Training Log: Jon X

In the last 7 days:

activity	#	time	miles	km	climb
Running	7	4:50:20	6.41	10.31	380
Orienteering	2	1:39:39	5.41	8.7	220	32 /	41c	78%
Total	9	6:29:59	11.81	19.01	600	32 /	41c	78%

1:28

0:00

Monday May 12
	Running 15:00 [3]
	shoes: Inov8
	Nice gentle morning jog through yesterdays assembly field and back through the lower bit of woodland - needed to close the gates that we had forgotten to close when we left the event. Was just starting to loosen up nicely and enjoy it, but of course hadn't left myself enough time to run for any longer before going to work....
	Note

	Got to work to find the Blood Donation bus in the car park. I always seem to miss this but as I had managed to eat breakfast and wasn't planning on running later on, this seemed like an ideal opportunity. It may have been but it turned out they didn't want my blood - when they did the iron/haemoglobin check, my haemoglobin was 134g/l and their minimum threshold is 135g/l. Hardly a major concernI as the threshold is at a cautious level (and was recently raised from 130g/l to bring UK into line with the EU). Frustrating as I think it is important to give blood if you can, and for various reasons (meetings, cold, etc) everytime the bus has showed up at work in the past couple of years then I have been unable to donate. Some multi-vitamin/iron tablets over the next few weeks might be a good plan though - sounds like they would do no harm in any case - will give it a try.
Sunday May 11
	Orienteering race 1:13:20 [5]**** 8.7 km (8:26 / km) +220m 7:29 / km
	spiked:21/27c shoes: VJ Falcon
	Second race of the (fab) FVO weekend, M40L at Scottish O-League at Touch. Hadn't really given this race a thought in amongst planning the sprint race, woke up feeling a bit fragile, had some breakfast, checked out my start time and found it was in not long over an hour, not ideal! Ran all the way to the start (2.5km) so that helped a lot - course was mainly uphill for the first 25 mins or so which did not help so much... Struggled with the scale on the first two short legs in the wood but tried to push hard when out on the moor after that. Could see a Clyde top well in front, wasn't catching them and couldn't work out who it was - turns out it was Rosco on M21L which had a common section with us from our #2 to our #10 - looking at splits he pulled away from me by a huge 8 seconds through that section. Steve Nich (off first start with no tracks in the bracken) and Fraser both were quicker than us through here - Steve was about half a minute quicker than Doug T who won M21L. Got caught 3 mins by another Clyde top with Dave Robertson inside it on the way to #13 - I knew he had me in sight and was reeling me in but couldn't do much about it. Got in front of Dave again at #14 and led him all the way to the tricky flag at #15 as we went back into the wood - somehow this got him the fastest split and I am only 4th on the leg! Maybe should have taken the easy option and run M21L as this leg was common too and they all took much longer... Then I went a different way from Dave to #17, got confused and started navigating to #18 instead. Realised buit climbed too high for #17, then went too low to wrong crag at #18 and made a total dithering mess of the route to #19, lost 4 mins through this section. Sorted myself out round the tricky last section in the wood in amongst all the contour detail and crags, was suffering a bit though and not going as fast as I should have been - only 3 seconds down on Martin Ward with three short easy controls left but he finished 30 seconds in front. Steve N won in 64, impressive time particularly off first start. Dave R kept it going to do 66, Fraser was 68, then just behind me Ben did 75 and Brad did 76. Pleased with how I ran across the moor but gave it all away through 17-18-19, would have been happy with sub 70. Another good day and good event though - altogether a great weekend!
	Running warm up/down 15:00 [3] 2.5 km (6:00 / km)
	shoes: VJ Falcon
	hangover-clearing run to the start, seemed to be uphill for a long way but got there just in time - definitely v well warmed up ,
Saturday May 10

	Event: Scottish Sprint Championships
	Running 1:00:00 [3]
	shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline
	Scottish Sprints day finally here and seemed to go off well - people found the courses tricky and both races built up to a good finish to make it worth having numbers and commentary. A few crises early on which meant a dash back up the hill after my run round to check the sites, but problem resolved quickly - although next time I plan I will be checking myself before putting them out that all the SI units are really set up as they claim to be! Was glad to see the top 3 in the men's race come in with times between 18 and 19 mins - up until then I was starting to wonder if anyone would break 20mins!). Had expected the winner to be between 17 and 18 mins but all the leaders lost time here and there, plus the rainstorm in the middle made parts of the course very slippery and probably slowed the later runners slightly. The rainstorm did mean that the wedding next to control #14 did not hang around outside the church for photots, so that was probably a good thing..... Nice to see Rosco showing what he can do - a final sprint to share the victory and a second sprint to the podium to snatch the winner's bubbly before Doug T could get it! Enjoyed the day - relieved it all went okay - big team effort from FVO as a lot of people were unable to run as they manned controls all race, major thanks to them. Felt the need for a few drinks to unwind in the evening....

	C • cheers Jon for a great race 3
Thursday May 8
	Running 1:08:00 [2]
	shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline
	Post Dumyat race recovery run with FVO posse plus guest appearance from Doug Tullie. Headed through Kings Park to a loop of Polmaise and back round the other side of Kings Park. Another glorious day making Stirling and surrounds look lovely, hope the weather holds for Saturday!
Wednesday May 7

	Event: Dumyat Hill Race
	Orienteering 26:19 [3]***
	spiked:11/14c shoes: Inov8
	FVO Wednesday evening series at Plean. Wasn't too sure about going out but when the opportunity arose it was too nice and sunny to turn down. Just had time to cruise round before heading off to run the Dumyat race, enjoyed it and just as importantly judged it perfectly to finish one second ahead of Fraser :)

	C • Timing 2
	Running race (hill race) 41:20 [5] 7.81 km (5:18 / km) +380m 4:15 / km
	shoes: Inov8
	Dumyat Hill Race - big FVO turn out with 13 men and 8 women there enjoying a glorious day to be out. My plan was to try and stick a bit closer to Bradc than two weeks ago at the Whangie, then if possible get a gap at the top on the grounds that he would descend better than me. That was the plan anyway! In practice I started slightly too fast and had to chill out a bit on the track run along the bottom of Hermitage Woods, got passed by Brad and Paddy Walder along there. Brad was not looking totally comfortable, favouring one leg ever so slightly. I felt like i was climbing along quite happily just behind them through the woods etc, was feeling okay so overtook them again part way up. Brad got just in front of me again just before the summit (there in 26:10) and I was immediately in front of Will with Paddy just behind. Revised plan of getting off the hill with Brad in sight and try and make an effort on the final not-as-short-as-you-think gentle climb along the track below Hermitage. Descended hard trying not to let Brad get away, and not to be distracted by all the spectators who seemed to know Will - at least it meant I knew he was still right behind without needing to look back! Didn't know where Paddy was but had forgotten he was in trainers - a defnite error for the descent! Maybe picked up a few places but wasn't catching Brad or being caught by Will, got to the planned place and pushed really hard on the ascent to get away from Will, picked up a few places as a result including nipping past Brad who was suffering. Thought I was going to pass out or throw up just before it levelled off as my vision started to go blurry and black, but got to the flat bit, kept it going and ran scared all the way to the finish to hold them off. Reckoned I had done pretty much all I could on the descent (15:10 for the descent) and absolutely done in at the finish, but a bit disappointed the time wasn't nearer to 40mins. Well chuffed to beat Brad and Will though, even if Brad was part crocked and Will did have a fairly large and unpleasant blister on display afterwards! Good work by all the FVO troops - especially Ewan and Jamie and Rosco, all in the top ten (out of 264 - I was 30th).
	Running warm up/down 20:00 [2]
	shoes: Inov8
	Some token drills and jogging before the race, some token shuffling was all I could manage after the race.

	C • Disguise.... 2
Tuesday May 6
	Running 1:11:00 [3]
	shoes: new Brooks Adrenaline
	Very pleasant FVO evening jaunt from chez Inman, supposed to be 'probably less than an hour' but didn't quite work out like that! Janine had made fab soup and luckily unlike me everyone else had done as requested and brought bread'n'cakes'n'stuff so I was able to freeload. Next time I will remember. To bring stuff I mean, not that freeloading worked well!

	C • didn't you leave with some bread? 2

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Stirling, United Kingdom Mostly Cloudy 55°F (feels like 55F) Humidity: 82%, Winds: 15mph Useful Daylight: 4:17 AM - 10:08 PM more details Weather data provided by weather.com®

Monday May 12	65 F AM Clouds / PM Sun	20%
Tuesday May 13	64 F Partly Cloudy	20%
Wednesday May 14	64 F Partly Cloudy	20%
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