Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: NEOC: Estabrook Woods
 

Red course at Estabrook. I forgot to start my watch until after control 4, so the time and distance have been revised to reflect the course data. Despite allergies and poor preparation, I had a solid albeit slow race.

Jess and I went to the Boston ballet performance of Bella Figura (with other works) yesterday, and I slept fitfully, with congestion and general sinus discomfort from allergies. I woke at 10:30 and abandoned my plan to replace my flat tire and bike to Estabrook in lieu of a Zipcar expedient. A highlight of the trip: as I was running to the start, a pair of F-18s blasted by overhead at low altitude - at most a few thousand feet. They were fantastically loud.

After picking up a new kit from Ali (thanks Ali!), my Amherst nemesis inquired what my training objective was for the course. My original plan had been to wake up, drive to Estabrook, find some controls, socialize and go home, but these hard core types compelled me to concentrate on something else. Since I am so fond of control picking, I decided to focus on having good flow around controls, having a plan for the next leg as I approached a control, and exiting well. I execute that reasonably well today, though as I got tired, it became more difficult. Having an objective was helpful.

I developed a stitch in my side on the way to 10 that slowed me down somewhat. My allergies this year have been much more acute than in the past. Today, I renewed my membership in the Orienteers with Alergies club by sprouting hives on the outer edges of my forearms after the race. The reaction wasn't bad, barely itched, and subsided shortly after a shower, but my immune system clearly needs to get it together.

Quick Route

C • Post QR! 2

C • F-18s 1

Red - Splits

Event: Cat Rock Park-o
 

Short and easy jaunt home. I felt wonderful, though disappointed to miss the Park-O tonight and to not have trained yesterday. Naturally, I followed the run with a burrito.

I felt sluggish and weak. I haven't been sleeping much this week, and I am still weary from my West Point experience. Given all this and my untrained state, I contented myself with a very easy jaunt around Fresh Pond. It might have been optimal to run even more slowly. A few months of gentle runs will undoubtedly reap considerable physiological benefits.

I ran into Audun thrice, who fortuitously was running anti-clockwise.

It was on the third race of the A-meet that my shortcomings were most obvious. I realized beforehand that I was not ready for a 12 km race through West Point terrain, but I decided, partly out of pride, that I had nothing to lose from the longer race. I felt groggy and sluggish the morning of the race, and Jeff and I arrived at the parking area over an hour before my start. I wandered around a bit taking pictures, and unwisely decided to walk the 1.8 km up to the start. This wasn't a problem physically, but it did leave me with less time to ready myself than was optimal. Jeff Teutsch, who started 4 minutes after me, ran to the start with me, and I arrived about a minute before my name was called. I took a Gu twenty minutes before my race and brought one with me in reserve.

My running speed was sluggish throughout the race. I made a number of small errors - I left 3 in the wrong direction, resulting in a costly sidehill traverse to get back on the line, I climbed too high at 4, I overshot 5 by about 50 meters, and apparently I hesitated at 7. On the way to 10, I started planning my route to 12 and was so focused that I ran right past the control. It took me some time to reconstruct the events, and I lost about 5 minutes. At 18, I left the ridge too early and wandered for a few minutes before reacquiring.

At control 14, I realized that my body was depleted, and I felt myself start to hit the wall. It was 2008 all over again, though I am in better shape and have much more experience than I did then. I had taken my Gu at 6, so I decided to walk as fast as I could for the remaining controls. Attackpoint graciously considers controls 15-19 errors; I started running (slowly) again to 20, then battled to hold off Jeremy Colgan on the long trudge up the road to 21. I was completely spent; I had nothing left at the end. I am happy that I won my private battle with the course against the temptation to quit, but my race was a failure, and the fault lies with my miserable conditioning.

Long Blue - Splits