Training Log Archive: rcro

Short stop off in the morning before it got too warm and busy. 7 adders, 1 lizard - not a bad outing.

My nice free run in the Forest. Legs not up to much so a simple loop around top of the family cycle trail. Not fast, and would have struggled to go faster, but still overtook a lot of cyclists.

Saw a buzzard and two cuckoos in Cannop - and a lot of very trashed forest.

My run through Beechenhurst was spoiled a bit by many old men (70+) in weird clothing walking into the cycle path right in front of me - and in front of cyclists - without looking, and often stopping right in the middle blocking the path oblivious to everything hurtling towards them at high speed. I had to swerve to avoid a collision and saw a cyclist have to slam on the brakes. Not sure what they were all doing - but the lack of awareness, or even contempt, shown by them to the general public does not promote their activity well to said outdoors enthusiasts general public!

Speech House event centre was nice, if lacking in choice of food if you didn’t like baked beans. Avon Schools prize giving was played over tannoy to engage the BOK Trot with everyone else, but the presentation omitted to mention the word “orienteering” at any point - so when opened as “we’ll start the prize giving now” a few were expecting the actual OMM presentation. Most OMM people were at least aware of the orienteering though.

Showing Gill and Andy best places to look on a quiet day. Not a quiet day today and everything had warmed up by now. 2 adders, 1 (very) slow warm and a very long lizard. Better than expected.

Event: Urban Event
 

First round of control placing, mostly moving the car around bottom of map, the north west corner. Had some challenging sites for grippling early on. Warm.

Started at 6.50, finished at 8.30

Made good progress with control placing so headed on to this - arriving quite late so having to skip a lot of pre-race routine - not good when it's hot and I'm already tired!

Very sluggish still, as per yesterday. Not much I good do and working hard for quite a slow pace (noting it is still a slow course). Fortunately became clear quite quickly that the front runners were quicker than I would be capable of here on a good day, so not as though I missed an easy win.

5th place for first lap, overtook for 4th half way around lap 2. My worst parkrun finish position in nearly 2 months.

Very sweaty post run and would have liked some time to cool down before returning to Ross.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1550357643

Balancing 5 controls of my 21 (Pat put out the other 15 - by car) on the meadows. Again last three all hard to gripple, and didn't bother with the one where the nettles have come up (also opted not to put in correct place - which I assume runners appreciated). Quite a lot of time spent trampling a route in from the path.

Event seemed to go very smoothly with very little for me to do once start opened (not even collect controls as not enough gripple keys for me and the enlisted volunteers...)

Mixed reactions. One was desperate to find planner and controller to start, quite aggressively, "I've come 150 miles for this..." - which did get my back up a bit, especially when he'd actually only come 75. Apparently another complain that I control had been placed on a sign-post 4 inches away from the tree it was described as being on. Other comments I heard were generally positive or constructive.

A surprising number of people wanted to start an HOUR before first starts - which was refused on the grounds of marshals on the course not being in place, other activities in the town taking place until 12 that could increase collision risk, and general volunteer strain. I wouldn't get the maps out of the car to start sorting until 30 mins before to make sure nobody started more than 15 mins early.

Pete was a good controller and fairly laid back.

C • What was the complaint of the guy who came 75miles? 3

Not expecting many as should have warmed up sufficiently, and likely to have been disturbed. Found 7, with quite a bit of searching, and 2 lizards as a bonus. A couple of the snakes were fighting for a bit - seems the winner got to sit on top of the seemingly only female that hangs around here.

Event: R2T2
 

Was to be a short stop today as work over-ran (40 hours in office this week, despite nominally having 2 half days holiday). Cloudy day but warm - only found 2 on first quick pass. Bumped into same guy as last week so went around again more carefully and got another 3. Have also been shown the grass-snake's normal spot (just missed it today) so thinking of coming back over the weekend.

Helping out at R2T2 but not really required much. A group of Forest/Monross came so made sure they knew what to do.

Legs struggling from so much sitting down and not much pace. Would have preferred trainers for a lot of the course - these shoes lack a lot of cushioning now!

Generally good routes, even cut across forest in places (to be honest, most really didn't look nice). Ankle not used to forest terrain any more. Towards the end, would have taken the longer route as per autumn half as the way I went was pretty slow (but nice and interesting).

Beaten by Marcus Scotney - who didn't appear to have even worked a sweat.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1549646925

Received an email telling me to destroy all of my junior course maps for Saturday, as new maps have been printed with the "agreed" changes. I did not "agree" to the changes, and anyway was excluded from the discussions. I am (was?) the planner... I might be less aggrieved if I were at least engaged in the decision making before it was presented as a set piece.

I'm looking forward to retiring from all volunteering after this weekend. As I keep saying, it's orienteers that are killing the sport with their insistence on adding more and more silly rules that don't actually have a purpose, then work to meeting them, or misinterpreting them over producing a course that is (1) fun, (2) fair, and (3) safe.

When orienteering dies out in 10-20 years time, just remember it's this "typical" orienteer mindset to blame, not BOF or anyone else that the "typical" orienteer wants to vilify.

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In work for 12 hours so no time for a run today.

Bristol street-o around the Cumberland Basin.

Not a hugely complicated course and planned up to 9 by 3, and then the rest of the course on way to 9. Mostly a runners course and my legs didn't have much to give tonight.

A few map corrections/clarifications needed. 7-8 probably didn't take best route as the map is far from clear with regard to what's under the road. On way to 9 I took the signed harbourside footpath, which actually is through olive green before the turn for the Cottage. I came back via the mapped route rather than wilfully through olive green. 19-20, bridge missing steps. If included would have made me more tempted to take the other route.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1545676964

Got back to railway station just as train was arriving so no waiting at all, which was nice.

C • Nice 1

After several days of dry, and a sunny morning and afternoon, normal summer Tuesday resumed at 5pm for yet another wet and unpleasant run. Wouldn't have expected the Bog-navon run back in March to be the best of the season!

Shoes don't have the grip they used to have, and they weren't good on wet rock back when relatively new. Most of early part of run spent trying to keep upright.

Lacking hills pace but generally ok on flat and down. Left leg has been knackered since before the weekend and have had to do a lot of stretching it during the day.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1543823740