Training Log Archive: susan

Event: British Middle Championships (UKOL)
 

New shoes. V exciting.
Jog to start plus drills

My First W35 Race.
3rd place - ha I got a BOC medal, hilarious.
Yeah so no-one much runs W35, given that there were 5 of us, and randomly 2 were W21s. Rachael Rothman won in 40:23, having (it would appear) very recently had a baby.
My run was very scrappy; the terrain was beautiful for running through, but I haven't used a compass in anger in quite a while, and it really was a control pick out there.
Still, there is life after W21 :)

Cooldown jog, but had to cut it short so I could meet the gorgeous Morgan Wilson. Wee dote.

Event: British Sprint Championships (UKOL)
 

Warm up map & bit of a jog. Feeling a bit woozy still.

British sprints W Open heats, Aldershot. Not a good start to the day. Fell into a trap that nearly everyone did, not good in & out of the low control (didn't see the path on the map with all the contour lines) and generally un-smooth and not running strong. >1 min down on Olivia (same heat).
Fell asleep after.

B Final, just about scraped into it. Finished 10th, +1:12 on the winner, +51s on Sarah-Jane, +42s on Olivia.

I don't know what the field was like 2 years ago but it wasn't really that strong this year. In fact 5.1min/k would put me comfortably mid-table in the A final.

My run felt much better than the heat. Dropped a bit of time on the long leg - should have taken a more aggressive route but didn't know what the wee path would be like (-10s?), tried to run past #1 (-2s), didn't read blocked stairs at the other longish leg back down the hill (-5s) but apart from that ok I think.

Strange setup for the last few controls; a total dog-leg and incredibly narrow & congested which I don't find too nice but I suppose that's what happens when sprint gets popular. Perhaps a longer start window would help. I inadvertently groped (while trying to get past) a large-ish lady on my way to #2 so that was nice......

Cool-down & stretch.

Very very very very very tired.
Didn't make the track last night, but probably no great loss.
Need sleep.

WEE Series. Kept the pace comfortable and enjoyed a smooth run round. Felt a bit peculiar earlier - think it is tiredness & work stress - but fine during.
Starts open at 6:30. At 6:10 we had:
No controls out
No planner to put controls out
No controls to put out
No MOO
No maps
By 6:45 the first starter was away. 120 runners overall. Good work ph.

Plan for the week:
Monday - already done. Good racing, poor looking-after-my-legs
Tuesday - rest (Pilates)
Wednesday - WEE (if legs still tight then DON'T RUN HARD)
Thursday - go to track & ask John's advice re session.
Friday - rest (travel)
Saturday - British Sprint Champs (2 races) - look after legs MUCH better than IOC weekend
Sunday - British Middle Champs - have fun with this, doesn't count for owt.

The most energetic class yet - got an impressive ab shake going :) Felt really energised afterwards.
Need to remember a cheque next week.
V tired.

Mixed Sprint Relay, Ireland 2 with Eoin, Marcus (newly converted sprint aficionado it would seem) and Olivia - finished 1st place; another towel for the set :)

1st leg, set off hard, then everyone else shot straight on at the bridge where I hung a right - I guess that's a gaffled first control then.

Clean through to 6 and right with the leaders. Running hard. Excellent.

7 lost a fair bit actually, headed S out of 6 and down some steps, should have gone SW and avoided steps. Then tried to open a locked gate (it was marked as locked.......my fault not its). Then minced down the steps as they were v narrow treads. Then nearly punched a control on the level above. Finally got down to my control. This all happened v fast and I was with other girls....but still prob lost 15-20s. In hindsight the longer route N out of 6 would have been faster - I saw it and opted for the other, but really it would have been so much faster than all the steps and palaver.

9 (spectator) would have been faster over the entrance bridge but I didn't figure it out in time -10s

Note to self - the end of the run-through (and start of the new side of the map) was marked with another start triangle. The spectator control was not on the map. Apparently this is a WOC standard.

Clean through to 16

17 dithered on route out of 16, stupid, saw both and couldn't commit. Most of the others took the northerly route, I went SE out of 16. I don't think there was much in it. -5s on the dither.

Clean to the finish.

Happy with that and with the leg speed. Racing is fun! I was picking good routes and running well, or at least that's what I think. Finished 6th but in a pack of 3 (4th, 5th & 6th). Results not up yet so I don't know how times compare on other legs.

Lisburn City Race - was thinking tempo-ish pace. I actually felt like my legs were strong at the start; I was moving faster than I thought I would given the earlier exertions and no warm up (v bold). It's been so long since I ran a full-length urban (rather than sprint) and I felt like I had aaaages to make decisions and plan ahead. Helped by not running flat out, no doubt.
Missed some micro-route choices, and I'm not sure what the optimal route to 19 was. However I'd say it was a solid 'good' for navigation. Had some difficulties with road crossings, the worst being to 21 where I ended up running down, pushing the button, and waiting for the little green man. I had to wait for several little green men during the course, but I actually had to go significantly out of my way for that crossing.
The best however was when I was really stuck and then Dooby came driving along and held up the whole lane of traffic for me :)
Having said that, immediately after that I came across an locked unmapped gate, ah well, run round. In hindsight it actually saved me time, as there was a hedge further on blocking my planned route that I hadn't seen.

HR felt decidedly dodgy up the last hill, but was ok afterwards. I didn't have a HRM to see what was going on. Concerning though.

My over-riding thoughts during this race were a total trip down memory lane.
"There's my first primary school"
"The shop we always went to for school shoes"
"Down Haslem's Lane, the way to the bus station"
"The hospital I was born in" (ok I don't actually remember that one)
"The hill my driving instructor taught me to do hills starts on"

Ah Lisburn, the city for everything.