Training Log Archive: Ollie

Event: November Classic
 

The November Classic at Wood Crates in the New Forest. This was a long race, with some very long first few legs in very continental terrain, not ideal after my legs were aching following the tarmac of the Oxford street race yesterday. The one saving grace was that the climb did not feel like nearly as much as 300m.

I knew it was going to be an interesting race when the first control was right in the middle of a wet marsh - and the stake was down so low the flag was not visible. I held it together though until half way around, when I made a series of bad mistakes (of the kind I didn't think i still did these days) and wore myself out. In fact I hit a bit of a wall 2/3rds of the way around and couldn't run for a few minutes. A faster last section couldn't bring my race below my target 100 minutes. Finished 31st out of 38. A bit disappointing, really.

Update: My analysis suggests I made 21 minutes of mistakes. This sounds about right and is very disappointing. I should indeed have been able to do around 85 minutes on a course like this.

M21L - Splits

Event: Oxford City Race
 

Oxford City Race. Men's Open. Fast and furious, I definitely had an advantage in knowing the area. Highlights were some intense navigating through Wadham and St Catz, and running down the main roads! The low-point was running into a giant loading area, spending a minute trying to find an exit and then having to come back out the same way. I should have known - it was just around the corner from my college.

Apparently the course's shortest distance (avoiding out-of-bounds areas) was 9.8 km. I finished 25th out of 82 finishers. Contactless EMIT made for a fluid race, looking forward to using it in short-leg races in the future.

Well done to AP'er distracted on planning an excellent course and the rest of OUOC for organising and marshalling it. It was good to see Oxford in a different light. See the video!

Mistake analysis:
1 - Poor navigation (n.b. no compass for this race.)
13 - Poor route choice/hesitation.
15 - Poor route choice.
18 - Poor route choice/confusing map.
21 - Hesitation/poor map reading.
23 - Poor route choice.
27 - Poor route choice.
29 - Unmapped obstacle.

Jogged around the University Park with Ian C.

Open - Splits

Back in rush hour.