Training Log Archive: rcro

Down to riverfront via Ridgeway to meet up with a few people from work I’ve not seen in over a year who were running the marathon. Fortunately found them very easily. Then had 7 minute head start to jog to the end of Corporation Road to spectate at roughly the mile point - and found a few more people I know running too.

Fairly direct route home from there so I could get breakfast, and change into thicker clothes and be back in time for the 10k finish. Overall nice to catch up with various people but a bit cold and wet to be standing around.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6158160440

Was 15 minutes too late to enter the orienteering so went for Cardiff Parkrun + instead.

Not aiming to be quick given how hard running was yesterday and started some way from the front. Still, surprising how easy it is to run fastish on genuinely flat terrain - steadily overtaking people and gaining ground on others and overtaken for the first time (of 2) just before 3k point and feeling like I was well within my limits.

Caught up a guy in red so was sticking with him to encourage him to keep the pace up, then Stuart appeared from nowhere and talked to him for a couple of hundred m before he pulled away after Blackweir bridge. Increased the pace a bit too and maintained the gap but still holding back a bit until last 100m when a decent sprint to keep red (just) behind me. Fun way to finish.

Chatted with Stuart after, generally selling MDC as he was asking about Cardiff running clubs. Made up the day’s distance by doing a new connection over to Heath Park, returning by Cathays cemetery and through the car crash back to Taff Trail at the end. The BMW looked pretty wrecked but the Seat Ibiza it’d driven into at the traffic lights seemed only to have broken it’s bumper.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6153305585

Went up to the Wenallt after as nothing else to do and nice to see various people as it still feels a bit odd after however many months in lockdown. Got a bit cold though. Weight is the lowest it’s been since May so will see if it genuinely has come down or if I wasn’t drinking enough whilst at the orienteering.

Very tired last night and finding running hard work today - so wondering if the cold is starting to catch up with me. Down was ok, but offroad and uphill was slow enough for me to consider stopping completely.

Got to see a lot of cows though.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6149697077

Bishops Cleeve MapRun after a fairly pointless day in the office. Not really keen to try this and yesterday’s wet trainers didn’t quite feel right under foot so reluctant to really push this.

S-15-8-20-9-11-27-13-14-12-17-16-25-22-18-19-26-30-24-5-23-7-10-28-29-21-1-F. 560 points.

Unlike the others spent no time at all looking at map planning route so just picked a direction and ran. With more planning would have done 9 before 8 as would have allowed me to loop around the town centre after 20 and leave just a simple anticlockwise loop of the edge.

Cleevelands currently a dead end as the road around has been fenced off again - but I carried on to check which would have added on a couple of minutes. Came back exploring some grass and paths I’d not seen before (and not on the map). A worthwhile detour but then meant I’d be not competitive at all in results.

Had a stop for toilet after 18 so lost more time, and opted out of the town checkpoints loop as looked to be a bit further than I would have had time. Again had options for 10 pointers where there was time after 24 then changed my mind as I didn’t care about the score enough for it to matter whether I got 580 or 560. At least was left with a high scoring finish.

In hindsight probably would have just had enough time to clear if I looped at 19 and after 24 - so shows this is a pretty easy one - take out the deliberate time losses and it would have been 4 mins early. Taking 9 in a better order maybe could have saved another 4 mins through making the rest of the route more efficient.

Good moon rise over Cleeve Hill. Garmin didn’t save a route again, but the strava upload at least worked, just about, today.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6146868825

Rhiwbina MapRun in some pretty heavy rain. A bit tired and not really in the mood so observed Ian and gave some feedback and pointers.

S, 17, 22, 16, 05, 24, 11, 27, 07, 23, 08, 09, 25, 19, 10, 18, 12, 26, 15, 14, 20, F. 410 points

The follow Ian plan fell apart at the start when he went off in a direction that yielded no points for some distance - but once he committed to a direction he planned his routes fairly well and had no trouble executing. Knew where he was on the map, folded and rotated map, simplifying routes into counting junctions etc and generally spotting the shortest way between two points. I think he could make a pretty good orienteer with a bit of training. And he's got the potential to beat me by miles in these street-os if not holding back pace for an injury.

The only bits he needs to work on are spotting a good route from the start, and appreciating the time value of checkpoints - i.e. is it worth taking a slightly longer route to get more points, and to do live re-planning along the way to add in extra checkpoints if close by - with us adding in 11, 10, 14 and 20 as we went along.

The route I saw from the start was S-20-6-16-22-17-3-30-1-28-2-21-13-15-and then pick up whatever I can... which would have been much more efficient at the start. Could see it was going to be an unbeatable course, and predicted winning score of just over 400 (correct!) - but this route didn't deserve to win! Picked out checkpoints 4 and 29 as the least worth visiting if risk of being late. With such a wide spread actually very difficult to think up a good route.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6142455880

Technically the unbeaten run of MapRuns in 2021 continues. It's going to end soon, strong competition tomorrow...
Garmin watch failed to save a GPS plot again - so able to upload a score but not a route. (Garmin says I ran 12.91km with 125m climb, and shows my heartrate, pace, cadence, elevation and temperature - why would I want the route plot in addition to all that?)
The new upload from Strava thing has completely failed too - tried 4 times and still "processing" after 20 minutes before giving up each time. The Garmin got onto the rea

Rain started heavy just before I was going to set out so delayed a bit and in the dark more than I'm used to. Not running hard but points where I was working on form - pretty tired still so not able to maintain.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6137198254

GPS having another off day with some offsetting - but generally better than yesterday and giving me a heart rate too.

Trying to make something worthwhile out of the easy runs from home so trying to improve my stride. Made it not an easy run (despite what the watch HR says). Tiring badly in the last mile.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6132294014