Training Log Archive: Psuba

Concorde Chase, Hawley and Hornley, Black.

My first time ever running Black course, and as I need to increase distances in general as part of the Marathon preparation ( https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Peter-Suba ) I also decided that this should not just be the distance but I was actually going to push all the way.

15th / 26 - http://race-results.info/2017/20170129conc/?page=c...

Which, given most of the people ahead of me, is not actually that bad, also considering the time loss as opposed to how much people behind lost, again is not that bad.

I haven't made any huge errors which I think is mostly due to being able to properly concentrate most of the way through. There were a few wobbles but they were fairly quickly corrected which is good confidence boost because as I was pushing the pace I could have been prone to making stupid huge mistakes. Those smaller mistakes still cost though on some of the leg, particularly:
2 - After making it up to the top of the hill open area, I came out a bit to the left of the junction I wanted and started to run on a track that I thought was the one under the line. Instead, this was the one curving to the left of it, and although I noticed but I decided to just go with it as it was too late to turn back or cut across the rough. Still, overall this cost me about 50s
7 - I wanted to use the path across the rough open but wasn't sure how clear it will be, so I ran on what I thought was possibly the path but ended up an indistinct bit of path running on the edge of the vegetation boundary, I have followed this for about halfway before the path actually was in the view and I switched, but not before losing some time here due to the slow going. About 20s I would say.
10 - I wasn't clean through the woods as I was weaving my way through between the green patches so this was longer than it should have been, only to then get stuck through the barbed wire fence - it was mapped as crossable, and it was, but it did take me serious seconds! 20s
11 - I did not notice the path on the map through the green so decided to run around it to the south (perhaps the planner could have made a gap in the line to make it clearer?), lost about 20s
12 - Somehow needed a mental break as I crossed the road so had to whip myself into action, it would have felt somehow good to just walk here. Not sure why??? Lost a few seconds but it's just hesitation as I read the vegetation properly.
15 - no mistakes and yet somehow lost quite a bit on this leg to the best times. I can only put this down to being slow through the rough!
16 - same here, I suddenly noticed someone popping out in front whom I have left behind coming out of 14 who was still looking confused there, so obviously made up all his deficit and coming through. I think that kinds shaken me up a bit and I started to push. Nevertheless made a small mistake out of 16 going down onto the road only to climb with the road straight after - should have contoured out instead even if that was a few seconds lost.
18 - This was a suspicious control to me. I ran on bearing and ended up wy too far to the NE of the control. There was a hide and a platform there which were not mapped. I hesitated quite a bit even though I contoured towards SW but stopped as I did not want to go too far. As it turns out I stopped about 1m before the point from where I could actually see the control and eventually got it. I have a slight suspicion that either the pit, in reality, is a bit further SW than mapped, or the control was misplaced to the pit to the SW of the one marked. Obviously could not check there and then, and the learning (again!) for me is to NOT stop, but keep running until I bounce back from something obvious, as this would have saved me about 40s here and losing the tail of the guy that just ran past me earlier.
20 - I suspect suboptimal route choice here so I lost about 20s
21 - An odd one this, as I have lost almost a minute on this leg but I have actually pushed quite hard. I suspect this was a combination of a.) hesitating out of the control and b.) running a stupid route as there were quite a few options here.
23 - Just overshot and bounced back from the road, in fact, this was a good example of how to lose LESS time which I did not do on 18, but I did here, bouncing back from the road only cost me about 20s.
25 - a compass bearing mistake, to be honest, I was only taking a rough bearing and should have noticed when I jumped across the stream that I should not have. Corrected myself eventually, but really really suboptimal route this way and about 40s
26 - again a large time loss and I suspect this was a route choice mistake, as most of the leg I was running through the forest and not around on a road. 1m lost but considering I was slower let's put this down for 20s. I was also on this leg consuming my gel which I should have done earlier but it seems I was enjoying the navigational challenges so much that I have forgotten about it before!
32 - was the last long leg and I think tiredness has shown here a bit. I once again have gone across the rough open (there wasn't much choice other than a bit detour that maybe I should have, in fact, considered!). More importantly, I almost climbed a small hill I did not need to, turned back on the road and had a thorny branch stripping me of my headband! I took it back but this small detour still cost about 20s.
34 and I suspect the green on the hillside wasn't quite well mapped or at least wasn't looking the way I expected so had to backtrack a few times before I was able to cut across to the road, so lost about 40s here!

The rest was fairly OK, but this still adds up to over 5mins worth of navigational errors, which I think is not a catastrophe over this distance even if it would be fantastic to be error free once. The rest is down to running speed and mostly speed over undergrowth which is something I need to work on.

Event: Kent Night Cup
 

Kent Night Cup Norbury Park.

Finished 4th / 45 to my great surprise, as I have made many mistakes both tactically and navigationally. http://mvoc.org/Events/20170126KNC/results/knc_sco...

Looking at the map I decided to go around the eastern end and collect the controls through that valley, then head up to the top of the hill and collect the controls through there, zig-zagging all the way towards the end.

I wasn't precise through. Straight to control 2 (209) I was stuck in green up the slope so wasn't particularly well placed, then to control 3 (213) I climbed too high and bounced back from the fence corner. The next few controls were OK but mainly just path running and dipping out into the forest at the right place. As I headed up to the top of the hill, I overshot the junction (still don't know how I did not notice the junction), so had to cross the forest strip, and then made a 90 deg error straight as I came out to the track believing I hit the one I expected to take initially. By the time I noticed my mistake I was closer to 215 so decided to punch that before heading back to 217 - this may have been the best recovery but it still meant I kept wasting time overall. Over then to 216 and then collected the few controls on the way back and I needed to start thinking about which controls to drop at this point as it became clearer and clearer that I wasn't going to collect them all. I have decided to drop all on the eastern slope (this was probably wise given the time pressure at this point), but then as I looped back to collect the few on the top of the hill I have seen many orienteers heading in the opposite direction as I was now running away from the finish. I panicked and looked at my watch which shown only a few minutes and in the middle of the leg I changed my mind and decided to drop the two controls in my direction and opted for a shorter loop - taken 204 and 207 before the obvious two last controls on the way to the finish (203/201). I looked at my watch again and the seconds were counting down so I pushed as hard as I could downhill and through the field (looking at the splits not hard enough because I still lost about 28 sec on the last control and for the finish from the best split, even if Dan is a fit young M21), just about punching the finish before my watch beeped. At which point I puzzlingly looked and seen it was prompting me to run the last interval "run 5 mins" which basically meant that I was racing not against the finish but against the penultimate programmed split and still had 5 minutes to spare! Which is annoying because I clearly had the scope to collect the 2 additional controls I planned before I changed my mind. Which means even without accounting for the many mistakes I had scope to win this event given that I was 10 points (1 control) behind only. I think this must have been an event full of mistakes for everyone as I wasn't running particularly well and making all those mistakes, I expected to be much futher down the rankings.

Control collecting - bloody freezing and I have forgotten to get a gel or water down before I headed back out to the forest after the score, and paid the price as I ran out of energy halfway out with nothing to refuel with. So just had to push through which even though I was just jogging, wasn't easy, especially with carrying all the control stakes etc.

Company outing after work

Event: SLOW Night-O 2016-17 #3: Ham Riverside
 

SLOW Ham Night-O

Not sure I had the speed. Luckily for once this was within running distance to my B&B, so easy solution to warm-up and cool down.

An interesting course with street sections in between almost sprint like woodland sections. Mostly well controlled, except for one mistake in the riverside, and one in the woodland. Nothing to learn there other than "pay attention". A few suboptimal route choices including the middle section through the houses where I suddenly noticed someone has popped out in front without overtaking - he actually used a much shorter alleyway shortcut that I did not notice.

Sections very slippery due to ice so had to slow down to avoid falling over, surprisingly this meant quite a lot of the pavement.

Long - Splits

Travel, work...