Training Log Archive: iansmith

Run from the bus to the start. I actually got lost and ran down the wrong trail with Nadim before turning around, but I arrived at the start with about 5 minutes to spare.

Classic race; my Garmin was dead, so no data. I was in a good state psychologically coming into the race - I didn't know who was starting around me, I was focused on my own performance, and I slept pretty well the night before. The woods immediately turned out to be much greener than I expected, with stabby scraggly shrubs thoroughly dispersed. About a third of the map was green slash. The navigation wasn't difficult; most of the challenge was route choice and negotiating the green and climb.

I had a solid run, but there is much opportunity for a better race. Controls 1-4 were fine, but I made a sluggish attack up to 5, going too low on the spur and surrendering some climb. For reasons I don't quite understand, I lost 30s on a trivial two minute trail leg to 7. I had a good time to 9 (though lost to Zach Schroeder on red), but then lost 30s on a short easy leg through white woods to 10.

I chose the best route to 11 and narrowly eked out a fastest split (via the two hunter's stands), but chose to run on the road to 12 and lost over a minute on that route choice. I fared somewhat well with the green bashing on 13-16, though I was seriously disenheartened. I was very discouraged around 15, after I crawled through some pokey stabby stuff to get to the road. Controls 17-24 were all fine, though I kept losing time to ebone especially, who put the hammer down.

I was delighted to find myself in third, less than two minutes down on Will and Eric, but Kenny, Sergei, and Eddie didn't run today, so the field was pretty thin. I especially need to become a faster runner - I'm unacceptably slow both in the woods and on trails. The AP graph is informative. The two stupid minutes I lost on 5, 7, and 10 plus the minute on route choice to 12 were more than enough to push me out of contention, though the four of us stayed close to each other in the results. Kudos to (new nemesis) Will Enger for an excellent showing this weekend.

C • #7 3

C • Nemesis??? 5

White Clay Creek - Blue - Splits

Event: 2014 US Relay Champs and Intercollegiate Champs
 

Not a great race; hemorrhaged time with some bobbles. Just not feeling all that fast. I was utterly stomped by Eddie and ebone, and solidly beaten by Kenny. Time was 48 minutes over 7 km.

NABOCC: A club in crisis. After a 40-point drop in my score from the warmup game to the championship game, the membership of CSU Bowling has moved for a vote of no confidence in my leadership of the club. This is somewhat problematic, as CSU Bowling lacks any other members to take my place. It has been suggested that the leadership pass to a foreign entity, e.g. feet. "If it worked for the British in 1689, why can't it work for us?"

The 2nd leg, a 7 km blue course, for NEOC's 3-pt relay team. Giovanni put the hammer down on the first leg, but Jeff Saeger had a solid run and came in about 20s down on Tori Borish. I took off after Eric, hoping to make up some time on Kenny's 5+ minute lead so Patrick would be within striking distance. I ran quite hard - perhaps too hard - trying to close on Eric, and I was starting to make some progress at 3. Control 4 was forked, and I made a 30s error near the circle after Eric and I parted. Controls 5-7 were fine, though I hesitated for about 10s at 6. Eddie came up beside me at 7 (and asked "Is this dee lead?"); in my oxygen-deprived state, I had forgotten that he started before me, so I thought he was catching me.

En route to 8, Eddie was going high, so I made a dumb mistake to go low instead. If I had been running alone, I think I would have run high. I lost at least 20s on that route choice. When I got to 10 (small depression), Eddie was gone, and I didn't see the flag for 30s. On the long leg, I got slowed a little in some green - probably not a great route choice, and saw Kenny running the other way. I lost over a minute to Eddie's mystery left route. Controls 11-14 were fine, but I really struggled to push hard near the end. Mostly tired and overly hot. Came in 4th a dismal seven minutes back of Eddie and Eric.

Warmup and short cool down.

Despite my underwhelming performance, the great victory for the weekend was NEOC's turnout - we managed to muster 4 relay teams and 13 total people at an A-meet 300+ miles away. This has been the first NEOC turnout in the three relay champs I have run for CSU (2011-2013); while I was sad to not run with my CSU peeps, I think my presence with NEOC was more valuable. There are quite a few usual suspects that were missing - Magnus, the Halls, bgallup, Jeff Schapiro, Meg - but we had a nice mix of old guard and newcomers. Camaraderie was good, and much fun was had. I had a very pleasant drive home with Patrick and Phil, who are NABOCC champs. Phil only rubbed it in a little.

River run.

There were ludicrous winds as I warmed up.

More Tiomila training. I wasn't happy with how I was moving through the woods today. I felt a bit sluggish. I started hesitant and tentative with my night navigation, but started growing more comfortable. I was reading an old (2012) course from the old Prospect Hill map, and parts of it were quite confusing.

I hadn't charged my headlamp since before the Skyline run, and it completely died after control 8. I navigated with my backup light for a little while before deciding to call it a night.

C • Tiomila training 1