Training Log Archive: Psuba

SE Championships, Blue course.

Switched down from Black hoping that my knee will last at least that distance. It really didn't, but was sort of OK for patches so wasn't that bad after all. 5th out of 56 although really in my full health I should have been ahead as this isn't my usual field. OK I give Stanley Heap his due as an M16 with young legs he likely could have beaten me healthy, but that he ran the sort of tie I really should normally.

Anyway - fairly well planned course despite the less than optimal terrain, giving us some varied Orienteering challenges - compass bearing to route selection to contouring.

My knee gave me first warning as I started to climb to #6 so dropped to walking losing about a minute or so, as I was spot on navigationally. Then again a firmer warning as I was running up the track on the long leg towards #8 and the terrain changed to brashings, unsurprisingly the high knee running caused a sharp pain - so again I started walking a bit and jogged carefully - still could have been close to winning the leg if I wasn't making a stupid mistake in the circle. I was very loose with my attachpoint and didn't hit the gully spot on, wasn't sure if I was too high or too low, suspected being too high but faffed about trying to figure out rather than just getting out on the trail and run one way - which is what I did in the end, but not before stupidly losing a lot of time. Lost about 2 mins right there.

Navigationally, apart from the big mistake to #8 there were some smaller hickups:
- to 3 not precise on bearing and almost ran past the control, 20s
- to 5 wasn't reading the map properly and forgot to check the control description to see which side of the small hill the control was, so faffed about for about 20s
- to 10 was too tentative on the path so lost about 10s but really should never have hit it as I was climbing too fast, so probably lost more on the direction
- to 11 I was following the direction of the connecting line between the controls, in hindsight it wasn't the line between the centres of the circles but somehow tangential, so I ended going the wrong direction and took quite a while until I believed that the features I could see on the ground are indeed the ones I was seeing on the map as they seemed to far left! Lost at least 50s
- to 12 I am not quite sure how I lost that much time according to the splits, probably took too long to get out on the track!
- to 16 I ran to the wrong bush, 10s

So probably lost about 3:50 sum on errors plus the knee.

Now to rest.

Event: Southdowns Weekend
 

West Sussex Orienteering Weekend - Angmering Park, Middle Distance, Brown course.

Very tentative with my knee after only a day+ of taking Ibuprofain for my suspected knee inflammation. Knee mostly held up but I was quite careful especially with the uneven ground through the brashings and the NE area with a steep slope where the control was actually below uneven ground that was covered with undergrowth... Knee alert.

That said, only made a few actual errors, although most legs were simple, mainly compass bearing exercise (which I sometimes got right, sometimes not so much). I wasn't fast, however, and I think several times I took suboptimal micro route choices. I felt weak, not a surprise after recent weeks (lack of) training given my knee, I can imagine I lost quite some time on the dead running leg across the fields, and the physically demanding areas.
Still quite surprised to only be 15th out of 40 something, though a lot of people were on 38-39 minutes so probably a lot of people ran fairly error-free on this rather simple course and 2 minutes would have meant a lot of places.
The top guys were just simply too fast.

Chichester Urban, Mens Vets.

Slow and started to feel my knees from about halfway. But clearly in an urban race I usually do around 4:45 average pace, this one over 5m without any big climbs so I wasn't just feeling it, there is evidence. Hopefully will get over this in a few weeks and then get back to shape over the summer.

Interesting area, shame about the variable quality of planning. Some really interesting and tricky legs but also some fairly substandard ones, notably two controls were just inviting people to commit rule violations (reaching over) when I think it wasn't really necessary to plan those controls/legs that way. Placing the controls in a slightly different location would have helped even if I am not convinced the legs were fully thought trough in any case. Quite a few dog legs.

Not many mistakes but one of them hurt quite a bit - I misread the control description on one where it wasn't clear which part of a fence/wall the control was supposed to be (I read another control's description) so duly went the wrong place and had to double back and run around.

No idea about the result because I left before the fast guys started to come back, but I imagine they would have been quite a bit faster.

Knee feeling quite a bit timid now after the race, hopefully, it will go by tomorrow - I have downgraded from Black to Blue with a hope that my knee will last that long. I'll only go if it isn't playing up in the morning.

Spari training - terrain intervals + track intervals

Ran with a purpose to see how my knees react. They were OK for the first few then started to play up so I bailed a few sessions then ran next to the steps instead of. Then in the track session with high knees it started to really hurt. Bailed that, back to straight running.
Were reasonably OK for the session.

Then it started to hurt after the session again. I think this may mean it is inflammation rather than mechanical, which I think is a good thing, I need to rest it more and take inflammatory meds. Back to taking taking lots of rest.