Saturday May 31 |
 | Orienteering race 36:00 [5] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| EOC Middle B-final. Quite a tricky marshy, low-vis area. Ran it no-compas, which worked ok, I just didn't quite execute strategies very well and as a result didn't hit very many controls spot on. A bad start, losing 30secs-1min on each of the first 4 controls. Didn't really get much better from then on. Physically ok except for being partially deaf cos of the water park yesterday. |
Friday May 30 |
| Orienteering race 29:00 [5] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| The majority of the Middle qual. Started a bit scrappy until #6, but still in with a shout. Then I have no idea what happened at #7 - even having studied the map since. It should have been an easy leg and I did what I planned. I would have to go back into the forest to get to the bottom of it. Got caught by Efimov and Bourrin and we cocked up #10 too, but they kindly gave me a lift back to the finish. |
| Cocking about race 5:00 [1] | |
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| At #7 and #10. |
Thursday May 29 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| Resting achilles. |
Wednesday May 28 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| Watching the classic resting my achilles. Got sunburned. |
Tuesday May 27 |
| Orienteering race 1:01:00 [5] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| Thought I ran alright, taking time to stop and make sure so didn't lose much time until a minute mistake right near the end. In hindsight, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it was and everyone else was just caining it. Should've cained it. |
Monday May 26 |
| Orienteering race 12:38 [5] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| Sprint Qual. My good run of the week. It was really easy though. Nice that I was running quite fast I suppose. Had quite a bad sore throat which lasted until the end of the week, but it never really turned into a cough/cold and this run was enough to convince me it wasn't slowing me down. |
| Orienteering race 14:40 [5] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| Sprint final. Blew it at number 14 in the dunes. Had been a little scrappy before that, but defo on for a top 30. Top 20 easily do-able if I'd been a little more focussed. Encouraging yet frustrating. |
Sunday May 25 |
| |
| Event: EOC 2008
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| Orienteering 25:00 [2] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| Model event. Scott mangetout-ed me and I made a big mistake. |
Saturday May 24 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| Travel. Thought I'd make things more interesting by leaving my passport at home. Grace asked me if I'd packed it just as we passed Nottingham. The next 5 hours were stressful. |
Friday May 23 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| My birthday. |
Thursday May 22 |
| Running intervals 25:00 [5] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| 90secs on, 30 off. Felt good. Got stung by stinging nettles. In pain the whole way home on the train. |
| Running 30:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| Rest of the run. |
Wednesday May 21 |
| Running 35:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| Lunchtime run. |
Tuesday May 20 |
| Running intervals 28:00 [5] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| 14x90secs (30secs rec) round the usual haunts in Leeds. Felt good - I think the racing at the weekend reawoke my legs or something. |
| |
| C • Happy Birthday! 3 |
| Running 30:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| To the station in the morning, warm up for intervals, to the station after intervals and home from the station. |
Monday May 19 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| |
Sunday May 18 |
| Orienteering race (Harvester Relay) 1:08:30 [4] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| My estimated start time of 4.30am turned out to be 6.10am due to the poor performances of those running before me, which in turn meant the race was on to get back to my B&B for my pre-booked breakfast at 7.30am. Still, it was nice to have some kind of pressure on last leg cos I set off with a 25min lead over the next team. Fortunately I felt ok and enjoyed the course and, apart from the odd banana, cruised round to take the win and make it back in time for my fry-up. |
Saturday May 17 |
| |
| Event: Harvester Trophy Weekend
|
| |
| Event: JOK Chasing Sprint
|
| Orienteering race (JOK Sprint Prologue) 22:01 [5] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| Feeling very sleepy, but actually fine in the legs and in control racing well - haven't felt like that for some time. A 10seconder on number 4 and a 20seconder on number 7 were a tad annoying, but all in all a pleasing return to form and the achilles was fine. Neil had a very good run to win by 13secs. He was even faster mpks than GG did in 2005 - wow! That's amazing! GG is so good! |
| Orienteering race (JOK Sprint Final) 20:30 [5] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| Took the lead at number 1 and navigated smoothly and cleanly round the small depressions in the first half with Neil closely watching my every move. Wouldn't have been able to just run away from Neil, but just wanted to stay in front and hope he got demoralised. He overtook me on 2 controls after the spectator control and suddenly I felt really tired being behind and was tempted to settle for 2nd. But put a spurt in up the hill which really hurt and hoped that overtaking Neil would make him feel all tired again. I think it worked but I had to make sure I spiked all the last few controls. Cracking race, cracking area, lots of fun and some proper head-to-head pressure that we don't get very often in the UK. |
| Running 40:00 [2] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| Various warming up and down, jogging to starts and such like. |
Friday May 16 |
| Running 35:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| Lunchtime run. Mainly on paths in the valley where the farm is. |
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| C • route 1 |
Thursday May 15 |
| Running 30:00 [2] | |
| |
| Morning run to station then 20 mins or so round Leeds before work. |
| Running intervals 12:00 [5] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| 6x90secs (30 secs recovery) at lunch. Ran as hard as I could cos of the short nature of this session. Round some park/wood with an urban farm. |
| Running 23:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| Rest of the lunch run. |
Wednesday May 14 |
| Running 50:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| Bought an OS map at lunch and did a 40min run round parks/roads/canals in Leeds after work. Bit sweaty on the train which meant I got a bit cold but boohoo.
Run includes 10mins run home from Sheffield station. How many points is Matthew Burden not running worth? I don't know if he's Sheffield-based or not. |
| |
| C • Routes 7 |
Tuesday May 13 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| Same old same old. The ticket inspector had to wake me up on the way home to check my ticket. |
| |
| C • pff 7 |
Monday May 12 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| First day of work. Left home at 6.40am, got home at 7.30pm. But to be fair, I spent almost an hour in a cafe in Leeds before work and an hour waiting for the train to get home, so there is plenty of chance for me to go running once I'm settled in. Good to give the achilles some rest in the lead up to EOC anyway. Hoping to do a few decent sessions before then though. Work was ok. I liked doing my e-learning. I learnt all about the importance of diversity in the work force. I'm a part of a team of 8 white men aged between 25 and 30 all from the North of England. |
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| C • you're not 4 |
Sunday May 11 |
| Running 1:25:00 [3] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| Met Gareth at Hunters Bar and we ran up Endcliffe on lots of little paths I didn't even know existed. Popped out up at Ringinglow and down Limb Valley and through Eccy Woods. Saw Paul Faulkner (2 points) again and having the points this time. 21 total. Cracking day and cleared my bad head slightly - wasn't surprised that Neil couldn't make it down. We came up with a great idea for a running knock-out tournament based on cops and robbers, or at least it seemed it at the time. |
| |
| C • Good luck 10 |
Saturday May 10 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| A great chilled day in the barmy heat of Sheffield. My achilles was a bit sore after yesterday so made the tough decision not to run today. Rocked up to Neils, threw a steak on the barbie and enjoyed the good times. |
Friday May 9 |
| Orienteering 57:00 [4] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| The bad news for Neil is that I should be ok for EOC. Decided that cos Greno didn't do my achilles any harm, then Eccy Woods wouldn't either. Fished out a course Nick had planned me with 50 controls and did o-reps (7 controls hard, 3 easy). Whilst it still ached, I didn't notice it when I was navigating as much and it never got any worse. Felt quite fresh. The old map is pants - yet to see the new map. |
| |
| C • Yep no problem, I bet you h... 15 |
| Running 21:00 [3] | |
| shoes: adidas swoops |
| Between my car and the start. Ice, nurofen and stretches are working well. Not gonna run in my trail shoes any more and gonna try and stick to soft ground for the time being. Or just not run. |
Thursday May 8 |
| Running 20:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Brooks Cascadia Pivot |
| Damflask. 10mins steady warm-up overtaking lots of joggers, 1x90sec rep fairly hard, 9.5mins hobble (trying to stay ahead of aforementioned joggers so I didn't look like a tit). Achilles was pretty bad. Dangled it in the lake while Gracie did a proper session. The lake was cold. |
Wednesday May 7 |
| Running 1:10:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| Very gentle cruise through Botanical gardens, up Endcliffe, up Crimicar and back along top of Rivelin. Achilles still sore. |
| |
| C • are you icing it at all? 1 |
| |
| C • swoops 1 |
| Orienteering (Greno) 35:00 [3] | |
| shoes: jalas o-shoes |
| Just a cruise round Greno with the usual misses on the bingo controls. Nice evening and mainly nice woods so happy, especially in that if Neil had followed me nice and steadily from 9 onwards he would have won, but instead he took some silly routes and made a big cock up of the last control and ended up losing. Hahahaha. |
| Running warm up/down 5:00 [2] | |
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| |
Tuesday May 6 |
| Running 1:11:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Brooks Cascadia Pivot |
| Old skool Rivelin. Legs not tired, but heavy. Felt like a right punter. |
| Running warm up/down 54:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| 3x18min jogs - the first with Gracie to Rivelin before she did some intervals, the second round Rivelin while Gracie did some intervals, and the third back from Rivelin with Gracie after she'd done some intervals. Nice long rests in between sat on a bench looking at ducks and doing some stretches (achilles a bit sore). I'm sure Sprotty won't mind me claiming 1 point for Neil in his window watching TV. Total 20points now. |
| |
| C • No no... 3 |
Monday May 5 |
| Running 1:10:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Brooks Cascadia Pivot |
| Cracking sunny day in Snowdonia. Unfortunately that on a bank holiday means tourist-tastic. Couldn't park at Pen-y-pas so parked lower down and ran up there with Gracie. Started off up Snowdon but heart wasn't in it so had a sit up by the lake and sunbathed and ate sweeties. Such a nice day. |
Sunday May 4 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| Not quite as nice a day. Was gonna walk up Tryfan but just not worth it in the rain/drizzle/mist - more like the Wales I know. Had a little walk round another castle and played with some lambs. I wasn't allowed lamb pie for dinner so I had a beef pie instead hehe. Sun came out very late evening and we could at least look at the mountain we would have gone up. |
Saturday May 3 |
| Running 1:00:00 [2]6.0 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| Late evening jog with Gracie from Llandudno round Great Ormes head. Cracker day looking at Conwy and Caernarfon castles, eating chips and ice creams. I was very ashamed to get sunburned. Bit windy on top of the hill but nice views all round. |
Friday May 2 |
| Running long 2:27:00 [3]20.5 mi (7:09 / mi) | |
| shoes: Nike Air Zoom Vomero +2 |
| I just couldn't resist getting it up to 100 big ones in 6 days. Legs quite achey but coped ok and had plenty of stops for jelly babies and powerade. Quite a nice long road run with plenty of lambs, llamas and lapwings to look at. The funny thing is that it turns out that I'm not starting work til a week on Monday now. Oh well, nice to see what my legs could cope with. Fell asleep in the bath when I got home. |
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| C • route 1 |
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| C • muppet 2 |
Thursday May 1 |
| Running long 2:05:00 [3]16.5 mi (7:33 / mi) | |
| shoes: Brooks Cascadia Pivot |
| Oli rather cruelly invited me out for a long run today. It was alright in the end though. Quads better than before, calves a lot worse though. Chatting all the way but I was saying less and less by the end and praying for it to be over by the time we hit Hillsborough. Wharncliffe and Greno are quite nice to run through (on paths) this time of year. Got fairly warm too. Came home and ate a pack of Cheddars in the bath :o) Hillsborough, Beeley, Wharncliffe, Greno, the ramp, home... |
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| C • route 2 |