Training Archive: wilsmithIn the 31 days ending 2006-05-31:
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| M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tuesday May 30 | ||
| Running intervals 21:00 [4] | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| Not feeling too bad today so I got my second planned set of intervals in for this "taper" week. On call last night but pretty quiet after midnight so a little more sleep than a usual on call night. However, my planned week off (starting today) got off to a dubious start when I got recruited to take call again tonight.
Anyway, the intervals on the mill were fine - bursts of 3:30 pace at a 6% incline. Exceptionally hot out today (+33 C and fully humid) so this wouldn't work outdoors. That, and I don't dare get too far from home when on call. The Canadian Adventure Racing Champs are going on this weekend in this area, and those poor buggers must be having a bit of a sufferfest in the unusual heat and humidity.... | ||
| C • Sufferfest 16 | ||
| Running 21:00 [3] | |
| Moderate fartlek as a warmup for the above workout. | ||
Monday May 29 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 (rest day) | ||
| Rest day - on call in the ER so no real chance to train anyway. Time was better spent with Mia and Katta (plus a visiting aunt up from the USA for a long weekend). | ||
Sunday May 28 | ||
| Running intervals 21:00 [5] | |
| slept:6.0 | ||
| Only mad dogs and Englishmen.....
It was rather hottish out today (about +30C), so these intervals felt tough. But good training for presumably warm climates this weekend in Edmonton. Did 90-sec on with about 60-sec recovery out on the track. | ||
| C • Mad dogs and Englishmen 3 | ||
| Running 42:00 [2] | |
| Warmup and cool down for the above workout.
Otherwise, the garden and yardwork is coming along really well. The previous house owners were more into flowers - we're more interested in edible (and practical) things. So far we've planted our blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, concord grapes, red currants, black currants, and cherry tomatoes, plus a lovely little apple tree for Mia. Still got some gooseberry bushes to dig in, and hoping to find some blackberries too.... Yummy! | ||
Saturday May 27 | ||
| Running 15:00 [3] | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| Easy jog, feeling waaaayyyy too lazy. Still not feeling quite up to intervals, although they'll have to come soon to fit them in before heading west! Gradually stocking up (or replenishing) on much-needed sleep, though.
Nice hike today for a few hours (unsure of time), but I'll not log it as it was flat and easy and involved a stop for ice cream at one point. | ||
Friday May 26 | ||
| Running 45:00 [3] | |
| slept:4.0 | ||
| Late night on call last night - feeling slow today. Just a little jog to keep things moving. This week's pre-Trials training calls for some shorter stuff and some speed stuff. Wonder when I'll get the latter in???
Mia's doing great and eating well. But not sleeping the best just yet. Operation "GetMoreSleep" is not yet a complete success, although its spinoff "WilSleepsOnSofa" seems to help once I've been awakened one too many times in the wee, wee hours.... ;-) Katta's doing well, although realizing more and more that she should take daytime naps whenever possible too. | ||
Thursday May 25 | ||
| Running 32:00 [3] | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| At least a jog after work to move the legs - but feeling pretty heavy still. We'll see about more tonight - last time I feel asleep before the end of the Ducks-Oilers game.... | ||
Wednesday May 24 | ||
| Other Alternative Training (Stepper) 1:05:00 [1] | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| Tough days - feeling super heavy. A bit of stepper at work to move the muscles. Was hoping to do more but forgot about a dinner party - Mia's first night out. No problems.... | ||
Tuesday May 23 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:3.0 (rest day) | ||
| 'Nother rest day - this one simply because I just couldn't muster enough "get up and go" to make it out the door. Probably just as well - burning the candle dangerously short these days.... | ||
Monday May 22 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:3.0 (rest day) | ||
| Rest day - would have been a rest day anyway, even if I wasn't covering in the ER after a night of (nearly) no sleep. Busy day too - didn't even get a chance to eat supper until I stumbled home well after midnight. Sigh.... | ||
Sunday May 21 | ||
| Orienteering race (Long) 1:41:37 [4] **** 13.5 km (7:32 / km) +330m 6:42 / km | |
| spiked:19/21c slept:5.0 (sick) | ||
| US Team Trials Day 3 - Long distance at Hawn SP.
Ah, this was the day that was so close to being great. I again felt a bit sick before the start and hadn't slept well the night before, but I wanted to get out there and get the job done. I had no real illusions about being able to run a top pace today - I knew it would hurt and that I would just have to battle through somehow. In the US Long Champs I faded after about 105 minutes - with this week of illness I wasn't sure how far I'd make it this time around but I'd give it a go. In the end, it went really, really well except for one control, which went really, really badly. Bad news first: we were told beforehand that some sections of the map had grown up and were greener than mapped. Well, on the way to number 4, I managed to go though one of these sections and my rough compass was sufficiently sloppy that I missed the target, and ended up on a parallel feature. Looked pretty similar, so I searched around - nothing. Searched the next one up - still nothing. Then looked more closely at the map - couldn't actually decide what it was the circle was supposed to be on - still can't really decide even now sitting still and looking carefully. I hope they upload the maps - if they do check out Blue #4. Anyway, I then decided that I should be looking beside the reentrants that I had already searched. So back again - still nothing. Another look around (it's a little bit thick - maybe I missed it - "it's on some kind of vague nebulous feature, or else my circle is off" was my line of thought) - still nothing. Bail out south and lo and behold, there's the flag hanging high in a kind of bland area. One of those locations that if you hit it directly or get led in you think nothing more about it, but if you miss it, you're a very unhappy camper.... Turns out, after looking at splits, that I lost a remarkable 8 minutes there - can't believe how fast the time flew by! Haven't made a mistake like that since August 2004. I guess there's still a lot of learning to do! But the good news: made a great recovery from there and except for a little bobble on the next control (again through greener-than-green), took the rest of the race very cleanly. Even better, the pace I ran actually would have put me in amongst the leaders. Was able to maintain a good pace right through - although I did have to force myself to run up the hills in the end - it was starting to get tempting to walk a few steps.... My time was 101:37 - the winner (a crafty Swampfox) ran it in 91:11. Without the 8 minutes of blundering and dashing around on number 4, I figure I would have actually had a decent shot at the title today. Excellent news considering the past week. On a great day, maybe 85 was do-able. Today, 90 was in reach. But I'm satisfied with my 101 as well - a painful mistake (compounded by unusual control location), but I'll fix that for next time, not to worry. And the legs are there - with some rest and a little more sharpening I'll be "fit for fight" on the long distance at trials, too. | ||
| C • Belated Congratulations! 7 | ||
| Running warm up/down 20:00 [3] | |
| Warm up and cool down for the above. | ||
Blue - Splits | ||
Saturday May 20 | ||
| Orienteering race (Middle) 34:36 [4] **** 5.67 km (6:06 / km) +115m 5:32 / km | |
| spiked:16/17c slept:6.0 (sick) | ||
| Middle distance at S-F Scout ranch.
Still feeling sick and quite tired, but the goal was to race cleanly and see how things stacked up. Middle distance is my favorite and best event, so it felt pretty frustrating to not be healthy and rested, standing on the start line. Did my full pre-race preparations, minus a complete warmup. Felt too awful after even a few minutes of jogging to really contemplate much more than that. Lots of coughing - I'm not usually one for seasonal allergies but after yesterday and today I've been covered in pollen dust and I wonder if that's contributing to coughing so much...? Quite a successful race, no serious problems technically. Took virtually every control aggressively and directly. The only time I tried to take a "safe" route I ended up in an area with too many felled trees to let me read the map and actually lost time versus the straight route. Otherwise, I had to make a detour for some greener-than-expected green on the long leg, but no other major problems. Total loss of maybe a minute. My time of 34:36 was good enough for third. Magnus (also sick) ran a nice steady race to finish in 35:26, good for 5th place. Of note is that we were the only runners in the top 6 to not have contact with any other blue runners on the course - in this terrain it would have been quite useful to have another runner to help push the pace and lessen the chance of missing a control. Still sick, but less sinus and runny nose - mostly coughing and shortness of breath now. | ||
| Running warm up/down 20:00 [2] | |
| Warm up and cool down for the above. Mostly cool down since the warm up felt so bad. | ||
Blue - Splits | ||
Friday May 19 | ||
| Event: US Team Trials | ||
| Orienteering race (Sprint) 15:23 [5] *** 2.62 km (5:52 / km) +75m 5:08 / km | |
| spiked:14/17c slept:2.0 (sick) | ||
| US Trials day 1 - Sprint at UMSL.
Nice day - very warm to me (got up to the mid-high 80's), but that's probably useful acclimatization for Barebones in June. My thoughts and expectations for this weekend are that it'll be a good chance to develop toughness, both mentally and physically, while racing under decidedly suboptimal conditions (i.e. sick, no rest, sleep deprived, first weekend away from baby). I might not have the legs this weekend but I'll give it a fight every time I step to the line. I've been really missing out on running in real pain and discomfort. This will be a good chance to force myself to run hard when it hurts. Race-wise, it was actually pretty decent. Was sitting up in 3rd place by the 8th control or so, but had a few problems from then. My SI didn't register on one post and I lost several seconds struggling with it and eventually punching manually. One bad route choice, one mistake (with the glare I didn't see an uncrossable wall that was pretty much covered by a line between controls that arguably should have been broken), and one more bad route choice. Total miss of about 40-50 seconds, but that was enough to keep me off the top of the list. Ended up 10th, about 50 seconds behind Jon Torrance, the top North American. I will consider that a huge success, considering how the week has gone. | ||
| Running warm up/down 35:00 [3] | |
| Warm up and cool down for the above. | ||
| Orienteering 45:00 [3] **** | |
| spiked:7/8c | ||
| After the sprint, piled into the car and headed south through rush-hour traffic to get to the model event for tomorrow's middle distance event at S-F Scout ranch.
Felt a little bit uncomfortable with the map (though not nearly as uncomfortable as what the others were describing), but realize I'll have to be quite careful tomorrow. Visibility is sup-optimal in places, and the terrain is quite subtle and doesn't have many truly distinct features to aid in relocation should contact be lost.... Still sick, need sleep. | ||
Sprint - Splits | ||
Thursday May 18 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:3.0 (sick) | ||
| Another tough night - not on call but Mia seems to prefer sleeping in the day and being awake at night. Hopefully we can convince her of the benefits (to mom and dad at least) of sleeping when it's dark outside.... Katta is threatening to banish me to the sofa until after our test races so that I can at least get enough sleep and rest to be healthy again.
Nice to have the day off work, though. Lots of little and big household tasks to take care of. Thankfully Ulf and Sigyn are tireless workers and are happy to take care of getting the garden in, the bushes pruned, planting flowers, and so on. We've done a lot this week but it still seems like there are lots more things to do. Mia is (other than staying awake at night) doing wonderfully well and is a real joy to be around at any time of the day. Had intended to play badminton tonight but since I can barely keep my eyes open, it just didn't make any sense. I have to get up at 0300 anyway to make it to Timmins for my flight to St. Louis, plus a weekend away from the girls will be strange. Better to be at home as much as I can for the moment. Plus, I'm still sick as a proverbial dog and rest is likely better than badminton for what ails me. One of the nurses at work also foisted some Cold-FX on me. Started the cycle today and am crossing my fingers that it actually works. I'm a pretty die-hard evidence-based-medicine guy for the most part, but at this stage it seemed that Cold-FX is likely to be in the "probably not harmful, possibly helpful" category and I'm willing to give it a try. | ||
Wednesday May 17 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:2.0 (sick) | ||
| Brutal night in the ER. Home for a little bit around 0100 to help out with feeding and changing and so on, plus just enjoy being around Katta and Mia. But the pager sprang to life at 0130 and back to work I went - an intoxicated and ?suicidal leap from a second-floor window luckily ended up with no truly serious injuries, but by the time the labs, xrays and ultrasound are done, plus everything else, all of a sudden it's after 4am and fatigue is really setting in....
Heavy day in the OR too, especially after only 2 hours of sleep. The list was cancelled yesterday so I could be with Katta and Mia and bring them home, so it got added onto today. Long day and I was very happy to make it home by 8pm. Except for a couple hours of sleep it's been pretty much straight on for nearly 30 hours.... Obviously, too sick to train - and with the lack of rest and sleep it'll probably not get better very soon. Does not bode well for this weekend's races (yes I'm still insane enough to go - with Katta's blessing and encouragement, particularly since she's doing so well with Mia already and she has her parents here as backup). | ||
Tuesday May 16 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:2.5 (sick) | ||
| Not enough sleep last night, but who cares? Things went so well with Mia and Katta that they were allowed to go home this morning, so we're all back at home in Cochrane. Proud grandparents Ulf and Sigyn (vising for the month from Sweden) got their first glimpses of their latest grandchild.
Perhaps rather stupidly, I agreed to take call tonight so that I could have both Thursday and Friday off this week. Pretty busy so far with a couple of admissions already - hope it doesn't get too bad overnight. Still too sick to train. | ||
Monday May 15 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:5.0 (sick) | ||
| Officially sick - nose running everywhere, cough, and short of breath on exertion. Plus the HR goes way up just walking up a flight of stairs..... Not good, with a little one (hopefully) on the way today! | ||
| Note | |
|
It's a girl!!!! We had a beautiful healthy baby girl this evening at 22:24. Katta did wonderfully throughout the labor and it was as smooth as anyone could hope for. Amazing experience! Mia Katarina Smith weighed 3333gm and was 48cm long. Healthy right from the very beginning, and already learning to breastfeed, so we're very, very happy about that! Both mom and baby are doing well. | ||
| C • Congratulations! 4 | ||
Sunday May 14 | ||
| Other Alternative Training (Badminton) 1:20:00 [1] | |
| slept:5.0 (rest day) | ||
| Nice night out at badminton. This was to be a rest day, but hey - can't miss out on the badminton too.
Starting to come down with a little cold / URTI / LRTI. Probably something to do with an unusually long work week last week - 114 (!) hours over 7 days.... But now I'm not on call (excepting real emergencies) until the 22nd, so that will be good. Although with a little one coming soon, I may yet be looking at last week as "those nice and easy days".... | ||
| C • easy days 2 | ||
Saturday May 13 | ||
| Running intervals (Hills) 16:00 [5] +250m | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| Hill intervals, as promised. Almost didn't go, since a friendly but drunken woman who fell down needed an anesthetic to reduce and cast her fractured wrist, and threw off the day's training schedule.
However, after putting together a new barbecue (a real struggle - Centro BBQ manufacturers have a LOT to learn from IKEA, for certain), I did manage to drag out the old carcass for a bit of a run. The intervals were in the old sand pit by the golf course - this section was moderately-steep (still runnable with effort), about 25m of vertical. I ran up at high intensity (>95% MHR), and cut the pace a little on the way down to allow the rate to drop to between 85-90% MHR. Each loop takes 90-100 sec, and I did it 10 times - was getting late for dinner, was my excuse for not doing more. Should be a good type of workout to prepare for DK, I guess. | ||
| Running warm up/down 33:00 [3] 5.5 km (6:00 / km) +100m 5:30 / km | |
| Warm-up and cool down for the above. | ||
Friday May 12 | ||
| Running 45:00 [1] | |
| slept:7.0 | ||
| Nice and easy run on the mill (on call so can't go far, plus it's raining out again...). | ||
| Strength 15:00 [3] | |
| A full set of "the usual". Been a little while, so I may be sore tomorrow. But still hoping to do some (steep) hill intervals tomorrow post-call. | ||
Thursday May 11 | ||
| Running long 1:41:00 [3] 20 km (5:03 / km) +150m 4:52 / km | |
| slept:7.0 | ||
| Long run around the 20K loop - mainly dirt roads and a bit alongside some pavement. Overall pretty flat, with a couple of smaller hills in the end. I can also add in lots of harsh little climbs on the ski trails when energetic - but today it was only about +5 C, windy and spitting a little rain, so all I wanted to do was get the job done. | ||
| Other Alternative Training (Badminton) 1:02:00 [1] | |
| Fun night out, the usual crowd. Plus a cameo appearance by - of all people - Katta!
Yes, on her due date, she was still out there on the court - pretty impressive. Mobility was notably limited, but she did well. Still, it wasn't enough to coax Baby Smith into action (yet).... | ||
| C • Could it be a deterent? 8 | ||
Wednesday May 10 | ||
| Running intervals 15:00 [5] | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| Intervals on the track. Wow, it's been a looonnnggg time since I've been out on a 400m track. Years, actually. But I think it'll do me some good - the yucky tasting medicine always seems to work best... ;-)
This really reminded me of how light and easy it was to grind out 3-minute kms. Not. Well, I guess I have to start somewhere. | ||
| C • Something about 3-5 hours of s... 6 | ||
| Running warm up/down 32:00 [2] | |
| Warm-up and cool-down for the above. | ||
Tuesday May 9 | ||
| Running 42:00 [2] | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| Moderate mini-fartlek on the mill (slave to the indestructible pager again tonight...). | ||
| C • Big Day 4 | ||
Monday May 8 | ||
| Other Alternative Training (Golf) 1:01:00 [1] | |
| Ah yes - a nice walk spoiled. The local surgeon is an avid golfer, so this was a social outing. It's been years since I've golfed, so this was an interesting experience. We played 9 holes, of which 3 were par, 2 were bogies, and 4 were "awful". Total time a little over 2 hours but I'll log this at 50%, as BMay does for paddling. | ||
| Mountain biking 46:00 [3] | |
| Short but sweet. It's been dry enough to firm up the singletrack and doubletrack (mostly well-traveled snowmobile trails, thankfully sans snow) around town. I've been itching to get the Epic out on the trails again, and today was (finally) the day.... | ||
Sunday May 7 | ||
| Running long 1:51:00 [2] | |
| slept:3.0 | ||
| Long and easy run today. It was actually on the treadmill - I'm in the early of a tough stretch at work including four 24-hour shifts in the ER, and I don't dare get too far away. That pager sometimes feels like a real ball and chain around my ankle....
Bad night of sleep last night - the usual "beer bottle vs. head" type of episodes around closing of the bars, making for irritating trips into the ER to sew up intoxicated and highly talkative (but usually wimpy) young guys. At least tomorrow I only work in the OR, so no drunks to deal with.... | ||
| C • ER stories 2 | ||
| Other Alternative Training (Badminton) 1:15:00 [1] | |
| Nice night out, doubles, cut short by a STAT page to ER. Sigh. | ||
| C • Page 4 | ||
Saturday May 6 | ||
| Running 1:01:00 [1] | |
| slept:6.0 | ||
| Mixed light fartlek - some in Z2 but most in Z1 so log it there. | ||
Friday May 5 | ||
| Running long 1:30:00 [2] | |
| A bit of a run to explore the area now that the snow is gone (never mind that it was +1 C and snowing - lightly - during my run today; that's gotta be an anomaly...). Anyway, to my surprise, there is actually a 400m track at one of the local high schools - that'll be fine for some speed running when the baby comes. Of course, it's a simple dirt surface with no discernable lane or distance markings. I don't think we'll be hosting any Golden League races here anytime soon - but you make do with what you've got.
Otherwise, I discovered a nice gravel and sand pit with some steep slopes and some slopes of lesser incline. The altimeter says it's 31m from top to bottom, so that should be adequate for hill training. The pitch ranges from "unrunnable" down to "shift gears down a notch but keep on grinding", and encompasses the steepness of the hills that Mike and I noted in the Himmelberget area, so this will be my DK hill training area I guess. The ski trails are officially snow free now, but wet in places, largely due to some rather ambitious beavers. Sadly, I managed to drop my pager into some swamp water and it's now out of service, at least for the moment. Sigh.... | ||
| C • baby runnin 4 | ||
Thursday May 4 | ||
| Running 41:00 [3] | |
| slept:7.0 | ||
| Starting to move up a little in training - will try to do a double workout somehow today, if I can convince myself. There is rain, wind and even pea-sized hail pelting down at the moment, though, so it may take a little more than the usual motivation to step outside.... | ||
| Other Alternative Training (Badminton) 2:05:00 [1] | |
| Only 4 of us so straight doubles the whole time. What with all the recent orienteering, it turns out it's been a long time since I've played badminton. And it shows - I managed to be on the losing side in every game (though I'd like to think I didn't cause all that singlehandedly....). | ||
| Strength 8:00 [2] | |
| Easy mixed workout before badminton got going. | ||
Wednesday May 3 | ||
| Running 30:00 [2] | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| Again a light run only - legs just a little bit sore and should be able to handle something more, once I can find the time. | ||
| Strength 15:00 [3] | |
| Mixed - core, upper and lower. | ||
Tuesday May 2 | ||
| Running 30:00 [2] | |
| slept:7.0 | ||
| Easy run - busy on call in the ER most of the day so no time for anything more. | ||
Monday May 1 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| Rest day - legs just felt too sore plus we were pretty busy at work all day. Recovery definitely needed anyway and will play it by ear from here. | ||