Training Log Archive: Ollie

Day 6 at Loch Ordie (despite the name, the loch does not appear anywhere on the map.) This was almost entirely an open moorland area, with a quite a lot of marshes, and heather, including plenty of knee-high stuff. The last section was steeply down through bracken and across an open field.

I had a very smooth run, with only two small mistakes on the approaches to controls, and a few poor bearings at the beginning of legs, which were corrected organically during the leg. Unfortunately I repeatedly twisted my ankle on the steep descent, and plunged one foot into a hidden stream at one point, with the result that I lost around a minute, and two places (allowing Peter M to beat me for the first time during the main competition) right at the end of the course.

It was slow going through the heather, even the burnt sections proving to be a little tricky, althought going along the edges of the marshes was the fastest way along. But, with my smooth run I was confident of a good placing. Indeed, although I was a very early starter, it was still good to hear I was in first place as I went through the finish - out of just five. Inevitably, as the good people ran their course, and the area tracked up, I slipped down the leaderboard, ending up 20th out of 70, surprisingly my second worst result - I had felt this was my best run since Day 4. Funny how these things work.

I had to stop four times to tie laces, each time wasting at least 30 seconds, although typically these pauses also gave me some energy to get some speed up. Even allowing for this, my HRavg and HRmax are impressively low. Maybe I should have just run harder, or am getting into some great fitness now. I'll see on Monday, as I'm planning a 95 mile bike ride.

C • 95 miles on Monday 2

Day 5 at Barry Buddon. Yet another hot and sunny day - and I was one of the last starters, in the heat of the day (at 1330) in a largely open area. In the end, the heat didn't prove to be much of a problem. I had a great run - except for a shocker near the beginning. After ace-ing the first three controls in the initial very complex and flat area, I ran hard in the wrong direction to the fourth, getting lost in a "broken ground" area and making one of my biggest mistakes of the entire series - thankfully only wasting 5 minutes. after that, it was into the open proper, but I had no problems with the dune areas or the running sections, including the very complex area near the end where a lot of people made big mistakes.

It would have been a great time without that one big mistake, in the end I was 19th out of 68 runners on M21S, my second worst placing so far. Without the 5 minute mistake, I would have been 5th - ouch. Found one more tick - it bit, but better than the six biters yesterday!

HRM may need a new battery as there was a suspicious HR drop, so the recorded average may be a little low.

Spent a bonus two hours in the car park at the end, as another car had driven away with the car keys. The weather was very nice though.

Day 4 at Tentsmuir. Another sunny and warm day. I cycled in from Dundee, across the Tay Bridge, and had to jog for much of the 3.7km (flat) walk to the start, as my train was 20 minutes late in arriving. I got off to a great start - apart from a slight wobble in my direction out from the start, and slowing too early for No. 4, I aced the first 8 controls in the intricate south-east section. My speed and route was not great for the next two, long legs, but then it was into the lines of forested dunes for the next 10 controls. I had no problems with these and got into a good flow. The last five were in a thicker forested area, with minimal visibility - running late, I followed some very useful tracks. I knew I was on to a good time (it's the sort of area where everyone thinks they've done well!) so proceeded to mess up the penultimate control, choosing a poor attack point and overshooting. It was only a 1 minute mistake but still annoying.

Really pleased to have had a good time, and felt good about the result - but everyone else did pretty well too, and I ended up in 14th place of 70 runners - my third best result from the four days so far.

My pleasure at having a good run was swiftly tempered when I discovered more and more ticks crawling around my legs. I hadn't tucked my trousers in - I found 36 (!) ticks in the end, including six biters, although none were hard to remove. Most of them were small brown sheep tickets but there were a couple of large black deer ones too. Euurgh!

Dundee station to Tentsmuir Forest, along National Cycle Route 1. Generally off-road and a well made route, including the spectacular cycle path between the carriageways on the Tay Bridge - lift at the north end, then a gradual rise across the 2.5km bridge to the south end, then around Tayport Harbour which was very pretty, with great views back across the firth.

Tentsmuir to Grange (near Errol). Hot and sunny. Cycling with heavy back-pack, pretty painful and tiring after the earlier race. The route was very flat though - along National Cycle Route 1 to Dundee, then 77 along the north shore of the Firth of Tay.

The Sprint Race, during the "rest day" for the Scottish 6 Days, was around the grounds of Scone Palace and Perth Racecourse. I ran the long course - which was slightly shortened from the original planned course as the tide was in, preventing access to a small island in the River Tay near the end of the course.

The first half of the race was in the palace grounds, these were very pretty and the constant changes of course direction, and terrain, tripped me up - with a hesitation on the way to 1 and going out from 2 at right angles to where I should have exited, for several hundred metres. Both these mistakes cost me less than two minutes - but two minutes is an eternity on a fast sprint like this.

The latter half was in flat parkland, dotted with large trees, which was a straightforward tree-to-tree run. The final section was made more interesting by running through the S6D campsite and the buildings near the racecourse, before finishing in front of the grandstand - nice.

I ran at nearly 6pm, it was a hot and sunny day, the weather considerably improved from yesterday - and it looks like it's going to stay sunny for the remainder of the S6Ds!

Finished 38= out of 194 runners. Actual distance run was 5.1km.

From parents, into Edinburgh Waverley. Pushed hard to see what time I could get. Time doesn't include ~4 minutes waiting.

From Edinburgh Waverley, back to parents - the route includes the initial climb from the station, and two further substantial climbs. Pushed hard again, aiming to get a sub-30-minute time (which I did, but need to add ~1-2 minutes for waiting at red lights.)

Day 3, at Tullochroisk. Rather a wet day today, after two dry days. It alternated between light and heavy rain for much of the race. After a commerical forested area, in which I did OK, the course crossed into a steep section of moorland - I made a big (5m30 minute) mistake here, by staying on a hill for too long and coming off it at the wrong angle - a parallel error compounded the mistake. I also had another poor leg in the last third of the course, which was through very pleasant native woodland. I didn't concentrate enough on what was a technical area and slipped too far down a gully, wasting a further 4 minutes.

With these two mistakes, and general slow pace in the wet and boggy conditions, my result was a lot worse than the previous two days - 28th out of 61 runners. This will probably be one of the two days I get to discard in the overall competition. Actual distance run was 7.1km.

Tomorrow, the "rest" day, I think JOK are doing a barbeque, and then I'm going to have a shot at the sprint race at Scone Palace. Forecast for the next few days looks much better.

Day 2 at Kinnoull Hill. Not as technical or physical as yesterday, with an extensive path network and mainly white forest, but some good long legs. I felt more sluggish than yesterday, mainly due to being able to get up to speed. I kept seeing an FVO orienteer out there, repeatedly, doing the same course as me and going slightly faster than me. Turns out it was yesterday's second placed runner on my course, who had got a helper's punching start. He started within a few seconds of me and finished right behind me - and took one second longer overall.

My biggest mistake was to the first control, where I misread the map right at the beginning and navigated off the wrong hill, into a tracked area - I remember thinking "it's odd that all these MTB tracks are not on the map, they must be new". They were, of course, on the map in the correct place.

I finished 14th out of 68 runners on M21S, a few places lower than yesterday, but I'm still quite pleased with my time and my performance in general.

Cycled from Edinburgh Waverley back to my parents - but took a large detour to find an open bike shop, to pick up a new pair of brake pads...

Event: Scottish Six Days Tay 2009
 

Event: Swiss O Week!
 

Day 1 at Dalruzion. Sunny and reasonably warm, but wet and slippery underfoot in the forest. Frustratingly slow terrain (quite physical) for the first 80% of the race, before finally I could get some pace in the open field at the end. I've got a decent amount of fitness at the moment, it was frustrating to have to go so slowly.

Actual distance run was 5.7km.
Finished 9th out of around 70 competitors on M21S.