Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Nice, easy run with Kat along the river in Oxford on a beautiful sunny days with stops to stretch, look at cows, geese, swans and so on. A very pleasant spring day!

C • Stigtomta? 2

Warm-up and cool-down

JK Relay at Bramham Park
Team SLOW#2:
Boris(7km)-Kat(5km)-Chris Wroe(5km)-Hammer(7km), competing in the men's open class.
I ran the first leg as training for leading off CSU's Jukola team this June. As expected, the pace was very fast right from the start, tearing straight through the brambles that were all over this map. I was clean through the first two controls and found myself with GG and a couple of others going to 3 and finding ourselves in what looked like a piece of unmapped forest. After about 1:40 of trying to relocate, we stumbled onto the control and began pursuit of the main pack. I lost some time (20 seconds each) on 6, 7 and 9, but was still pushing hard and could see a bunch of guys ahead of me the whole time. After 13 and 14, the spectator controls, I saw that there was only about 1km left, and I picked up the pace, gaining on and passing about five or six guys right before the last control and holding them off through the long finish chute. I was very happy to finish with a pack (18th out of 32, 5:12 off the lead) and hand off to Kat, except..... Kat wasn't there. Apparently, the 2nd leg runners had to already have their maps before being tagged, and she had to run back and get hers. About a minute and a half later, she was there, and I finally tagged her and went to cool down and cheer.
Both Kat and Chris Wroe had very good runs, considering they were racing against the best elite males in Britain, and Hammer (who arrived while the 3rd leg was already out) brought us up to 24th overall with a solid last-leg run.

All in all, this was a great weekend of orienteering, and the kind of race format US A Meets could consider adopting - Sprint-Middle-Classic-Relay. It definitely makes the trip worth it if you get to run 4 times in 4 days. The weather was also good, as was the hospitality provided by the many SLOW members who housed us, drove us, fed us, and gave us relay teams. A big thanks to them! It was also great to see some old friends and familiar faces, from Graeme Ackland and Andy Dale to Niall Bourke, Ben Roberts and Dids. Finally, i got to meet in person a few APers, including bubo and angryhaggis!

Warm-up and cool-down

JK Classic WRE at Keldy
It had been a long time since I had run a good classic race, mostly due to poor endurance and lack of real base training the last couple of years, so I didn't have very high expectations for myself for this long, grueling race. The start order for the classic was the reverse of the middle race's results, so I was starting 12th, with the few people I had beaten in front of me. At the very least, I set as a goal to be in the lead when I finished, with a dream goal of actually opening the finish in H21E, which seemed pretty far-fetched with the 3-minute start interval.

The terrain was pretty rough and green, with a dense ride and trail network, but the catch that most of the rides turned into marshes and were hard to run on. Basically, the course was a physical fight for the first 9km or so and then, when you were totally worn out and dead, you got to the fast, technical last several km. Cruel, but fun.

I felt strong right from the start, much better than the day before and, after a bobble on 1 (a short control right from the start into a maze of ditches), was careful and clean on 2, 3, and 4 and was happy to catch and pass my 3-minute guy. After a long uphill slog 5, I spotted and passed my 6-minute guy going to 7 and stayed with him through the technical bit of 7,8,9. Coming into 10 (one of several controls on a small ditch in the middle of the green), I saw the 9-minute guy, and he stayed with me for a long time. Was still pushing hard and feeling good through the other long legs in the green but slowed down and hesitated a bit on the short legs in the "white" woods from 13-17, passing the 15-minute guy and the 21-minute guy. Then came the fast, technical area, and my stomach started hurting like crazy. I had to stop for a minute or so going to 20, letting the 9-minute guy catch up again, and lost concentration, losing another 2 minutes on #20, which was a stone pile on a plain hillside. After bobbling 21 a bit, I slowed down, forced myself to focuse and ran pretty well the rest of the way, though was extremely tired and barely jogging on the last few hills - a common story reported by most of this race's survivors. And, indeed, cheered by Kat on the run-in, I was happy to learn that I was the first H21E to finish. Then it was time to watch my result slip down the leaderboard as faster and faster people came in. I ended up 22nd, very satisfied with my race, and in 29th overall for the weekend, fulfilling the goal of top 30 and beating a few people I had never before thought possible for me to beat.
Hammer impressed again, with another excellent run - good for 16th on the day, I think.

I will try to put up my maps later today, but Graham Gristwood (who won each of the days) has all of them, along with very interesting commentary, up on http://www.grahamgristwood.co.uk

C • Nice job overall! 2

Warm-up and cool-down with Kat.

JK Middle Distance WRE at Ilkley Moor.
The terrain consisted of a long hillside, part of which was pretty plain, with just a bit of rock detail, and the other part featuring tons of intricate rock and contour detail. Practically the whole map is yellow, with patches of white that really stood out. The ground was covered by bracken and rocks, and the running could be pretty tough at times. A late start time definitely helped, but the elephant tracks were everywhere, and it took some discipline (which I lacked) to avoid following a nice track leading to the wrong controls.

Right from the start, I didn't feel very strong physically and had to force myself to run hard. I was having a decent race through the first five controls, but was spending too much time focusing on running hard and not enough time concentrating on the navigation. I could get away with that through the simpler part of the course, but paid dearly once we got into the detailed areas. I drifted off my line going to 6 and found myself a good five contours below, having to climb up and losing two minutes or so. Was then very tentative on 7,8,9, and then blew 10, the spectator control, right in front of the crowds. I stopped right below it, but didn't see it and ended up making a big loop and relocating, losing another 1:30. From there my race came apart completely, as I attacked 11 without a plan, losing a minute, seemed to recover for 12, and was confused in the poorly mapped area around 13 (and watched Graham Gristwood run around in circles with me). In addition to these big errors, there was just a sense of general sloppiness about the race for me, and I just never got into it. Ended up a very disappointing 50th out of 62 (40% behind Graham's winning time!!!), not a good start towards my goal of top 30 for the weekend.
Kat had a tough time on her course as well, making it an all-around disappointing day for us. On the bright side, Hammer had an awesome run, and would have been top-15 if not for losing time on the same badly-mapped #13 as me.

C • I stuffed up a control near yo... 4

Sprint: Men's Open - Splits

Event: JK 2006
 

JK Sprint
After a couple of lovely days of sightseeing and relaxing with Kat in London, we arrived in Leeds with Paul Nixon of the South London club and Chris Wroe of OUOC, just in time to run the sprint course before the elite showcase began. With no warm-up, i started a bit slow, but picked up the pace pretty quickly. The terrain was pretty straightforward, and one of the major challenges was the myriad Trail-O controls with no punches on them surrounding the correct sprint controls. I ran a good race for the most part, but made a couple of stupid mistakes in a hedge maze towards the end, losing 40 seconds or so. I think I could have run a good bit faster with a proper warm-up, but I was still pretty happy with my time, good for 16th out of 200+ on the normal sprint, though quite a bit behind the elite runners, whose course was just a bit longer, but who also ran under actual race conditions, which I think makes a sizeable difference.
Kat was 2nd on the women's course, beating some of the elite times, as well!!!! All results are on http://www.jk2006.org.uk/

C • Micro-O! 2

Cool-down plus jogging around the JK model event with Kat. Rather uninteresting terrain, with lots of brambles and thorny areas.