Training Log Archive: rcro

Muddy and fun! Knee wasn't feeling right before the Harvester (was it only yesterday?) so wanted to take it easy on the tracks. Only realised I was going to do this after we'd started so made sure to pick the pace up over the grass to the first bend before slowing down and letting all the people I'd just overtaken go past me again!

Then took it steady - was running my own race, and thought I was doing quite well - did a nice sprint down the field, GPS said 21.2kph. As per last time, felt slow doing down the zig-zag path and along the valley. Felt much better going up KW hill and thought I did the muddy track on the other side quite well.

Felt exhausted going up to the folly but kept going and overtook 5 people - would have been 6 or even 7 but slipped over on a branch just before the finish field and lost a couple of seconds. Quite encouraged by my performance.

Have looked back at run log from last time and turns out I did 28:52 not 26:52 as I thought. Losing only 40s isn't too bad at all in those conditions - especially when last time I went flat out for the first mile!

Legs nice and muddy afterwards - washed it off to find a few new scrapes to join those from Voose and Purdown. Possibly not helped by my recent habit of banging my shoulder on lamp posts and door frames...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/195135305

See Ifor has been putting segments onto Strava - was 2 seconds slower up first hill than last time, but quite a bit faster up the other two (and I was faster than Ifor up all but KW hill!) - even more reason to be encouraged.

C • Segments 3

Event: Harvester 2012
 

Leg 2 of the Harvester.

Ifor came in in 2nd place so I felt some pressure to go quite fast on the dead running bits. Got into the circle at 1 quite quickly, then realised I had no plan to find it - got it by chance and moved on.

Route choice to 2 poor as was through head high bracken, brambles and nettles. Crossed zig-zag gully and assumed it was the eastmost one; after about 30s realised my mistake and went back - 1 min lost nav, 1-2 mins route choice.

3 was a complete disaster; it was no 3 at the Southern Nights and I got it cleanly then. Had to attack three or four times from different points - it confirmed I was in the right area from the beginning but must have lost around 5 mins.

4 bearing off, then took a long route around the bushes to be sure in right place - 30s-1min. On route to 5 veg didn't match up so stopped as though heading the wrong way - took longer route around bottom of marsh and over causeway (~1 min lost). 6 ok. Most of the way to 7 good but the last 4 minutes were spent fighting through dark green that did not seem as well mapped as it looked. Safe route to 8 via paths near 2.

Took the tank track area very carefully, and all the controls were TD3 standard. Even stopping at every junction to check the map I couldn't get the paths at 10 to work so spent several minutes somewhere by the road hoping I'd find a good feature to relocate from. 4 mins lost.

Played 13 very safe by long path route. 14 mapped so vaguely could only do it by luck. Same really for 15 - me and the LOC guy I was with on and off from 6 managed to punch the control without SYO noticing (still lost about 1 min). Rest of the course straight-forward.

Totals up to about 17-18 minutes of mistakes. Saw lots of people out there, most going faster than me. Amazed to be told that I was third when I handed over to Keith.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/194487238

A little bit happier with my performance now results are up - 5th fastest on leg 2 (excluding Tim Tett), and the team came 5th overall. Even managed to win 2 of the splits on my gaffel when most of the others did the course in the daylight!

Did my 18 minutes of mistakes help contribute to Phil/Laura/Tim having SN to follow and therefore go faster?

C • No. 1

Running at Purdown in summer v. helping and not running .... only one winner really.......

Very humid and terrain looked decidedly unpleasant with undergrowth and mud so stayed with the car doing registration and download with a few misc bits of running - collecting signs, some controls and going to/from the start.

Managed to rip my leg open on a fallen branch whilst collecting. Even more blood than from all my injuries combined at Voose last week.

Feedback was good - well done Matt.

BOK training run from Priddy.

Took it fairly easy today as not feeling fresh from last week. Walked most of the way up the rocky gorge. Lost a lot of time trying to find a way of avoiding all the stinging nettles towards the end.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/193149111