Training Log Archive: Jon XIn the 1 days ending Apr 19, 2008:
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Saturday Apr 19, 2008 #
Event: British Long Champs
Orienteering race 1:11:02 [5] ***** 10.6 km (6:42 / km) +240m 6:01 / km
spiked:19/26c slept:10.0 shoes: VJ Falcon
Today was the day then.
Months of training through the winter.
A great night's sleep.
A nice sunny day.
A good warm up and feeling bouncy at the start.
A clear plan for the race.
In the start lanes the map was every bit as sexy as anticipated, but just as expected, exciting!
Off the start despite good intentions found it very difficult to go slow enough and control route, went slightly left of line and then over-corrected right of line when didn't need to, slowed down at the easy point mid leg to be sure then inexplicably ran too fast into all the knolls where the control was. Stopped one knoll too far, turned round and saw it, v relieved and gave myself a good talking to, 45 secs lost already.
Hesitant to #2 to get properly into map and in control, then felt more ready to get on with it, by #3 was going properly and pushed pace across the flat area towards #4. Getting there I saw Simon P heading across from the direction of #5 (started 2 mins ahead), ignored him and kept to my plan, found it clean ahead of him. DId my plan well to #5 even though (it turned out) Simon was moving so quickly as he had already checked #5 out!
Long leg to #6 and ran hard, aware of Simon to my right until the last part of the leg. Then control pick in the light green, good to #7 but then missed the little col before #8, hesitated and saw a tape hung high in re-entrant, dropped down but no flag! Relocated straight away but 40sec more lost.
Pushed hard through the next section and thought I did it well, however went to the drinks (right of line) on #10-#11 and then got back on the 'natural' route (left of line), looks like the extra distance cost me 30secs.
Felt tired coming out of #11 but this made me take enough care to #12 (judging by the splits too much care!), felt okay again after that. Ran strong to #14 but misread hill shape and missed 20sec.
Round the track via the drinks to #15, moving pretty quickly but not in control in the circle, followed Ricky Baxter instead of slowing and we missed it too far to the right. Brief panic and back up the hill to it, another 45sec gone.
Back on it for #16 and #17, slowed in circle for both. Found #18 v tricky and took it slow, was stil one knoll too far right, had paced it too though so I knew it was close - stopped to consider and be calm and it was 15m away, only 20sec lost.
Looked to run the last section in the white aggressively and be cautious in circle, then be cautious in the green at the end. Running strongly dead straight up the hill to #19 and again to #21, but climbed too much at #21 and ended up crossing the ridge at the track too far left, wasted the effort of running hard by unnecessary extra distance, 30sec lost.
Cautious in the green but still pushed left by terrain at #23, lost 30secs there but unscathed otherwise although being cautious lost me a little time to others.
Tired again to the last control and on run-in, finished thinking I had dropped maybe 2mins and pretty chuffed with that and with finishing in 6th place.
(1st Bill Edwards 66mins, 2nd Tim Griffin 68mins 3rd Martin Ward 69mins).
In retrospect I had a couple of route wobbles costing time plus missed a few more than I remembered on finishing. Lost maybe 4 mins in total but pushed hard, would have had to run slower to save some of that time.
Pleased with my 6th place in a strong field and pretty satisfied with how it went - although the more I look at it the more I can see how it could have gone better!
Great work on the course planning by Steve Nich, glad for him the event was such a success after he put so much time into it over the past few months.
Can't wait to run a race here again!
Months of training through the winter.
A great night's sleep.
A nice sunny day.
A good warm up and feeling bouncy at the start.
A clear plan for the race.
In the start lanes the map was every bit as sexy as anticipated, but just as expected, exciting!
Off the start despite good intentions found it very difficult to go slow enough and control route, went slightly left of line and then over-corrected right of line when didn't need to, slowed down at the easy point mid leg to be sure then inexplicably ran too fast into all the knolls where the control was. Stopped one knoll too far, turned round and saw it, v relieved and gave myself a good talking to, 45 secs lost already.
Hesitant to #2 to get properly into map and in control, then felt more ready to get on with it, by #3 was going properly and pushed pace across the flat area towards #4. Getting there I saw Simon P heading across from the direction of #5 (started 2 mins ahead), ignored him and kept to my plan, found it clean ahead of him. DId my plan well to #5 even though (it turned out) Simon was moving so quickly as he had already checked #5 out!
Long leg to #6 and ran hard, aware of Simon to my right until the last part of the leg. Then control pick in the light green, good to #7 but then missed the little col before #8, hesitated and saw a tape hung high in re-entrant, dropped down but no flag! Relocated straight away but 40sec more lost.
Pushed hard through the next section and thought I did it well, however went to the drinks (right of line) on #10-#11 and then got back on the 'natural' route (left of line), looks like the extra distance cost me 30secs.
Felt tired coming out of #11 but this made me take enough care to #12 (judging by the splits too much care!), felt okay again after that. Ran strong to #14 but misread hill shape and missed 20sec.
Round the track via the drinks to #15, moving pretty quickly but not in control in the circle, followed Ricky Baxter instead of slowing and we missed it too far to the right. Brief panic and back up the hill to it, another 45sec gone.
Back on it for #16 and #17, slowed in circle for both. Found #18 v tricky and took it slow, was stil one knoll too far right, had paced it too though so I knew it was close - stopped to consider and be calm and it was 15m away, only 20sec lost.
Looked to run the last section in the white aggressively and be cautious in circle, then be cautious in the green at the end. Running strongly dead straight up the hill to #19 and again to #21, but climbed too much at #21 and ended up crossing the ridge at the track too far left, wasted the effort of running hard by unnecessary extra distance, 30sec lost.
Cautious in the green but still pushed left by terrain at #23, lost 30secs there but unscathed otherwise although being cautious lost me a little time to others.
Tired again to the last control and on run-in, finished thinking I had dropped maybe 2mins and pretty chuffed with that and with finishing in 6th place.
(1st Bill Edwards 66mins, 2nd Tim Griffin 68mins 3rd Martin Ward 69mins).
In retrospect I had a couple of route wobbles costing time plus missed a few more than I remembered on finishing. Lost maybe 4 mins in total but pushed hard, would have had to run slower to save some of that time.
Pleased with my 6th place in a strong field and pretty satisfied with how it went - although the more I look at it the more I can see how it could have gone better!
Great work on the course planning by Steve Nich, glad for him the event was such a success after he put so much time into it over the past few months.
Can't wait to run a race here again!
Running warm up/down 30:00 [3]
shoes: VJ Falcon
Good warm up and feeling great by the time I started.
Unfortunately no warm down as I was straight into faffing about with relay team changes....
Unfortunately no warm down as I was straight into faffing about with relay team changes....