Training Log Archive: jed

Usual before/after. Quite nervous before.

Scottish Relays. Team me, Dad, John. A little worried about this after might nightmare yesterday as we had a good team, however I tried to remember that this area was completely different. I also had a plan as thought in a mass start there might be carnage if we went straight into the green so decided to focus on having good attack points and take routes which suited me.

Calmly out the start, saw a really simple route with a great attack point so committed to it even when most of the pack went left. Totally spiked my first control and got a bit excited so didn't have a plan to 2. This was silly as was in the green. I realised that I'd probably gone too far as used to going further on 1:1500 map yesterday so instead of panicking ran back through those coming towards me (1min lost). Reset and cleanly to 3. I began catching people again but didn't really know how much I'd lost so focused on just keeping it clean (turns out quite a lot of good people were behind me!).


Lacking a little confidence but happy with beach route to 5 and a little banana to 6. Good to 7 and 8 when those around me lost confidence. Stuck to my plan of keeping it safe to 9 in the green, even compass and paced. Again safe to 10. Started to catch more people here and my concentration which had kept me flowing well was broken slightly and I stayed slightly too high to 11 and focused more on my running. Due to this I did have a solid plan to 12 as concentrated on catching those ahead and when we got to control it wasn't my gaffle. I initially panicked slightly here as thought of the team but stopped decided to bail out to the path as although I'd lose time, I'd know exactly where I was and could easily find the control from there. Told myself to reset at the road and found the control cleanly (3:30lost). Turns out if I'd run down the ridge to the path rather than the flat area I'd probably have run past my control.

Pretty good through the next few, keeping it safe and re-caught a few who had passed me. Slightly eager to last control turning with pack up wrong path but quickly realised.

Dad and John both had decent runs to pull us up to 3rd overall in the handicap behind two very strong teams (FVO and SYO) who we didn't really stand a chance of beating. First team containing a female...and ahead of strong MAROC and CLYDE teams which is good. My race was close to a really good one, I'm a couple of mistakes away from being up there with the top girls in this terrain and I can take a lot of positives from this race. A couple of lapses in concentration and loss of confidence but in general lots of good orienteering :). Loved the area and course, reminded me I do enjoy forest orienteering too!

Short jog on course Dad planned trying to get the head into forest orienteering. Legs not too bad after last night. I can do it when I take my time.

Usual inc. some on the warm up map.
Forced myself to w/d after even though didn't feel like it with tomorrow in mind.

Scottish Long Champs Achagour.
I'm trying to be more positive at the moment, for this race it's a challenge but I'm going to try.

After last week I wanted to focus on getting number 1 successfully and I did that by not rushing out the start and managed to continue that to 2 and I started to get into a rhythm all good until I came to where I thought three should be and it wasn't. I lost confidence so bailed back to ride and tried again, Jess caught me and went to where I'd been - the feature was basically non existent but this time saw the control. Seems a few people had trouble here. With lack of confidence in myself I tucked in for the next one to get back into it and didn't keep in enough map contact and when we went the wrong way I had no idea what to do - stupid I know. I relocated on my own and eventually found the control but a little behind Jess and there was no way I was re-catching as was now a long leg over terrain.

I'm actually reasonably pleased with my split to 5 as it was tough going and tricky at the end. I struggled to interpret the map to 6 as I naturally wanted to use the paths but never saw any of them! Using compass for direction would have been a better plan. 7 ok but from this point on I basically saw no one. Long leg to 8 was ok but I should have stuck to my plan at the end of the leg and it would have been good.

After slogging through rough terrain I was looking forward to the top loop but I think I was still thinking about the slight error at the end of the long leg and failed to plan properly to 9. I lost confidence and everything looked the same and struggled to relocate. I bailed to a ride to relocate but started to panic (I don't know why) so didn't think logically so it took me some time to find the control. However unlike previous times, I calmed myself down again and focused hard on a safe route to 10. I saw someone on the way to 11 which reminded me I wasn't the only person still out but lost concentration slightly but managed to focus again before it was too late.

I was determined not to let myself get back into the panicked state so took a woosey route to 12 and was careful to 13. At this point I may have been being too careful for racing but I already knew I'd done badly so was trying now to minimise mistakes/further time out there. I started to lose the will to live to 14 trudging/falling my way across the marsh as could see how far away the pylons were near my control but there's something in me which just keeps going! Again I took a simple fool proof route at the end and managed to focus to find control. 15 ok, knew there wasn't far to go but wobbled slightly at 16 as was losing focus/interest/really tired.

The final straw was 17, I used the path, went to my attack point and carefully through 1 re-entrant and to the next - no control. The vegetation on the map did not resemble the ground, I got very down. Bailed to a different path and slowly picked my way in and this time found the control. Again a few people had problems here and I guess a few people would get lucky when there were more people about. Then to top it off I decided not to go around the path to the last control and went thigh deep in a marsh. The run in was fun though :).

Surely there's nicer areas than this, the enjoyment stopped for me 5mins in so it was a long 1hr50! I wasn't the only one as a lot of people had problems/didn't enjoy it. Partly I need more practice in both forest orienteering and terrain fitness but I must remember I've competed at a high level in sprint so focus had to go there.

But the positives: The majority of controls were actually fine (and I got 1), I refocused after mistakes, I got a long run in and didn't conk out like I used to in the past.

We were conveniently staying right beside a sprint map which allowed Dad and I to go get our fix to get the buzz back for orienteering before tomorrow.

Session suggested by Tess aiming to have the feeling of running confidently with a map in hand at a speed I've not done before but are capable of. Easy course running as fast as my legs would carry me after today's earlier efforts. Will continue to try this, less tired next time but this fitted with my week.

A little rushed both before and after as had to travel from work then had to leave for Elgin after but got just enough done for both.

Black Rock 5. I'd heard this was a fun race so gave it a shot, with no time/position expectations. Now I know exactly what is involved I think I could run it better next time. Probably went off slightly too hard as it was super crowded, striding out down the hill, struggled a bit on the rutted sand, fun through the sea around the rock with a lone piper playing, tough again into wind coming back along the beach. Found a second wind back on the road and got myself back into a group which passed me on the beach, pushed on down the hill and dug in really deep up the final steep hill (thinking about my hills reps strength) only to forget about the second even steeper part around the corner where I spectacularly died - absolutely swimming almost standing still. But it was fun (now) and even though I'd like to do better I did ok. I'd definitely do it again, fantastic race atmosphere.

Drills as last week, again ending with high knees.

Track closed this week so did this in Roseburn Park, not ideal but there's no other track in Edinburgh. 4x60m (4mins). Another nice evening, didn't feel I quite found the speed as last week but still moving quickly. Think I'll feel faster back on the track again next week.

Easy pre breakfast old railway - Ravelston loop.

My work has started a social run after work once a month and the organiser wanted me to go along. I went for my run this morning so didn't need it for training purposes. It was good as got people out who wouldn't normally, I think as more people join we may split into two groups. We did 5km but as it was really easy I'm just logging this as time on feet.

New session, heavily plyo based.

Switching session days this week as racing on Friday.
3 sets of 4x10secs (50secs), extra 1min between sets. Legs understandably a bit more tired than last week but focused on light, fast cadence (high knees) and almost felt like a runner.