Training Log Archive: Olivia

Jog up to the start plus some drills

British Middle Championships. First couple of controls were laughably bad, took the direct route to 1 when the path would have been faster so I got stuck climbing over fallen trees instead of heading up the path, sigh. Again for number 2 I decided not to take the path but to go straight, hit a different depression to the one I thought I was on and so ended up about 30m off, standing looking at the path wondering what I had done. Number 3 again I hit a different depression to the one I thought I was aiming for and ended up running in circles for a bit until I decided to go back to the depressions and attack again. Also coming out of the depression the first time my calf went which was just what I needed.

Just about remembered how to map read at this point, slightly missed number 4 as the patch of green was a bit harder to identify on the ground. It wasnt as big as I had thought it would be. Pretty clean from here to 16 just with a few longer route choices. Coming out of 16 a W18 decided to elbow me very hard in the back which was very pleasant but then she cocked up the next control and ended up coming into it behind me which I was fairly pleased about. I was too low into 17 but identified I was on the lower pit and corrected accordingly. Not too much time lost.

19-20 I made a huuuuge mistake, for some reason I decided not to take the path route (again) but instead of creating a decent plan I set off on a fairly vague bearing. Hit the 'road' and climbed up the hill to hit the first of 2 paths. Only I wasnt on the road, I was on a small path further up, fought my way up through the green and hit a path, to which I thought execellent its just across to then next path then down to the rough open. 10s later, who the hell put a fence there. Then I realised where I was, on the flipping path route I had decided not to take have made a detour through some not nice undergrowth to get there. Sigh. At least now I had a decent attack point.

The rest of the course was fairly easy so no more mistakes. Just a bit frustrating as most of my mistakes wouldnt have happened if I had trusted my gut and run the path routes.

Hobbled round the field as a warm down. Calf very sore

British Sprints W Open heats, Aldershot. Nearly made a parallel error to number 1 since 6-7 was on exactly the same line so prob lost a few seconds towards the end of the leg when I realised the control under the bridge was not 1. Lots and lots of changes of direction and blocked hedges so finding any sort of flow was impossible and planning ahead was pretty tough too. Made a fairly big mistake to 12 not seeing the uncrossable fence (cutting the line would have been nice) and then to 18 I dithered, faffed and then took a very long route round losing me at least 20s. When I finished I wasnt too unhappy with my run as my mistakes were minor compare to usual, but then I saw the results. 35s off qualifying for the A final and I def lost 35s out there grrrrrrr

Don't feel as frustrated now, the heat results I was looking at clearly werent the latest ones as I was actually 57s off making the final, and I don't think I lost that much time out there.

British Sprints B Final. 6th +30s on the winner. Winning was doable, a few longer route choices and not seeing a blocked fence did for me. It felt much smoother than this morning but I still felt like there were too many people out on the area at once. It was carnage in the narrow areas. I need to be more aggressive in my route choice decisions I kept finding myself almost at a standstill trying to work out what I needed to do next.

Did something to my calf out there, it was really sore when I finished but I didnt feel it go at any point on the course.

Jogging down to the polling station and back

Gentle warm up

WEE Series 1 Ormeau. Fun course planned by ph, had thought I would just take it easy since my legs were still pretty dead but I went out just after Eibhlin, and she must have made a mistake early on as by 3 I was in front and I didnt see her as I went past. After that I ended up starting to push a bit more to see if I could drop her, knowing that her legs must have been just as sore as mine. Managed it at somepoint but dont really know when. Picked up a train through the bottom loop (12-15ish) and tried to push hard to get away from them = over a minutes error going to 16. I went to the thicket at the top of the bank rather than the tree at the bottom. The only positive was my entire train did it as well :) Rest of the course was fast enough although I think I got my route choice slightly qrong going to 20, should have just stayed on the main path, cut down too early.
11th overall, 2nd women 9s behind Steph P
Not too bad considering the state of my legs

Staggering round a warm down

Jog round the warm up map and drills

Gentle warm down

Warm up and drills

Warm down with Kirsten along the towpath