Training Log Archive: Duncan

Really glad I went to Estonia. Good trip and my orienteering was an improvement on the JK (not hard!). Wasn't running as fast as I wanted but at least I felt good running which was great change. Sprint was fun. Would definitely liked to have performed better in the middle and been solidly in the GB pack. Longs for me seem to go depending on the mood I'm in - need to get better at psyching myself up for them with more confidence. Wrong descriptions and barbed wire fence incident weren't ideal here!

Overall was off the back of the GB pack (and just behind Pete!) in every race, but getting in it and in the mix for selection doesn't seem unfeasible. Obviously quite a few people weren't there.

Dodgy knee over winter hampered my training until February. Running with Birchfield has been good to push me, the sessions can be quite long so often need to pace myself to finish them properly - just need to stick with it. Seems that for work reasons I haven't managed to do double interval sessions in a week.

Signed up for this with Abi starting at the end of July, need to do some training for that and also make sure the Shropshire Summer Fell Race Series is secured. Also a bit bored at work so need to mix things up.

C • More than a bit of training. 4

My turn for not the best sleep, followed by an early start. Running down the run-out knew it might be a long one. Slowly along and up to 1 where I saw Peter, funky vegetation to 2 messed with my head. We got to three together after a small miss and I started heading to 4, got onto the indistinct path and then realised that the code for 3 wasn't the same as I had remembered from the descriptions. I didn't want a repeat of yesterday so after a pause I turned around and headed back to double check and found that it was wrong. I ran around a bit trying to find another control that matched, couldn't, and eventually checked my descriptions to find that I'd been given them for the other course. The start had been a bit of a shambles - Peter H started late as there wasn't a clear box - and the guy in front of me hadn't turned up so I was given his descriptions instead - something to check in the future.

This pissed me off quite a lot as after catching Pete I was more in the mood. Didn't know where I crossed the valley bottom and was slow up to 4 where a couple of Czechs caught me. I followed them on a straight route to 5 which I didn't rate but wanted to try and get back on it. Heading from the open back into the forest however I got taken down by a (short, difficult-to-see) barbed wire fence. Took a some time to get up and untangle myself and had some deep wounds. This also didn't help my time and I messed up 5.

Generally poor and distracted from here to 10. Jan Sedivy caught me there and smashed it away down the road. I could hear Jan Prochazka gaining on me along the road and luckily he had the same butterfly loop and I followed him very closely to 19. He got away on the track after the drinks point but I waded straight across the uncrossable marsh to 20 and caught up some time. I could see why as the green around the end of the marsh leaving the control was a pain. Umm-ed and ahh-ed about what to do to 21 but decided to 'run' in the marsh for a k and he was dropping out of the woods from the right as I was going round the lake which was a nice surprise and meant I had someone to pull me up to the last control.

Results: http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d... +30.28.

Warm-up not so good and wasn't fully in the zone on the startline. Getting to 1 was an effort but eventually got there and ran through more crap to no. 2. Wavered in my route-choice to 3 and poor compass/visualisation through 4 and 5. Got into it round the track to 6 and saw Murray dropping out of it as I ascended. Decent to 9 then lost the rhythm basically and was scrappy until the finish including punching the wrong depression at 15. Probably focusing a little too hard on trying to get away from Murray/Duncan I think and not enough on the orienteering.

Disappointed with this. Was annoying that it took me over 10 minutes to get into it and then was only on the ball for another 10. +5.50 (or maybe 6.20 if I'd gone to all the controls).

Splits: http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/sv/d...

Really good warm-up round the astroturf. Legs and lungs felt on the same page and running felt the best it has in a long time. Punched the girls no. 1 for fun on the way to ours. Okay round to 4 but struggled to read the OOB to five and took a long hesitation, missed the route to 7 of course. Started to slow on the way to 9. Thought about a more direct route to 12 it but looked too much effort to execute - should have realised that straight away and ignored it. Fiddled to 15 and missed the around route to 17. Obviously tired at the end and arguably didn't take touch-free punching routes to 21/23.

About a minute down on the main GB pack. +2.26 behind the winner which is an improvement on the JK's terrible +3.52. Main improvements are deciphering olive green better, looking wider at routechoices, picking touch-free friendly routes, plus speed.

Results: http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/sv/d...

Did some warm-up and felt alright but not special. Decided the best tactic was to try and get a gap. Held that until the first first flat when Jonathan Hockey came past fast. 2nd but well behind at the turn. Then lost two places on the descent for my worst Shropshire Summer Series performance, 75s slower than two years ago. Improvement required.