Training Log Archive: wilsmith

Full of good intentions of training once we returned home, but a flurry of really, really, really last-minute tax filing activity prevented me from leaving the house, in all good conscience. My accountant is going to kill me....

US Relay Champs - 4 point teams - leg 1

Well, no other Falcons to run with us, and the rest of the Canadians had decided to enter club teams rather than make a real go of the Canada/USA Challenge Cup, so what to do? Katarina and I ran the 4-leg relay together, with myself on the first and 4th legs, and Katarina running back-to-back legs in the middle. Great opportunity for training, at the very least. Although we were worth 8 points, we decided to race in the 4-point division to run against the fastest teams.

After yesterday, I knew it would be tough to run two legs in the relay, so pacing would be important. At the same time, our goal was to stay among the leaders as long as we could. We anticipated being with the leaders after 2 legs, and then falling behind as other teams put out faster runners with fresh legs.

The terrain for this race featured relatively detailed topography (kettle/moraine), with good visibility in the forest as there were no leaves out yet. Will Hawkins set quite interesting courses that used the best forested bits, and in a bid to make the event spectator friendly, a good portion of the course was on grassy lawns on the hilly field surrounding the start/finish areas, with multiple controls in clear view of the spectators.

The race started out relatively well. I was tired from the beginning, and even by the 3rd control we faced the first real uphill, which began to tire my legs. I managed to keep up a decent pace, and was pretty clean through the first portion. After the 4th control I was in the lead, with Laszlo on my shoulder. I made a mistake on the (forked) 9th control, losing about 45 seconds. Luckily, Laszlo missed his fork as well, and I was able to get out to a lead of almost a minute for a couple of legs. Unfortunately, I missed #12 by nearly a minute, and when I punched in, Laszlo had re-appeared. From that point, we were together through the spectator areas, until the next forkings. The last section of the race had two forkings, and on both of them I had the longer fork, adding about 200 m and some extra climb to my leg - that was enough for him to get away and finish about a minute clear of me.

Impressive times by relative newcomer Michael Lucente (2 minutes behind me), and Emily Kemp (3:35 behind me).

Warm-up and cool down for leg 1, mainly on the model map. Nice area, and model areas are always appreciated by me. However, the model controls I visited were not placed on the correct features, which I suppose may have thrown off some of the less experienced runners.

C • ? 4

US Relay Champs - 4 point teams - leg 4

Compared to yesterday, we made a number of improvements to our preparation to prevent the physical collapse that happened in the sprint from repeating itself: 1) babysitting for Mia, 2) strictly limited fluid and gel intake, 3) avoid excess heat/sunlight, 4) allergy medications. These all made a big difference, and I felt way better preparing to run the 4th leg. Still, I knew the other guys had fresh legs, and it would be tough just to hang in there with the faster guys.

Katarina ran two excellent legs in the interim. As expected, she had built a clear lead after the 2nd leg, and then bravely went out on the third leg trying to defend her hard-won lead against some fast guys, including Brian Graham and Greg Balter, both of whom were hot on her heels at the end of the third leg, and both of whom were running for good teams with solid anchor leg runners.

In the end, she even sent me out in the lead, which was far better than any of our own expectations. I went out just a few seconds ahead of Sergei Zhyk, and maybe 1.5 minutes ahead of Jon Torrance. It was a real battle right from the beginning, and Sergei was actually the first to leave the spectator area. We took different routes to the 4th control, but arrived simultaneously. From there, were were shoulder-to-shoulder until #13, when he went down the wrong spur and ended up losing 2 minutes. I never saw him after that, but knew that Jon was storming along quite close behind.

I entered the open area with a small lead, but knew that Jon's faster legs would probably eat up the lead very quickly over the grassy, hilly lawns. There was still a tiny lead when we entered the forest for the last time, though Jon had the same fork as I did and managed to whittle even more time from the margin. I think I had somewhere around 100-150m lead coming into the final 1.2 km, which featured 8 controls, all on open lawns. Knowing it would be tight, I pressed it as hard as I could from the beginning of the field section, knowing that if he caught up to me, the game was done. I just tried to hold off the inevitable as long as I could, and amazingly enough, as I turned the corner towards the last control - no Jon in sight! So "victory" was ours, a nice ending for a hard day of racing.

Felt quite good to be able to lay down a leg like that after finishing a race less than an hour before. It's always tough to defend a lead in a relay when other teams are in visual contact, but we were fortunate that Sergei missed the 13th control and that Jon didn't press quite hard enough over the final controls. Jon's leg time was about a minute faster than mine. Nick was only 30 seconds slower then I was, and Ross Smith, Zhyk, Velichko, and Hallick were all within 3 minutes behind me.

All in all, a much better physical race than yesterday, and it leaves me feeling that my legs are finally starting to come back. There will still be plenty of improvement over the remaining 4 weeks before Team Trials too - looking forward to being able to really "race" again.

For the above.

Event: US Middle Distance and Relay Champs
 

US Champs Middle Distance.

Not a terrible race, but not that awesome either. I think it's just too early in the season for me to be racing anywhere near to the level that I expect (especially physically). All the more frustrating.

On top of that, by my start time the temperature had risen to a scorching 29 C. Holy crap - yes, the snow is melting at home, but there are still between 2-3 feet of the white stuff on my front lawn! So 29 C was, well, uncomfortably warm compared to home.

Anyway, the course was pretty well set. The map is old and shows its age (just not quite as crisp as you would expect to encounter anywhere in Europe, or even in North America with a newly-drawn map), but at least there is a detailed, hilly area that was used to good advantage. In the beginning I was just too hesitant and not nearly as aggressive as my usual middle-distance mentality, though by the 5th control I managed to convince myself to attack the controls more directly. Not too much missed out there - little 15-30 second mistakes here and there I guess. But the 8th control was probably misplaced (about 10-20 m too far south), and at the very least was placed in an area of the map that was too "soft" to justify having a control there. What should have been a bombproof approach to a control on a gently sloping hillside left me on the edge of a ledge with a distinct paucity of controls in sight. Unsure just which way to head, I went left and should have gone right. Lost about a minute in total, before finding the control cleverly tucked low below the edge of the ledge, out of sight unless you were almost right on top of it. As it was, I had been within 10m of it initially but couldn't see it and was surprised at how poorly the terrain matched the contours on the map.

Otherwise, walking was necessary up the steep dirt slopes, costing me time against the fitter guys. The last 40% of the course was in flatter, more vague areas of the map where you never could really be sure exactly where you were, as the contour picture was just not quite right. Fortunately, the visibility was still excellent (no leaves on trees) so you could see enough to "correct" for the map's weaknesses. Felt happy not to drop much time in taht section anyway.

Overall about a minute and a half behind the winner (Will Hawkins), which at this early point in the season is "acceptable".

For the above.

Afternoon sprint.

Ye gads, this was a brutal performance on my part. The course was piss-easy, so basically no time lost out there (maybe a dodgy route on #4, call it 15 seconds there). But my "get up and go" had gotten up and left by #3, and I developed a stitch in my side on the way to #4, which stayed with me the whole rest of the course. Had to stop and walk a few steps at every control before forcing myself to resume the run/jog that was the best I could manage to coax from my body. Not fun at all. And yes, still 29-30 C temperatures.

In retrospect, there are a number of things that I will have to do much better next time. Mainly, staying out of the sun (which this early in the year, combined with the heat, seems to affect me a lot), and not having to traipse around after Little Miss Mia for an hour before my race. I also probably ate too much (only about 120 minutes between finishing the middle and starting the sprint). Bad combination - and I paid for it.

Jon and Will ran it about a minute faster than I did (surprised it wasn't an even bigger margin). But Margus Hallick absolutely smoked everyone, finishing about 45 seconds clear of second place, in 11:53. Ouch. Goes to show what a good set of legs running a dead easy course can manage. I would have had to feel a whole helluva lot better to get sub-12:30, and sub-12 is, well, impressive.

For the above.

Not sure if an allergy or what, but major sneezing problems starting after the morning race and continuing throughout the day/night. Also constant runny nose. Yes, it's warm out, but is it early enough for seasonal allergies?

Arrived in Rochester just before supper so decided to go for a jog to stretch out my legs. Veeerrrrryyyyy warm - about 27 C - so I was feeling the heat, despite wearing shorts and a singlet. Felt better to run into the wind rather than with it, so at least I would have a breeze. Feeling very dead - still nowhere near feeling that "I want to attack the terrain" spring in my legs that comes when I am more accustomed to running fast. It hasn't arrived yet, but it will come soon enough.

Travel day. Left directly after work to drive south, arriving in Vaughan (at the very awesome Marriott Residence Suites - best hotel I've stayed at anywhere; we try to stay there whenever we need a place in Toronto) too late for any run. Oh well. Weather warming up....

Just an easy-ish run around one of the "blocks". Stiff southerly winds made some sections harder than usual, but nothing too crazy. Well above freezing (finally) - so the snow is starting to slowly disappear. Lots left to last a while though. Perhaps when we return after this weekend, there will be a nice dent in the snow cover.

Another 4x4 session. Still a bit sluggish, due to a later-than-planned dinner. Had to get out before darkness fell, so went with a belly that was more full than usual. Anyway, you push as hard as you can for 4 minutes and then jog, so that's how it goes. I think my pace was pretty slow though - like 3:40's per km. Oh well.

For the above. Includes recovery.

This was an unplanned rest day.

Finished a long day in the OR just before supper, so postponed the light run that was planned until after dinner had settled. Oh, a nice 30-min nap would be just dandy.... Except that with jet-lag, the next thing I knew it was 0130 and Mia was waking up coughing and crying. So, no training on this day. Guess I needed the sleep anyhow.