, but I was definitely slower on the road and trail runs. I was unsurprised by this showing. I didn't get much sleep this week because of the Broad retreat, a poster, and a talk I gave. I also helped with the Traverse rec courses, offering suggestions and assisting John Kernochan in his first meet. I think my training has been poor enough that I was a very long shot to win even with rest. Kudos to Ethan for a great performance today - first individual win and third consecutive win. :)

C • Butterfly Loops 4

A little cool down jogging. The hamstrings said ow. My left calf hinted at a cramp near the end of the race, but nothing transpired.

Traverse - AC - Splits

John, Jeff, and I showed up at 11 AM to take care of rec courses. Jeff grabbed three remote Green controls that were near the last few Traverse controls he was setting, I took the intermediate dozen controls, and John took the numerous near controls. We left about a dozen out of 40 controls for Sunday morning for John and Pete. Everything was in order before I sent pdfs to John to print Saturday evening. We used Staples, but the quality was adequate, and the speed and convenience were excellent.

Vetting rec courses at Blue Hills West with John Kernochan. He designed the courses, and I offered feedback and changed a number of control locations. The general form of the courses were still his, and I thought he did very well for his first local meet. We visited all but five remote Green control locations; I had previously visited three of those locations.

Easy morning run. I have a niggle in my left achilles.

C • oatmeal 1

C • Do you also have a bustle in your hedgerow? 1