Training Log Archive: caspian

Post-work run - not too tired, all things considered. Not physically tired, anyway - will need my sleep again tonight...

Got up soon after 4:00, as dawn had broken and I thought that someone had better fix it. Exciting visions of head torches emerging from the wood - obviously it was still dark within. Rosco handed over to me soon after 6:00, with us in 4th place after sterling runs by all our team thus far. Stirling runs from the Forth Valley Orienteers, I mean.

Unfortunately I seemed to have used up my good runs the day before, and this one was not one of the best - finding the controls seemed to be much harder work than usual, due perhaps to having left brain soundly asleep in the tent, but more obviously to the difficulty of working out which paths were paths, which patches of leaf debris were paths, and which paths were just bits of leaf debris in path-like patterns. This led to crucial error on my 6th control, which could have been even worse if I hadn't checked the code on the wrong control as an afterthought, and discovered that it was my number 7. I therefore knew (temporarily) where I was, and took a bearing towards number 6. Sadly it wasn't that simple, and I first found another control lying on the ground, with no associated feature in sight (I discovered later that it was supposed to have been a vegetation boundary). And even when I did find my number 6 (it looks from the splits like a 5-minute error), it didn't prove as easy as it should have been to find number 7 again...

That was just the biggest of many wobbles and hesitations, and I completed the course feeling I must have lost us thousands of places, although at least I had punched the right controls, always the worst fear in a relay... It turned out it wasn't as bad as all that - the final results put me in 7th place for that leg, and only one team (BAOC) had overtaken during that leg, while I had even made up time on the Bristol team one place in front of us. Crucially, though, ShUOC had made up almost five minutes (exactly the length of my blunder on control 6), which turned out to be a turning point in the battle for 4th/5th/6th...

Most exciting moment of the day was the final battle on the last leg for 4th, 5th and 6th place, which saw the positions change hands between the spectator control, map exchange and run-in. Shouting Roger on in his amazing sprint to attempt to recover 5th place must have burned off a lot of extra calories amongst his team-mates too - and he would have managed it if not for wily use of the inside line by the Bristol runner...

Event: Harvester Trophy Weekend
 

Event: JOK Chasing Sprint
 

JOK Chasing Sprint - Prologue

Enthusiastically followed path from start kite instead of heading for first control, but realised in time and slowly got myself back on course; even more slowly through confusing labyrinth of horse jumps (resisted temptation to try these out) to find first control; then on to second, steering well clear of cowboys, which race instructions warned us to keep away from as they didn't like strangers. Was then passed by a flying Finn, whose coat-tails I happily hung on to for the next three controls, only to see him drift away over the long leg to number 6. But having run faster for a while got me into the spirit, and despite a few wobbles looking for little pits just off too many little turns in paths, ended up with a very decent time by my standards, and the prospect of some good runners to chase in the next stage. And with Roger starting 3 seconds behind me - was expecting him to charge past while I was unfolding my map.

JOK Chasing Sprint - The Chase

Was so keen to stay ahead of Roger that I darted off in the wrong direction at the first control, and found two other controls before I got to my own. Fortunately Roger did exactly the same thing. Then on his heels (with many other heels all around) to control 5, carefully sussing out other runners to see who was running fast and spiking the controls, and who had stopped navigating entirely. [Went for somewhere in-between myself, checking that direction, main features and control numbers were right (looks like several didn't bother with the latter, as there were quite a lot of mps on this stage), but running much faster than normal and paying very little attention to control descriptions]. This information proved useful on the long leg from 5 to 6, when the pack split in many directions - didn't fancy the look of the straight line route Roger seemed to be taking, and despite being led momentarily astray (down a ride rather than the optimal path, and therefore to the wrong side of a field) by someone who had until then been looking very reliable, he corrected quickly and ran fast, and I remained on his heels at control 6, where there was no sign of Roger. Impossible to say how well I was doing - the memory of the mix-up at the first control made me feel that I must have lost lots of ground, and with runners charging in all directions, very difficult to say if I'd been making up places or losing them since then. Also assumed that the detour on the long leg meant that Roger would be well ahead by now.

After running in another newly forming pack for a few more controls, a yellow top hoved into view ahead, which much to my surprise turned out to be Lard, who had started almost two minutes in front. Just as I moved delightedly into a position to pass him, Lard pulled on the trip-wire he had earlier positioned there with precisely such emergencies in mind, and I went sprawling head-first. I caught up again shortly afterwards, and this time he had run out of dirty tricks, and I edged past just before the third-last control, back on the heels of the person I had chased to control 6. Momentary confusion at the second-last control as the whole bunch of us had to suddenly stop to look at our maps, but someone spotted the control close by, and we were off again. One more to go, and it looked like the so-far-mostly-reliable runner had spotted a short-cut others had missed, so I and a few others darted with him straight across a path. But no, it turned out that he had spotted the finish instead, and forgotten all about the last control, so we all wheeled round from where we were toiling through the light green to sprint back to the path junction where the last control was waiting. Lard, meanwhile, was by now coming up the path just a few seconds away, so the pressure was on - but despite losing a place on the run-in, fortunately it was not to Lard...

Still had no idea how well I had done, or what had happened to Roger, but it turned out that I had gained places and had moved up to 28th overall after being 34th at the end of the prologue. Found Roger after milling around at the finish for a while, and he had gone walkabout on the long leg from 5 to 6, getting there two minutes after me - otherwise our splits were extremely similar.

Discovered that I had won something called UK Cup points, which I am sure are very valuable but don't know what to do with - can I sell them on eBay?

Took it a bit easier on commute with weekend's exertions in mind.

Then long car journey, enlivened by duels on Rosco's iPod: Suede against the Spice Girls.

Running to and from Meadows, and warm-up/warm-down with the crowd.

600m reps with 90 sec rest, session of only 4 planned, as some of the group had races the next day. Did them trying in vain to keep the fastest bunch of four within respectable distance, but was at least putting clear space between me and almost all of the others by the final two reps. Then some of the fastest bunch set off for another couple - tried to coax my legs back into action again, but was several seconds slower on my 5th, so decided that I had paced myself perfectly for the 4 announced at the start and so called it a day.

Reps: 1:44, 1:46, 1:47, 1:46, 1:50.