Training Log Archive: Thraws

All the snow had gone but the quality of the planning was compensation enough. This is such a quality area and the challenges we had to face were relentless. In the circumstances I was pretty pleased with my navigation on the whole and quite a few legs were pretty textbook, if I say so myself! 2 to 6 were in the insanely technical eastern hilly bit. I tried to use some of the bigger clearings as attack points but was never sure whether to go up or down. I wish they'd just take the paths of this bit of map. I fluffed 3 after finding the right reentrant but not seeing a control; it was on a knoll on the southern slope. Slowed right down to a) work out a route and b) keep contact for 5 and 6. Quickly saw good routes to 8, 9, 10 but 11 was the only longer leg and I decided to avoid the monster hill to the south when the tracks to the north might have been better. Was trying to run away from someone though. Strayed left on 12 and relocated using contours, then was good through 15. Overshot 16 but quickly realised and doubled back. Made a small error near 19 but was impressively clean through the last five, even managing to drop a faster runner through sheer accuracy of navigation; liked that. Light drizzle throughout but felt a bit hot in my tracksters. Last run as M45 and think I did myself justice, even though I was over 140% of winner's time.

You had to do just odd or even numbers first before switching to the other set, so anyone getting them all would have had to do two laps of the entire area. Two people did, one in the hour. I made a sensible start but couldn't find the first control as I was looking for a platform. Then I did 3 and 4 in the wrong order for some stupid reason. Two minutes lost already. There were lots of even controls up the right and side of the map so I got those, then decided to leave four lowish scoring ones near the finish and try and get as many odds as possible on my way back down the map. I had to leave one I'd already passed and one in the far south east. I picked up an extra ten points by going for a track junction that was way off my line back to the finish and knew I'd have to really cane it to finish in time. In spite of a fairly heavy fall I just made it. The controls were too near the paths, on the whole, but the snow made the event a bit spesh.

Was right up for this and hugely relieved it went ahead as the snowfall was considerable. Of course, it just made the race even better, and as we were all looking for the same controls the footprints were usually pretty helpful. Despite the mass start the field was pretty small so didn't really see anyone after leg 5 and thought I was doing better than I was. But result was OK. 2 to 5 was really technical but just about managed to keep map contact. Got passed by a load of half blods runners at 6 and was surprised to see JC at 9. I watched him take a very wrong route to 10 but followed, completely missing the easy path run to the south. Then made bad route choices to 12 and 13 bacause I was flustered. Probably lost about 4-5 mins altogether. Second lap was very similar to the first, which was a bit disappointing. Leg 21 was exactly the same as 5 so I deliberately went the other way and was over 30 secs longer. But that may have been fatigue. Kept going to 26 (at 1 hour 45) then just bonked, completely hit the wall and could hardly run. Thankfully I'd been to two of the remaining controls already, so just kept putting one foot in front of the other and the splits were respectable, second lap only a bit slower than the first. No major misses and didn't really notice the distance till I ran out of fuel. Pretty exhausted and freezing cold afterwards, though.

10 mins warm up
5 x 2 mins with 4 mins recovery
Uphill in snow
Splits 1.57, 1.57, 2.04, 2.07, 2.03
5 mins warm down.
Was going to do the Chi Runners junior training (hill reps) but it was cancelled because of the snow so Lu and I did a session of our own.
Saved a bit for tomorrow.

Still quite a lot of lying snow in Ashdown Forest. Course looked good, if a bit short, but forgot to start watch and had no idea how long I was out, and as it felt like almost 50 minutes I'm not complaining. I'd identified 2 as a potential mistake and I lost concentration after overtaking all the people that had started just ahead of me so ended up with no plan or AP in the gullies to the north and, luckily, turned right and saw someone else punching, phew. After that was OK and I must have overtaken about ten people moving at different speeds. Caught Lu at 8 then took a slightly lower more westerly line to 9 and hit the road in front. Ran hard then to open gap. Map is already starting to feel very old, as the thickets and clearings have become hindrances rather than aids to navigation. Good area, though.

Volunteered to collect nine controls on eastern end of map, mostly because however many times I come here, day or night, I never seem to get a sense or feel of the area. It was good to walk round slowly and match all my disparate memories of bits of Broadstone with the familiar old map. Took somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour.

Only got to do this because the YBT final was cancelled after a flake of snow fell on a motorway somewhere, but it was miles better than sharing a minibus with pottymouthed teenage girls anyway. There was still a bit of snow around, and on north facing slopes the ground was rock hard ice. Some of the muddy bits were frozen, but most of them were the usual horrible clag. Was a bit careless to 2 because the forest was pretty open, but relocated on a huge knoll. Strayed southwards en route to 5 but tried to keep an eye on the map. Started to go straight (down and up) to 6, then spotted the track run to the north. 8 was a delightful run through short heather, trying to match the contours to the ground, and I went round to 9 rather than cross the valley. Leg 10 was over a kilometre and a half, with no obvious path route, so I just set the compass and headed off on the steady downhill to the stream, and could see the flag climbing the slope on the far side. Didn't do the 1.5k leg to 14 as well, as I left the path too early and came out in the rough open then faffed about over the best route in. But I was moving well and things were coming up and I hoped I wouldn't blow it. Then I did! Left 16 smoothly and picked up the north-west downhill path, but it was the wrong one. A gate and stream came up as expected, but I started looking for the control in another bit of forest and it just felt wrong. Took about four minutes to realise. The last six short legs were fine and I thought I'd done well, but result was a bit disappointing. Forest was very fast and four minute mistakes were going to be costly. Superb event, though. Had all the things that make orienteering such a pleasure.