Tuesday Jul 22 |
 | Orienteering 40:00 [3] 3 km (13:20 / km) | |
| shoes: MT800BO Trail Runners |
| A course set up by Pia at Hammond Pond as part of the CSU summer training regimen. I forgot my compass, which turned out to be more of a liability than I expected. In a moment of foresight, I did bring my flashlight with me out on the course.
I arrived at about 7:40 and met Brendan right before he went out on his run. I ran pretty well as darkness was falling; I overshot 2 by about twenty meters, missed 6 and had to reattack, and repeatedly missed 10 by wandering too far north. On an approach to control 11 - a longish, 500 meter leg, I chose what I thought was a faster route directly through some light green to the control. In retrospect, a nearby trail would have been much faster. I hit several features on the way, but I got lost stumbling into the green. I couldn't get the contours and features to correspond to the map well, and it was dark enough that I was using my flashlight perpetually. After a few minutes of exploring my local area, I decided it would be best to return to the start. I had maintained a general sense of the cardinal directions, so I ran approximately south and hit a large open field as expected. I then followed the field back to the road and the start.
Not a bad run, but I need to concentrate on planning ahead, reading the map a larger fraction of the time (today was about 15-20%), and making better route choice decisions. Time and distance are guesses.
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| C • thinking ahead 2 |
Sunday Jul 20 |
| Orienteering 45:00 [3]*** 4.5 km (10:00 / km) | |
| 12c shoes: MT800BO Trail Runners |
| Brendan and I ran what I shall dub a "tag team" orienteering course that he set up at Boojum Rock: he navigated to the ith control, with me tagging along behind; I navigated to the (i+1)th control. We critiqued route choices and possibilities.
This was especially helpful because I've never really had close scrutiny of my local decisions. In post race discussions, the typical route choice subject is global, large scale strategy. My local decisions - how to run around objects, wood speed, etc - are rather miserable. After some comments from Brendan, I tried to concentrate on seeing about 10-20 meters ahead of me rather than 2-5.
We actually spent about 1:10 in the forest, but I estimate only 45 minutes of that was running. We slowed down near the end because Brendan's hip was bothering him and because I'm a wuss. I ran out of steam near the end, and I posit the following reasons:
- Inadequate hydration. At the finish, I readily downed 16 oz of water and 32 oz of gatorade and was still thirsty.
- Recent increase in training volume. I ran Friday and Saturday; I usually don't run more than 2 days consecutively (if that).
- Poor heat dissipation. My t-shirt was soaked with sweat at the end; I wrung it out yielding about 4-6 oz of fluid (best guess). I wore a cotton t-shirt (not good), knickers (ok) and gaiters (eh). I need to find better ways to deal with heat, perhaps compromising some protection.
All in all, an excellent exercise and a far more productive running session than a river loop. I need to do more hillz, especially if I plan to face Jeff Schapiro's A-Meet courses at Mt. Tom. Combine one of the most challenging course setters in the area with a ridiculously steep park, and the result is not good for me.
In other news, at the Estonian WUOC Public races, the long of which is a WRE, I am the sole representative of CSU (and probably the USA). I will endeavor to bear this responsibility with honor. I will prepare for these races as well as I can in the 2 weeks ahead. |
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| C • You're going to Estonia? 3 |
| Cool Down (Stretching) 10:00 [3] | |
| shoes: NB ABZORB EX 11.5 |
| Stretching. My left calf has been bothering me a bit lately; I hope it's just a consequence of poor stretching last week. |
Saturday Jul 19 |
| Road running 31:26 [3] 6.01 km (5:14 / km) | |
| shoes: NB ABZORB EX 11.5 |
| A late night/early morning run to finish my week of training. My pace was gentle; I wasn't trying to push particularly hard. At the end of the route, in lieu of strides, I kicked my pace up to my 1 mile pace for 90 seconds. I noticed a very large number of insects, with many of which I collided.
I read a PR sign on my route describing what some electricity and steam generation company near Kendall does. I didn't learn much; the sign primarily espoused the merits of steam transfer. This is counterintuitive to me, but I am aware that steam has been used as a means for energy transfer extensively in the Northeast (and probably in many other regions), so the solution must have some merit.
The details of the route I took are well known to me; I frequent that circuit. I found in retrospect that I did not recall some parameters of my run - for instance, whether I took the stairs or a ramp descending a foot bridge. This is discouraging; while my thoughts wander among many subjects while I run, I expect that I should have some recollection of these key points. I will concentrate more next time to try to have a better memory of my runs. |
Friday Jul 18 |
| Running 53:00 [3] 8.94 km (5:56 / km) | |
| shoes: NB ABZORB EX 11.5 |
| A run from my apartment to Harvard Square, where I rendezvoused with Brendan. We ran a Western Avenue - Eliot Bridge loop, then decided to get food at Border Cafe. Border had a substantial line, so we ambled over to Bertucci's, and in our grimy, sweaty, we just ran 4 miles state, we got a table and ruined the classy image of the restaurant.
In earnest, the situation wasn't excessively improper, but it did feel awkward. The food was satisfying after a run.
In an effort to improve my ability to read details while moving, I brought the book (play) Copenhagen with me, and read 17 pages while running up to Harvard. While a more technical book would be more useful, it would be heavier, more prone to damage, and harder to concentrate on. Light, casual reading is optimal for such exercises.
Hopefully more armchair orienteering activities to be posted in the near future.
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| Cool Down (Stretching) 10:00 [3] | |
| shoes: NB ABZORB EX 11.5 |
| A highly eventful stretching session, whose details are too intense to be adequately described on attackpoint. |