Training Log Archive: emmacrawford

never been so cold in my life than when i took off my jumper at the clothing dump and had to stand in the start boxes in just a mesh top. warmed up on the run though

northern champs - 2nd!!
+ 8 mins behind immy though
also second on the whole course which was w20 as well!
i am actually really happy with my run and everything else today, a few things need working on but considering i woke up this morning with a blocked nose and haven’t stopped coughing since i don’t think today could have gone much better.
started off strong pretty much nailing #1, almost knocking over a kid on the yellow on the way to #2 where i saw jess who started 4 mins before me which was a massive confidence boost but she was in the wrong place so i just ignored her, ended up leading a bit of a train of old people until like #7 because the heather was so hard to run in and every time i tried i just kept falling over so i resigned myself to speed walking and was still struggling to stay on my feet.
then #8 was the start of the micro section and i got way ahead of myself and turned the map over straight after #7 before realising i actually needed to get to #8 first, and then once i got into the vague area of #8 i got a bit distracted and didn’t know how far down the path i had gone, then a cow started coming towards me so i couldn’t even stop and try and relocate, ended up seeing a control up the hill and thinking i’ll go and check that one and if it’s not mine i’ll go back out and try again but i got there and it was #8 so that was a relief. the rest of the micro bit was really just a lot of guess work, although i absolutely nailed #11 and #12 so maybe my head was in the map a bit more then?
back onto the 1:10,000 at #12, then for #13 i was in the right re-entrant, couldn’t see the control so went into the next one thinking i was wrong, no control there either and then i read the description and it was at the end of it and i had just missed it. only like 10s but still annoying.
#14 and #15 i was absolutely flying because this like m20? was right behind me and seemed to have the same few controls as me and he would run ahead, then stop when he got into the circle and wait for me to lead him into the control (on purpose or not i don’t know) but then up to #16 he left me behind, went the wrong way, followed me to the wrong rock and then followed me again when i realised where i went wrong and got the right one. again like 20s lost here maybe because i didn’t know exactly where i came out onto the path, panicked and just ran to what looked like vaguely the right place.
spiked #17 and then could not find the path to #18 and was wading through the heather for so long until i eventually found it, i think i just didn’t look at my compass and i was going almost parallel to it for ages and this felt so slow. found the control fine though.
then i was going to go straight to #19 but i could not move through all the heather so i bailed and went out to the path which was probably a better idea anyway and apparently i looked happy as i ran into the finish but ngl i think i was just happy to be done with all the gross heather.

overall though i’m pretty happy with that nav wise, few little mistakes and a bigger one on #8 but when am i going to have to do the micro thing in the middle of a course again so not too fussed about that one. very happy with my result + mentally that was so much better than last year’s races :) proper rest week now though my legs are exhausted

coughed up something nasty and then i was struggling to keep breakfast down for a few minutes which was not very enjoyable but i never actually threw up so i calmed down a bit and pretended like it never happened

birchen edge o
first ever brown today!! it was a middle so it was only 5.2km so nothing impressive but still
in the interests of tomorrow i took this incredibly slowly with the aim of having a clean run and enjoying it, i walked anything that wasn’t downhill or on a path but i think it was a good idea because my legs are feeling a lot better than yesterday.
started off a bit shaky because i was stressing about looking elite for the kid in the start box who let me go ahead of him and was very quickly catching me up because i couldn’t work out the scale, but then found the path junction before the control and got that sorted pretty fast.
next few were good, my plan for #4 did not work out because i missed the path, i think i didn’t go far enough but then doubted myself and followed the edge of the trees instead which worked but i think the path would have been a bit faster than fighting through the undergrowth. found the control alright though.
saw my mum after #4 and for some reason that made me decide to not bother with reading the map and instead i just ran in the vague direction of #5 and surprise surprise i missed the control, hit the path, turned round and it was back up the hill. stupid mistake.
for #6 i got into the control circle absolutely fine and then wandered round looking for the depression for a while because everything was a bit vague and i couldn’t work out which way to go but eventually this woman found it and showed me. probably would have found it by myself in the end but this definitely sped things up.
next few controls were okay, then the slightly longer leg to #10 i walked because it was gross terrain and i kept falling over even though i was walking so i decided running was not a good plan, i spiked the control though. #12 i am so proud of, it was on a pit in the middle of a marsh and you actually could not see it until you were at it and this elite looking guy had just sprinted past me and was wandering round in circles trying to find it and i just walked straight up to it on a perfect bearing.
then the next couple were okay, i loved #15 + #16 because reuben and jonty just overtook me and then i overtook jonty again because he couldn’t find #15 and then a lovely run down the ridge thing.
this was not very long lasting though because then #17 (a rock in the middle of a boulder field) was almost impossible especially because i was completely distracted by sophie who kept talking to me and i ran straight past it but that was 100% her fault i definitely did not start that conversation.
started to really enjoy this last bit, some slightly dodgy nav including just running to the big rocks and hoping to find a control but it seemed to work, then i saw daisy coming into #19 as i was going to #23 so i picked up the pace a little bit because i decided i didn’t want her to overtake me, then i led a load of old people into #24 because none of them could find it and then shamelessly followed adam conway to the last couple.
a lot of confusion at the second last control though because the people infront of me just went straight to the finish and i started to follow them before realising i had another control to go to first so thank god i remembered that.

i absolutely loved that and the mistakes i made were all just a bit silly so hopefully can be avoided tomorrow as long as i don’t see sophie mid-course to distract me

edge campus urban
immediately could tell the legs were not in the right state for this and knowing it’s the northern champs on sunday i did not try at all and jogged, but i didn’t stop and i had a route before i got to every control so nav wise it was pretty much perfect, possibly not the best routechoices in some places but really good execution of what i planned.
i am a bit angry that my dad beat me especially only by like 20s but he was actually trying so i’m hoping the embarrassment is worth it and my legs feel better by sunday (and i beat him by 12 minutes last night so i’m not too mad)
very enjoyable course + i’m looking forward to this weekend!

wasting time until it was dark enough to start included chasing toby round the car park because he had my airpods which was definitely not the best prep

high doat night o
last night o until september!!
honestly though i have never enjoyed a night course this much i loved this so much
so i started with jamie maybe 30s behind me? not sure exactly how long he waited but he caught me by #3 and having him right behind me made me run faster i think, but then he fell over at #4 and looked at me and his massive torch blinded me and i couldn’t see much until halfway to #5 so i just kind of followed him
#6 i was a bit too high, then i was too hesitant on #7 because the bracken was covering the rock and i didn’t realise i was right and i had also just seen the next leg and was trying to plan ahead while in the control circle which was not the best idea.
chose what seemed like the only route to me for #8, up and over the top, it has now been pointed out to me that you could have gone down but i still think i would have gone my way. jamie went the wrong way at this point and came back and ended up behind me again so i think this leg was pretty fast because he was chasing me, i spiked the control as well which was nice.
coming out of #8 i could see daisy (who started a few minutes before me) infront of me which was such a motivation boost and i caught her up properly on the way to #11 but then we both went too low on #12, she recovered first and left me behind.
on #13 i was going in an almost perfect straight line until right before the control i decided to go round? ended up way too low and had to come back in, i really don’t know what i was thinking. next few were good, #15 was perfect and then i caught daisy up again at #18 but she stayed just ahead of me for the last bit. i did beat her time wise though so i reckon i’ve got first lady!! waiting on the final league to confirm that though.


results are out and i came 7th and 1st lady +10mins on sunley but i’m very happy with this but toby beat me tonight so he has overtaken me on the overall league :(

in the end i came 6th and 1st lady (only 16 points ahead of daisy and considering we get up to 500 points per event you can see how close we are) so i am very happy with this year and also realised i won’t be here for most of the league next year so this was a brilliant way to end my last full night series for a while!!
http://www.wcoc.co.uk/pages/results/winter22/Winte...


end of another night series and this time i do feel like i’ve overcome my fear of the dark a bit, the first event back will always be a bit ropey but i think next year will be a lot better and the fact that i genuinely enjoyed tonight is always a good sign!! however i am still very glad night o is all done for now and thursday nights are back to daylight again :)

did not realise dan was going to make me run this far

jog with auntie phil
feeling very motivated today + this is a lovely route round errington woods with only one big hill where i had to wait for her to catch up
she actually has never ran this fast for this long though so i’ll call that a win too (sub 6 min/kms is unheard of)
legs are feeling pretty good as well, looking forward to tomorrow for the last night o of the season!!

recovery jog
so my mum decided she wanted more urban practice and insisted on barnard castle? bit of a detour from where we were driving but she’s clearly taking this year’s urban league seriously
anyway i didn’t feel like doing a course especially after last week so i was organised and found a route yesterday but then my phone was on 14% so that did not end well and it took 3 attempts to find the path and i still ended up on the wrong one but by this point i was on 2% so i just went with it and it was still a lovely run and my legs aren’t feeling too tired either so that’s good