Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: 2014 Canadian Champs
 

About fifty minutes before my start, I scooted over to the warmup map, scoped out the terrain, and ran a few legs. I felt suitably warmed up after this session, so I didn't do any additional running before the race.

Canadian Championships, M21E Middle Distance, WRE. Map: One Duck Lake. Overall, I had a very solid but not spritely quick race and turned in a good performance when many others had errors. I finished fifth out of 50 and beat the other two Ians in the competition.

The terrain was very technical - apparently like Salmon La Sac map, and much like Harriman's rock and contour features but with thicker vegetation. I was incredibly happy to jog around the sample map, a 0.25 km^2 chunk of map adjacent to the course. The temperature was over 90 F, and I was definitely feeling the heat by the end of the course. The woods had a lot of ankle busting rocks and log scotch from dense patches of fallen trees.

The good: I ran a very clean race - I had some bobbles near the end as I started to get tired. My biggest execution error was about 45s at 15, but otherwise, I had nothing bigger than 30s. With one or two exceptions, I did a good job reading ahead, choosing good attackpoints, simplifying intelligently, and interpreting the map quickly.

The bad: I lacked much oomph, and near the end wasn't able to keep up with Will Enger and another guy whom I had caught. While I'm thrilled to have finished as high as I did, I was over seven minutes behind Thomas Nipen and Will Critchley. I also failed to meet my (arbitrary) goal of running under 40 minutes.

Stuff to work on: wood speed with bad footing (O-tervals), low-visibility navigation (Night/corridor-O), endurance and tenacity in the heat (tempo and long runs in hot conditions), executing "full speed, no mistakes."

Results.

C • F? 5

Middle M21E - Splits

Easy run around Creekside Village in Whistler with Will Enger. I drove up with Lori to Seattle today, picked up my passport from Alee, and wandered around Discovery Park with Presto. We then met up with Patrick and Gina Nuss and Will Enger, drove through some stunningly beautiful vistas of Howe Sound and the Strait of Georgia, and arrived in Whistler just after 10p.

I decided to go out for an easy run to loosen up my legs after hundreds of miles of driving, and Will decided to tag along.

Let it be known that I have joined the illustrious ranks of people who have forgotten their passport while departing on an international orienteering expedition. It wasn't so much that I forgot my passport - just that I forgot I needed it going to Vancouver. I discovered this after I had landed in San Francisco. Fortunately, I have amazing friends (Keith and Alee) and a great landlord who collectively got into my apartment, obtained my passport, and SuperUltraMegaFast Priority mailed it to Alee in Seattle. Had I failed to get my passport, I would have loitered in Seattle until Wednesday, but it is far preferable to get to the Canadians.

Preliminary photos.

C • passport story? 4

Run with Peyton around Stanford. GPS didn't locate satellites for a little while; we started at the finish location.

Actual time: 2:40. Hike with Veronica in Mt. Diablo State Park. We ascended quite late, so the sun set just as we crested the ridge. We descended with flashlights. It was an improvised adventure, with no well defined objective.