Training Archive: Jon XIn the 30 days ending 2008-04-30:
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| T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wednesday Apr 30 | ||
| Orienteering 36:22 [3]*** 3.4 km (10:42 / km) | |
| shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| FVO Wednesday evening series at South Achray.
I am usually rubbish at these, never motivated to run hard enough and then find myself making mistakes too. As a result of that plus Wednesday being a popular day for London trips, I don't go to too many of them - and when I do I often seem to dnf or have something else go wrong. Tried to do better today and ran hard up the hill on the long leg to #1, then wasted all that by failing to cross the river at the first attempt, missing #1, missing #3 big time and then going on the wrong path to #4. Cruised round the remaining section of control pick okay with just one little wobble and came back relieved to have completed an evening event successfully for once even if i was well down the results list. Or so I thought. But then I looked at my map and splits when I got home and found that I never visited control #9 (immediately after gate out of enclosure), just navigated straight from the gate to #10. So DSQ again! At least I was in good company tonight with Lard (wrong control) and Steve Nich (forgot to go to the finish control)! | ||
| Running warm up/down 10:00 [2] | |
| shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| Drove there then sat in the car waiting (successfully!) for the rain to stop - went for a little jog to loosen up a bit before setting off. | ||
Tuesday Apr 29 | ||
| Running race (time trial) 10:34 [5]3 km (3:31 / km) +0m 3:31 / km vdot: 55.3 | |
| shoes: very old Nike racers | ||
| Time for another FVO 3km time trial!
Black skies and pouring rain at 5pm, lovely sunny weather by 6.30pm - weather clearing up for weekday evenings seems to be a trend lately, long may it continue. Felt heavy legged and starving before the start (one sandwich and one banana all day maybe not ideal) but well warmed up and stretched. Wore my very old very light very little support road racing shoes - I am sure they helped but am also sure they are past their best - maybe not a good plan to wear them for a 10km on the roads. Was thinking of aiming for 10:45 but after over-speedy first 200m settled into a nice rhythm at a bit quicker pace than that. That is, a nice rhythm apart from when disrupted by moron from Central trying to block inside lane and assault Ben Stevenson - nearly leading to justified assault on moron by John S, lucky for moron that John has discarded his crutches! Went through 1km in 3:29 and did second km in 3:34 (total for 2km of 7:03) and passed Ben as I tried to push on in last two laps and pace us both to 10:30 - couldn't quite manage it and he almost got me on the line! Final 1km in 3:31. Well pleased with that time - 31 secs faster than February and 1min 9 secs faster than December - maybe there is something to this training lark after all. Great job from everyone tonight - improvements for all 10 people there with a speedy last 100m from Lard seeing him break the 11minute barrier and Ross breaking the equally elusive 9min49s barrier. Whopping improvement from Alibongo - nearly two minutes! Felt okay afterwards on the warm down etc - and hopefully the visit afterwards to Skyhigh Physio Services will have helped too! | ||
| C • what's happened to the vdot... 9 | ||
| Running warm up/down 35:00 [3] | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| Down to and round track plus drills to warm up, full lap of loch to warm down.
| ||
| Stretching 15:00 [2] | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| We were the second group to run (timed the first group) - grateful for that as I could get some decent stretching done before the start - felt like it made a big difference.
| ||
Monday Apr 28 | ||
| Road biking 20:00 [3] | |
| Went out for quick spin on my newly serviced road bike before it got dark.
Hadn't ridden it for more than two years as last time out I got a puncture and had to run home, get car and fetch bike. That was at the very end of summer so no daylight during the week thereafter, and consequently subsequently the bike remained gathering dust in garage for a looong time. Was enjoying it lots. For twenty minutes. Then got a puncture. Bloody hell. Unbelievable. Hadn't bothered with repair kit for 45min ride, ho hum. No-one can accuse me of not learning from past mistakes, doh! Didn't fancy run back along busy no-pavement A-road in dodgy shoes, hmmm. Phone zipped into bike tip, aha! Called taxi, sorted! Was out for just long enough to get the taste for a bit of biking though, quite fancy a few longish rides in the evenings this summer. Carrying a repair kit I think.... | ||
| C • twit 7 | ||
Sunday Apr 27 | ||
| Orienteering race 53:00 [2]*** 5.8 km (9:08 / km) | |
| spiked:17/18c shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| Beccy and Brad's wedding event on a glorious sunny day, was feeling surprisingly okay. Set off with MC (who was feeling a bit less okay), she cut off at 6 while I ran round the middle section on Laighills, met up again at #14. This gave me the chance to overtake Ken and Alibongo while they looked for #9 in the wrong place - although to be fair the flag was flat on the ground.
Great map by Beccy and Jamie, I thought the uncrossable walls were particularly clear and obvious..... | ||
| C • ...the flag was flat on the ground 4 | ||
| Orienteering 25:00 [2]*** | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| After a wee siesta managed to get out in the evening to revisit some of the sprint race controls, following up from discussions with Controller Ackland at the bar on Saturday night. I think I remembered everything we discussed!
| ||
| Orienteering 20:00 [4]*** | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| Test running legs and route options for the sprint race, running hard.
The course looks great on a sunny day and is really varied, hoping we can put on a great event. | ||
| C • Looking forward to it...! 2 | ||
Friday Apr 25 | ||
| Orienteering race 27:11 [4]**** 4 km (6:48 / km) | |
| spiked:13/17c shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| Came a glorious 37th in the World Schools Champs. And 3 mins behind Lard who almost caught me up.
Ran pretty hard but messy early on, then missed in the wood and again in the gorse bush bonanza at the end. Kristian Jones 19mins 57secs to win - very very impressive! | ||
| Running warm up/down 25:00 [2] | |
| shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| A half-decent warm up although my time doesn't suggest it. jog back to car park and then a pleasant jaunt collecting in a few controls.
| ||
| Running 25:00 [2]*** | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| Before collecting controls I sent Liz and Ant and Freddie off from Barr Wood with my house keys and the outcome of my hasty supermarket sweep on the way to Barr Wood.
After collecting controls, despite the rain I decided I just about had time to stop off and check a few things out for the Scottish Sprint. Ran round a few routes and checked a few sites, arrived home about thirty seconds before MC arrived after her drive from Sheffield, phew. | ||
Thursday Apr 24 | ||
| Running 1:01:00 [3] | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| Really enjoyable run round Polmaise with Rosco and Trevor, started in the rain but finished in sunshine.
Felt okay during the day despite hill race yesterday, had been toying with the idea of suggesting a change of plan and heading off to the Kinross 10km. Two mins into the uphill start to the run I was glad we hadn't, as I decided that my legs were pretty tired after all - they soon loosened off though and I actually felt pretty frisky for most of it. Managed to fit in an hour without (quite) running through the same bit twice - not quite sure how we did that in an area that size! | ||
Wednesday Apr 23 | ||
| Orienteering 36:50 [3]*** 3.3 km (11:10 / km) | |
| spiked:14/17c shoes: Inov8 | ||
| First FVO Wednesday evening event at Abbey Craig. Turned up for a cruise round before heading off to the Whangie Whizz, thought I knew the area quite well after planning night race there a few months ago so surprised to miss a couple - am trying to blame my dodgy skills of copying from a master map!
Only got as far as the map exchange before I decided it was time to head back - however as it turned out I had plenty of time to complete before Mr Barrable eventually managed to get round the course and join me for the dash to the Whangie. | ||
| Running race (hill race) 34:22 [5]6.84 km (5:01 / km) +240m 4:16 / km | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| The Whangie Whizz hill race
According to the website "The terrain has suffered from cattle-grazing in recent years, making it less whizzy and rougher underfoot". In places this was certainly true! Got to the main public car park at 7.18pm for a 7.30 start to be greeted with a sign that said 'hill race car park 1km down road', luckily the marshal took pity on us and let us park there. (met Malcolm Paterson afterwards who wasn't so lucky and missed the race altogether). Bradc, Lard and Skyhigh were in the other car park so arrived at the last minute too, at least it meant they were warmed up! All managed to get numbers and made the start in time. Off the start I knew I didn't want to go off too fast but felt rubbish anyway so that wasn't a problem, my back was seizing up big time as no time to stretch it properly so that didn't really help. Not as steep as I expected but straight into the sun and quite rocky/technical underfoot. By the time it (and I) settled down overtaking was pretty tricky and I could see Brad and Jase a distance ahead. Tried to chase them down but wasn't really getting anywhere before the turn point, gradually got closer to Jase on the climb back up to the trigpoint but got there 22secs behind Brad and 7 secs/3 places behind Jase. Back on the rocky path it didn't look like I was catching at all and that Brad was pulling away, but gradually got past the people in between me and Jase, got a bit closer when he went over on his ankle. Caught him just when the path stopped being so tricky and descent got steeper and grassier, got a good line and some momentum and sneaked past just before the finish. Nick B (29:08) won ahead of Jamie in second (29:41), Angela was inevitably first lady, Brad did 33:47 just behind Donald P (33:22) and I was 27th (of 112) in 34:22. Jase was one place behind me and one place ahead of Calum Coombs. Skyhigh was 8th lady in 40:04, 3 mins ahead of Julie B-J. Enjoyed it after I warmed up, next time I would go up the first (not that steep) climb more quickly as it is hard to overtake on the next section of path. Looking forward to doing some more of these races - two weeks to the one on Dumyat! Didn't manage a warm down either, just a dash back to Stirling for pizza. And pudding. And mocha. And wine. Nice. | ||
| C • Corrieri's 1 | ||
Tuesday Apr 22 | ||
| Running 36:49 [3] | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| Spent several hours wandering around the Top of the Town, great views on a sunny afternoon and a great venue for a sprint race.....luckily I was there to plan one!
Tired afterwards but nipped out for a quick run, ankles really really sore for five mins and then the pain just went away completely, bizarre. Not sure about doing the Whangie Whizz hill race tomorrow, will decide on the day. Anyone else doing it? Bradc or Lard maybe? | ||
| C • Whizz 4 | ||
Monday Apr 21 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| Didn't feel too bad today, could easily have gone for a run.
Except that I was up at 4am to go to London and home just before 10pm, so it didn't really appeal. Ideal post-weekend recuperation.... | ||
Sunday Apr 20 | ||
| Event: British Relays | ||
| Orienteering race 44:01 [5]***** 5.4 km (8:09 / km) +130m 7:17 / km | |
| spiked:8/14c shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| British Relay M40 with Steve Barrett and Dixie, me on first leg.
Not my best day. All the male relays started together with a cavalry charge down the forest road, once it sorted itself out then despite losing a few seconds at #1 and #2 I soon found myself in the group at the front of our relay with Martin Ward for SYO and Clive Hallett for BOK both on my gaffle, Tim Griffin and Simon Patton also right there (no pressure having picked myself ahead of Simon!). All was fine until we went into the low visibility green - even there I stayed calm and made sure I got #7 but dropped a few yards on the others so had to do my own thing to #8. Got a little offline so carefully chose a different attack point - misidentified it and overshot. Suddenly a few more teams visible - mostly clearly past me and on their way to #9. Got #8 but 2 mins lost. Ran hard on the safe route to #9 (ring knoll in green), didn't see anyone, got into the circle, onto the feature, no flag, oh shit. Check location, check feature, still no flag, oh shit oh shit. Out to check again, there were Clive and Martin looking as puzzled as me. Thinks...well, at least the two other top teams aren't ahead of me! Very confused, they thought it was the feature too - we knew we were at the front - could it be missing? Even wondered about going on - but that is a major gamble, better to stay and be very very sure as if it is missing the leg will be voided anyway. Checked in several directions - all the while runners on the other gaffle going past - panic panic - I really did seem to be in the right place though - confused confused -checked the description again - unbelievable - had read it wrong and been looking on wrong side of feature. Got back there and found it nestling down in some heather and hung low, almost didn't see it this time either! 4mins lost at least. Carelessly let Martin and Clive see me get it, ran off too quick as a result, missed a minute or so at #10 in my haste and they passed me. Couldn't really see them ahead but ran strongly to the finish, got there about a minute behind them but down in 13th and 6 mins down on Old Man Petrie for Clyde, who picked his way safely through the green and came home first. Nearly 3 mins down on Simon too of course.... Steve and Dixie ran much better than me and repaired most of the damage but a small miss by Dixie in the green let Clyde pip us for third place - sorry guys! That is the most frustrating mistake I have made for a long time. It was bizarre as I didn't really know what to do to try and recover as I was sure it was the right feature, very confusing! Maybe let myself be distracted a bit by Martin and Clive - as I didn't know what to do maybe they would find it! But so frustrating, if I had just found it when I first arrived then I would have been away and we might have been in a race for first not a race for third. Dammit. | ||
| Running warm up/down 10:00 [2] | |
| shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
Saturday Apr 19 | ||
| 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! | ||
| 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.... | ||
Thursday Apr 17 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| Too busy and so short of sleep over past two weeks and feeling tired the whole time, not good.
Glands are up and have a cold sore, hardly surprising, v not good. Definite rest day today, good AIso I discovered yesterday that I am staying 1km from the BOC car park on Fri and Sat nights, v good. Big lie-in on Saturday morning methinks, v v good. | ||
Wednesday Apr 16 | ||
| Running warm up/down 25:00 [3] | |
| shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| Into Tentsmuir to training start/finish; back to car via collection of the elusive control number one!
| ||
| Orienteering 24:50 [3]**** 3 km (8:17 / km) | |
| shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| Nice little loop planned by Gary, some of the open is now low visibilty green which was good for forcing sharper navigation. Forgot my compass which was less good from a pre-BOC practice point of view. Always okay to the circle but technique a bit sloppy for finding them (flags flat on ground which helped highlight this), a few bits to think about before Saturday.
| ||
| Orienteering 28:50 [3]**** 3 km (9:37 / km) | |
| shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| Second loop, collected the second half after Rosco caught me up at #6 (I still think it was too low!)
Map was astonishingly iffy at #1 even though I found it okay, then three or four legs through felling later - easy to see the shape which made it straightforward. All good fun though and a nice night for it. | ||
Tuesday Apr 15 | ||
| Running warm up/down 40:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| FVO intervals with good turn out tonight, even more Stevensons than usual!
Warm up/down plus drills, right hamstring has been tight for ages and was struggling to loosen it off beforehand, need to get it some physio after the weekend. | ||
| Intervals intervals 16:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| Speed session on the grass pitches, not too much bearing in mind the weekend.
We did 2 sets of 15s/30s/45s/60s/45s/30s/15s with 30s between each and 2 mins between the two sets. Felt pretty good but a bit wary of my hamstring so held a bit back on most of them. Looking forward to some good training in Tentsmuir tomorrow and then two easy/rest days before the race of the year on Saturday! | ||
| C • Tentsmuir 4 | ||
Monday Apr 14 | ||
| Running 37:47 [3] | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| Felt tired but driving home it was such a nice evening that I had to get out and do something, nice easy run just as the sun was setting.
Did Leckie loop, went anti-clockwise for a change. Pheasants everywhere! Breathing very easily and going an okay pace, lots of little niggles though so reps tomorrow then an easy few days with lots of sleep for the rest of this week. That's the plan anyway! | ||
Sunday Apr 13 | ||
| Mountain walking 4:20:00 [2] | |
| shoes: walking boots | ||
| Not sure that Brad didn't get off too lightly last night as somehow we got up, packed up, drove for an hour, and were ready to start the ascent of Beinn Fhada north of Glen Shiel at 10.30am.
Rain and marsh and then snow for a lot of the trudge in and then steep ascent - however we regained the path at a good time and (under time pressure for Jon and Simon's flights) picked up the pace on the final part of the climb. As the slopes got gentler and the snow deeper, the clouds cleared and the sun came out - amazing views of snowy peaks all around. The luck of the Irish is a great thing! Brilliant views from the sunny summit (when not dazzled by the reflection off Lard's torso!), lunch and photos in our team t-shirts. Timed it perfectly as within two minutes of leaving the summit it was snowing again! Great fun running back down the steep snowy descent, made good time on the whole route back (Ms Mudge setting a goodly pace!) and in the Cluanie Inn for 4pm. Great weekend, and worth a mention that back at Dunblane Brad was last seen with a glass of wine..... | ||
| C • You forgot to deduct your time for lunch 2 | ||
| C • 1 | ||
Saturday Apr 12 | ||
| Mountain walking 4:00:00 [2] | |
| shoes: walking boots | ||
| Wow.
The gorgeous Cuillin. The gorgeous sunshine. The gorgeous snow. Oh yes. All 15 in the stag party including convict Connor went up Sgurr na Banachdich, great banter and great views, loving it. I have been up there before but last time it was all misty so I couldn't see how big the drops were - this time we could see all along the ridge in all its airy glory! Toyed with the ridge descent but quickly clear that I would be far too slow so change of mind and went for the snowy descent instead, lots of glissading fun. Fan-tas-tic. | ||
| Running 50:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| A trip up the Cuillin not enough for one day's activity, so after a quick cup of tea and revealing Elle's breasts to Brad (so to speak!), most of us headed off for a trip to the Old Man of Storr.
Five of us went for the running option, led initially by Lard through a very large and very smelly marsh, then inevitably led by Angela (a girl on a stag weekend, shocking) on the steep climb - we were all puffing away and she had plenty of breath left to shout constantly after the wayward dogs! Much more cloud than earlier, which made all the amazing rock pillars and cliffs really atmospheric, well worth choosing this option over the oh-so-tempting alternative of an hour's kip! | ||
Friday Apr 11 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| Not really planned to have day off but there you go - just looked at all the lovely mountains on the way to Portree instead!
| ||
Thursday Apr 10 | ||
| Running warm up/down 37:00 [3] | |
| rhr:34 shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| FVO hill session. Ewan, Lard, Skyhigh, David N, Elle plus debut girl Abii. And when we reached the start suddenly Trevor magically appeared too, perfect timing.
Warm up through the cemeteries etc, warm down through some of the less delightful buildings of the Old Town and back via Gowanhill. | ||
| Intervals hills 19:00 [5] | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| 4 x 30s on/30s off up the hill until pretty much at the top
Run hard back down to start (approx 1min 30s) Did 3 sets, approx 1 min rest between sets. Worked pretty hard and it all seemed to be over pretty quickly. Good to have Ewan there to show how it should be done, made it obvious if I was slowing down too much.... | ||
Wednesday Apr 9 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| 0755 EDI-DUB
2040 DUB-EDI 'Rest' day | ||
| C • All fresh for a quality hill session! 2 | ||
Tuesday Apr 8 | ||
| Running 39:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| warm up/down and drills | ||
| Intervals intervals 17:00 [5] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| 3 x 15/30/45/30/15 with 30s recovery between each and 2mins between sets. Did them round the pitches up past Stirling Uni golf course.
Tried hard (I think) although felt like I was struggling a bit at times - hard to tell about consistency of distance as we were starting in different places all the time (plus also harder to tell as I messed up the timing a couple of times!). Good big crowd of people there which should have helped, just not quite as into it tonight as I could have been. Maybe if I turn up in time to join the others for the warmup next week that may help... | ||
Monday Apr 7 | ||
| Running 1:11:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| Top run round Sauchie Crags and North Third with Lard, Rosco and Bradc. Headed along the ridge to the trig point, along and then down to check out all the unmapped runnable wood and semi-open on the south east side of the wood - looks good! Back up to the ridge and along, just about reached the cars before the rain did.
| ||
Sunday Apr 6 | ||
| Event: British Sprint Championships | ||
| Running warm up/down 30:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| Warm up for qualifier, 2km to start which helped, found a nice warm sports pavilion to do my stretching in which also helped. Right hamstring very tight after yesterday but not too bad by the start. Short warm down shuffle, should have done more. | ||
| Orienteering race 17:03 [5]*** 2.9 km (5:53 / km) | |
| spiked:24/27c shoes: Inov8 | ||
| British Sprint Champs qualifier, heat M2.
Damn and blast and bloody hell. I am a total moron. Nicely warmed up Plan to take the first little bit steady and not rush into early mistake like at Guildford. Know that area is quite straightforward so plan to get into map then pick up the pace, take it careful in the wooded section. Also know it is only 5 to the A Final, next 15 to B Final, so a steady run will qualify for B Final. Probably no M40s in A Final so M40 British Champ likely decided in B Final. Get into start lanes. Find that Mark Saunders is one minute behind me on same heat. That should be a safety net but let it hassle me instead. Rush off but luckily #1 is bizarrely on the facing side of the feature so I recognise the code when about to run past it. Head off from #1 thinking 'that was lucky, calm down, slow down'. Check compass, should have thought that before I headed too far left, where am i now? Wrong side of building, oh shit, get the other side, still doesn't look right, keep running and don't stand still, am getting towards edge of buildings, confused confused. Relocate. oh my god I'm there. Get #2 finally with a whopping 1 min 20s lost. Get a grip. Get#3 and #4 okay. Get into my running. Get Mark S in sight. Get into the woodland. Get the right elephant track out of the woodland unlike many. Get descriptions confused and suddenly think I have another one in the wood. At that moment see Mark S again to my right which confuses me more. Lose another 30s. Get into it again until #18 when I think I am at #17 and go left to avoid the uncrossable buildings, realise but lose another 15s. Finish not very happy - even unhappier when I miss the B Final by 4 places but only 4 seconds. Idiot. And out of habit I put my emit brick carefully right into every unit. Even though I had forgotten to collect a back-up card for it so there was no point. Punching quicker even if checking the display for confirmation of success too would def have saved more than the crucial 4 seconds. Double idiot. | ||
| Running warm up/down 10:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| Warm up for C Final, checking out road crossing etc. Seeing the people out on the various courses did at least motivate me to get out and try to do it properly this time. | ||
| Orienteering race 15:18 [5]**** 3 km (5:06 / km) | |
| spiked:22/24c shoes: Inov8 | ||
| British Sprint Champs C Final.
This was better, looked at the map a few extra times early on and even stopped dead to check out the detail in the control circle at #4 to be sure I understood it. Never managed to plan very far ahead but under control much better in this race. Almost died under a bus at the road crossing and went wrong side of building to #16 losing 10s. Also lost 10s at the penultimate when I ran down a path ending at a hedge, turned round and ran round the hedge but in fact was allowed to cross it - clear from the map plus final details said there were no uncrossable hedges - doh! But pretty clean apart from that. Finished over a minute down on the winner (14:01) but in 2nd place. Ahead of Roger T who was somehow also in this final so the day not entirely a let down! | ||
Saturday Apr 5 | ||
| Event: British Elite Middle Distance | ||
| Running warm up/down 30:00 [2] | |
| shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| Decent warm up with strides and even some stretching, gentle warm down jog with Ross but not too long as it started to sleet.... | ||
| Orienteering race 46:16 [5]**** 6.5 km (7:07 / km) +230m 6:03 / km | |
| spiked:17/23c shoes: VJ Falcon | ||
| British Middle Distance at Hopwas, weather couldn't decide whether to be sunny or to snow today.
Started off running fairly strongly through the first 10 although with a couple of minor 20s wobbles (careless left of the line in the (mapped) deep bramble at #3, ran to wrong thicket at #4), but then went to wrong spur at #11 and stopped short, panicked and turned a small mistake into a 1min 45s one. Missed another 15s at #12 and got passed by Clive Hallett on route to #13 which was a small reentrant in what looked like vague vegetation. Planned to play it safe and go round but then stupidly decided to cut the last corner without an attackpoint, missed it, lost another minute. Put my head down and ran hard after the spectator at #14 although did cut off path too early en route to #16 and lose 15s. Got Clive in sight again for a bit at #17/'18 but not close enough to see him through the last section even though that bit went pretty well. Took risky straight-through-green route to penultimate and got it okay, pleased to see it show up! Quite pleased even though lost about 4 mins, luckily all the other M40s lost more, less luckily M40 was combined with M35 for British Champs purposes and three of them beat me (plus M45 Clive of course). A crucial few seconds in front of Rosco (contol 11 also his nemesis) - given he is in my fantasy UK Cup team then depriving him of an extra point maybe not all good! Same old story of too many misses though, and also same old story of one miss turning into two or three wobbles in a row. Need to stop that! | ||
| C • Winner! 3 | ||
Thursday Apr 3 | ||
| Running warm up/down 30:00 [3] | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| Warm up via City Race proposed start location so that the organiser knows where I'm suggesting for it, warm down back via a few of the lesser-known routes! Fun. | ||
| Intervals hills 30:00 [5] | |
| shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline | ||
| My god my legs hurt. Before we started. And still now. Tough week!
Today we did 3 times 3x45s/15s, with a longer rep (about 2min 15s) between each set. Still feeling some muscle soreness from short sharp reps on Tuesday. Nonetheless felt like I was getting a good distance (despite Gary killing me on the final rep), but had to work hard for it, legs nowhere near as bouncy as at hills last week. No hills this big at Culbin though! | ||
Wednesday Apr 2 | ||
| Running 1:12:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| FVO no-headtorch-required evening run, with Janine, Jase, Dixie and Gary. A couple of laps of Abbey Craig including Dixie leading an 'interesting' route along the road and back up through the big crags! Then headed through the Uni, up to the Hermitage, and back down to the cars.
Must have worked hard in intervals last night, my legs were aching in all sorts of places! | ||
Tuesday Apr 1 | ||
| Running warm up/down 20:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| Very late for intervals but Ali was even later - this cunningly meant that the two of us didn't have to leave the cars until it stopped raining.
It less cunningly also meant only 6 mins of warmup before speed intervals... | ||
| Intervals intervals 22:00 [5] | |
| shoes: Inov8 | ||
| ...which were very hard work on a muddy field with every second one into the wind!
Luckily I had the foresight to wear studs and so had good traction in the mud, encouragingly helping me nearly keep up with Rosco and Jamie when I obviously can't really do so. Today was 15x30s with 60s recovery between each. Felt quite swift on them but struggled to keep the speed up for the full 30 seconds. Legs okay after yesterday although right calf was tight, could feel I was struggling with posture though, haven't done any core stuff for weeks. | ||