Training Log Archive: slowphil

Event: HH SE League and SE Long Championships, Ashridge
 

Trying to loosen up the left calf, with limited success...

OK run, with a surprising result - first SEOA M40 (beaten by a couple of M50s, but who's counting), so SEOA M40 Long Champion! :)

Very sore left calf overnight after Box Hill. Ibuprofen gel and tablets. Eased up a little in the jog to the start, but no real idea if it was going to be a problem. Didn't really feel it on the course - tried to stay very focused whilst out there - but very sore indeed afterwards.

Was flat and fast (especially compared to Box Hill of course!). Started ok. Probably lost ~40secs or so at #4, one of the many pits. Then ok until #11, where I was completely confused by a major path 10 feet from the flag. I thought the path was unmapped, and so ran away from the flag, until I realised that it wasn't north line... :( Another 40 secs gone there.

Consciously lost contact on the long run due north to #14, with big catching features it seemed worth trying (unusual for me to do this). It worked just right - picking up distinctive features - but was quite hesitant the longer I went on the leg without relocating. Lost probably 40 secs again through not committing to the plan.

Overtook a couple of runners by pushing it hard on 20-21 (interesting just how much one can gain by pushing hard out of a control, taking aggressive lines to the paths), and then got hesitant coming into #22, giving up 25-30 secs perhaps.

Struggled with concentration on the long run to #23 - with one of the two other runners getting back past me. I then accelerated, and had another brainstorm, turning 180 degrees the wrong way at a path junction close to #24, allowing them both back past, along with Charles B-G, who had caught 4 mins on me.

Good route choice to #25 split the four of us into two pairs, with Charles and I getting away by heading north. Charles took a better line to the edge of the green we were circumnavigating, but I stayed committed and got ahead for the last few. He had a mistake at the penultimate control (thanks in part to an unmarked path which controller Roger had suspected might have been under the snow when the map was completed!) so I pulled away right at the end, but he had beaten me by 3 mins overall. Fortnuately, he's not an SEOA M40 :)

Haven't been able to figure out other SLOW winners, other than Dorte who won W45. Prize-giving was quite hard to follow (it was pointed out that several 'winners' had been beaten by other eligible competitors, leading to some shuffling of medals, and there was at least one debate about whether specific members of clubs such as SN were SEOA or SCOA...). Hope there were other SLOWies there somewhere!

Left calf re-stiffened pretty much as I crossed the line. Really hobbling a few minutes later. Hope to be fit for SLOW intervals by Tuesday night...

Hard work - damp conditions, and hung over after too much wine the night before (and slightly too much SiS drink rehydrating before the start - water would have been better). Started ok. Right achilles was slightly sore early on, but quickly subsided. Left knee felt weak from about halfway, but didn't seem to affect me. Jon M caught me as I dawdled a bit at the top of the second hill at 2.3m. We ran together until the road crossing at 4.3m, after which he got away (I think he pulled out 2 mins in the last 20, most of which will have come from the final ascent). Sore left calf afterwards.

Nice round of golf at Worplesdon with Claude - first hit in 3-4 months. Nothing great but not a disaster either.