Training Log Archive: iansmith

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

Event: West Point A-meet
 

I didn't have my watch running for the entire warmup; I did about ten minutes running to the start, then jogged around at the start between socializing. I need to remember to focus before races and not mingle with folks.

West Point Middle Distance 1: I ran a solid race with three small route choice errors, one bobble near the circle, and a respectable physical performance. I had no major errors and felt good. I was a bit cautious on the course - I often slowed down as I neared the circle.

1: I ran up the left edge of the reentrant, entered the circle about one line too high and had to come down. Good contact with the map - I had some slight hesitation near the circle (10s).
2: Hammered down the hill, passed the slanting reentrant, checked off the boulders to my left, and tried to see the rise of the contours. The green was more revealing, but I spiked it. 10s hesitation.
3: Poor route execution. Plan was to run up the trail to just before the intersection, then attack up the reentrant to the control. I attacked too early trying to save 5s of running and lost 30-45s trudging up a cliff band. Running the whole trail would have been faster.
4: Straight; got stuck in the green just right of the line on the uphill for perhaps 15s.
5: I started reading 8-7, went too far to the right, and had to fight through the slash. 15s.
6: Left of the line, sidled around the edge of the cliffs, then charged down the reentrant. Ed was just ahead of me at the control.
7: Went lowish, but not all the way to the trail (which probably was better). Chasing ken.
8: Straight; once I was over the hill, I could see the feature from 50m.
9: Route choice error. I chose to go right, aimed for the stream, ran down the reentrant to the double knkoll, then traversed right. The running was very fast, but I ended up going further than had I gone left. I was also confused by the contours in the circle - thinking I was aiming for a saddle, so I hesitated for 10-15s when I found a big reentrant instead. I was above the cliff, so I had to come down before I saw the flag. 20-30s.
10: Very tentative; Erin caught up to me and we reached the bag simultaneously. Perhaps 20s of hesitation.
11: Erin charged up the hill cutting about due west; I decided to run further down the spur. We intersected again on the trail, and took slightly different microroutes into the control. He reached the bag ahead of me.
12: I tried to lose Erin, but my route to the trail meandered a bit. I put all the speed on that I could without full out sprinting (three more races) into the trivial control.
13-F: Cruising, didn't want to overdo it.

Estimate 2:20 of hesitation and errors.

Started a cool down with Giacomo that ended when we found people with whom to socialize. Oops.

West Point Sprint: a mediocre result with numerous bobbles. After a break of about 2.5 hours - including a sandwich and some light snacking - I was feeling confident coming off the middle distance. My warmup was somewhat abbreviated from too much socializing - I think 20 minutes would have been better. I didn't have any calamitous controls, but I did have 4 costly suboptimal route choices. My effort was consistent throughout the run, and I caught up to Andy Strat at control 14, which helped push me through to the end. The field was a bit spread out, but I finished a disappointing two minutes back of the winner.

Control 1-2: Started with Angelica, and I pushed hard out of the start to the first two controls. I was clean, though deflected by a fallen tree.
C3: I elected to run below the first line of cliffs - I noticed a shelf that looked good - then cross the second line of cliffs and into the pipe bend. Plan and execution were good, with a fast effort for the first half of the leg. I was overly tentative in the second half given that the control was on a pipeline that was impossible to miss. Perhaps 15s slow.
C4: Bad route choice: I elected to run right rather than take the left trail route. I had to hop three fences and punch through a little nasty green. 15-20s.
C5: Fine.
C6: Fine; slow on the uphill.
C7: Bad route choice: my old conundrum of trail or woods. I elected to run straight (as is generally my preference), and ended up above the cliff with slow running. 10-15s lost compared to the fast road route.
C8: Fine; ran past the tennis court and noticed the fence openings.
C9: Through the court, fast.
C10: Fine.
C11: A little hesitant for no apparent reason. 5s.
C12: Ran left of the line to the road rather than straight; probably 5s.
C13: I hadn't decided to take the bridge, and took a handful of steps before having to backtrack around the bridge rail. 10s.
C14: Bad route choice: the green looked bad, so I decided to run low on the road. I underestimated the climb. I checked off the little reentrant and the spur, but Andy was searching in the circle, so I slowed to look for the pit control. I was about 10m from the control, but didn't see it for a few seconds. 30-40s.
C15: Ran low and right; checked off the marsh, little hill, and spur. I ran hard to try to ditch Andy.
C16: Started to go straight, but then cut to the right to get to the white woods. 10s. Andy went right from the first and passed me.
C17: Passed Andy and tried to lose him; hard effort.
F: Didn't want to overdo it in the chute, so somewhat leisurely. Andy put on the afterburners and beat me by a nose.
Time lost: 1:40.

Day 1, Mid, Blue - Splits

Day 1, Sprint, Blue - Splits

Commute to work.

Event: CSU Park-O #2: Peters Hill
 

Park-O - Splits

It turns out "not much" and "a lot" are not valid entries for the "Sleep" and "Weight" fields in attackpoint.

Commute to work. Legs felt much stiffer than they did yesterday.

Run to track workout.

More warmup with Terry, Kevin, Alex and Anna. This shouldn't have been a separate track. Oops.

CSU track workout. Conditions were grim with a temperature of 8-10 C, a wind of 20-30 kph, and a light falling mist. I was wearing a long shirt and tights, and was still cold at times. We warmed up and ran drills and strides; I didn't record the drills. The workout was a pyramid of 600, 1000, 1200, 1200, 1000, 600, with 200m rest between each bout. CSU-O had good turnout, with Alex, Anna, and Brendan. I tucked behind Kevin and Terry for all six intervals; I was able to hang with them for the 600s, but fell perhaps 15-30m back on the longer intervals.

Splits:
600, 1000, 1200: 2:07, 3:29, 4:17
1200, 1000, 600: 4:18, 3:34, 2:00

My legs felt very tired an hour or two after the workout, probably from a combination of going a bit faster than I'm used to and from the Billygoat.

Easy recovery run, finishing with 4x30s strides. Anecdotally, average HR < 150 is a heuristic for what feels like an easy run to me, so I may have pushed the effort a bit. Still irritated with myself.