Training Log Archive: PaulT

Wet CW Sunday ride

Hazard hanging, collecting, etc

Very early: 3x8 (2) mins on 2.5/6

Several laps of fairy dell . Sloppy; no grip

Still raining

Two 8 min tempo.
Please stop raining

Spin, half on drops for a stretch.

Epping: Southern Champs.

A challenge - pissed down all race, one contact lens rather than glasses, magnifier almost useless, too dark to read map in some places and fingers too cold to unfold it at the end. No idea why I enjoyed it but did so.

Awful run but less awful than some others. Roger , Mark and I had a continuing keystone cops story going on with one or other appearing at various times from random directions. Really struggled to see the map, get into it and to understand what was mapped and not. I will return when we next visit Jenn as it may be good practice for JK13?

Some good legs: 2,8,9,17,20,21, but:
1: conservative route but flag on other side of huge downed tree from AP
3: still have no idea what a solid plan for this leg would be - point feature 200m from nearest solid AP through indistinct vegetation.
4: constant battle with vegetation and unmapped paths
12: Lost contact (unmapped paths) in mid leg. Risky route in hindsight.
13: compass left
16: seemed a lot further than mapped
18: compass left
19: compass left
Result flattered performance: 5th of 50. At least 8 minutes binned so rather further behind QHWC today.

The Weekend: Having enjoyed so much cycling and done so little running recently I was dreading feeling slow, orienteering poorly and not enjoying it. Certainly didn't O strongly but cycling hasn't completely trashed my running and really enjoyed a weekend which showed some of the contrasts of UK orienteering.
Little opportunity or will for warmdown yesterday so legs shafted today.

London city race:
Relaxed about this race. Enjoyed the early Temple section - especially punching next to a church which has been there since 1185 - and only 1 second down at #6. Minor misses to #4 (1alley too far), 7 (traffic, then did not risk a dodgy looking short section of fence on optimum route being uncrossable - it was crossable), 16 (deliberate but obviously wrong route choice), 17(1 alley too early), 18 (conservative choice), 25 (traffic). Each of these was 5-20 secs) but the race was so close that this all adds up.

Was interested to see how heart rate went having done so much lower HR riding. Turned out to be similar to last year's race, although running does not feel fluent.

Little disappointed not to go into barbican but still a test of technique and concentration

8th of 170, 2:20 down on QHWC

Early Spin

Early: 5 * 3mins on S3 of 6;
#timewellspent

Earl morning spin

Several loops of woods putting out controls, retracing my tracks to retrieve a dropped stake, a control collecting loop, second control collecting loop and a loop just for fun. Two runs around Ultrasprint. That sort of day.

Not exactly rest, but a long work day then 7 hour journey. Cracked filling is agony probably until monday. And why do people think it is fine to cough and splutter " unprotected" in meetings , on public transport, everywhere. It's not a cultural, country specific or 'class' thing -everyone was at it.

Had half an hour in British library - remarkable space with some remarkable exhibits. Highlight : original manuscript of Mozart horn concerto in Eb - almost unreadable to modern eye.

Waterloo

Very early morning loosener; Waterloo towards monument.

Some sea air before breakfast - Redcar, Saltburn, a few hills then home.
Sight of the morning: guy standing waiting for a bus with three chickens in each hand. LIVE chickens, objecting loudly. You have to love East Cleveland.

To Castleton show the long way. Egton, the Delves climb to rosedale ( punctured entering village) , Chimney bank . At Hutton had to cut and run to Castleton so as not miss the fun if the show. So I still have to climb Blakey bank to compare it with others.
Current league table:
Chimney bank ( tough but dull)
(-- suspect Blakey bank is here)
Boltby bank
White Horse ( winner on hairpin-ness quotient)
Delves
Street
All the rest

C • Hill climbs 3

Main track and PC moor loop.
Stopped for 15 mins to sort out the Micro-O map of The Mound; sometimes it is easier to alter the terrain to fit the existng map :-)
Hard up the three Strava climbs, too hard in hindsight as it seemed to flatten my legs for rest of weekend.

90 minutes finishing survey of three small blocks in Coulby. As always, it is very instructive to think hard about mapping.

An hour surveying at Coulby Newham. Lots of faffy ISSOM detail in places

Round the woods, stopping off to complete various fragments of map update. That part was dreary, being on all the small gloopy paths I normally avoid. But I was able to see two sparrowhawks doing that lock-talons-and-plummet play fight thing and to watch a male Merlin quartering the moor.

"Interestingly" my calves, which have been painful to walk on today after running at the weekend, felt strong and pain-free on the bike. Something to understand there ......

Lincoln city race.
Not too difficult, but entertaining , hilly and good fun.
Perhaps one slower route choice , couple of hesitations and one 20 sec dead end through not reading enough. Generally just not running fluently enough, which perhaps isn't surprising..

Great map, well planned legs on a great area - top day out.

Very rusty performance, the whole process being clunky. Running not at all fluent which was perhaps as well on a tricky area. Third leg and never really saw anyone.
Solid to 6. Disorientated in green to 6 (15s), missed short route to 7 (20s), extra lap of building to 22 (5s), and again to 25 (15s). All those really down to not reading enough from the map. But then punched the wrong 27; sure it was very close to the correct one (perhaps 7 metres away) but I clearly punched on the wrong feature. It was a major feat of origami to keep on checking codes and descriptions but no excuse for an MP.

Interesting format. It turned into a 'sprint and a half', to make best use of the area I guess. So although overplanned for the nominal 12-15min winning time, it was none the worse for that. The density of controls emphasises the importance of checking codes, but the relay format makes that a practical difficulty. What to do? I'd be interested to see a map with the overprints including number and code - looking at the map again, I'd say that was possible without cluttering up the map too much.

Some warming up
27mins for relay
29 mins jogging around the score event - 43 control