Training Log Archive: iansmith

After a sluggish morning, I went out to the Fells to run the Red-Y Long course. I was continuing the theme of preparing for the classic champs next weekend by running two long courses this weekend, but I didn't run this course as hard as I would have under race conditions. I felt ok - wasn't as tired as I expected, which is encouraging, but my average HR was a modest 154.

Darkness was falling as I finished, so I had some trouble reading the map on the last ten controls. I stopped my watch two or three times for short periods when dogs came over to investigate me. I wasn't worried about my safety, but I didn't want the dogs running away from their owners while they chased me.

Apparently, I completely overshot control 8 where I made a parallelish error and miscounted reentrants. Oops. This is another example of the main lesson from this weekend: don't lose focus. I had a few bad route choices - to 9, I think it would have been better to go left; probably should have gone left into 21; and I had a little adventure getting to 24. I do think I had the best route to 18.

Quickroute

Red-Y Long - Splits

Warmup at Ridge Hill, a defunct NEOC map about 1 km west of Needham Town Forest. The land is part of Needham's Ridge Hill Reservation. I ran with a 1980 map, and it was acceptable, though with 5 foot contours. Point features were sparsely mapped, and some trails and buildings have changed.

Conditions were chilly: about 3-5 C with a steady drizzle and 2-3 cm of snow on the ground. I was soaked by the end, but not terribly uncomfortable.

C • Ridge Hill 8

Run to the start of the Powissett Blue course.

My objective today was a race simulation. I warmed up on Ridge Hill - though for longer than I planned, then did everything I will do at the classic champs next weekend. I taped my laces, brought my mind into pre-race focus, organized my equipment, wore a control description, and hydrated.

The cold conditions were challenging, even though the rain had stopped. The temperature and snow on the ground by themselves would have been inconsequential, but the pine trees were laden with water, and each collision was like taking a cold shower.

My focus today was on going hard the entire race; I didn't do that well, as my average heart rate fell off after about 35 minutes. I lost my focus leaving control 10 and wasn't confident of my position; rather than fumble around, I relocated, even though it turned out I was on track. My lesson from today is that maintaining mental focus is crucial for long races.

I lost contact on the way to 4, where the rock walls and trails I was encountering did not meet my mental picture. I was careful to check the orientation of all linear features with my compass after my mistake at Sessions Woods in December. I slowed on my approach to 8 after tripping over two streamered strings; I hope I didn't interfere with some experiment.
The map around 16 is dubious; the map contours did not seem to match reality. I wonder if going around to the right at 20 is better than straight; I considered checking after the course, but I was tired.

Quickroute. It should be noted that I had considerable difficulty mapping my track to the map, even for points at which I was completely sure of my location. I suspect the Powissett map is considerably distorted.

C • distorted 2

After eating some food, I drove over to Turtle Pond to evaluate its suitability for events. I felt pretty wasted from running and being so cold, so I moved pretty slowly. Several things were apparent:

- The terrain at Turtle Pond is reasonably interesting with good contour detail
- The vegetation is very gnarly; it was bad at times today, and in the summer and fall, it will be atrocious
- The map is woefully outdated; rock features and trails are inconsistent
- Parking is a challenging - there is a high school on the west edge of the map and a small (~25 car) parking lot on the main road through the map
- There is a busy, 40 mph speed limit road through the center of the map that makes map traversals treacherous

I haven't decided if I will try to incorporate it into the schedule, but any such use would be contingent on a map update. I should note I was running with a 1990 pre-printed version of the map, and that Jon Campbell made some updates to the map in 2004 or 2005 that will mitigate some of the map concerns.

Blue - Splits

Woooo, go Tove!

CSU indoor track workout. A cold, wintry mix of precipitation was falling as I set out for the track workout, so I abandoned my plan to run their in favor of the T. I arrived at about 7:30, since I run faster than the B line to find the group well into the 6x1000 workout (alternating 10k, 5k paces). I tacked onto the fast group for their last three intervals and ran a fourth on my own. Alee and Magnus were in attendance from the orienteering group.

I'm reasonably sure the HR data is spurious because I didn't die during the workout. I warmed up with a kilometer of easy running and strides, and cooled down with a relaxed 600.

4x1k: 3:26, 3:35, 3:30, 3:40

After retrieving some boxes of old NEOC maps from Barb's, I went on an evening run in light freezing rain. Conditions were chill: 2° C, drizzling, with a wind of 25 kph. It was intermittently uncomfortable, notable at exposed bridge crossings. I wore SL shirts (a heavy L), tights, and gloves. My original plan was just to run about for 50-60 minutes, but I revised that to include cruise intervals of 4x5 min with 1 min recovery.

I was damp when I finished, and I noted some tightness in my right achilles tendon.

I am listening to book 3 of The Hunger Games; the series has a dystopian premise, but is mediocre at best. Much of the appeal is directed at the target audience of young adults, with a disturbing amount of imagery and description devoted to fashion, and an absurd premise that the feelings and romantic entanglements of the protagonists could somehow have global ramifications. zzzz. Also, two of the protagonists use bows and arrows (albeit with some upgrades) to destroy sophisticated hovercraft. Laughable.

Approximately 8 minutes strength mini-session:
25 repetitions (or breaths, for static exercises) of tuckups, oblique crunches, plank, leg lifts, kayakers, tuckups, oblique crunches, superman

Evening run along the river. My lower legs felt odd - I hyperextended my left knee a few times forcing my way through Baldwin Hill on Sunday. Conditions were cool: 1° C and still; I wore SL shirts, tights, and gloves.

While my training has made some progress, it is below my ambitions. A comparison to 2010, my best training winter:
Jan-Feb 2010
Jan-Feb 2012

Still getting out-trained by PG, especially if you only compare running and O.

There is more variety in my 2012 regimen, but they're otherwise similar. I had hoped to be at about 210 miles (in accordance with a 1300 mile/year goal) of running and 20-30 hours of O. I will increase my trail running, O-training, and orienteering competition in the next few months, all of which have a lower marginal punishment cost to my body than does road running.

Lessons from the Sycamore Scramble A-meet, February 2010. My plan for the next two weeks: hard week, easy week; get lots of sleep, stay healthy, be in prime condition on race day.

C • Confused 4