Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: West Point A-meet
 

Jeff Schapiro and I left Boston at 6:10 AM for the drive to West Point, and we arrived at about 9:15 because Jeff made excellent time. I suspected that my best case performance would be unremarkable, as my fitness has deteriorated substantially since I broke my leg in August. Nevertheless, I changed quickly, warmed up on the run to the start, and adopted my best orienteering mindset. I have spent most of my orienteering time over the past two months organizing instead of racing, and my racing subroutines were rusty from lack of use.

I found the microorienteering to be particularly challenging on the course. While I was always aware of where I was, lack of concentration sometimes caused small slips inside the circle that cost significant time. Control 1 was easy enough to approach - up a ridge - but pinpointing the boulder was hard, and I was sluggish. I made two mistakes to 4 - first, by being dragged too far to the left, toward the bridge route instead of my intended hill route, and then again by hesitating on my final approach. I chose a costly route to 6 by taking the trail to the left and descending the reentrant. I was confused on my approach into 8; after ascending the ridge, I wasn't certain where I was, and my gps track has an unfortunate deviation despite the fact that I was on course. I was happy with my route to 11, though it was slow. On 12, I drifted right and got stuck in some thick green. Nick Duca punched 12 right after me, and we took off on different routes to 13, which he punched just before me. I took the high route to 14, and beat him to it. Apparently Ross was closing on me at 14, but I didn't hear him, and he breezed by just before 15.

My race was marred by numerous small errors - 1, 4, 7, 8, and 12. I ran slowly, and I tended to make mistakes after climbing. However, given my present conditioning, this is not a surprising result, and I am not overly disappointed.

The West Point sprint was tricky and more technical than I expected. The first two-thirds of the race were forest controls along a cliff edge with substantial climb, and the race finished among buildings at the Round Pond campsite. In the past, my stamina has been insufficient to perform well during the second race of the day (e.g. the Sycamore Scramble). Today, I found I had strength left, but my top speed is considerably slower than it was a year ago.

My race was not clean, and I lacked flow. I overran 11, and apparently hesitated at 16, but the best characteristic of the race was sluggish. Many people apparently struggled with the race - so my overall placing relative to the field wasn't bad, but Ross's time relative to my own (I was 40% back) is indicative of the scope of my weakness. At West Point 2010 and US Sprint Champs 2009, I was 25% and 18% back of Ross respectively.

While my race was poor, I did enjoy the course and found the challenge satisfying.

Middle Blue - Splits

Sprint R/B - Splits

On Sunday morning, we ran the first exercise of the training day I planned at Hogencamp. The exercise consisted of a control pick followed by three descending o-tervals. I followed behind the group after some length to retrieve the controls. The GPS tracks are actually Alex's; I included them for reference.

O-terval 1.

O-terval 2.

O-terval 3.

The second exercise was a line-O about Silvermine. The line-O had three loops, but I decided to only run the first. Even though I designed the exercise, it was very challenging. I ran without a compass. The ticks were numerous, and the vegetation was unyielding in places. The visibility was excellent, but the running was less pleasant. I was bitten by a tick, though it paid for the deliciousness with its life.

The GPS track is mine.