Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: NEOC: Mt. Misery
 

Brown - Splits

Green - Splits

And bgallup is a rockstar:
http://www.newenglandorienteering.org/news/latest-...

Event: CSU Park-O #3: Boston Common
 

I think this, the training scene from Rocky 4, is something j-man would like.

Warmup cruise over to Boston Common. While the CSU website said the event started at 7 PM earlier today, the start window apparently opened at 6 PM. At my arrival at 7:30, there were only two people still out on the course (though apparently many people showed up at 7). I aborted my warmup and started the course.

Park-O designed by Giacomo; the course was as interesting as Boston Common can achieve, and the control placement was magnificent. The only suggestion I could make would be having a section of course with lots of very short legs with quick direction changes, but the printing was packed with the course as it was.

My legs felt sluggish after yesterday's workout, and my left hamstring and right calf were tight. I ran as hard as I could comfortably, but didn't push anything. I also didn't punch; I touched each control and moved on. Had everyone not been waiting on me, I would have punched legitimately.

Picked up five controls, then ran home.

Park-O - Splits

Legs feel a bit tired. Getting lots of sleep over the next 11 days must be a top priority.

Yay 90 pts*. This is exciting, though my rank is inflated because of the paucity of A-meet events from the fall; many competitors don't have the requisite 4 races. While it's cool setting a "PR" in the blue rankings, this is basically immaterial because if I have to use my ranking in the trials races, my chances of making the team are very low. I suppose when it gets rescaled, it will pick up a few points - probably to around 92.4. The blue field has been a bit weaker this year than in years past; the onus is on all of us to get faster. Being in the top k in any field is neat, but it should be the goal of the entire community to raise the competitive standard.

*I was buoyed by the change to top four races. All other things equal, my ranking would be 87.4 if the top (n/2+2) races were used, as in the past. Of course, were (n/2+2) used, the rankings for others would also have shifted monotonically down, so maybe I would have normalized higher relative to the field. Dunno.

C • 90+ 3

Commute.

I stayed at work longer than was advised yesterday, and my legs weren't feeling great, so I postponed the interval workout to today. Last big quality workout before the trials. I warmed up for twenty minutes, ran 4x100m strides, then did 4x400, 1600, 3x400. The last 400 was added on at a whim.

I was very slow out the start - my HR barely reached my lactate threshold on the first three 400s. I didn't look at my watch until the third one, when I realized how slowly I had been running. My mile was pitifully slow, and I was a bit upset. I decided to hammer the last three 400s, and ran satisfactory times. Given my fatigue after West Point, I'm not terribly dissatisfied, and the short quick intervals will hopefully lead to a bit more quickness in my running.

4x400 (1:30 rest): 1:27, 1:25, 1:23, 1:18
1600: 1:27, 1:30, 1:26, 1:24 = 5:47 (r u srs)
3x400: 1:15, 1:16, 1:15

Commute home.

Event: NEOC: Menotomy Rocks
 

Warmup jog to the start with Ali.

West Point Middle at Ski Slope: an unmitigated disaster. I orienteered very poorly, had a mediocre physical performance, and finished 13 minutes back of a decisive performance by feet. The factors that I think contributed to my result were:
- Not being awake: insufficient sleep and no caffeine in the morning. A few map exercises and a longer warmup are a good idea.
- Starting poorly: I rolled my left ankle and banged my left knee in the first minute of the race; I executed control 2 badly and couldn't get things together.
- Thinking about the result rather than thinking about the race. I knew Ali started six minutes behind me, and the thought of her catching me crossed my mind a few times (which she did). I need to ignore everything but the race while out there, which is counter intuitive given how much time I spend analyzing my performance.
- Fatigue from yesterday. Not much that can be done about this, except to be aware that I won't feel as spry on multiday events.

1: Planned to run just left of the hill into an easy control; while reading my map, my left ankle rolled and simultaneously banged the knee into a rock. I had to stop for about 5-10s to cope with the pain, and the knee hurt even after the race during cooldown.
2: Plan was up the hill, over the cliff, past the saddle, and down into the open hillside using the marsh to my right. After the saddle, I paid insufficient attention to my compass and drifted far to the left. Alarm bells started going off when I didn't see the marsh, but I saw an open hillside in front of me and navigated to that. It became apparent which hillside I was at, and I corrected, but lost 2 minutes on an easy control.
3: Shaken from 2, I tried to refocus. I made a stupid microroute which required descending a cliff costing 15s, but was otherwise clean.
4: Clean, over the ridge and down into the control, which I saw from 50m.
5: Clean until I was in the circle, when I hesitated in the green and went about 20m too far right. I fixed quickly enough, but still 10-15s lost.
6: Fine; over the cliff, to the ridge, past the boulder on the ridge, and into the cliff behind the pit.
7: Plan was to descend the ridge to the saddle using the massively visible hill behind 7 as my target. I briefly second guessed myself that I might be aiming left into the other hill. I was aiming for the L-shaped cliff just past the far saddle, but found nothing when I got there. Everything else lined up, so I checked the cliff just below it before comprehending that 7 was on the upper cliff. A stupid 1:00 loss.
8: Shaken; punched down through the green, crossed the marsh, over the spur, across the reentrant and up. I missed about 30m left and saw the stone wall before going up the reentrant. 15s.
9: Considered right, but decided to go straight through the green. I checked off a cliff halfway up and saw the rock pillar hillside as planned. I ran left, saw the stone wall, and went cleanly into the control.
10: Descended left past the rock fall, down the spur, past the big boulder, across the saddle, and into the control. A little tentative in the poor visibility vegetation.
11: Straight, should have gone a tad left. The feature was visible from 100m; the climb was a death slog.
12: Very tentative sidehilling. I should have gone up 2-3 lines to the flatter shelf; I probably lost a minute to the terrible running. The feature was visible as expected, but also much larger than I expected. I fumbled for perhaps 10-15s looking for the non-obvious control location. 1:30.
13: Very bad route choice; I decided low, flat vegetation was better than climbing to the road or sidehilling. I was wrong. Also sloppy closing on the control, where I was passed by Ali. 2:30.
14-F: Just trying to keep things together.

Time lost: 8:00.

Eschewed post-race conversation to cool down and think about what happened during the race. Apparently missed a good exposition by feet about what he was thinking during the race.

I was pretty bummed by the morning, and after retiring to the parking lot, I took a 15-20 minute nap in das auto. I meant to acquire a mountain dew or other caffeinated beverage from the vending machine, but forgot. We drove to the new location, and I had about two hours before my start to pull myself together. I mostly didn't stress - chatted with friends, examined a Suburban that got stuck in a ditch. I ate a little, including some goldfish, and drank a coke for caffeine.

Observed some good O-discussion, including PG and Ali. PG talked about how once you've made your route choice, it's immaterial whether it's optimal - you just need to focus on executing it.

I started warming up about 25 minutes before my start including a trip to the bathroom and a few shot blocks. I felt pretty good, though I should have started earlier and also visited the (unquarantined) finish. I read a few controls from the 2012 Georgia sprint.

West Point last sprint: A solid race with one bad control, but otherwise very clean orienteering. The bad control was the first, and I lost so much time because I immediately overran it. I should use a model map and actually run on a map at the correct scale so I can calibrate. A 1:5000 map of the parking lot would have been perfect.

1: Ran to the bend in the trail, scrambled up the cliffs, and ran past (and to the right) of the control. Hit a trail far too early and was confused. 50s.
2: Pissed, recovered fast.
3: Trail, fast and easy.
4: Trail, easy. Briefly unsure about which cliff was mine.
5: Hesitated a little on this one before plugging down the trail. I ran over the top of the hill to the expected cliff only to find no control. Saw a few people about 20m further north and charged over. 10s.
6: Back out, left the trail and ran along the cliff.
7: While running to 5 and 6, I considered going up, but ultimately decided to run the trail. Fast, though a little sluggish in the circle scrambling over rocks.
8: Up through the green, no trouble. Not sure who thought this was "short friendly." An elephant track existed.
9: Straight across the open field, did lots of reading ahead. A little hesitant about whether some stuff was olive green around a monument. 5s.
10: Down the trail, to the right of the green, and in.
11: I quickly decided to run the road, so I hopped the fences and ran hard and fast. Didn't notice the run to the parking lot, which was slightly faster. 5s.
12: Easy, to the building corner.
13-14: Fine.
15: Probably should have gone up and through the breezeway; I stayed low and lost some altitude before the stairs. Briefly uncertain about whether the flowers were olive (they weren't). 10s.
16: Fine.
17: Thought the castle was funny, then screwed up by not going into the castle. 5-10s of noob.
F: Leisurely enough that Wyatt got me by 3s for a 2s victory. Fail.
Time lost: 1:30

Cooldown with Ali, Tereza, and JTeutsch.

Day 2, Mid, Blue - Splits

Day 2, Sprint, Blue - Splits