Training Archive: wilsmithIn the 7 days ending 2006-07-29:
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Saturday Jul 29 | ||
| Orienteering race 35:52 [5] *** 5.23 km (6:51 / km) +210m 5:43 / km | |
| spiked:15/15c slept:7.0 | ||
| WOC middle Q.
Well, what to say about this race.... I've had a good long time to think about it, and this is my "note to self" for next year: For me to qualify for an A-final at the moment and in this particular terrain type, I need to: A) feel good physically on race day, B) make good route choices, AND C) execute the routes nearly perfectly. Today was a day when, despite doing (C) just about perfectly, I didn't manage to do (A) very well, and missed some small amount on (B) as well. I'm not sure why things didn't feel well physically, but I really felt like a bag of hammers right from the get-go. I slept OK, ate a normal breakfast some 3:45 before start time (usual for me), and had been doing what is usually an appropriate amount of "taper" training in the weeks leading up to the race. Felt good yesterday and the days before - just not today. It seemed to be compounded by what was probably inadequate warmup time - couple of factors there to consider for next time: - I had a very early start time (can't control that - maybe arrive earlier?), - partway through the pre-race routine I discovered that (for the first time ever in a major international race) I somehow managed to forget my long race socks and it took me some time to round up a replacement pair (thanks Adrian - team leader extraordinaire), and - there was a looooong lineup for the toilets. For some reason they had only 6 toilets, despite having some 200 runners all starting within an hour and most feeling the need to use the toilets at least twice before the race. After a bit of warmup, I lined up for the toilet about 25 min before my race and by the time I got through and on my way to the start there were only 11 min left. So all-in-all the warmup was a bit less than planned, and I felt sluggish the whole way. Although I felt physically out of it, I was mentally on top of the navigation. In retrospect I perhaps lost about 60 seconds on various route choices, but had taken safe routes as a trade-off. Compared to O-Ringen, the execution was a breeze and I feel super-confident navigating in this terrain. Things appeared pretty much as expected and there were no real problems. Late in the race, when I was still feeling sluggish and it was obvious that I would be nowhere near the 30-31 minutes that I had estimated as a cut-off time, I relaxed a bit and cruised in - gave up about a minute to Neil Dobbs, who was running a comparable speed (maybe a little slower) to that point in the race. Overall, I was satisfied with the execution and navigation, and not too down about the route choices. The physical feeling was disappointing, though. I am healthy and I trained well over the last 6 months, but compared to my track times from the 1994-1997 era I am still well off my peak fitness level, despite making considerable improvements compared to my fitness from the past few years. It will come, though. Even at present fitness, on a day of feeling "good" physically I should have expected to run about 31 minutes on this course. With my physical feeling today, nothing better than 34 should have been expected, and I won't beat myself up about the 35:52. It compares favorably to the other North Americans, and regardless I would have needed to be in a heat with a slower cutoff time to qualify, even if I had felt great. Starting early did cost a significant amount of time, mainly because of the vegetation in the first part of the race - it included some chest-high bracken in places, and according to runners who started after me it did definitely track up a lot. I had been hoping for not too much bracken, and it was disheartening to have to waste valuable seconds and even more precious energy in creating a path just so that subsequent runners could run even faster.... It also might have been helpful to have some faster runners go through me, but in today's start draw I had only slower runners behind me until Pasi Ikonen 8 minutes back - and I finished before he did. Oh well - luck of the draw. Have to work harder to earn a better start draw next time, I guess. I am prepared mentally and physically to run the sprint (I finished third in our trials and am the reserve runner for our team), but I am guessing that it probably won't happen. Thus, I will channel my efforts towards the relay. It will surely be a very physically demanding race and I will want to be feeling much better than today. In the meantime, I will use the rest of the week to build on the positive mental and navigation feelings from today, cheer on the Canadian and American teams, spend some time with Katta and Mia when they arrive, and work my way through "How to Practice" by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Oh, and make some adjustments to my O-Manager team... ;-) | ||
| C • Thanks for the write up 3 | ||
| Running warm up/down 45:00 [2] | |
| For the above race - some cool-down with Holger and Jon Duncan at zone 1, but some (frantic) warm-up before the race in zones 2-3 as well. | ||
Friday Jul 28 | ||
| Event: WOC 2006 | ||
| Orienteering 27:00 [3] *** 4.4 km (6:08 / km) +200m 5:00 / km | |
| spiked:16/17c slept:7.0 | ||
| Model middle event on Hjermind Egekrat. Nice little course, pretty smooth throughout, only one real mistake (lost contact briefly in bland green area where visibility was a little lower than expected). Ran up a couple of hills to confirm the legs were good then walked/jogged up the rest through the course. Pretty wet - raining throughout - but felt nice otherwise.
All systems go. | ||
| Orienteering warm up/down 7:00 [1] | |
| Brief warm up and cool down for above (plus waiting in the forest for Mike S and Emil W to get far enough ahead so that I could run alone). | ||
Thursday Jul 27 | ||
| Running 33:00 [1] | |
| slept:7.0 | ||
| Nice and easy run with the Smith clan on the trails in the park close to the school, with a quick side trip to see the beach. Resting today, model tomorrow, then middle Q on Saturday. Things going pretty much according to plan so far. | ||
Wednesday Jul 26 | ||
| Orienteering tempo 39:00 [4] **** 4.8 km (8:07 / km) | |
| spiked:14/17c slept:6.0 | ||
| Steady-state middle distance "race" on Hörbylunde - controls and course set by WOC people.
Pretty smooth in the more technical part - some problems with the long "easy" leg in the middle - rather green and just not too fun. Overall decent - feeling fine for the WOC. | ||
| Running warm up/down 15:00 [1] | |
| For the above. | ||
Tuesday Jul 25 | ||
| Orienteering 39:00 [3] *** | |
| spiked:13/15c slept:5.0 | ||
| Nice training with AZ and Charlotte on Sletten - smoooooth. Compared to O-Ringen, this is waaaaay easier technically. Of course, the speed will have to increase accordingly if one wants a place in the A-finals.... | ||
Monday Jul 24 | ||
| Running intervals 15:00 [5] | |
| slept:7.0 | ||
| Classic "Honken" 70/20 intervals at the summer house on trails with Katta and Henrik. Hard work towards the end.... | ||
| Running warm up/down 37:00 [1] | |
| For the above. Otherwise relaxing today. Nice little trial of the new Prijon sea kayak at the summer house, plus spending time with Mia and Katta, and gorging on Italian beef tenderloin grilled to perfection and accompanied by new potatoes.... Mmmmm. Travel tomorrow, bright'n'early. | ||
Sunday Jul 23 | ||
| Running 47:00 [2] +160m | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| Moderately easy run through the trails in Sundsvall (North Mountain) - letting the legs recover before more intervals tomorrow.... | ||