Training Log Archive: BrandNewMe

Race 1 esoc ultra sprint. Felt strong. Scratched my eye (not too badly thank goodness) going into 6 so a but slower here.

Race 2. Dropped time at 3 otherwise good.

Good. Enjoyed it.

Felt remarkably fit fast and strong throughout. Nice to feel so, so injury free. I've probably spoken too soon though. My Achilles would have liked a warm up / down but logistics wouldn't really allow it.

First chance to go running was at 9pm when I was exhausted from a full day. Any other time of the year I would have forced myself out, but not in August and the day after a hard session.

Sprint training. Oh how novel. None done for ages, as it has been the v worst for aggravating niggles and since I haven't run sprint at woc for 2 years, there has been no point. Sprint is one discipline that you need to train, train and train at to get the pacing, flow and the thought processes right. I used to like sprint a lot, and it suits me as I am a quick decision maker, but I am not sure whether I want to do it at woc next year. It's a discipline that I know I can do well at, but I am fairly satisfied with the 7th I got in 2012, I enjoyed the forest disciplines at woc this year, just concentrating on forest was easier, and do I really want to risk getting injured? Now's the time of year to find out if / how much sprint still inspires me, so i am doing a few weeks of sprint training before race the castles to see if my body can survive, and if I can still run a decent sprint race. We've yet to decide if we are going to BSBM. See how much I am enjoying the training.

I have done very very few sprint races since woc 2012. This is all of them -

NOrT, Sept 2012 - injured, heart and mind not keen, did badly
JK sprint 2013 - 2nd
BOC 2013 - rtd injured
Scottish sprint champs - mispunched
WOC sprint selection races 2014 - did badly - off the back of no technical and v little physical training so hardly surprising.
JK 2014 - rtd, heart and mind and body not in the least bit keen.

Little sleep. Ill kids.

Warm up / down

Courses from Esoc ultra sprint from Feb this year. I missed out a few of the prologue controls and added a few of my own instead, due to the map not printing out entirely. 20:00mins. Felt hilly, and tiring. The course was a bit urban for my liking. Chase 18:05. This was much more like it. I was more tired as I only had 5 mins rest (no map bag, thunder about to start) but the course was much more fun, the controls coming thick and fast. I fell hook line and sinker for a trap. Glad I wasn't doing this race in the chasing start format the race had been in - it would have been painfully fast running.

Physically my calf - which I haven't felt for weeks - was slightly sore, but apart from that, no niggles.

Managed to snatch enough time for a run. Bonaly, round capelaw, up to Allermuir, then top of capelaw and back via bonaly reservoir. Hilly. Felt good. Could have done with off road shoes. My Sayanora are a bit too 'road race' for off road like this.

Travelling. Tired.

Oo cup day 5.

Tired today, and not very inspired by the course. It was a bit of a cross country race in between bits of woods on an alpine meadow. Tired, so tired. Lots of mistakes, mainly at the end. My mistakes got little sympathy at the finish from Kate Hampshire, who managed a 50min mistake yesterday. Jen Murphy had a 37min leg too. Impressive stuff - they were both v proud! Anyway, a poor run meant 3rd overall.

It has been a fun fortnight, but I think that's enough orienteering for me for a bit. If anyone wants to go sprint training in Edinburgh, I am up for some. Little and often would be best for my body. 20mins max a day.

http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

Warm up and down. Then after the 6 min warm down jog it was onto the M/W10 course with Laurence, Ella and Kim. 2.3 hilly k. Last thing I needed, but fun again.

Oo cup day four. Another totally lame navigational performance. Dropped maybe 6 mins in total. Too bad. Fabulous forest though. Loved it 100%. I think I probably won the day, but not by enough. Still 3rd overall. 37secs off 2nd, 1:37 off the lead.

Woc middle is a year today, which seems a good incentive to get navigating more cleanly. Starting from tomorrow. A year of accurate orienteering..?

Just looked at the splits from today. Despite first start, I had a lead of 1:31 by number 2 today, 8 mins into the race. I made 7 mins of mistakes. This takes the piss. Come on Claire - get a grip!

http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...