Training Log Archive: Frostbite

Event: British Middle Champs (UKOL)
 

British Middle distance champs.

Started tentatively because I haven't really managed to race two days in a row without problems since the operation. Fortunately everything was fine and I started pushing quite hard after number 1. My only real mistake was at #6. I took the path route then stopped too high on the ridge, distracted by all the other people milling about looking behind every bush. It took me a minute to decide that I couldn't possibly have missed it and just to keep going down the path. I probably lost some time in a couple of places where the elephant track took me off line and I had to correct. I also lost time at 29 because of an unmapped fence next to the track immediately before it.

Very happy with getting round reasonably well. I was struggling to keep the pace up particularly on the hills but I haven't really done much training. Blown away at the end by Jon X and Parkino so I dropped from 8th to 10th in the last 400 metres of dead running.

C • yeah, but ... 5

Event: British Sprint Champs (UKOL)/(PROLOGUE)
 

British Sprints prologue

I wasn't sure about doing this, and I set off steadily but my HR was too high. It didn't feel like I was having palpitations but I wasn't sure so I eased off a bit more. At this speed the navigation was fairly easy and my only problem was being a bit overcautious with regard to uncrossable vegetation, ignoring an obvious gap in the hedge because I couldn't see the gap on my map. The overprint partly obscured it.

I thought I had no chance of qualification before I started so surprised to finish 8th on the heat, a minute down on 6th. This prompted a bit of a rethink on the high HR - maybe it was high because I was running quite fast. It had just seemed slow because everybody around me was running about so quickly. And my heart had been fine all along.

I felt ok to push a little bit harder in the final. Navigation was still pretty easy - I still wasn't going all that fast, and it was maybe a bit easier than the prologue anyway. However the combination of tiredness and mental overload caused a couple of near-misses near the end - crossing the road a little uphill from the road-crossing control, and immediately having to cross back again, punch, and cross for the third time, and then nearly running straight past the last control.

Quite happy with 4th place, 27 seconds down on Steve Wilson.

Jog round Shaw Lane, Cottage Road, keeping the HR down low.

Stepping Stones. Felt a bit clunky but ok, no problems. Started off quite quick, slowed down in the middle trying not to push the heart too hard, then ran hard up the Donkey Steps.

ok