Training Log Archive: IanW

So a bit more time to think about the weekend's "races" - the punctuation there quite deliberate. Apologies in advance if this has a bit of a philosophical feel to it, just feel the need to get the thoughts down somewhere.

Judging your performance is difficult if you don't know what you're trying to judge against. If you don't have any aims, or focus for a race, then 'good' and 'bad' are quite subjective. I chose to run this weekend because it looked like a decent pair of races in suitable/challenging terrains for the disciplines.

But there must have been a subconscious thought of 'I'm running in a British Champs race, must go full out' but everything around that didn't happen if I was going for the 'best possible result' outcome. No pre-event looking at maps, no proper warm ups, no focus on the doing the right things in the right order. Technique came second, must keep running fast...

And so things unravelled, spectacularly at times, as they did last weekend. Time was of the essence - what could have easily stayed as little errors/hesitations just ballooned, because I had in the back of my mind I had to keep moving. Sometimes that little extra investment in time can make minutes of difference - 5 seconds extra thinking is often all it needs. Why is it that the headless chicken option often comes out on top?

What to take from this? Sometimes, going out with no aims/goals/expectations can be fun, and good for you, but it is difficult to justify it 'going wrong' if all you can say is 'I was really stupid to have done that.' Having an aim, backing it up with a focussed race plan and concentrating on executing that plan during that race is often all you need to do. I can look back at the JK and see that for myself. And the determined efforts of the Slowies at London yesterday make that all the more obvious - get the process right, and the outcome follows - Mr FRBlackSheep himself has finally defied to odds to show this is the case ;)

C • I can testify going in with... 3

Event: British Middle Championships 2013
 

A bit token - through the assembly field and back just before starting.

British Middle Champs - Stanton Moor

Another disappointing run with a stupid 3.5 minute mistake on an early control.

The more I look at the map, the more I spot the now blatantly obvious routes...

Winsplits says errors as follows:
3 - 1'
4 - 3'30"
8 - 1'
9 - 45"

and I'll add
2 - 15"
10 - 30"
14 - 15"
22 - 5-10"

with plenty of other hesitations/bad routes. Pretty useless all round.

Easy jog out and back to the pre-warning to swap out the radio control.

At the moment I think I'm trying to run too hard. My fitness is better this year than in the last couple of years, but I'm not able to maintain the pace I think should correspond to that level.

This means the navigation is taking a back seat, and the thought process is often rushed/non-existent. I've been getting away with it on the easier/easily simplified controls, but as soon as it gets tricky it's hit or miss...

Course 1 - Splits

Event: British Sprint Championships 2013
 

Sprint Quali - Loughborough.

Sprint Final - Men's Open C.

Another run that was blemished by a silly mistake - 25 seconds lost by running past a control, as didn't think it was mine... If I was doing things in the order I should be, that wouldn't be happening.

Aborted jog out to remove radio controls, as competitors still out in the area. Then a second, successful attempt. All made sense at an easier pace, even on a 1:5000 map.

Cycle home from Derby. Almost hit a dog on a shared path for the second time in the day...

Work/travel day.

North Downs/Box Hill looking very picturesque - now the grass has a bit more colour to it, there's a pleasing contrast between that, the still-bare trees and the blue sky. Tempted to go exploring next week.

To Barton, fighting the wind

Really enjoyable route from Barton in the evening spring sunshine :)

Nice and easy ride home from the pub, with the wind at my back.