Training Log Archive: Psuba

Event: Wessex Galoppen Bisterne Close
 

Bisterne Close Wessex Galoppen.

4th/15 (though Gavin forfeited his run when found a control missing)

Mostly stuck to the plan of trying to nail control in-out routine, except for 12 where I made the classic of making a bigger mistake after a smaller one - drifted N out of 11 (which I knew), went to visit a control I saw which I knew wasn't mine (losing about 30s), further drifting N, then when I corrected myself and got 12, I rushed and took the wrong path over the spur, adding lots of extra distance to 13 (costing maybe 1:20). Other than that smaller mistakes to 8 (vegetation wasn't quite mapped well - 40s), 10 (which I suspect was in the wrong depression, 40s), 17 (contours weren't mapped properly so was confused for a short while before reconciled the map with the terrain, 30s), then just stuck in heather to 18 which one could argue should have been mapped, so lost maybe about 5-6 minutes all together. Other than that a fairly clean run, probably on the right track, once I am not doing these with tired legs and mind I should be making up some ground to the guys in front.

Event: Night League
 

Very muddy, wet, some rain and wind (although the wind was unusual direction - usually it is headwind on the uphill section and back straight - now it was headwind into the shorter SE sections).

I got there late - 20 sec after the field has started, so no stretching of any kind and the rush to get there did not allow me to settle. Then I started overtaking people - someone kindly jumped double footed into a puddle after the first muddy section, which just splashed a large amount of muddy water in my face. Thanks! Any plans out the window, I just tried to push km2 and then half-heartedly km4, but it really didn't work.

Core exercises, balance ball, planks, and some hula hoop

Wessex Night League.

2nd place but well behind Dale.

Messed up pretty much everything I could - first so confused with the score system that I ran quite slow for the first half trying to decide if there is a trick in it. This duly distracted me and made quite a few errors as well losing a lot of time. By the time my mind was clear I was way over time to get them all, so had to cut my losses. Physically did not feel so good this time, well what with no warm-up (getting there late) and the earlier sessions of the day not a surprise.

Wet, muddy weather not helping either, but at least I got my Lucifer headlamp replacement so I could properly see.

I need to think through what to do with these night events because at the moment I am mentally lost with them.

Just a short shakeout session

Event: DFOK Kent Night Cup
 

Kent Night Cup 1 hour score at Joydens Wood.

Very muddy on the rides and very brambly in most places off track. Not a very enjoyable map from that perspective.

The rules were that only higher numbered controls can be taken in sequence. Essentially the question was when will you start bailing out and skipping controls (lowest number was 60, highest 80). Mass start event (as all KNC events are). Ran together switching leads with 2 other guys until 65, when it seems like everyone split. Note that I was making a mistake to 61 with suboptimal route already, but as I was in the lead, everyone followed :) Then I decided I had enough of trail running and went across the brambles to attach 65 - which was a mistake (40s). From this point I was alone, and duly messed up both route choice and execution to the next control (67), losing some time (1m), then relied on the guy running in front too much and overshot 69, had to go back (2m). From here on it was trying to balance remaining time with getting maximum controls. Managed to get to the finish with half a minute to spare. Quite pleased with my running, was able to tun all the uphills (although there weren't any very steep climbs), but messing those few things up meant I likely could have taken one more control realistically. 2 would have been unlikely and at a push due to the distances increasing if I wasn't skipping numbers.

Results:
http://www.dfok.co.uk/content/results/2016/Joydens...

It looks like if I got 15 controls which would have been possible without the mistakes, I would have been OK (that's how much the winner got).

Used the Silva trail runner II lamp I bought to use until the custom made one gets replaced/repaired.

Decent session anyway, if a bit of a journey to get to without a car as I was.

2x Hyde Park outer ring

Steady cadence training using the Viennese Waltzes as usual.
Tried to keep the effort low whilst keeping the cadence up - looking at AHR seems like it mostly worked.

Avg cadence was 174SPM so getting there, but still feels weird, especially after about 10km. Not surprising after less than a month of doing it, but feels like progress as AHR lower for the same pace than a month ago.

Event: London Street-O Race #6: Surbiton
 

Surbiton Street-O.

4th/80: http://slow.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/st...

Slow to start without warmup - legs still feeling the hills session on Sunday. Started to get into it midway through. Used this as a map memory training session, so trying to memorise the route to + exit direction from the next control.

Never sure whether my strategy is good or not for these score events, and on the SLOW street-O events an added source of potential confusion is the need to turn the map over for noting the answer at each "control", making tracking where I am & keeping the map orientated an extra challenge.