Training Log Archive: supersaint

Event: British Sprint Championships
 

No time for much warming-up as we got held up trying to get Jess' car sorted in the morning.

Having been given the all clear by Ian to run on Thursday, didn't have many expectations for this, just wanted to make it round pain free.
Went pretty well round the first part, though got thrown by tapes in front of lawn going round northern route to #2 so wasted a bit of time there.
Felt fine crossing the walk to the start being cheered on and made good through the next section, though may have missed fastest routes to 12 and 13. Unfortunately rounding a corner to #17 whilst looking at map went head on into another runner doing exactly the same which knocked me over and smahed my hand in. Didn't let it throw me off, though took the safe option back round to the north to #18.
Was hesitant to #19 but didn't lose any time which was good as a few people got thrown here. After that just lacked a bit of speed due to having done no running sessions for nearly 8 months.
Was pleased to be up in the mix after a crap 7 months, but still very frustrating to have missed a place in the A-final by just 2 seconds!
Results
http://www.cix.co.uk/~neper/bsdc12h/index.htm

Cool down back to the car and back to assembly.

Warm-up for the final with Mark to the start and back to assembly and back again.

Hmm, mixed feelings about this.

http://www.york2012orienteering.org.uk/BSBM/Home_f...

Final details state:

A-Final - 18 runners
B-Final - 75 runners
C-Final - 29 runners

However, a total of 87 runners ran in the B-final. Not a problem, unless you don't print that many maps - end result being the last 4 runners to start (i.e. those that qualified for the B-final as the fastest) had no maps available. No start official even noticed this until Peter Bray was 20 seconds away from starting and the other 3 athletes (Mark, me and Rich) were already in the start lanes. A frantic call to the assembly by the start officials to found out if there were any maps left the 4 of us deliberating what to do. If there were no maps, should we just run the A-final and declare ourselves non-comp? All decided we'd wait to see if any maps turned up....20 minutes later they did. None of us knew when we would be starting so all warm-up/drills/strides done were worthless now. The start officials coped well with our rather sarcastic comments about how world ranking events/British Champs were usually better organised (not directed at them as it wasn't their fault) but we were keeping the banter going anyway.

Anyway, onto the race itself. Completely binned the 1st control, probably due to not being quite in the right frame of mind and lsot 15secs straight away. Got the next couple OK, but took a bad route choice round to the east on #4. Got thrown by control description on #5 (foot of northern stairs), as the control was half-way up a flight of steps. Put the boot in on the long leg to #7 (fastest leg), steady through the next couple though lost direction through the cars to #9. Fast again round to #10 where I caught a glimpse of Mark ahead of me on the bridge. Got to within 10-secs of him at #12 where I could tell he wasn't pushing it, and he kept a gap of about 10-metres between us and led me round the middle section (later found out he'd lost a minute on #10 and didn't want to kill himself ahead of race tomorrow). Got ahead of him at #17 after he held the SI stake up for me as it had been knocked to the ground before him. Led him through the next few controls before a slight hesitation leaving #20 let him get back ahead, though he let me back past on the way to the last control.
Ended up with 3rd place which is actually higher than I finished last year (was 4th in the B-final) so really happy with that after only finding out I could race on Thursday. Had a bit of help from Mark through the 2nd half but was in control throughout and after the debacle at the start wasn't too fussed to gain a helping hand.
Results
http://www.cix.co.uk/~neper/bsdc12/index.htm

Quali - Course H1B - Splits

Final - Course FB1 - Splits

After 3 days running physio requested I take a rest day if I was going to do the races hard at the weekend.

Physio in the evening. Ian's happy for me to just do continuous running and is fine for me to run hard at the weekend to see what loading my foot does after putting K-tape on (in Southampton colours, as requested!). Also told me to take the pads out of my shoes to see what affect that has and do one run on roads. Will then reassess next week.

Parked up by the trig point and ran the Pudsey 10km route with Lola to the Fox & Grapes then back down into the valley. Longest continuous run since damaging tendons (not including Lad's Leap where I walked quite a lot on the uphills) and foot felt OK.

Early morning run with Lola in Black Carr Wood and Tong valley. 2x 19-mins with a minute walk in between, then a bit longer on the last bit of running to get back to the car.

Cycle to work through the centre of Bradford.

Run in Tong valley with Lola. After she'd been well behaved off the lead last week I let her off again. Fine for 15 mins, but then she shot off after a rabbit. I lost sight of her then spent the next 10 mins trying to find her. Luckily a couple of cyclists had found her and put her on a lead and phoned Jess. Foot was OK on this sporadic run.

Cycle from work to Up & Running to pick up my credit card which I'd left there the day before. Quick chat with Laura then back home via Armley and Tong.

Jess was running in the inaugural Wrap and Run 10k (they do come up with awful names for these charity races) at Harewood House, so went along and ran round the estate with Lola cheering Jess on, doing quite intermittent running so no more than 7-8 mins continuous running. At least there was some good opposition for here as Gemma Ricketts (nee Smith) turned up. Jess kept in front till 5km where Gemma stormed past, but Jess kept her cool and reeled her back in to win by about 10 seconds. Glorious day, though could have done without the hour car queue to get back out of the estate.

C • go Jess 1