Training Log Archive: IanW

Event: 0007 BOK National Event and UK Cup
 

M21E & UK Cup at Stourhead. One word to describe it - ouch. Didn't feel like I had much power in me from the off, lost a minute on #1 then another 6 minutes on #2 through another classic stupid mistake. Then decided to slow down significantly - in reality I don't think I could have gone much faster. No idea why I felt like that though... one of those days where every climb hurt, and it felt like there was more than the 400m quoted - straight line climb was nearer 650m, and my routes had 500m gain. Might also have been because the forest was rougher than yesterday - where there weren't brashings there seemed to be brambles... There were quite a few track runs and the shin was really letting me know about them.

Technically after taking double the time I should have for the first two controls, I bobbled a couple but that was it. Looking back at the course now there were a couple of route choice options that might have been better, but I didn't see them at the time - one because a line between controls obscured a path. Also plenty of micro route choices could have gone a lot better - should have learnt that all clearings were full of rubbish by #18...

Felt empty by #16, so the slog to #19 wasn't nice - walked a fair bit of it - and after #26 I got the worst cramps I've ever had and had to sit down by the side of the track for a few minutes so I could actually move again. Was also so knackered that kept on inverting the contours, fortunately in the end that didn't matter at all.

Just pipped SGB by 3 seconds, but Benjamin got me by 24 seconds. Splits will be interesting to look at.

And - if the printer hadn't spotted the error in the course lengths (planned at 1:15000, measured at 1:10000) we'd have had 17.3km today. I think there might have been a few complaints then :-O Personally I'd probably have packed it in given the chance - 13k was bad enough.

I'm come to the conclusion I'm not doing myself any good with regard to the injury. Today showed I'm well below where I can be physically, primarily because of a lack of training due to the injury. So to give it some time to recover, today will be my final orienteering 'race' for the season - which gives me just over 2 months until the Czech.

i have this nagging feeling this injury could be a bit more than shin splints as there are definitely two separate areas of the shin bone that hurt - one just above the ankle and one about half way up the leg. The fact that I felt it quite a lot during an 'O' race is something new, and is certainly not a Good Thing.

I might still wander around a couple of the Summer Series courses, certainly Brill and Youlbury, but won't be running them.

M21E & UK Cup - Splits

Event: British Middle Champs
 

Warm up before race, jogging along grassy bit by road into car park, checked out the spectator control on the tunnel and had a bit of a stretch

BEOC Middle, Fonthill. One big stupid mistake and a few bobbles but otherwise quite good, could have been near to the 45min target otherwise. Wasn't too enamoured with the map though, quite a bit of detail didn't seem to be on the map and the undergrowth screens were variable.

More analysis to be found with the splits (once they're up)

C • Route 1

Just been looking at the map from today again and amazed at how much detail is hidden under circles, lines AND numbers. In some places it gets ridiculous. Just spotted the thicket I tried to use as a distance marker on the way to #19 hidden under the number... It doesn't take much effort to break circles, check lines and move the numbers so why don't they do it?!?

C • Control circles 1

Have noticed I've been getting really quite sloppy technically recently, not looking at the map and compass enough (although today's terrain didn't help map-wise). I don't know whether it's a case of southern-england mode kicking in too much, or that I'm just running for too long without concentrating/thinking, but I need to get into better habits again. Reckon a lot of it is to do with not planning ahead enough, so I might try out a slightly different method tomorrow...

M21E (and M18/20/21/35) - Splits

3 bursts of cycling, wouldn't usually log them but I was moving fairly fast!

12 mins Stavs -> Univ sports ground
13 mins Sports Ground -> Stavs
10 mins Stavs -> South Parks

More cricket - a couple of hours. Eventually got a vaguely decent rhythm going on the bowling and had a bat as well - have to learn to control the drives a bit better than that though. Could also have done with facing a better bowling attack, there were many balls that didn't reach me...

Hills session in South Parks - SGB appeared, and then disappeared into the distance on each rep. Was feeling a bit empty and so it was a lot more of an effort than it should have been, struggled a lot. Long gradual hills are more of a killer than they should be. Or maybe that's just because I'm lazy...

Did 5 reps from gate at bottom of hill to bench 400m away, just over 20m climb in that distance. time is a guess but sounds about right...

Recovery time dropping back down the hill again, although minimal effort heart and breathing rate was still pretty high. Walked a bit sometimes. Then warm down round SGB's standard loop at the end of it, felt strange pain in shin... hoping it's nothing too bad