Training Log Archive: Jon X

Scottish Relays, Drumlanrig.

Really fun relay, well planned with decent gaffling and butterflies, and set up nicely for head-to-head running. Pretty much everyone had positive things to say about their experience out there. This was not uniformly the case yesterday...

Last leg on the 8+ Handicap for me, after Steve F then Roger. Except for Men Open, all the relays (so Women Open and all Handicap categories) have the same "C" course as their final leg.

Set off 20secs behind Ben on our other 8+ team (Will-Ross-Ben). A few other Handicap teams already out on last leg, we were maybe 5th and 6th.

Hilly start and found it hard work, managed to close the gap bashing downhilll through unmapped grot to #3 but then got dropped again on the next leg, and made a small mistake heading to the butterflies after the road crossing. Just as I was finishing the butterflies (two small wobbles during them) then I saw Ben on the track heading to the next control, maybe 45secs (?) ahead. Couldn't see him on the road or the climb out of the spectator so thought he was gone, but got a good line to 15 and saw him off the to the left looking unsure. He saw me too....we punched together but he got a slightly better line down the hill through #16 and stayed ahead down to the final control at #17....and all the way along the run-in. 4secs gap at the finish, we were 3rd and 4th team on the handicap.

Consolation prize of fastest course C lap of the day, ahead of all the Women Open runners. And also ahead of Will Gardner who may however just possibly perhaps not have been trying his very hardest on his n/c second run of the day.....

FVO team highlight was a 1-2 on the older Juniors relay, with silver in Men Open, plus bronze in Women Open and Handicap. Must be about time we beat EUOC in the Open relay....

Event: Scottish Champs
 

Warm up to the start.
Soaked when I finished and got pretty cold talking to the lesser spotted Stewart Fishwick straight afterwards, binned the warmdown in favour of dry clothes.

C • Stewart Fishwick? 4

Scottish Champs, Dalbeattie Forest, M50L
1st place M50L, 2nd on course behind Jase.

Times adjusted for #6 being in wrong place (seemed high to me but I was struggling to interpret map there anyway).

Expected it to be rough, green, slow, low visibility, technical, tricky...and it did not disappoint!
Didn't start well
#1 - ran a long way round on the tracks but somehow still found it confusing, the distances felt not quite right (20s, hesitant)
#2 - forest looked okay so cut through, ended up on a vague path and thought it was unmapped. Sadly it was mapped and I ended up south and west of where I should be, just as it got very bushy. Slow to sort it. (-2mins)
#4 - tried to go too fast, knew I was on the western knoll en route but didn't check direction properly and went to wrong knoll next (-1.5mins)
#5 - fliustered leaving #4, didn't check direction properly again, couldn't find crossing point (-20s)
#7 - stayed high out of 6 and never turned hard enough left, had to run up the fence quite a way to find the crossing point (-20s)
#8 - direction poor out f control so never got up to the big marsh, as a result was hesitant on approach then couldn't see flag right round the knoll (lower than I was expecting) (-20s)
#10 - knew it was on the wall, cut off path when I could see the wall on the spur, whenm I got there I remembered that two mins previously I had known it was on the wall but also in the re-entrant. Back down to it (-25s)
#11 - climbed a bit much out of the control, slowed down on approach and just as well given I never saw the path before the control, pleased to locate myself on knoll just above (-20s)
Much better after that and really got into it quite nicely through what looked like a tricky green section, with the exception of
#17 - bit over confident and decided to take it on straightish (slightly to the right), instead I never got the direction sorted and eventually ended up in the rough vague semi-open. Cut my losses and headed to the track via some slow progress through thick green, a bit appalled how far right I came out on it. Easy from there along the track and then straight down the ditch. (-2mins).
Okay from there to the finish, just caught myself in time as I started to head to the left of the correct ridge at the penultimate (-15secs).

So about 7mins or so lost, mostly at the beginning. Surprised to take the win but it was the sort of area and map where it was always likely that people would drop time. Really enjoyed it, a proper challenge and a massive contrast in style to the high-visibility and easy running of the JK and British.


Unadjusted times were Jase 69, Jon 70, Ben 75:58, Roger 76.
Adjusted times Jase 62, Jon 66, Ben 69, Rog 72.

Map/route... https://www.solway.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#68&c...
Results... https://www.scottish-orienteering.org/documents/re...

Needed a jog to shake this week’s biking and mountains out of my quads.

Lovely sunny jaunt from accommodation through Mark Hill woods and down to the coast at Rockcliffe and Rough Island via Mote of Mark. Plenty of stops to read signs and take photos, legs okay after the first ten mins or so.

Mark Hill looked like a decent bit tough O area from the tracks. On the jog home I met Megan and Ben who had just finished doing proper training and confirmed this was indeed the case, maybe I should have taken a map too rather than just having a photo on my phone...

Back to get the car.

Leaving car at garage.

Over to Polmaise.

Polmaise WEE. Good course with few controls and plenty of route choice.

Today’s score in the 2019 Jon vs Ben stakes was an 11sec win for Ben, he passed me and then later unknowingly I sneaked past again, just not by a big enough gap!

Collecting

Back from Polmaise, convenient being on a bike as the road closure men let me sneak through, would have been further and slower on the car diversion :)

Another sunny Munro jaunt, this time north of A85 not far west of Killin. Really good varied loop up Meall Glas and along the ridge, down to the col and then up the other side for a run along the ridge to Sgiath Chuil.

Stiff chilly wind higher up so jacket needed on the ridges, shorts and t-shirt the rest of the time. Virtually no cloud at all by the end :)

Easy cafe-for-lunch loop with MC.

Felt quite rested...