Training Archive: wilsmithIn the 7 days ending 2006-08-05:
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Saturday Aug 5 | ||
| Orienteering race 1:03:00 [4] *** | |
| spiked:20/23c slept:7.0 | ||
| WOC Relay - Himmelbjerget.
Pretty reasonable race, all things considered. My main objectives for the day were to A) get around the course as quickly and as cleanly as I could, and B) do my part to get us ahead of Team USA. I'd be racing against Boris - whom I figured to actually be their top runner these days, particularly given his training and racing over the past 12 months - so I'd definitely have my work cut out for me. Strategically I felt that I was more or less likely to be running on my own out there. Canada has not come in with a pack on the first leg in nearly a decade, so it seemed likely that I would be alone in the forest. In that situation, the focus for me would be to run as cleanly as possible and focus just on my own race - no mistakes allowed. Knowing the first control forking was likely to be identical to the women, Mike and I spoke with Sandy after her race - she had been among the leaders (ahead of Sweden) in the beginning of the relay and she gave some advice on what route choice had worked the best for her and given her that advantage. This turned out to Mike's advantage, and my disadvantage.... Mike handed over to me about 2.5 minutes after Boris had started, and at the handover he told me to "take Sandy's advice". Great, I thought - we're all set - let's go. So I started off on a course following Sandy's route - but was having a hard time to reconcile her advice with an optimal route to my control. We later discovered that her control was quite far from mine (slightly unusual and lopsided forking throughout the relay, actually), and her course was definitely not optimal for me. Of course, I realized this after a minute or so, and then corrected back towards what I figured to be a reasonable way to my first control. I was never "lost" on the leg, but never really felt "happy" on the way to the control either. The route I actually took was suboptimal for sure, but at least I found it cleanly - it was probably the hardest control on the course in my mind. I think I lost about 2 - 2.5 minutes here despite not truly making an execution error - but that's how it goes. From there we had a couple of tough decisions regarding how to handle the green. I went around the first time (good choice - was even faster than Emil Wingstedt on that leg), but went through the second time, and that might have been suboptimal. Still, no execution mistakes and I am running cleanly - and totally alone - I saw exactly nobody through the first 70% of the course. Coming through the spectator control I heard I was about 3 minutes down on Boris - so despite my bad route on number 1 and some concerns about how I handled the green, I'm actually no further behind than when I started. I feel relaxed, and there is no pressure. I will get Boris. As far as I'm concerned, the second half of the course looks to be dead easy, and it really was, despite the spectacular errors that some teams put uip (see the TracTrac website for some eyebrow-raising booms). From the TV coverage I know there will be open bracken and heather for a couple of controls, and am prepared for that. Otherwise it's simple spur/gully stuff without any crucial route choices, and I immediately know I will not lose any time technically on this section of the course - it's just to force my body up the hills and through the bracken and it will be done. I see Boris for the first time at #14, only 6 controls after the spectator passing. A little smile to myself, because I will not lose time to him now - my job in the USA vs. Canada battle is a success.... I punch in at #18 ahead of him and am able to stay ahead through the TV control in the heather, until my calves actually start to cramp up with 3 controls to go! Yikes - legs don't fail me now! Brief thoughts of Holger in the long distance, whose cramps also started with bilateral calf cramping.... Boris goes by me on the way to the penultimate control, but does not exit it cleanly so I am able to stay in contact. The legs are still cramping, especially running through the slash in the cutover area adjacent to the finish arena, but I'm not losing much ground. I actually close it up a little bit on the final stretch in front of the crowd and even entertain thoughts of trying to sprint by, but eventually settle for staying on his tail. I hand over to Patrick, only 2 seconds down on Team USA, with the advice that the last 3 controls are not forked - just in case he has to plan a last-minute sprint against James. From there, there was a moment of concern as I saw them try to download my SI-brick 3 times before the official came to me, grabbed me by the arm, and led me through a maze of barriers to a tent with an official database station. According to them I have mispunched..... Now, I have never, ever mispunched in my life and I am sure as hell not going to start doing that in a WOC Relay, so I have no doubts about having visited all the correct controls. But according to their master list I should have visited #67 instead of #69. I ask them to show me on a map, and I see where #69 is and am sure it was on my competition map, and not #67. So I demand my competition map, and after some quick conferring between race officials they manage to dig it out of the pile.... Lo and behold, my map does indeed have #69 on it (Mike had already gone to #67 in the first leg). A quick reinstatement (they give me the satisfaction of tearing up with little "MP" sign that was about to be attached to my name), and we're all good. Meanwhile, James has had some problems and Patrick has moved comfortably ahead by the spectator control. The outcome was never in much doubt, and after our traditional "finish during the awards" show we emerge victorious over our brothers from south of the border. Yay! Overall, not a spectacular relay, but reasonably decent. I was satisfied to have done my job, having caught Boris on my leg. The bad route to the first control cost me a bit in the beginning, but from the spectator control to the finish I have run the same pace as Patrick, and both of us were well ahead of our American counterparts. It was about as I had expected for a relay outcome, at least as far as my leg went. I think I'm a pretty stable runner both technically and mentally - especially in big international races - and I simply delivered what I always do: a finish result relatively consistent with my fitness on the day. In all my international relay starts, I don't think I have ever run a "bad" race - and in this sort of simple terrain I wasn't about to break that streak. It would have been useful to have seen more runners on my leg (the only runner I ever saw was Boris) to push the pace a bit, but those things you can't really control - and I had prepared for being alone anyway. Would have loved to feel (and be) faster physically today, but such is life. More training required. | ||
| C • Great job 6 | ||
| Orienteering warm up/down 45:00 [2] | |
| For the above. Never felt really great physically (not handling the warmer weather as well as I hoped). Food-wise, opposite problem from the Middle Q - this time I felt REALLY hungry, but it was getting too late to eat. Had a gel before the start but they don't do much for hunger pangs....
More fine-tuning required. | ||
| Other Alternative Training (Beverage sumption) 7 [5] | |
| Taking a page out of the Swampfox pizza sumption log.
Fast-paced and fun banquet. I think I might have lost count of the sumption after all - but did manage to switch over to extortionately-priced (20 DKK for 500mL...) bottled water by about 0100. Sadly, I forgot one beverage in the fridge at the bar (had been traded a warm one and left it there for safe-keeping). But enough was enough. Team body count = 1, but thankfully no medical intervention required. | ||
Friday Aug 4 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 (rest day) | ||
| Another "rest" day - watching the drama at the Middle Distance Final unfold.
Awesome, simply awesome - Holger wins the gold, despite starting in the first third of the field. A looooong 60 minutes of waiting for other runners to finish, and all three medalists within about 10 seconds in the end. Whew! Not sure when (if ever) the eventual World Champion has started so early in the field.... I wrote some thoughts about the day in this Attackpoint thread: http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me... Sad that the Norwegian coaches think he's not fast enough for their precious relay team, though - despite Holger running and winning the first leg and eventual gold medal for Norway in last year's relay. Odd. It's a risky gamble for the coaches - it's already a bit of a controversy amongst the Norwegian media representatives (who were thrilled with yesterday's race, after being thoroughly underwhelmed by the Norwegian men thus far in the WOC). If Norway doesn't win gold, or at least take a medal, there will be hell to pay.... Anyway, amidst all the excitement, I did remember to drink a full two liters of water and Gatorade, plus have some semblance of lunch - it was a decent rest day after all. Smiles all around. | ||
| C • Relay 5 | ||
Thursday Aug 3 | ||
| Running 33:00 [2] | |
| slept:6.0 | ||
| A light run with a couple of pickups with the Aussies and Boris in Risskov. Fun group, good times.
Felt better not to race today - had initially considered running in the WOC Tour event but decided that little was to be gained for me and I'd probably recover better with a jog and a few strides from here. I feel good regarding navigation at the moment - have been almost exclusively on 1:10 000 maps since the beginning of June, and this past week the map reading has been great - have missed time on only 5 or 6 controls out of nearly 100. So not much to gain on the technical side today by racing. Katta and Mia are on their way now - ferry arrives around noon and they should be here in Aarhus by mid-afternoon - yay! This has ben the longest time I've been away from Mia since she was born and I'm really looking forward to seeing them both again! | ||
Wednesday Aug 2 | ||
| Orienteering 49:00 [3] *** 4.4 km (11:08 / km) +205m 9:02 / km | |
| spiked:15/16c slept:6.0 | ||
| WOC Relay Model - Silkeborg Nordskov.
Nice course, although some tracks already (mainly in green forest) from previous runners - it was also the same course as the long model, except with a 1:15 000 map for those guys and a nice 1:10 000 map for us. Lots of little rides in medium green for the beginning of the course that forced either slowing down and reading carefully, or else crashing through and relying on contour interpretation. I did a mix of both as the situation seemed to dictate. Nice and smooth running in the whiter areas - again hard to make mistakes. The one non-spike was a true miss - lost some time looking for the "end of a trail" in a lower visibility area - the trail actually did continue much further than shown on the map and I ran out to the real end before circling around in frustration and being guided into the control by Mike (who had also missed the control). This was a little less than 5% climb, but I could still feel a couple of the hills - two had to be walk/jogged to avoid real exertion. It'll be much hillier on Saturday, especially on legs 2 and 3 (I'm running second) - but we should be able to manage it. In my estimation it would take a miraculous run to come in at the expected winning time, but it just may be possible to come within 4-6 minutes of the leaders with a good old-fashioned clean run and solid physical effort. We're going with Mike S, Wil, and Patrick up against Team USA with Eric, Boris, and James - should be good fun! | ||
Tuesday Aug 1 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 (rest day) | ||
| Resting, watching a fun sprint competition. Unless you count the 3 or 4 minutes of jogging on the spot at the end of the opening ceremony, at the behest of some dude on the stage with a microphone (we pretty much will do whatever they tell us to do these days...).
Way to go Hanny! | ||
| C • Dr. Run Run Run 6 | ||
Monday Jul 31 | ||
| Orienteering 25:00 [3] *** | |
| spiked:16/17c slept:6.0 | ||
| Sprint model - Botanisk Have
Doing my duty as sprint reserve - preparing for the sprint race. Feeling fine, legs actually feel just great even after the large climb yesterday. Made a couple of small route choice errors - nothing major, about 5 seconds each. Got caught out on #11 though - hadn't bothered to wear my control description holder (probably should have for full race simulation, but anyway...) so didn't notice the flag was inside the fence rather than outside. Lots of runners were fooled by this though - heeheehee. All good - planning on relaxing and watching some DVD's this afternoon I guess. | ||
| C • Lebowski? 2 | ||
Sunday Jul 30 | ||
| Orienteering race 37:47 [4] *** 4.3 km (8:47 / km) +290m 6:34 / km | |
| spiked:12/14c slept:7.0 | ||
| WOC O-Tour Open 2.
Almost a perfect relay training race. On Linå Vesterskov, after the long Q race - the terrain description is identical for long and relay, so the training is definitely relevant. I chose Open 2 for the course length (a bit shorter than the relay but great for training), as well as the map scale - may as well stay on 1 : 10 000 maps all along. Super hilly course setting - seemed like I was always going up or down a major slope. At nearly 7% it's much steeper than the long Q races, and even hillier than the relay (which is more like 6% - still major climb). Physically not fully there, but easily understandable since my pre-race preparation, besides racing the middle Q yesterday, included a breakfast at 0730 followed by travel out to the meet site and sitting around in super hot, sunny, and dry conditions until starting my race around 1400, during which time I drank maybe 500cc of water and had nothing more. My own fault, obviously - but I can understand why I didn't feel so great out there. I pushed solidly most of the way though, and had a decent race from a technical standpoint. Lost a little time with a bad route on one control, and stopped to tie my shoelace late in the course and promptly missed the next control by some 50m. Other than that very clean, despite the woods being much more "scrappy" than yesterday's - lots of clumps of dense evergreens scattered around which made it difficult to see controls from a distance (and it was even possible to be just a couple of meters away without seeing them at times). No hotshots in the field so I won by over 6 minutes - probably says more about the competition than myself though. Anyway, the relay will be TOUGH. Really tough to maintain high speed up and down all those hills. On a sub-par day it would be a painful adventure. But I managed pretty well even with poor race preparation (I'll obviously be much better prepared for the relay), and if I'm feeling great on Saturday morning, then watch out.... | ||
| Running warm up/down 30:00 [1] | |
| For the above. | ||