Training Log Archive: IanW

JK Relay - Pwll Du

JK Trophy - SLOW 1, Leg 1

A couple of injuries, and my good run on Saturday, had promoted me to the first team. I'm probably not the ideal person to have on first leg, as no speed advantage to make use of. The tired legs from the classic the day before were noticeable - HR confirms as was consistent but rarely broke 180, which is unusual in a race like this.

Completed the course relatively unscathed, but with a few bobbles - 10" at 2, drawn in by the wrong gaffle, 10" at 6 crossing at the wrong saddle, 10-15" at the spectator, expecting to see it low and running past, and a minor miss at 17 as relying on the codes printed by the control number, and so not reading the descriptions. Other Winsplits time loss is due to tweaking left ankle (again) quite badly coming out of 11 and hobbled down the track to 12.

All pretty packed on Leg 1, I came in 35th, 10 mins down on Murray and 7 down on the beginning of the main pack. Ludo and Rob pulled us up to 18th.

Far better performance than my 2007 relay run here - having a clear, easy to read map makes a lot of difference too! Comparing the two demonstrates how much unnecessary detail/clutter it is possible to remove from the map without losing the critical information.

JK Long

Jog/walk to start after some early morning arena re-organisation. Left 20 minutes or so for 2k, thought it would be plenty. Very long second km... Legs not feeling too sprightly, tried to get them moving on a couple of sections, didn't seem to respond. Got to the start a minute before call-up - bit lucky...

JK Middle - M21E - Merthyr Common

Apologies in advance for the length of this, but this happens so infrequently I thought I should record it for posterity.

My previous experience of this area was the Harvester back in 2009. Then 25 minutes disappeared across 3 controls in the dark. With vague contour shapes and very few positive features, I knew this course could be very tricky. More focus on compass work than on most areas - not really my strong point, but perhaps an advantage having been in Sweden recently and having it reinforced how important checking direction can be.

The plan, if any, was to be careful. Saw Jack Wood start in his bright green top, going straight on after the map boxes. Direction from the start sorted.

And then we're off. A bit hesitant early on, on a trod but too close to the quarry. Up a touch, find some pits, reassured a little. Over the small spur, no obvious re-entrant where the rocky pit & control are meant to be. But the spur with crags behind is pretty clear. Carry on, there's a hole on my line. And a flag. One down...

The next three went quickly - seeing the feature fairly early, confident it was mine, and dropping straight in. The good runnability probably helped as it meant I was reading the map more often.

#5 took a while to appear, but again on line. 6 looked a bit tricky, and had no real plan for this one. Over the ridge and keep the eyes open, perhaps... Ridge seems to be lasting a while, and what is that scree-covered hill not too far off line to the right? Ah, got it, way off right of where I want to be going. Check compass, head north, now next to a little hill, and then there's the big boulder to the left. Still not convinced on exact location, but haven't gone far enough yet. Head on, albeit hesistantly, past a hole or two, there's an SI unit appearing dead in front. And there's the pond. Look at code, check code, yep. Happy to put that down as a fluke.

Next three all about the pylon bases, although not in the original plan for two of them... Readjust line on the way down to #7 using the one on the edge of the circle of 8. Set line to 8 using same feature. Up the hill to 9, realise I'm drifting left on seeing the next base, adjust line and see the small hill to lead in. Still only part way there...

Then up and over to 10 - check the line, over the open hill, big hole, keep eyes open. See hole, over to it but catch something bigger out the corner of the eye as I descend which looks more likely. Swing round past the first hole (pit), checking just in case, but flag already visible in the bigger hole. 10-15" gone - not disastrous. And already on exit line for 11, with the pond confirming line and the scree giving the control location away.

Up over the hill to #12, which is again in the vague area near to 6. And again, looks tricky. Not sure of line, check compass, get on a westerly line into the broad re-entrant. Not too many big holes in here, and should be a flatter area just beyond the control. Again not overly confident, but there's a big hole on line 40m or so ahead of me before the flat, and someone's just dropped in. Bingo - second fluke of the day.

13 looks easier, more big features to use, and there's Jon! I know it's going pretty well, but that's 6' gained. Hit the control, 14 is straightforward, 15 not as easy but get a good line around the hill, spot the flag and punch not too far behind Jon. Pass him down to 16, use the open hill to adjust line, ignore the fact there's a non-existent hill on the map immediately before the control (which is rightly not on the old map). Have clocked Jack ahead, and Jon re-iterates the fact... Almost dive into wrong hole at 17, that's the second worst line into a control so far today, can't complain.

18 again looks tricky, on line in the re-entrant, see Jack looking confused on the ridge to the west. Check map, not looking quite as expected, see Jack moving across the line but don't see him punch. Almost slow to a stop when the SI unit appears dead in front again... this never happens!

Up to 19, ground rising more than expected, but see the line of pits and Jack confirms my suspicions by dropping in. Down to 20, slightly worried about missing it, but the flag is almost immediately visible. The trio of pits in the open make the line into 21 relatively simple.

Nail it down to the road crossing, almost screw up the penultimate as think it is further away from the slope than it is, take too much notice of the swarm of people to the right, and don't clock the ditch on the map or ground. Twig, and start swinging left as Jack drops in to punch. 5" lost if I'm being harsh, before a simple run-in to the finish.

And then I'm announced on the commentary. That also never happens. Second fastest time so far, in 38:30ish, just over a minute down. Would have said you were joking if you'd offered me that time beforehand.

Pop back into the commentary box afterwards and see the times coming through on the radio controls. This could be quite a good result, and a few scalps to be taken here too! But to end up 20th on M21E - WTF??

To say this was unexpected is a bit of an understatement. It is nice to know that, when I put my mind to it (and fluke a couple) then runs like this are possible... and pretty much solo too. Yes I got lucky on a couple, writing this down reinforces why it almost went wrong on these and gives something to focus on in future races.

And finally, the split positions tell an interesting story, with the overall finishing position trumping all of the split positions.
Best: 23rd (Leg 1)
Worst: 54th (Leg 10, 15" error)
Average: 38th (remainder between 29th and 46th.)

I may not have been moving very fast (relatively) but am at least pretty consistent!

C • Don't think... 4

Event: JK 2014
 

JK Sprint - Swansea Uni & Singleton Park

Wasn't overly enthused by this race - it didn't look like it was going to be particularly tricky, and don't have the speed to be competitive at sprints. Plus I seem to be getting worse navigationally at them.

So a bit of a blasé attitude beforehand, minimal warm up, get a vague idea of where people may be going. Work out where all the gaps in the fence to the park are from the blank map. Check descriptions - good idea of where #1 was, and #2 was a giveaway.

Pretty uneventful run, save running to the wrong tree at #18 (15"). No real smoothness to the orienteering, but no wildly wrong route choices. Bit of a warm up for the real event...

GPS shows 3.75km run, barely breaking 5min/k on actual distance.

Forecast suggested another good day, which it was, so rode home from Derby for the first time this year.