Training Log Archive: lackofluke

Following/being followed by someone.

Yesterday, I caught up a guy at control 2 and we followed one another, the lead changing several times, until control 11 when I finally got past him. I saw him behind me on the road back into Shotover, and then didn't see him again until no. 26. Once I'd finally got past him I didn't want to let him get ahead again. I think I finished ahead of him, but I don't know his name and the splits aren't yet available.

Similar things happened at West Woods and Greenham Common earlier this term. At West Woods I was embarrassed about having been caught up at #5 by Kat who started a few minutes after me, so I tried my damnedest not to let her get past again! And at Greenham, I was being chased by some older bloke between controls 8-12, but I eventually lost him after number 12.

At all three events I did well, finishing in the top quarter, and it wasn't because I was taking advantage of someone else's navigation. The other people were spurring me on, since I didn't want to be beaten by them, or at least be overtaken by them again. Having said that, I was beaten by Kat at West Woods and the old guy at Greenham!

Perhaps it's also worth saying that all three courses were on areas that weren't too difficult technically. Also, these courses were about 6.5-8km long. And at Shotover I was helped by the fact that I had been orienteering there several times before and knew the area reasonably well.

Event: Shotover Park District Event
 

I didn't feel I'd got enough work done this term, so I chose not to join several other members of OUOC who headed off to Scotland for BUSA and some training afterwards. Instead I stayed in Oxford and ran at the District event at Shotover Park.

Shotover is actually quite hilly, compared to the rest of Oxford. It's mainly forested although there are numerous small clearings and some open areas. A lot of it can be quite grotty off the paths, but it didn't seem too bad today. This event also used the nearby Brasenose Wood. This part of the map is a lot flatter than Shotover. A large chunk of this wood is a path network breaking up the blocks of different shades of green. Within this section, paths are the only real route choice. The two areas are connected by roads.

The map has undergone a couple of significant changes. Firstly, the scale has been changed to 1:7,500, and it now fills out an A4 page better. Secondly, the planner has noted that the original map needed to be rotated by about 5.5 degrees anticlockwise! I spoke to the planner who said he'd had been having difficulty updating the map until he realised this!

I ran the Brown course, and was pleasantly surprised to get round the 30 controls within the hour. Interestingly the control codes were ran from 101 to 130 in sequence, so I didn't need to check control codes en route! Technically, it wasn't all that difficult. Quite a few controls were visible from a fair way away, particularly numbers 5, 19, 20 and 29. Still, I think the planner made good use of the areas, in particular there were only two in the path-network bit of Brasenose Wood. The mistakes I did make were small: coming out of number 3 the wrong way, and suboptimal route choices to 8, 14, and 28.

The weather was reasonably nice too. Although it was quite cold when I started, it seemed to have warmed up a little by the time I finished. Also, the rain held off.

The Brown course had no less than three control description symbols I'd not seen used at an event before - boulderfield, well and forest corner. (The well was not the famous water trough - neither that nor the 'boulder' were used this time!) The 'boulderfield' description, was a bit odd. Sure, there were a load of stones at the control site, but I didn't believe that they were big enough to be boulders. Perhaps 'stony ground' should have been used instead?

I don't know how I got on compared to others. My splits tell me I was number 1 of 1, but that only says that I was the first finisher. I didn't manage to speak to anyone who also ran Brown - Rob P and Roger T were apparently both a bit ill. It will be interesting to see the results. [Edit: preliminary results are here, I came 4th!]

Overall a very enjoyable event and nice to go orienteering and be back home in time for lunch!

Brown - Splits

Planned to run to the nearby mobile phone mast but decided not to go that far and turned back at Youlbury Gate 4. Didn't feel too good, maybe I pushed it a little too hard yesterday.

The paths up to and over Cumnor Hill were their usual muddy selves. It made for very slow running since the faster you try to run the more energy you are putting into sliding your feet backwards. Also, the time given is guessed since not only did I forget to reset my stopwatch after yesterday's run, I forgot to stop it when I finished today's run!

Today's downpours would have turned the path over the top of Cumnor Hill into an absolute mudfest so instead I went for a road run to Cumnor and back.

C • Running. 2

Another circuits session at Brookes, 60s on 10s off for one complete circuit going the wrong way around. Again, chose a different place to start the circuit from (#13 - pressups, get them out of the way!), although that did mean I did burpees later on in the circuit after another couple of leg exercises!