Training Log Archive: PsubaIn the 7 days ending Jun 12, 2016:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
| Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su | |||||||||
Sunday Jun 12, 2016 #
11 AM
Running warm up/down 7:29 1.09 km (6:54 / km) +28m 6:06 / km
ahr:147 max:165 shoes: VJ Supra
Orienteering race 1:02:33 **** 6.55 km (9:33 / km) +110m 8:49 / km
ahr:158 max:178 spiked:26/26c shoes: VJ Supra
British Middle Championships, course 3 (M40).
Lots of mistakes, more later.
Lots of mistakes, more later.
Running warm up/down 5:37 0.69 km (8:07 / km) +5m 7:51 / km
ahr:133 max:143 shoes: VJ Supra
Saturday Jun 11, 2016 #
Event: Summer Series
Event: British Sprint Championships
11 AM
Running warm up/down 9:56 1.77 km (5:36 / km) +11m 5:25 / km
ahr:148 max:169 shoes: Inov8 X-Talon 212
This weekend was very British. Of course, the British championships were held both in Sprint and Middle, but with the added occassion of Queen's 90th birthday celebration, and the Sprint being held in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, we were entertained by the flypast, as well as quintessentially British weather (meaning: heavy rain).
Urban Orienteering race 16:29 ** 3.31 km (4:59 / km) +12m 4:54 / km
ahr:174 max:183 spiked:22/22c shoes: Inov8 X-Talon 212
British Sprint Championships, Heats - 2.1
From a competition perspective, the Heats (where starts were delayed by 20 minutes) were a bit of a letdown - felt too easy, definitely would have been a runners course. The highlight was control 20, which was the Olympic rings:
Whilst navigation was mostly (too) easy, I did make mistakes:
With all of this I wasn't fully happy and quite sure I left at least a minute in the course, so was very surprised to learn that I won my heat! I am sure the organisers had a nightmare with the park authorities and do not envy the planner - nevertheless I have to say even in hindsight not all the OOB area is clear on the map. For example, near No. 14, the OOB marking is bound by a "vegetation boundary" dotted line, not a solid line. Whilst strictly speaking it isn't an ISSOM requirement, I think it hinders legibility because the OOB colour is very similar to "rough open", and on the ground these areas did actually look like the rough open you'd find in marshes, for example - and also looked (at least to me and at sprint speed) like the vegetation in the marshes near 11-12-13 which was a crossable area.
Result for the Heat
I also do not understand the planning of the placement for No. 17: it was at the end of a short "dead end" into an OOB area, but all those OOB marked areas on top of the bridge were similar vegetation areas (like flower beds), so I had to run around the flower bed and double back again. As the strip of the vegetation was very narrow (maybe 1m), it was very inviting to just jump across the OOB flowerbeds, which was of course forbidden, but as the control was clearly visible from the other side, I can not see any other reason for placing the control in there than to tempt people to jump across. There was no added navigation difficulty, nor route choice options, and only added about 10m extra running (if that). I would argue there would be nothing lost if the control was placed on the outer tip of the vegetation.
It is then not surprising that many were disqualified from the heats. Including one of the favourites in our class, Roger G.
From a competition perspective, the Heats (where starts were delayed by 20 minutes) were a bit of a letdown - felt too easy, definitely would have been a runners course. The highlight was control 20, which was the Olympic rings:
Whilst navigation was mostly (too) easy, I did make mistakes:
- Coming out of Control 6, I started to plan ahead which meant I noticed too late that I was past the house corner and could now run towards the control.
- Out of 14, I was close to going out of bounds: I was just in time warned by someone (luckily) that I was about to enter the OOB area so I corrected and ran along the seating area, but that meant I was distracted so entered the ditch overgrown with vegetation too low. I had to go back out and look for the control further up.
- There were several places where I had to jog slowly because the logical route was very narrow and I could not pass slower people in front: the pond bank to 12, the bank down and up to/from 18, and to/from 20.
With all of this I wasn't fully happy and quite sure I left at least a minute in the course, so was very surprised to learn that I won my heat! I am sure the organisers had a nightmare with the park authorities and do not envy the planner - nevertheless I have to say even in hindsight not all the OOB area is clear on the map. For example, near No. 14, the OOB marking is bound by a "vegetation boundary" dotted line, not a solid line. Whilst strictly speaking it isn't an ISSOM requirement, I think it hinders legibility because the OOB colour is very similar to "rough open", and on the ground these areas did actually look like the rough open you'd find in marshes, for example - and also looked (at least to me and at sprint speed) like the vegetation in the marshes near 11-12-13 which was a crossable area.
Result for the Heat
I also do not understand the planning of the placement for No. 17: it was at the end of a short "dead end" into an OOB area, but all those OOB marked areas on top of the bridge were similar vegetation areas (like flower beds), so I had to run around the flower bed and double back again. As the strip of the vegetation was very narrow (maybe 1m), it was very inviting to just jump across the OOB flowerbeds, which was of course forbidden, but as the control was clearly visible from the other side, I can not see any other reason for placing the control in there than to tempt people to jump across. There was no added navigation difficulty, nor route choice options, and only added about 10m extra running (if that). I would argue there would be nothing lost if the control was placed on the outer tip of the vegetation.
It is then not surprising that many were disqualified from the heats. Including one of the favourites in our class, Roger G.
2 PM
Running warm up/down 3:52 0.63 km (6:09 / km)
ahr:147 max:163 shoes: Inov8 X-Talon 212
Urban Orienteering race 18:05 *** 3.6 km (5:01 / km) +9m 4:58 / km
ahr:174 max:183 spiked:21/21c shoes: Inov8 X-Talon 212
British Sprint Championships, Finals 2A.
All the protests around disqualification etc then pushed the start of the finals out, in the end by more than an hour. This was enough for the very British weather to arrive, with a massive downpour! Whilst I ended up starting in a bit of lull in the rain (it did get going again in the middle of the run), I had to fish out the map from under standing water in the map box.
An appropriate signage next to the start!
The finals were very different from the Heats. We were in the Olympic Park proper and many more navigational challenges were finally introduced:
In summary, this was a final that I ran without any major mistakes, but very hesitant and in a lot of places just not concentrated enough and too slow. I considered it an OK run but not a great performance. So to me great surprise I managed to be placed 2nd and so a silver medalist!
Results for the final
All the protests around disqualification etc then pushed the start of the finals out, in the end by more than an hour. This was enough for the very British weather to arrive, with a massive downpour! Whilst I ended up starting in a bit of lull in the rain (it did get going again in the middle of the run), I had to fish out the map from under standing water in the map box.
An appropriate signage next to the start!
The finals were very different from the Heats. We were in the Olympic Park proper and many more navigational challenges were finally introduced:
- I had started slow to make sure I got the planning right, and concluded that I should stay high on the way to No. 2 to avoid the long steps down and up. Now, once I got to No. 1 I noticed that the map wasn't completely accurate, as the steps weren't going all the way - in fact it was a lot more runnable with 3 steps and about 10m level pavement alternating. However, part of the plan was to stick to my decisions as a principle as avoiding hesitations is key in sprint.
- No. 3 - I expected the control to be visible from below in the parking lot, but it wasn't - I then followed an elephant track in the high grass up the bank to the monument even though I suspected it will be too high for the control. Once there, I looked around and could not see the control, I had to jog down and be right next to it before I noticed. A further 15-20s lost, and by this time I was over half a minute down and only 3 controls in the course. This duly caused me to be just a bit off my concentration and for a couple of controls I just lost my flow, and was therefore too hesitant and just too slow.
- I picked it up from No. 11, where exiting the control I saw Geoff chasing me down for 2 minutes as I was running back up the path. This somehow caused me to get myself together, and although knowing his speed I fully expected him to run past before No. 12, I was surprised to see him more behind as I was going back up the bank out of 12 (as he later explained he made a mistake and took a longer route to 12 than I did). I managed to keep him behind me until the underpass between 16-17.
- From here, I tried to keep up with Geoff but was very keen to keep on top of my navigation at the same time. This meant that I was slowly losing touch (he is just too fast for me), last saw him across the bridge on the way to 21.
In summary, this was a final that I ran without any major mistakes, but very hesitant and in a lot of places just not concentrated enough and too slow. I considered it an OK run but not a great performance. So to me great surprise I managed to be placed 2nd and so a silver medalist!
Results for the final
Friday Jun 10, 2016 #
8 AM
Strength / Conditioning / Drills 10:00 [3]
Thursday Jun 9, 2016 #
8 PM
Running warm up/down 13:56 [3] 1.61 km (8:38 / km)
shoes: Saucony Excursion TR8
Running warm up/down 18:54 [3] 2.97 km (6:22 / km) +15m 6:13 / km
shoes: Saucony Excursion TR8
Running intervals (Moov) 20:21 [5] 3.3 km (6:10 / km)
shoes: Saucony Excursion TR8
5x Sprint Intervals, level 16 (passed). On the Thames footpath.
Level 16 = target cadence 180+, range of motion 100+. Managed cadence of 183 and range of motion 116. (may be taking level 17 next time). Not quite sure how Moov came up with these averages as the interval cadence numbers were 188,187,188,197,190 respectively...
Only did 5 due to 1.) time pressure 2.) sprint & middle British Champs at the weekend and not wanting to destroy my legs for those.
Interval pace ended up being 3:28, 25, 24, 27, 27
Level 16 = target cadence 180+, range of motion 100+. Managed cadence of 183 and range of motion 116. (may be taking level 17 next time). Not quite sure how Moov came up with these averages as the interval cadence numbers were 188,187,188,197,190 respectively...
Only did 5 due to 1.) time pressure 2.) sprint & middle British Champs at the weekend and not wanting to destroy my legs for those.
Interval pace ended up being 3:28, 25, 24, 27, 27
Wednesday Jun 8, 2016 #
Note
(rest day)
Wanted to have a gym session but slept instead. Probably last weeks lack of sleep catching up with me.
Tuesday Jun 7, 2016 #
6 PM
Running warm up/down 4:15 0.84 km (5:04 / km)
ahr:140 max:155 shoes: Saucony Excursion TR8
Urban Orienteering race 26:44 *** 4.66 km (5:44 / km) +91m 5:14 / km
ahr:166 max:176 spiked:22/22c shoes: Saucony Excursion TR8
London Park series race.
Took this on about 80% physical effort, given the expected long run afterwards. Tried to concentrate more on the navigation aspect.
14 out of 80 odd, which is OK considering that I wasn't able to properly warm up/stretch, and I did not have a compass with me.
Still, there were a few errors.
- Should have taken a much better route from 3-4, there was no issues finding the control in the circle but suboptimal getting there. Same for 4-5.
- Went back out to the concrete road 6-7, could have just ran on the grass, not sure which one was faster in the end but probably backtracking at the beginning did not help.
Mostly OK navigationally after this, except for 13 where I am not sure the map was 100% or the control was on the wrong bush (I suspect the former). I had to look for this in the circle for about 20s.
Route to 15 was suboptimal, and ran very cautiously on the cobbles next to the stream as they were slippery.
Took this on about 80% physical effort, given the expected long run afterwards. Tried to concentrate more on the navigation aspect.
14 out of 80 odd, which is OK considering that I wasn't able to properly warm up/stretch, and I did not have a compass with me.
Still, there were a few errors.
- Should have taken a much better route from 3-4, there was no issues finding the control in the circle but suboptimal getting there. Same for 4-5.
- Went back out to the concrete road 6-7, could have just ran on the grass, not sure which one was faster in the end but probably backtracking at the beginning did not help.
Mostly OK navigationally after this, except for 13 where I am not sure the map was 100% or the control was on the wrong bush (I suspect the former). I had to look for this in the circle for about 20s.
Route to 15 was suboptimal, and ran very cautiously on the cobbles next to the stream as they were slippery.
Running long (Cadence) 1:38:09 18.72 km (5:15 / km) +108m 5:06 / km
ahr:156 max:170 shoes: Saucony Excursion TR8
Back to Twickenham.
Getting very dark towards the end, just managed twilight through Richmond Park, some deers about.
Phone died 85% in the run so cadence training ended there, and I kinda died together with it. Struggled through the last bit but lack of recent long runs was a clear show. The fact that I lost one of my gels somewhere earlier and couldn't use it when I wanted to about an hour into the run did not help.
Getting very dark towards the end, just managed twilight through Richmond Park, some deers about.
Phone died 85% in the run so cadence training ended there, and I kinda died together with it. Struggled through the last bit but lack of recent long runs was a clear show. The fact that I lost one of my gels somewhere earlier and couldn't use it when I wanted to about an hour into the run did not help.
Monday Jun 6, 2016 #
8 PM
Running 40:03 7.7 km (5:12 / km) +17m 5:09 / km
ahr:150 max:165 shoes: Saucony Excursion TR8
Went to the local Gym for a fitness check (my health care provider provides cashback for various healthy things when registered so this will go back to them).
First time I ever used a Boditrax machine, which did various readings and concluded that my "Meatbolic age" is 26! That looks good, I just need to hide it so they don't force me to run in M21E as a result and be placed in the back of the field all the time as a result!
I then jogged to a local Indian to get takeout, jogged along the Thames while they prepared it then back to the hotel.
First time I ever used a Boditrax machine, which did various readings and concluded that my "Meatbolic age" is 26! That looks good, I just need to hide it so they don't force me to run in M21E as a result and be placed in the back of the field all the time as a result!
I then jogged to a local Indian to get takeout, jogged along the Thames while they prepared it then back to the hotel.