Training Log Archive: Psuba

Event: Kong Mini Mountain Marathon - Event 1
 

Kong Mini Mountain Marathon, Snowdonia.

My first trip to North Wales. I was going to do a low HR long run today, but wanted to get some climb from somewhere, so elected to come and do this as a low effort long training, not as a race. Epic views, great weather. Lost my map as it fallen out of the backpack pocket, luckily after tracing back my route a pair was kind enough to give me one of their two maps.
Different route choices are needed for this kind of race/terrain which I learnt today - steeper than I thought descents/ascents and rocky places sapped time away quite a bit. Was OK most of the time, but the one major mistake was misreading the stream junction and thinking I overran a control - slightly pulled away by a fellow runner who I thought was doing the same route but apparently wasn't... climbed up in snow and rocky mountain for about half an hour instead of maybe 10 minutes if I was going up later after getting to my control :(
Anyway, this wasn't about racing, so enjoyed myself, just wish it wasn't requiring so much driving!

A bit of Gopro footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUyQfX4FJkQ

Event: Sarum Saturday & Wessex Night League
 

Warmup+parkrun with Ian + cool down

Forgot the HRM but tried to jog slowly, I probably went up to Z2 as Ian dictated the tempo.

Wessex Night League, Dinton Park.

1st/27 https://sarumo.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/r...

Finally a proper Night-O race that wasn't urban. That said, the park had a fairly straightforward layout, so quite a bit of this night was about being precise with compass bearing - and of course, running incl. covering the climb.

Heavy mud in places and raining :(

Had a decent strategy I thought, but made quite a few errors, mostly directional:
20s (direction) +35s (overran control)+45s (direction)+50s(no sign of the path that was on the map so overran) +10s (direction), so 2:40 altogether, could have had the 500 points to myself (Alan behind me by just 10 seconds so gets the same Night League points). Feel sorry for Alan, yet it is roughly what I had in the previous 2 occasions. To be honest with so many mistakes I would not have deserved much better anyway.

First outing in the Agravic. Probably not so much for the road running but will probably be a good replacement for the Haglofs for trails.

Event: Southampton - Wessex Night League
 

WSX Night League, Romsey - 1 hr score.

2nd/53 - http://race-results.info/2018/20180201wnlr/?page=c...

Another 19 second loss to Dan - very similar to last time!

Exciting but also frustrating. Especially since - again - there were 2 main mistakes that could have resulted in a reverse result and more points for me in the League than him! It's tight at the top. Ah well.

Decent strategy overall. Mistakes:
1:30 lost around 144. I was in the circle but the map doesn't really show that complicated section well (it wasn't a standard Orienteering map so it was a slight guesswork). I ended up hunting around then just bailing out to the road junction and attack the control from the other side.
20s hesitation at 143 - I wasn't planning ahead detailed enough and didn't realise that the railway line would be cutting off any direct routes to 138, so I had to figure out what the best route is - as there were two options in totally different directions, I stayed put until I figured out which one is the best.
50s at 135. The map again wasn't quite clear/correct here, there was an extra path running next to the houses which lead me through the "woods" and then I ended up skirting around the houses where there is also no path on the map, finally getting to the control from behind. This was basically just an almost full loop that was unnecessary - my expectation was that any path I found there would lead me into the control directly as per the map.

So that's 2:40 of which I will graciously blame 2:20 on the map :)

Felt OK from a running perspective, and average speed now starts to get to the ranges I was running in urban races before the injury last year.

To WSX Tuesday training

WU+Med hills+CD

Initially wanted to do 3 reps like last week, but I forgot my bike lock keys (I did carry the lock!!!), which meant I asked Jason to lock my bike together with his. I didn't want to inconvenience him so did only 1 rep with the group before heading back together.

Quite rainy and not very warm either, but Gavin, Becca, Becca, Ian, Kay, Julie, Jason, Andy, Dale all turned up.

Splits for the 4-4-4 reps (short/med/short):
32s/34/34/33
1:11s/11/11/12
32s/33/33/34

Not bad times compared to earlier similar sessions.

Back from training, with Andy

Got out of the door VERY late - work+waiting for delivery + various other things and by the time I got out I messed up the cycle of nutrition etc, ran out of glucose very early. After about 2km the symptoms of blood sugar hit me - I was lightheaded, spinning, could jog but if anything happened e.g. if I tripped I probably would have just toppled over. So I started to walk a bit, drank some water, cursed myself for not bringing any emergency food as this was supposed to be an easy HR control jog etc.

I was hoping it would pass but as I got to Boscombe and walked quite a bit I decided there is no point continuing, especially as it started to be very cold (close to freezing) and headed straight back. Jogged back, even lower HR than I expected.

Ah well.