Training Log Archive: rcroIn the 7 days ending Apr 8, 2018:
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Sunday Apr 8, 2018 #
10 AM
Running warm up/down 20:00 [3] 1.8 km (11:07 / km) +70m 9:18 / km
shoes: Mizuno Wave Rider 20
Jog from sports centre up hill, back down, down to main road and back. Lots of people struggling to just walk up the footpath which meant my jog was quite stop-start.
11 AM
Running race (Kymin Dash) 50:59 [5] 11.26 km (4:32 / km) +240m 4:06 / km
slept:5.0 shoes: Mizuno Wave Rider 20
Kymin Dash race. Legs feeling the walking up steep hills a bit despite taking yesterday easy. Still started at the front and put a proper effort in up the hill - got to the top around 7th/8th of 300 and then opted to have a break.
Fairly gentle down the field - which was a bit slippery at times - and continued the recovery by walking the bit after the road crossing, which was actually deep mud. In hindsight was a bit slow to see I was ready to go again as probably was ready to up the pace before the start of the rollercoaster and didn't put my foot down until by the river.
Descent down to river was again muddy so was cautious and let people get past. At the bottom was able to significantly increase speed and maintain it (hence why I think could have got going much sooner) and got back past most of the people that had passed me on the rollercoaster. Last k was hard but that might have been mental.
Cheered into a sprint finish by the fast-FoD contingent, and would have got the place if the person in front didn't push me into the fencing as I was alongside 10 yards from the finish line.
Fairly happy with result. 3 mins slower than 2 years ago, with the mud adding on at least a minute, and me extending my rest over 4k when I didn't need it. Given I'd done a lot of specific road training winter 15/16 it's good I'm not still miles away on a road race.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1496355095
Fairly gentle down the field - which was a bit slippery at times - and continued the recovery by walking the bit after the road crossing, which was actually deep mud. In hindsight was a bit slow to see I was ready to go again as probably was ready to up the pace before the start of the rollercoaster and didn't put my foot down until by the river.
Descent down to river was again muddy so was cautious and let people get past. At the bottom was able to significantly increase speed and maintain it (hence why I think could have got going much sooner) and got back past most of the people that had passed me on the rollercoaster. Last k was hard but that might have been mental.
Cheered into a sprint finish by the fast-FoD contingent, and would have got the place if the person in front didn't push me into the fencing as I was alongside 10 yards from the finish line.
Fairly happy with result. 3 mins slower than 2 years ago, with the mud adding on at least a minute, and me extending my rest over 4k when I didn't need it. Given I'd done a lot of specific road training winter 15/16 it's good I'm not still miles away on a road race.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1496355095
Saturday Apr 7, 2018 #
11 AM
Running - off road (Sugar Loaf summer race) 1:12:24 [3] 11.51 km (6:17 / km) +570m 5:03 / km
slept:4.5 shoes: inov8 Mudclaw300 Blk/Gn1
With Kymin Dash race tomorrow, and knowing full well that I will actually have to put some effort in to it if I want a remotely respectable result, this was never going to be much of a "race".
Went with the plan of not going very fast and after a slow start ended up in the uncomfortable position where I kept having to put the brakes on harder and harder all the way up the road as otherwise would have been passing lots of people I had no intentions of beating by the end! This slowed pace did not feel natural so unsure it saved me much in the way of energy.
Whilst able to slow the jogging, there was no way I could bring myself to slow down below walking pace - so ended up passing a lot of people in the woods, and again up the cone. With the downhill, the "racers" were able to fly past and I could just get on with my own thing unimpeded. Was muddy as per last week and ankle still not very happy so slowed further. Only started putting effort in in the horse field as Alice had caught up. No intention of a sprint finish but picked up the speed to scare the two in front, may have still beaten one of them...
Nice to get out, and the rain did stop 10 mins before race started. Feel I've missed out on a few better races though - apparently Forest parkrun had its best conditions ever, and given Henry appears to have found some distance form, had I entered, would have "enjoyed" another very tight head to head race against him (and Paul). Let's see how tomorrow goes...
https://www.strava.com/activities/1494200623
Went with the plan of not going very fast and after a slow start ended up in the uncomfortable position where I kept having to put the brakes on harder and harder all the way up the road as otherwise would have been passing lots of people I had no intentions of beating by the end! This slowed pace did not feel natural so unsure it saved me much in the way of energy.
Whilst able to slow the jogging, there was no way I could bring myself to slow down below walking pace - so ended up passing a lot of people in the woods, and again up the cone. With the downhill, the "racers" were able to fly past and I could just get on with my own thing unimpeded. Was muddy as per last week and ankle still not very happy so slowed further. Only started putting effort in in the horse field as Alice had caught up. No intention of a sprint finish but picked up the speed to scare the two in front, may have still beaten one of them...
Nice to get out, and the rain did stop 10 mins before race started. Feel I've missed out on a few better races though - apparently Forest parkrun had its best conditions ever, and given Henry appears to have found some distance form, had I entered, would have "enjoyed" another very tight head to head race against him (and Paul). Let's see how tomorrow goes...
https://www.strava.com/activities/1494200623
Friday Apr 6, 2018 #
Note
(rest day)
If Mark rests...
Feel I should get out as don’t seem tired - but two races coming up and Kymin will feel tough
Feel I should get out as don’t seem tired - but two races coming up and Kymin will feel tough
Thursday Apr 5, 2018 #
7 PM
Orienteering - Urban race (MapRun Kingsway) 59:25 [4] 12.84 km (4:38 / km) +60m 4:31 / km
slept:4.0 shoes: Mizuno Wave Rider 20
The "official" launch of MapRun - and only decided to go when my project was finished at 3.40 this afternoon.
Kingsway course mostly same as my street-o from last November with a few sites moved to make overall distance shorter - so this *should* be clearable by a fast runner now. I didn't plan a route to clear them given problems with phone last time, planned the start to cross the road, worked out a loop at the top and anything else above 480 points was a bonus.
S-10-21-24-23-29-22-27-38-26-28-37-32-33-12-13-16-20-31-25-19-15-18-17-14-11-34-30-29-F. 540 points.
Straight away the long dead ends at 35 and 36 were dropped out, and was thinking about missing 22 as well as it's a deceptively long detour, but went for it as early progress was good. Reasonably efficient route after crossing back so left with sufficient time to clear up in Kingsway at the end. Field at the end was a bit slippery for sprinting.
Generally phone behaved better this time, and was strapped to my arm rather than in a bumbag. Lost 40s at 38, 10s at 12, 20s at 13, and 30s at 18 (so 1.5 mins in total) mostly where the GPS had got slightly off alignment and was waiting for it to correct. Looking at routegadget, consistently I was having to go closer to the centre of the circle every time compared to android users so confirms my thought that the tolerances on the iOS app are currently much tighter - almost to the point where it's unusable in heavily built up areas (as per Cheltenham).
End result 3rd, 10 points behind 1st. Based on my route at start, skipping 22 and having an android phone would have given me enough time to get 36 (and so 10 points more) so not bad after quite a lot of miles in the last week.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1491414822
Kingsway course mostly same as my street-o from last November with a few sites moved to make overall distance shorter - so this *should* be clearable by a fast runner now. I didn't plan a route to clear them given problems with phone last time, planned the start to cross the road, worked out a loop at the top and anything else above 480 points was a bonus.
S-10-21-24-23-29-22-27-38-26-28-37-32-33-12-13-16-20-31-25-19-15-18-17-14-11-34-30-29-F. 540 points.
Straight away the long dead ends at 35 and 36 were dropped out, and was thinking about missing 22 as well as it's a deceptively long detour, but went for it as early progress was good. Reasonably efficient route after crossing back so left with sufficient time to clear up in Kingsway at the end. Field at the end was a bit slippery for sprinting.
Generally phone behaved better this time, and was strapped to my arm rather than in a bumbag. Lost 40s at 38, 10s at 12, 20s at 13, and 30s at 18 (so 1.5 mins in total) mostly where the GPS had got slightly off alignment and was waiting for it to correct. Looking at routegadget, consistently I was having to go closer to the centre of the circle every time compared to android users so confirms my thought that the tolerances on the iOS app are currently much tighter - almost to the point where it's unusable in heavily built up areas (as per Cheltenham).
End result 3rd, 10 points behind 1st. Based on my route at start, skipping 22 and having an android phone would have given me enough time to get 36 (and so 10 points more) so not bad after quite a lot of miles in the last week.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1491414822
Wednesday Apr 4, 2018 #
5 PM
Running 58:53 [3] 10.41 km (5:39 / km) +180m 5:12 / km
slept:4.0 shoes: Mizuno Wave Rider 20
Steady run pretty much straight after getting back from work. Some sunshine so opted for vest and shorts for first time since early Feb but was still a lot of cloud.
Ridgeway, High Cross, Bassaleg Road, Belle Vue Park. Reasonable amount of climb but keeping the HR down. Regarding latter, swapped the battery from Polar HRM (little used) into the Suunto and seems to have kept reading for the whole time without fiddling today.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1489400562
Ridgeway, High Cross, Bassaleg Road, Belle Vue Park. Reasonable amount of climb but keeping the HR down. Regarding latter, swapped the battery from Polar HRM (little used) into the Suunto and seems to have kept reading for the whole time without fiddling today.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1489400562
Tuesday Apr 3, 2018 #
6 PM
Running - off road (MDC Wentwood) 1:08:50 [3] 10.76 km (6:24 / km) +290m 5:38 / km
slept:5.0 shoes: inov8 Mudclaw300 Blk/Gn1
MDC run in Wentwood. Pretty shitty first part and at the end but the middle bit on mostly larger trails was generally ok.
Very little "wood" left, and tweaked ankle really struggling in the rough shit - meaning I was falling off the back of the rather small "fast" group for much of these parts of the run.
Going ok on the uphills, but glad it was a pretty flat run today.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1487802256
Treated myself to a new KOM, but appears I have to share it with Marcus.
Very little "wood" left, and tweaked ankle really struggling in the rough shit - meaning I was falling off the back of the rather small "fast" group for much of these parts of the run.
Going ok on the uphills, but glad it was a pretty flat run today.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1487802256
Treated myself to a new KOM, but appears I have to share it with Marcus.
Monday Apr 2, 2018 #
9 AM
Running - off road (Gilwern Grunt) 1:08:15 [3] 9.17 km (7:27 / km) +255m 6:32 / km
slept:5.0 shoes: inov8 Mudclaw300 Blk/Gn1
Close to logging this as swimming...
A floating/trouble-shooting marshal so not necessarily required. Went for a run around the course to check markers, but had to sit around for 20 minutes waiting for the heavy rain to turn into light rain.
Quite a lot of snow down but, wow, it was wet! Running against quite a "flow" right from the race start which was hard work, and then on the flat vehicle track east (into the wind) was sliding everywhere and managed to go down completely at one point.
Next climb parallel to the gorge was wet and rough, then wet and icy rocks as we went in, then off the path completely and steep drop through heather into a lake... Stopped beforehand as couldn't see the markers (fog), then worked out where to go and moved all the markers back a bit to be more visible.
Road was wet. Had taken a lot more time than expected to get here so cut out the loop of Gilwern Hill (Dave Austin was doing this anyway) and stuck to the road. After a while came to a river across the road which looked "interesting" to cross. Then saw lots of race markers pointing up the river... Quite rocky so walk but water was only just over knee deep and lasted for 100m before out again.
Much wetter in the standing water by the quarry faces - well above knee deep and waist deep in places (and very cold - still ice on tops of some) but by this point was soaked through so aiming for the water as much easier running than the mud/rocks on sides! Started on the rope climb but after about 10m ascent determined I wouldn't be able to do the last bit without the rope having already been rolled down so backed out and went around.
The last long straight down was by far the wettest I've ever seen it, and it's normally wet and boggy. Several hundred yards continuous over knee deep and about 50 yards waist deep at the end. Back to the pub just in time to inform the race briefing - and amazed at just how many had turned up (over 50 entries on the day!)
Fantastic running conditions and enjoyed the run. Not a route I would willingly choose so makes a change to be forced to run through it.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1485065885
Note - heart stopped just over 5 miles in and didn't start again. Not sure what's causing it, gave it a good clean after Saturday, will tighten the strap up this time.
A floating/trouble-shooting marshal so not necessarily required. Went for a run around the course to check markers, but had to sit around for 20 minutes waiting for the heavy rain to turn into light rain.
Quite a lot of snow down but, wow, it was wet! Running against quite a "flow" right from the race start which was hard work, and then on the flat vehicle track east (into the wind) was sliding everywhere and managed to go down completely at one point.
Next climb parallel to the gorge was wet and rough, then wet and icy rocks as we went in, then off the path completely and steep drop through heather into a lake... Stopped beforehand as couldn't see the markers (fog), then worked out where to go and moved all the markers back a bit to be more visible.
Road was wet. Had taken a lot more time than expected to get here so cut out the loop of Gilwern Hill (Dave Austin was doing this anyway) and stuck to the road. After a while came to a river across the road which looked "interesting" to cross. Then saw lots of race markers pointing up the river... Quite rocky so walk but water was only just over knee deep and lasted for 100m before out again.
Much wetter in the standing water by the quarry faces - well above knee deep and waist deep in places (and very cold - still ice on tops of some) but by this point was soaked through so aiming for the water as much easier running than the mud/rocks on sides! Started on the rope climb but after about 10m ascent determined I wouldn't be able to do the last bit without the rope having already been rolled down so backed out and went around.
The last long straight down was by far the wettest I've ever seen it, and it's normally wet and boggy. Several hundred yards continuous over knee deep and about 50 yards waist deep at the end. Back to the pub just in time to inform the race briefing - and amazed at just how many had turned up (over 50 entries on the day!)
Fantastic running conditions and enjoyed the run. Not a route I would willingly choose so makes a change to be forced to run through it.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1485065885
Note - heart stopped just over 5 miles in and didn't start again. Not sure what's causing it, gave it a good clean after Saturday, will tighten the strap up this time.
11 AM
Walking 1:00:00 [3] 3.5 km (17:09 / km) +150m 14:07 / km
shoes: inov8 Mudclaw300 Blk/Gn1
Various bits of walking back to start/finish, back up the course etc. etc. Wouldn't normally log but the shoes have suffered somewhat today and need all the help they can get to hit 1000 miles before retirement. I'm sure I thought similar after last year's race - yet they clearly are still going...