Training Log Archive: rcro

Warm up with Cory to do a second check of the steeper descent - still not convinced as very slippery and a bit too hostile and rough in the gully above the step down. Feeling absolutely knackered after jogging up so knew it was going to quite be my race this year.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2887835293

Third go at this race. Ideally aiming for top 2 Forest to help my club champs campaign but not to be this time. Very, very wet and muddy underfoot. Going was extremely hard this year.

No major drama leaving the start and kept relatively upright and relatively dry and clean through the field. Took a lot of effort to get through to the road and was a lot of people in front of me. Gave a bit of a charge up the road but lost traction on the top. Fairly good gradual descent to Kerne Bridge - but stuck in a traffic jam and couldn't overtake. Rhys Williams (MDC) and Tom Turner (Mynydd Du) were the 2 immediately in front also stuck in the queue. Did a bit better on the next climb and cleared maybe 4 or 5.

Said climb definitely tired me out and at the turn to head to the top wasn't very spritely - Cory and a guy in orange both passed me as going into the field and made it stick. At least they were the only people to overtake me today... They didn't get far away as people further ahead were walking the single track up. Sharp down went ok and wasn't being pressurised from behind, a little bit technical at the end and lost some distance but was moving well up the track and closed gap on Cory and overtook a couple more.

The top was slow - mud above ankle deep most of the time off the track and started having dogs to pass (first at 19 mins for me/39 for them). Gained more ground before getting stuck behind a Ledbury through almost the whole wiggly single track -getting past just before end and a big deep puddle. Going ok on the tracks but not near my best, made another overtake and negotiated another couple of dogs in a long water splash.

Howle Hill loop was still with Rhys, got past him on the up and led through the 250 yard long shin deep mud and did more leapfrogging on the next chunk. I was still ahead at the decision point so went for the short steep one as not too busy, and let him past jsut before turning off road into the horrible gully.

Lost a fair bit of time in the gully so had Rob Keeble and Rich Bevan right on me at the step down and they quickly past and got away on the steep (which I wasn't quite *as* slow for). Out of the woods had a huge amount to regain but was confident in my grip so closed back down to a couple of seconds by the road and had a tough 400m to finish. Rounded the corner and started sinking above ankles in the mud with every step for 10+ steps. Made it onto the track and instantly got traction and was then flying and ahead of the two and right on Rhys's heels into the finish line.

Overall feeling a bit disappointed with this result, but suppose not bad given how my legs have been feeling since Friday. I suppose that so few people overtaking is quite good, and should accept that the really shit ground conditions are going to affect me a lot more than people with good ankles. Enjoyed it which is the main thing!

https://www.strava.com/activities/2887838572

Previous times:
2017 - 53:25 dry but injured. https://attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_7227/peri...
2018 - 45:27 very dry and well rested. https://attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_7227/peri...

Went to this at reasonably short notice after skipping parkrun and any morning recovery due to rain, and combining with need to do a car supermarket trip. Given Blaise isn't really my thing was just going to jog around the more accessible controls.

S-1-14-2-12-27-15-16-25-17-18-22-19-20-26-28-21-23-30-11-9-10-6-24-5-4-29(failed)-13(failed)-F. 490 points

Very cautious on mud/rocks/roots so pretty slow overall. Getting caught out by fairly inconsistent mapping of paths (and mapping in general) - so went back up the hill on 27 and had to cut across. In hindsight should have stayed on upper track. Never found path 27-15 at all.

Something didn't seem right with 20 so overshot and worked out pretty quickly. Needed to be careful to find the right turning for 21 and again overshot. 30 was a bit funny as supposed to be on earth bank end, but the bank ended quite a long way from the control and it was just a tree in a wood on sloping ground. Had I known would have stayed high rather than clamber down a crag.

Towards the end missed the last 2 controls despite being reasonably close. At 29 must have been within a couple of m but never saw it and found map fairly unreadable mess of black crags/paths overlapping and obliterating contours. Having been at top of crags then went to bottom and didn't see it there either and moved on. For 13 noted that the paths looked very weird given the big zig-zagging path didn't appear to be there. Got to the big zig-zagging path and half way down, and couldn't match it to map. Had less than 1 min left by this point and no prospect of actually finding control so went off to finish.

Doesn't seem like a strong entry tonight if my score was reasonably competitive despite the missing 50 points. Found this map a real struggle on 1:10,000 scale. Looking at the "old" mutilated Oli Johnson map - it was far more clear, consistent and representative of what I saw on the ground tonight:
"old" 2012 map with updates to 2017: https://www.bok.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#142
"new" 2018 map: https://www.bok.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#168

https://www.strava.com/activities/2886048617

Arrived at race early so had well over an hour to sit around. Had more people praising my facebook photos set, then clarified club champs rules in that Parkruns do not count as 5ks - so guess who'll be doing Pomphrey 5k on Tuesday, 20:27 to beat for the PB points...

A bit extended warm up with Cory as he'd parked his car miles away. Then a bit up the link road and back to the toilets after everyone else had disappeared off. Still had quite a while for more warm up when got to the tunnel. The race briefing asked for Forest of Deaners to identify themselves and for everyone else to judge if we were "cuddly" - not sure how well that worked given half of us was slinking around in the dark out of the tunnel rather than be deafened inside.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2883801067

Entered this many months ago as a club champs race and selling out fast (and not hugely strong entry) - had hoped I'd have done some proper winter training by now and have some road speed but this autumn hasn't quite turned out that way.

Put a fairly consistent effort in throughout - ok on the up at the start but really starting to struggle as the wind picked up. Not nearly as strong as I've known it, but steady 14mph appeared to make a lot more difference than I expected it to. Pace didn't improve as much as I wanted coming down the other side - and the 2 people who'd be sat behind me in the wind went off ahead.

Gave it a good try to catch up on the hill coming back, and got close, wind advantage didn't kick in until half way across. Feet burning quite a bit, and tiring, for the last 2k into finish. Think this is where vaporflys come in useful (at least 2 in front of me had them).

End position 9th of 367 finishers. That's inside my target of 10th (had thought I was 10th), but still a little disappointed with the time. Had around 30 as a target, and 31 as acceptable. For the effort put in really want a lot faster than 4 min/k.

KM splits
4:01
4:10
3:58
4:08
4:10
3:52
3:42
3:46
(+0:12 for last 60m)

Hoping Sunday's race is more my thing!

https://www.strava.com/activities/2883801067

Short warm down with Cory whilst waiting for "live" results to start working and confirm team prize winners (us). Took a wrong turn and went up a mountain, which was a struggle. Got mistaken as racers going into the finish.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2883802312

Event: Winter Evening Maprun
 

Had been looking forward to this as always thought Cinderford has been quite overlooked. I'd updated the map and planned courses when Maprun was new in early 2018 but had been told "nobody will want to run there". Turns out tonight was using one of the courses I planned - so had a couple of obvious checkpoints worth dropping straight away.

Facebook this afternoon seemed to turn into a FoDAC/MonRoss pairs battle and was almost expecting everyone to rugby tackle each other in the town centre... Maybe there is a market for contact street orienteering?

S-15-27-19-7-18-26-4-17-12-23-22-13-9-30-14-29-16-20-28-5-1-25-2-F. 480 points.

Had some trouble starting. As per last week, phone didn't beep at the start - so abandoned and restarted, it didn't beep again - but beeped almost everything else.

Completely thrown on the way to 19 by an extra unmapped path. Now looking at map I saw that and thought I was a junction earlier than the bend I was on - hence nothing made sense. Spent a while going around but somehow managed to work it out - but the checkpoint didn't beep so wasn't sure I was in right place until exiting. Since it had cost several minutes gave up to an extent and just added in 4 for the sake of getting *some* points but in hindsight it was a good move - whole central area was a pig to plan due to being on a slope so think I got it at exactly the right point.

With the time losses wasn't sure there was time to head down to Ruspidge at all but thought worth a try anyway. 21 just too far so missed that. Passed Team Fletch heading the other way across the playing field - surprised they were there in that direction at that time so must have been an odd route!

Long flat sections along the valley so tried to keep the pace up to make back time. Saw a beautiful stag on the rugby club pitch. After 14 decided we had enough time to add 29 back in, and got everything on the way back to town centre fine too - so added 5 on, and still 10 mins left there so took the gamble to add 1 and 25 at the top too to give a decent points haul. Meant the last stage was a bit rushed, and feeling the last hill up to the finish - and won!

Overall, route choice was pretty good. Without time loss on 19, would have been able to add a few extra checkpoints - 10 and 3 on way to 27 at start and then shift 15 to the end - for extra 20 points. A faster runner than me might be able to add 11 and 6 before 18 but I was actually moving quite quickly so it will be a tough ask. 8/21/24 definite drops to max score only 530 in practice.

Quite a few runners out tonight (definitely more than orienteers) which is pretty good given the bitterly cold wind.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2879535144

Went to the track tonight just to see whether legs actually work after stiffening up from weekend and a long day yesterday. Did 4x 3 mins with Cory - 2 min jog recovery - rather than the main session, which was switched from 12x 400 to 6x 800 so fairly similar.

Had a decent warm up and was actually moving quite well and reasonable pace - maybe pushing harder than I should have. Stiffened up quite a bit on way home so need to do a lot of stretching throughout tomorrow.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2876950787