Training Log Archive: rcro

Event: Pontypool Park
 

10 mile MT race up Machen Mountain. (very) Hot.

After Thursday's run and struggling for the orienteering yesterday wasn't expecting hills to go well - but it seems they went fine and gained a lot of places on each ascent. Ran all of it apart from the steep 40m or so on the climb before the Sirhowy tips.

Stony tracks along the top/gentle descent went less well and overtaken by quite a lot between the first summit and drinks station - but think it was just 3 that I hadn't got ahead of again by the finish. Not a fan of the concrete road descent - unpleasant running, but survived.

Bit of a race with a Pontypool lady for last 10k - I won. An extra couple of hundred yards and we would both have cleared the Lliswerry just in front - who we'd been catching for last 3k.

Nice race, and enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting.

https://www.strava.com/activities/576804752

Laptop has died. Less good news for Croeso. Mac will have to soldier on for a bit longer (9 yrs old now...) as can't afford to replace both

C • Mac 3

Again, been suffering badly after Thursday's run so not good to have been racing head to head for the last 4.5k. Mark Matthews seems to be back on good form these last couple of weeks...

Unfortunately I got quite severely blocked on the bend by cemetery half way around lap one so he got a little lead that I could never catch - otherwise we would have been literally side by side for the whole distance.

Conditions better than I expected, but the new bark sections were soggy and the odd slippery patch by the sawmills so still far from perfect (and far slower than last week).

Survived, which is good.

Record attendance of 174 today - and a great atmosphere as always. Still think this is the best parkrun and community feel by some margin.

https://www.strava.com/activities/575844340

Bit of variety in route for warm down jog today. Legs appreciated it.

https://www.strava.com/activities/575844423

NGOC training day at Parkend. Supporting and shadowing Ollie with his first venture into forest orienteering.

- Non path line feature yellow (which seemed to include a few TD3 sites and start on a different confusing junction to the confusing junction it was marked as being on). [didn't GPS this]
- "Fast and Furious" 3.2km sprint around all the pits
- 3/4 of a 6.9km, 290m climb brown course

After getting used to map in first exercise he did well executing plans to find the controls. Last exercise was more independent, with him planning the routes and me stepping in only to minimise time loss and hint if he may be going to wrong way (to be fair to him, he normally realised his mistakes without my input). Impressed with how he got on with reading the contours - and did well when away from the bingo pits.

Sprint https://www.strava.com/activities/575844721
Brown https://www.strava.com/activities/575845254

Collecting 11 S/SW of the young trees. Quite tired and running was quite hard - but did well to carry all 11 back 500 yards. Good practice for Croeso...

The map needs quite a lot of work.

How come its supposedly now a British Orienteering requirement (and not just a BOK one) to submit next of kin details on entry for each race? Have BOF actually said this, told all clubs, and offered a centralised system/support for storing the info, or is it just BOK's own rules being mis-attributed to BOF because of all the extra volunteer hassle it causes?

Happy to supply the details, just not happy letting BOK hold on to it indefinitely...

C • Clubmark/Insurance/BOF/Whitehall... 1

Summer again so another [slow] summer run. Today's problem was more a lack of signage rather than crap map.

Parked at Machen. Over to Rudry Mountain by footpath - fine to Waterloo but then footpath went into nasty wet, ankle turning rough, and smelly fields - ruined by horses - and just ended without a trace. 2.7k into run and didn't see a single footpath sign again until 10k. Managed to find a way out onto road but this 600m has to be the lowest point of my running career for some time.

Easier on Rudry mountain, and from soaked fields, Rudry was rather "scorched". Not very quick. From here onto Ridgeway - or so was the plan. Given the Ridgeway crossed the road, had hoped to see a sign, or a stile, or something when I got there - nothing. Same for the supposed path at bottom of hill too. Unfortunately both "junctions" just off the bottom of my map. Carried on - up an extra hill until got to what I determined had to be the turn for Craig Llysfaen trig - also unsigned.

Did well in woods after to get back onto the map - and know where I was. Took a footpath shortcut until it ended, impassable, under fallen trees. Across the valley and just before getting back onto Ridgeway, finally, a sign! Fairly straightforward back through the Draethen woods and didn't need a map.

Can't say I really enjoyed myself much, not helped by track yesterday making me very slow - definitely doesn't do me any good. Positives, was a nice day, saw lots more bluebells (novelty well gone now) and a baby bird, and good to have plenty of options for running not far from home - next time will have better idea where the unsigned paths actually go!

https://www.strava.com/activities/574053245

Worst week yet for trains - fully prepared for a second trip up to Cheltenham. Got lucky in the train an hour ahead being uncancelled and probably being last one of the day. Less lucky in that it takes away brilliant excuse to skip the track session. We'll see...

Short efforts on track so dropped down to group 3 as just don't have sprint pace for group 1, nor did I want to be sprinting in lane 1.

Group 3 supposed to be doing 8x300 with 100m "moving" recovery. Of course, I wasn't getting away from them on the effort - but my slower than walking pace jog seemed enough to drop them after 2 efforts with just Brian sticking with me for another 3 until he dropped back.

Seems we miscounted how many we'd done quite early on, and I added an extra one on the end as was still lapping people - but seem to have done 10, same as group 1, but without being forced to go at injury pace.

Times all in range 1:05 to 1:08 with the slower ones being where I was lapping and dodging. Finished under blue skies - but incredibly humid still.

https://www.strava.com/activities/572949215/laps

https://www.strava.com/activities/572949215/laps

MDC run from Penderyn.

Very few out tonight - put off by weather although it didn't rain on us.

Going slowly - right calf not totally happy and the tracks were incredibly rough and rocky - far worse than we normally encounter. Stops off for mine and waterfall made it quite a nice loop.

https://www.strava.com/activities/571983485/overvi...

Food took a while to come but battered portions were massive. Between 3 of us couldn't eat all of John's scorpion.

Exploring the silica mine with just 1 torch between 7 people. Got to a roof-fall and turned back. All seemed to be an elaborate plan to get John's new shoes soaked, but fun all the same.