Training Log Archive: IanW

Event: British Long Champs
 

British Elite Long - stunning forest, fantastically planned course, shocking run. Left the brain in bed, and such was the planning each and every drop in concentration meant time lost. The nature of the relief meant that although visibility in the forest was amazing, you couldn't necessarily pick out and interpret the shape of the more technical dunes a way off, as you could on the relay.

So they say you should pick up on the positives. In short, I got round and was around 10 minutes over the target time of 2 hours. And there was something vaguely enjoyable about the course, even through the physical and mental "suffering."

The negatives? Probably can all be put down to one thing - what happened prior to the run. Didn't sleep particularly well the night beforehand, had an awkward 1.30pm start - a little too far from breakfast but not quite late enough to have a full lunch - so probably not enough fuel in the tank to start with. Took some Jelly Babies out and ate most just before the hour mark, and the rest just over 90 mins in - goodness knows what it would have been like without. Didn't feel as physically good as I had been in previous weeks - I know that I'm probably as fit as I've ever been at the moment so this was slightly strange. Still, not sure whether I quite have the endurance for a race of this length yet. Need a few more longer runs plugged into the schedule...

The mental side of things was clearly a bit off from the start - couldn't really make sense of what was going on to #1 and the concentration was lacking. What followed ranged from the over-hesitant to the "why did I do that" type mistake. Didn't seem to be using the contours enough on the longer legs and (as I identified might be a problem) when I got out of the vaguer parts I often didn't know where I was entering the detail. Biggest were to 5 (3'30"), 7 (2'30"), 9 (3'), 27 (2'30"), lost 30" to 1' on 5 other controls and small hesitations to many others meant quite a few 15" losses. Most of the mistakes were on the longer legs, poor compass work then diving into the detail without reading enough of it. Total mistake time ~15 mins, + goodness knows how much hesitance...

Realised after the run that the warning signs were there:
- over-reliance on the compass but not using that enough either meaning I was drifting everywhere on the bearings
- not paying anywhere enough attention to the contours, for the majority of the first part of the course in fact. When I did, things clicked for a while. Then would switch off again.
- hitting detail wasn't expecting to hit and very stop-start to check things - far too much ground-to-map.
- no reading ahead whatsoever bar seeing "that leg looks long"
- from near the beginning, seeing hills that looked a bit bigger/steeper than normally seen in a sand dune area and thinking "do I really need to go over that?" when they were only 4-6 contours high (10-15m) and not really that steep.

So as I've discovered quite a bit over the recent year or so, if I'm not quite there physically then the mental side of things goes so much more easily - unfortunately it happened today in an area that really doesn't allow you to get away with it as some would. A real shame in a way, I'm sure had I been "awake" the whole experience would have been even better than it actually was and my first elite classic would have been thoroughly enjoyable. I'm already looking forward to running here again, and hopefully mastering it next time!


Typical Culbin view

Warm-up jog along the track to the start, and forward and back a couple of times after picking up number. Calf not feeling too bad, however after 16k round Culbin Forest it was quite tight and the attempted warm-down to try and loosen it up a little wasn't greatly effective. Some stretching before and after helped a little, as did the "massage" of sorts (i.e. prod it with thumbs) that evening.

M21E - Splits

Quick training session on Lossie. Head wasn't really with it, and couldn't work out the almost completely flat bits with lots and lots of hills and dot knolls. Hit a couple of vague legs at the beginning and end though. Unfortunately this "brain switch-off" type feeling seemed to be a good indicator of what would happen the next day...

On the way back from the technical bit near the coast got a strange tightness in right calf, probably from running pretty hard at Hyde Park. Felt worst when running along flat even surfaces, the softer uneven forest floor was better, so thought it should be OK. Had a little bit of a stretch to attempt to loosen things up.

Hyde Park Score Event - distance given is straight-line covered during the event. Decision to go back for a 10-pointer missed out earlier added too much distance in given the additional points return, and 3 second overrun meant penalties too. Couple of banana-routes wouldn't have helped with the actual distance - looks like early on I was running fairly consistently at ~4 mins/k.

Looks like a decent route, which would have picked up the lot, was 9.27k straight line. So definitely achievable if you got the right route...

Maybe not the greatest idea to go almost full out a couple of days before the British Elite Long...

Lab opening and college dinner got in the way of any attempt at training today...

Morning nature reserve run with Helen. One day I might feel awake enough for this...

Circuits, outside, crowd coming back in from afar. A few leg muscles a bit too tight/aching more than they should have been....

Felt a bit lazy, and even lazier when I saw Benjamin had been out for a ride. So waited a bit for a gap in the weather - as it happened, I waited a bit too long and hit the end of one window and the beginning of another. Got soaked for a 10 minute period between Clifton Hampden and Abingdon. Should have gone out about an hour earlier...

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1788331

Missed a couple of turnings/got confused by road signs in Abingdon, so added an extra 1km+ of distance onto the intended route. Quite a nice ride, felt pretty good over the one hill (Boar's Hill, +55m, 7-8% gradient for most) right near the end of the ride, hit a good rhythm along there. A few too many sets of traffic lights slowed things down a bit too much, and wind was a bit stronger than I expected in places.

Rear light was dead by the end, it's good but does eat the batteries...