Training Log Archive: iansmith

I had a great time this weekend racing in Kentucky, competing, hanging out with Nikolay, Nate, Jon T, Gerald, Clem (on occasion), and others. My training is coming along, but I still have a long way to go. I have not yet had a perfect race. I apparently tweaked my lower back, though I have no recollection of the trauma - the flight home was uncomfortable. I will rest today and reflect before putting in an aggressive week.

Despite considerable activity on the days leading up to the Flying Pig, I felt fine. While the format (three middles and a sprint) was less demanding than a long course, the total amount of orienteering was about the same. Running every day may have benefits that outweigh the added boon of a rest day. My performance is not up to what I would expect from a member of the WOC team, and the field will be deep next weekend. Even though I'm a long shot, I am in the wonderful position of having nothing to lose.

C • Perfect Race 12

C • Clarify, please 7

Fourth race and third middle at Flying Pig. It was cold and rainy in the morning, but the rain stopped and it warmed to about 10 C when I started. I began the race moving slowly-ish; I should have warmed up for longer than 15 minutes, and I was still sleepy. The trail from 1-3 was muddy, so I decided to take a bold (and dumb) route choice to 4. I think straight (a la Balter) would have been fastest - the lake corner was an easy attack.

After starting slowly and losing 45s at 4, Matthias Eriksson gained 2 minutes on me and caught up at 7. We were together at 8, but took different routes to 9, and I gained 45s (despite my poor exit at 8). I was worried about the sets of parallel erosion gullies on the hillsides, so I was careful at 11-15. I was too low at 15, and Matthias pulled ahead by about 12s. I ran straight to 17; Matthias went around, and I was two seconds behind. I thought I was at 18, so left thinking I was on route to 19, but realized my error quickly. Unfortunately, I didn't really have a plan to 18, and we both stumbled around on the spur for a minute before I found it. He beat me to 19 - I was too low, but I had a better route to 20 and gained a little. I lost it all hesitating before hopping the fence to 22; I took the lead again at 24 and held it until the end.

I was definitely helped by Matthias - no major mistakes except bad route choice to 4, bumbling around at 8 and 9, low at 15, decapitated chicken at 18, and low at 19. Good enough for another fourth; a little sad to finish just outside the medals. Everyone had rough races - lots of small mistakes today. I talked through the course with Wangki; this is his second A-meet, and his progress and enthusiasm are excellent. Also great to see Gerald for the first time in 3 years.

Quickroute.

Middle Sunday 8 Blue - Splits

Warmup before the sprint. Probably ran another 5 minutes about the field.

Flying Pig sprint blue course; an excellent course at a great venue. The first five controls were in an open, highly visible rolling field the next eleven were in a green network that's a frisbee golf course, and the last six were in another big field. The green was generally penetrable, and some elephant tracks existed (and were probably extant before the race).

I wore Orocs, and when I stepped on a metal bridge en route to 5, my feet slipped out from under me. I had an awkward approach because I was edging past another guy but fortunately landed on my feet in the marsh below. I lost 8 seconds on 13 - a short leg, where I probably made a bad route choice (don't actually remember). I really wanted to win split 14 (haven't seen the splits yet), and I tried to bring it. The last six controls were trivial - visible from very far away, but I couldn't seem to get moving very fast. Finished a massive 1:45 behind Serghei Logvan, in fourth just ahead of the main pack.

Quickroute. Need to remember to switch to 1-sec recording for sprints. On 8-9, I ran around on the trail, not straight. Also was dead on 19, not a miss like the track suggests.

C • treacherous bridges 1

Warmup; the legs felt pretty good, and better than I expected after the sprint. I drank two cups of coffee before the middle; it seemed to help.

Flying Pig middle distance at England-Idlewild. The map was very different from yesterday, with lots of fine, technical vegetation and numerous trails. The organizers printed the map at 1:5000, which while unusual, unquestionably improved readability. I'm reluctant to use scales finer than 1:10 for middles and longs - probably because I'm most experienced with that scale. Also, if readability is only balanced against the size of the map, won't that lead to 1:5k and 1:2.5k becoming typical?

Dense, technical and oft impenetrable green coupled with 28 controls invited errors. I had an acceptable race with a few minutes of error; it could have been a fantastic race but for a few legs. I made a 25s mistake at 1 by immediately overrunning, but was then clean(-ish) until a 25s mistake at 14 fighting through green. I was hesitant at 15, and lost time fighting green at 17. My biggest error was at 22; I executed my plan fine, but was uncertain running through a field and discerning vegetation blobs. I came to a control, checked the code (as I religiously do) and found it to be wrong; I spent about 2 minutes relocating and trying to figure out what had happened, only to return to the same control and realize it was mine. I had had great flow up until then, and I probably lost 15s to 23 being upset with myself. Such a stupid mistake! I finished by losing 45s at 25 losing track of where I was while charging across some rough open.

The thick vegetation terrain was favorable to me; absolute top speed was less important than durability punching through. There was plenty of open running, but it was reasonably technical. My run was good enough for fifth behind runit (in 39 mins), Hammer, Nikolay, and a lad from Indiana. Need to learn to not make mistakes and read codes correctly.

Quickroute. Really had to wrestle the track to match the map, especially in the upper right. I suspect local distortion, but could be bad reception. Sigh for my adventure at 22.

C • reading control codes incorrectly 1

Middle - Saturday8 Blue - Splits

Sprint Blue - Splits

Event: OCIN Flying Pig XVI
 

Flying Pig middle distance race at Middle Creek Park in Kentucky. Apparently the map is a Vladimir Zherdev creation. It was warm - around 27 C, with some indeterminate amount of humidity. The woods were very trashy; there was lots of deadfall, and there were few open areas. The climb was also severe and concentrated on a small number of legs. Between the vegetation and the climb, top speed was less relevant than speed and efficiency pushing through green and climbing over downed trees.

I was tired - I didn't sleep much last night, flew to Cincinnati this morning, and started my race 90 minutes after I landed. A warmup helped, but I didn't feel that awake. I took a GU before the race, primarily for the caffeine. I really struggled on the climb - the leg to 13 had about 50m of climb over 200m; apparently everyone was overwhelmed. I had one error of about two minutes, one of a minute, and a few small bobbles, but no meltdowns.

My result was acceptable but unremarkable - I finished 6th overall. Sergei Logvin (who won) and Nikolay ran in 45 minutes; next were Jon Torrance, Mike Waddington, and Sergei Fedorov. I'm hoping I can put together some good races later in the meet with good sleep. I'm devastated to lose to so many Canadians. I was in the lead for about an hour as we waited for the fast guys to come in; I knew my result wouldn't hold up, but I was still disappointed to find that Hammer had crushed me by three minutes. Races are great motivation to get faster! Kudos to OCIN and Tundra/Desert for the results system, the live updates, and the running commentary. It's worth noting that T/D's vitriol about GPSes is more entertaining in person than on AP.

Quickroute.

Warmup running around the parking area and to/from the start. I hung out with Linear Ice before the race, and afterward learned of Nikolay's driving prowess on the way to the hotel.

8 Blue - Splits

Evening jaunt.

Post board meeting warmup. I guess I got lost - or more precisely misplaced the entrance to Danehy Park - and thus had a longer warmup than expected and ran to the main entrance.

Woohoo: passed 40,000 log hits! Tonight, I ran a 5x1000m intervals session. I speculate that I may have been running my intervals over the past few months too fast. My 5k time this past weekend recommends an interval pace of 3:42/km. Even using my 3k time from December yields an interval pace of 3:36/km. My right hamstring felt tight at first but loosened up.

Anyway, I decided to run conservatively, with a target time of 3:42/km. On paper, this looks painfully slow, and it is. However, if I hang out in this neighborhood for a few weeks and then gradually increase my speed, I think it will yield greater improvement than naively hacking away at 100%+ HR max.

Splits were 3:41, 3:41, 3:41, 3:40, and 3:43 (weak). I felt pretty good, though definitely expending effort. What I find especially encouraging is that my rests were short - consistently around 85s (200m jog). Conditions were cool: 7 C, in a light drizzle. My timing is poor - Flying Pig is in 40 hours - but there's no time like the present.

C • Good plan 3

Easy cool down and return to base. I feel good about an interval session after which I can comfortably run 5 min/km pace.

Legs and Ian felt tired, so after getting home late, I punted the interval workout to tomorrow in favor of a rest day. Poor discipline fail. Maybe my activity on the weekend caught up to me. Oh well; no more rest days this week.

On the other hand, I enjoyed a delightful block of Gruyere cheese - my first experience with it.