Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: Flying Pig XVII and Eastern Interscholastic Champs
 

Downloaded data is pending my return to Boston, as my ANT stick is there.

The good about the race: I generally made good decisions, both achilles' tendons held up fine, and I was doing an adequate job reading ahead. I was in second place halfway through the course, but just couldn't hang on.

The bad: I felt sluggish physically, I apparently slowed down after the spectator control, and I hesitated twice when I wasn't sure if a particular feature was crossable. I lacked any zip in my legs, and it took an unusual amount of will to run with any speed. I had already decided that given the questionable achilles, I wanted the option of bailing without affecting my ranking, so I told Valerie to exclude this race from my rankings.

Control by control:
1-3: big open field, no challenges. I ran left of the lake and hopped the walls between 2-3. This was all running speed. The start triangle was at the start, so I was a little cautious for the first few seconds while I oriented.
4: Contour lines were printed over the paths, so I wasn't certain the rightmost path through the olive green existed. Fortunately, it did.
5: Right, up the stairs. I didn't notice the stairs when planning my route, but they weren't terribly costly.
6: Left around the building. I passed two other runners here.
7: Right around NCC-1701, then left into the control. I wasn't sure which stone wall corner the control was in, and left seemed to be the best option.
8: Through the breezeway; in hindsight, I figured this was an error, but it didn't seem to matter.
9: Straight, hopped two crossable walls. Straight to 10.
11: Right around the building, which I had settled on even without considering the stairs.
12: Up stairs, straight.
13: Left around the first building, around the arcing path, past 20, and straight in. I used the small building as a visible guiding feature.
14: Only 1 route.
15: I saw lots of olive green and uncrossable walls, so I stayed high until I cleared all that before attacking. Ali and I were tied here, so I lost all my time on the course to her over 16-24.
16: Apparently, I started slowing down here. There was a guy ahead of me into 16.
17: Took extra care to miss the olive, then ran unnecessarily up and down along the path rather than going straight.
18: Ran to the path, then winded. Saw the tree from far away.
19: Straight.
20: Straight.
21: Probably overly concerned with the paths; I was smoked by Eric, who looked for the bridge and blasted down to the control.
22-24: Trudge and into the finish, briefly into the lead before Ali.

C • I wanted the option of bail... 6

Warmup. HR data is clearly wonky.

Flying Pig sprint race. HR data is still bad, but the pace shows my sluggish movement at the end; perhaps I was more tired than I thought. Some of the speed penalty emerges because controls 16-23 were in a semi-wooded area and had lots of direction changes relative to the earlier open running.

Cool down run with Clem and Ali.

I was displeased with the last third of the course; I hemorrhaged time from controls 16-23, so I reran 14-23. I had rested, so I was fresh, but between running faster and smoother navigation, I shaved 40 seconds off the 6 minutes I spent on this during the course. I need to focus and dig deep for all possible speed at the end of sprint races, which are somewhat opposed goals. The sprint was a little long, but not so much that I should bleed off a minute without any major errors. I wobbled a bunch around 17 during the race primarily because I was concentrating on avoiding some olive green flower beds.

IU_Campus_Sprint_2013_8 Blue - Splits

What now, Anna?

I would encourage people to sign up for the following:
Speedy goat: http://attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_13760
Billygoat: http://attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_11530
Traverse: http://attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_13849

The first two have advance registration, so please follow the links. In addition to supporting the US team, the Speedy goat is one of the few sprint relays in North America. The Sprint relay has been added to the WOC program starting for Italy in 2014, and judging by the IOF's marketing efforts, we will see the discipline more often as it's television friendly. Come to Cemetery Hill and experience it for yourself!

C • Sleep 2

Giovanni's demeanor is vaguely reminiscent of a Blue man from Blue man group.

After work, I went to the War Memorial Pool at CRLS for some DWR. I contemplated stopping early and switching to some other activity in the gym, but I found DWR pleasant enough to continue for the full hour. The lanes were full when I arrived at 7, but the lifeguard let me run in the vacant diving board pool. I initially held a small floaty in my armpit, then found a flotation belt. DWR was a surprisingly demanding workout, especially when I lacked sufficient buoyancy to float in place.

C • Deep water 34

Swam 250m to finish things out. Achilles felt ok albeit tender.

I just noticed the Breton girls had some very fast mile races this past week! I hope I can still beat them over a mile; their speed is phenomenal. It turns out they are almost out-training me, too. I suddenly feel very old.

C • Very old 1

Event: CSU Urban adventure run!
 

Rest day, icing my left achilles. I may have a week of deep water running leading up to Flying Pig, as that seems to be fashionable. I acquired two new pairs of shoes from my local City Sports: New Balance 860s and Asics Gel Cumulus 13s, each for about $50. It has occurred to me that my existing shoes are getting old - my Mizunos have 900 km, and my Road-Xs are minimalist with 400 - and that my high volume could be contributing to recent pain. The Road-X 255s, NB 860s, and Asics Cmls 13s are all very different, so hopefully they will complement each other well. I tried Wave Rider 15s, but the back of the heel cut in to my achilles; the Asics were delightfully comfortable by comparison.

I am considering signing up for this, the Newton 10k in June. The start is early enough that I could still go to the Breakheart event Barb is organizing. The only 10k I have raced was the Bridge of Flowers were the killer climb; I was in post-Lyme shape. I am also considering the Boston Run to Remember half marathon, but the $55 entry fee is a bit discouraging.

Event: NEOC: Harold Parker State Forest
 

Easy warmup run after working registration. My left leg has felt a bit odd lately. I am hoping that the pain is due to the sorry state of my running shoes rather than overuse. My left heel - and what feels like the medial band of my left plantar fascia - have been hurting over the past week in subtle reminders of my state from early April 2012 before my right PF injury. I usually am diligent about stretching my calves, but I have fallen off that lately.

My legs felt ok, so I decided to finish warming up by running the yellow course, as running around the parking lot was boring.

Yellow course by Tobias Karlsson. Earlier in the day, I saw a group of boy scout leaders teaching boy scout O-technique (i.e. wrong technique) to some scouts. I considered intervening with the "oriented point on the map" view of the world rather than the "rotate your bezel" view of the world, but the leaders seemed very confident.

I ran into the same scouts while cruising through the course and later encountered them during control pickup. It seems they got their money's worth out of the expedition.

After working registration, warmup, yellow course, and socializing, I didn't get out on the course until 1 PM. Courses close at 2 PM, so I did my best to hurry.

Today's lesson: don't read about the current winning times before going out on a course. I misread the current leader's 113 minutes as 1:13 = 73 minutes, so I was perplexed when I was only at control 12 one hour into the race. Even had I known that my race wasn't a total disaster, dnfing to get back to the finish when courses closed was the correct decision.

Tobias put together a great advanced course, with very few trail legs. Harold Parker has many interesting areas, but the vegetation is just too dense. I pride myself on my ability to punch through crap, but this was unceasing. There are some parts of the woods that are very nice - e.g. around 7-10, but between the outdated map and the nasty green, the experience was unpleasant. With all the trails mapped correctly, the map could offer some interesting route choice possibilities.

Major kudos to everyone who fought through the course today, and thanks to Tobias for a challenging day.

C • Harold Parker 16

Control pickup. My left achilles flared up near the end. I'm not sure the boy scouts knew that the event is technically a race, as they were having a little lecture series by the last yellow control.

I went out for a second control pickup session; Pete Lane, Scott Turner, and Richard Powers all helped out. Achilles was upset, so I walked almost the entire thing.

Yellow - Splits

Red - Splits