Training Log Archive: Olivia

Another super hot day and I was worried about my achilles so decided not to push it too hard, in the hope that it would lead to a cleaner run. Started off well but I was having a bit of difficulty reading the map, I think they were 15thou symbols on a 10thou map, which meant I came down the uncrossable crags on the way to 3 by accident. Missed the crossing point on the way to 4, ran straight passed it and lost about 45s looping back round to pick it up, also I missed the gap up between two crags and ended up plodding my way up through the brambles to reach the control, bad route choice, I should have stuck to the path. The rest of the course before the road crossing was good, and I have to thank Susan for leaving a bottle of water at the crossing, cos I really needed it at that point. Made a smallish mistake going to 15 (again map reading difficulties) but probably only lost about 30s, my route just ended up being a bit longer than necessary. It was all going so well until 19, where I managed to lose at least 5 mins, apparently I cant measure distance whilst on the run, and so completely overshot the control and spent ages faffing around in the green screen trying to work out what i'd done and how to fix it. Tried to open up the legs to 20, but achilles started to pull so backed off again. The rest of the course was fine, until the finish, which I found by accident, I saw Ivan legging it through the forest to my left and so I thought, Ill just pop out onto the road and then cut back in to the finish, thinking someone had kindly taped the route out onto the road, turns out it was the finish.
1st James 56.00
6th Me 68:19 (only girl)

Spent most of today attempting to wrangle a lawnmower, not helped by last nights arm work. Apparently not being able to walk in a straight line is an issue when mowing a lawn!!

Right Achilles was very sore this morning, but it had loosened up a lot by parkfit time so I went along as a blue bib and took it very easy. Lots of tire work, my arms we not happy by the end

Warming up with Susan on the way to the start, with a detour back to the trailer to pick up the start box

Head to head with Susan on a ridiculously hot evening, it was hard work to keep moving. Started off ok, but was losing time waking up the controls, every time I started to get away from Susan I then had to wait at the control! Seemed to lose her on the way to 6, and never saw her again (later found out she made a mistake). I felt really good, and was flowing nicely through the course until the second last control when I had one of those 'I know exactly where I'm going' moments where reading the map becomes optional. Ended up losing 50s. Was happy enough overall but in the future i will remember to read the map even in parks I know like the back of my hand!

Fun red session, it was easier than normal because of the heat. That's not to say it didn't hurt, the leg work had a real bite to it!

Collecting controls with Susan and James. I was trying to take it easy but Susan and James kept H2H racing between them, it would have been rude not to join them.

Course 3 - Splits