Training Log Archive: OJ

Paid the price for racing with a development of the cold today. Felt pretty rubbish and struggled to do much, had a nap in the car at lunchtime.

S6D Culbin. Cold has developed but not feeling any worse in my body so decided to run. Let's face it I need the practice. As it turned out, it was a good decision. I really enjoyed this; just cruising along at a nice steady pace and spiking the controls, no more than a couple of wobbles in the circle. After the first two days where I couldn't imagine stringing a few good controls together, today I couldn't imagine missing.

What did I do differently? The honest answer is that I actually looked at the map instead of wafting vaguely towards the control (or not) on rough compass. Had a good picture of the terrain most of the time which is sort of the point of orienteering. Let's have more of this later in the week. If I get away with running through a cold that is.

S6D Carse. Woke up with a stinking cold, which gives me a good excuse for the calamity of the day before. Opted to run but resolved to take it steady and nail all of the controls. My body struggled today so taking it steady wasn't a problem, but nailing all of the controls was. I managed to:

1. Punch a wrong control (but corrected).
2. Run off the map (in my defence the road crossing marshal was standing in the wrong place and directed me that way).
3. Get lost once.

Worse even than yesterday. Oh dear. On a positive, my cold didn't seem to get any worse for the effort.

Event: Scottish 6 Days
 

What went wrong? What went right, more like. Translated my rusty technique into a properly bad run on Lossie. Lost time by misreading the code on the ridiculously easy no. 1, then got bored and irritated by the poor planning on the next few legs. Big mistake on a control next to a building (!), drove the final nails into the coffin on a couple of biggies towards the end. The honest truth is that I applied no thought to the process whatsoever and expected to just find the controls, because that's what happens. Well that may have been the case when I was orienteering several times a week, but evidently I need to do it all a bit consciously for the rest of the week if I am to move up from my result somewhere in the late 20s. Game on vs. Rhys, who beat me by 6 seconds.

Oh and the planning was terrible and the map update was pretty shoddy too - not what you expect from the 6 day.

C • O technique 1

Down to the river and back for another evo dip.

C • enjoying orienteering? 4

Bad night with a poorly Alex then a long drive up to Forres. Escaped down to Randolph's Leap for a dip in the river, back along the river path, gorgeous.

From Burnbanks up towards high Raise, back via Haweswater. Felt flat all day, packing and traveling in the heat and needed this. Instant karma.

Swim in Haweswater on the way back. 50 strokes breast/50 crawl for 10 mins. A little apprehensive about swimming in reservoirs at the moment, particularly ones concealing drowned villages. Survived without any supernatural encounters.

C • Come to Darwin 1

Rivelin, still feeling groggy. Better for this? Hard to say.

To wharncliffe for some more surveying. Found a lot of unmapped detail.

Wanted to do a session after being in a funk all day long. Felt dreadful warming up to Hillsborough Park so settled on a mixed bag of; 8x100m off 40 secs; 2xdeath intervals in 2.21, 2.21 off 4 mins; hard uphill rep 3.31 to Walkley from Hillsborough corner; 8x20 sec steep hill bounds. The stormy atmosphere was weighing heavy on me, I felt like chief Vitalstatistix, afraid that the sky is going to fall on my head.

C • Haha I never understood the... 4

IW, BHP.

Decided on a tempo run HFW via Lodge Moor, but miscalculated the heat/humidity and effort level. 10 mins warm up then felt great for 20 mins of tempo but started to overheat quite badly on a seriously muggy afternoon with not a lick of a breeze. Abandoned after 30 and tried to run comfortably fast; by the time I made it home even that was a struggle and I was melting. Decent time for the route nonetheless so I must have been moving alright. 10 mins in a cold shower and still sweating, had to drape myself in a damp towel to make it through tea.

Needed a rest, had to admit that I'm still tired from last weekend and want to give myself the best chance of surviving the 6 Days. Enjoyed indulging at a very pleasant BBQ at Tom and Michelle's.

Up to Sewerby Hall with Alex in the chariot, took him almost an hour to drop off. No sunshine this morning, which was a shock. Still hot though.

At North Landing with Alex in the chariot. Ran around a massive holiday village, then tried to jog down to the beach but ended Alex's nap prematurely with a steep slip and slide down a RNLI launch into the sand.

Back on the wagon.

To Sewerby Hall trying to get AJ to sleep. It took an hour, but I managed it! Hot work.

Barefoot on the beach.

More barefoot, little longer today. Legs tired after yesterday, more rest needed!

Alternating breaststroke and crawl. I am rubbish at crawl.

Barefoot along the beach, felt a lot better than yesterday and felt nice to be stretching the legs. Followed by a brief morning dip.

Another dip after a long morning beach walk with Alex on my back.

Explored some bays at Flanborough Head with Alex napping. Then ran Flanborough to Brid along the coast path, nice route along the white cliffs. Feeling pretty good, but aware that the legs are still quite sore.

In the sea at Brid after a long walk along the beach with Alex napping on my back. Pretty cold in the water still!

Tired and sore, taking it easy en route to Bridlington for a few days at the beach!

Event: English Fell Champs - Wasdale (Long)
 

Wasdale English Champs, 3rd. Not pretty. Having never run this race before and with the day roasting up by the 11am start I planned on a strategy of tucking in behind the lead pack and letting them do all the hard work. Well it should have worked out like that...

I sat in behind Carl Bell, Jebby and Kim Collinson over the initial climb of Illgill just keeping it nice and steady. We dropped back into the valley at the far end of Wastwater and it was baking hot, even worse as we set off up Seatallan with the midday sun blazing. At this point Kim went backwards never to be seen again. No problem, I'll just tuck onto the back of Jebby. But why is he going so slowly? He wasn't having a good day and dropped out here. There's still Carl some way up the hill above me. By the summit Carl had come back to me and seemed to be struggling. Nothing for it but to forge ahead on my own with a massive gap behind. I had to navigate the next section under Scoat Fell and managed to find a decent enough line; Pillar came and went and I was on the familiar ground of Ennerdale in reverse to Black Sail Pass. I had to keep telling myself not to get too excited to be leading a champs race - still a long way to go and plenty can go wrong on a hot day like this.

Filled up my bottles on the traverse of Kirk Fell and I knew that I was slowing, although still felt solid. But at the foot of Gable the inevitable happened as Ben Abdelnoor and Si Booth passed me moving up the steep climb at a pace that I couldn't or didn't dare match. I rallied a bit by the top but struggled on the technical steep descent and I hit the sheltered, hot tourist path to Esk Hause in a bad way. Nails was here with drink and encouragement, but it was all I could do to keep moving even though the gradient was pretty gentle. Passed Sprinkle tarn and seriously considered stopping for a dip. I couldn't believe that no one had passed me and if they had I would have capitulated, but in 3rd place I knew that I still had everything to fight for.

I stocked up on food and drink and at Esk Hause I rallied and managed to run almost the whole way up Scafell Pike, suddenly feeling strong and confident again looking ahead for the leaders rather than over my shoulder for the chasers - amazing how the emotions can turn around all of a sudden. The gaps were too big by now to catch anyone, but it felt good to be racing again rather than surviving. Now just the biggest descent in England to negotiate...no problem for the first technical section and I even enjoyed striding out over the flattish grassy side of Lingmell, but once I hit the steep nose my quads gave out and my hamstrings started cramping. The finish was in sight miles down below me and refused to get any closer, not a nice end to the race. Managed to keep moving and hobbled in for a 3rd and my best champs result. I'm happy with that, but a bit frustrated with an opportunity wasted. Ben ran a really smart, well-paced race to win - I wish I could have challenged him at the front, but not today. Good DPFR packing to beat Borrowdale at home again (I think?).

It's been a great trilogy of long races in the last 5 weeks, but I was pushing my luck a bit with less than 2 weeks between Mont Blanc and Wasdale - it worked out, but now it's time for a rest!

C • Great run Oli 3

Rivelin, feeling much better today and enjoying the heat. Followed by a drive to Wasdale (and an evening dip in the lake).

Hillsborough Park after a day of celebrating Alex's birthday - which is actually tomorrow, but most of the hard work was done by Jenny the day before, so it seemed appropriate. Felt amazingly rubbish, maybe ate too much cake?

IW, BHP.

HFW and some hill bounds to try to get my legs moving properly.

At Durham after a workshop. 1/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1 along the river, stumbled across a track after the first few and ran the 4/5/4 there, first time on tartan in ages. Lapping in about 78 secs, wilting a bit in the heat. The transition from track back to grass on the way back was a struggle.

Back to the station in a rush for the train. Took me until Darlington to stop sweating.

C • i bet that was nice for the... 3

Warm down home from the station once I got back to Sheffield.

At a school in Wakefield.

Run in to the heart of darkness in Wharncliffe for some more surveying in the jungle.

Cycle out to Wharncliffe and back for a spot of surveying in the jungle.

HF Graves Park after helping at Cliffhanger. Roasting hot day, glad to get home to a cold shower.

Warm up for both doing laps of the field. Warm down was a walk with Alex napping on my back.

Two ultrasprint qualifiers at Cliffhanger. Good on the first one, but beaten by Michael Adams, sloppy on the second and came 4th! Confused by the lack of a no. 11.

Ultrasprint final with the pressure on to beat Rach. Not a good start working out where the hell I was supposed to be going, finally overtook Rach about 1km in. Rich was clearly going to be hard to beat but sabotaged himself by running through some olive green and having to backtrack. I could cruise it in from there. Fun.

That's the technical training done for the 6 days.

Hillsborough Park with Alex in the buggy in a futile attempt to send him off to sleep. Followed by a solo run up some hills; Walkley, Stannington, Crookes, wanted to keep going but ran out of time.

IW, BHP. Feeling pretty good all told.

HFW the short way after a busy day at the desk. Feeling full of beans.

Nice and steady with Alex in the chariot, for the first time in ages. The legs felt quite good and the lad seemed to enjoy himself. Still intend to take it easy for a few more days to give myself a chance of racing well by Wasdale.

Sore and tired. Not today.

Er, bit tired like.