Training Log Archive: IanW

Event: WCH Regional Event
 

Beaudesert event, M21L. Pretty poor, was running non-comp and wasn't quite sure how I was treating it as a run. Too many silly mistakes, tiredness from yesterday evident near the end, lack of concentration/application far too evident round the majority of the course. Didn't feel I was pushing it with the running, 'floating' rather than being aggressive, but the hills were again too tiring for my liking.

Controls of note:

#4 - changed route choice twice, first choice was right but ended up going over the hill. Stupid.
#6 - had nice plan but didn't read map enough near the end of the technical leg and screwed it up, going to the wrong boulder. 30"
#7 - stupidly poor exit from #6, looking back no idea what I was doing
#11 - poor route, poor attack point, missed useful detail (veg boundary) on map, far too hesitant in. 30"
#13 - not aware of exact exit direction from #12, misinterpreted pits near boundary for one 150m further west (mag north lines obscuring detail), then veg mapping confusing and far more ditches/pits on ground than on map. Stupid. 3' +
#15 got lucky, in hindsight that was the best way of doing it, very very bingo, nearest attack 150+m away for a 3m wide pit in low vis white forest.
#19 - far too hesitant, 15"
#21 - really stupid mistake of day - 350m leg, route choice through/round green - mapped as "difficult to walk" for ~200m going straight, round was 700m either way with 15-20m climb. Round it is then, up hill, down white re-entrant. Except took white ride instead, didn't even register it wasn't a re-entrant, end up 100m along leg having run 650m. Not going back up hill, too far. Fight it is then - ease through 90% of it no worse then light green, there's even an elephant track at one point. If had known, would have gone straight no question. Afterwards really pissed off with veg mapping (this wasn't the only occurrence today) which when conifers were concerned seemed more visibility than runnability... 2' - 2'30"
#22 - short leg afterwards, compass work and distance judgement was shit, went into headless chicken mode. Lucky it was only 1'
#25 - poor route thro' light green (slower than fight to #21) then got to path jct and "where's the walk?" - scattered trees if that! 45"

So should have easily gone under 80.

Too many controls today seemed hidden away behind fallen trees etc, and a couple were a bit bingo... Also thought the veg mapping was poor, especially where only that presents a route choice dilemma and it turns out you could actually go straight. Was pleasantly surprised about the runnability of the area given the map, course mainly used the nice bits.

Lesson of the weekend - the Chase is nice for orienteering, shame about the maps...

Unsurprisingly, a general feeling of apathy towards the relay planned for afterwards meant it didn't happen. Collected in block of 6 controls quite far away from assembly, no problems there, just with the route back which I walked almost all of, found the orange mud and had a nice 70m climb at the end...

By now, really knackered.

To the start

Hanging controls for Sherbrook training - learning that the point contour features were generally dubious...

Control Pick on Sherbrook - contour only map, didn't really get on with the mappers interpretation of the contour shapes or the spacing, with slopes seeming shallower/steeper than I was expecting a lot of the time. Eased by #2 which had been put in the bottom of a tiny pit (see previous note about point contour features) and wandered around a bit on the right spur before giving up, going back to #1 and trying, and missing, again. Stumbled across it after going up and down the spur, then later discovered that there was another pit, identically sized, next to it but only one marked on the map...

Through the majority of the rest fine (small depression at #5 non-existent), the big contour shapes were pretty obvious, even if there were some intermediate wiggles which looked just as big on the ground as the bigger shapes. Hit #12 perfectly, except there was no flag which was slightly confusing. A trip up and down the spur convinced me I was in the right place. Slight miss at #15 as a bit too far down the reentrant, then the "how many pits do we map?" game at 18 too - 3 on the map, about a dozen on the ground. Great...

Taking it relatively easy, felt it on the hills, flow good but not great - too easily broken by nicked kites.

Map Memory with Chris E. I took the odd controls, hit the first 3 fine, (especially pleased with route and execution to #3 after deciding against the piss easy path option) then path to #7 didn't seem to be there and so ended up 75m north side of feature but spotted the flag. Then #13 went awry, wasn't on path after not going south of fence enough, so ended up north but managed to correct without referring to the map. Taught me that I need to make more time when running for looking at the map.

Feeling a bit tired, heather really energy-sapping, couldn't really keep up with Chris when he was leading. And got hungry which didn't help...

Walshes a bit too big for me for orienteering - feet sliding around in them far too much primarily when contouring/cross slope legs. So a nice off-road run shoe for now...

Trains with Chris E and Rich Robinson.

First set - Chris hung flags in wrong places but ended up at right pit. Bit of a write-off this one. First real hill was a killer.

Second set - never going to catch Rich, nor Chris me, walked up killer hill at end.

Third set - hanging perhaps the most difficult set, all in the green, hit them all well so quite happy. Chris only caught 50 secs on me.

Last set - went for this, chasing Chris down and Rich only giving me 30 secs, slight wobble almost going down one reentrant too early, Chris was going easy along the path with Tess so managed to catch him, just holding off Rich behind me.

Good session - efforts were level 4, decent recovery between them though - time likely an overestimate of actual running time.

Jog to and from start of trains exercise

Lab to the Millard's place nr the ring road. I'm sure Morrell Avenue is getting shorter every time I cycle up it. Or maybe my cycle fitness is better than I thought?

Helen's Nature Reserve loop - wanted to try out the new Walshes, was unsurprisingly far drier underfoot than last week but there were still a fair few muddy bits around, but there was no danger of slipping and sliding around at all :) Ran it a little harder than on the early morning headtorch runs, didn't feel too bad.

Route choice exercise on Wittenham - took wrong path at beginning of route to #1 but adapted route on the fly and still hit it pretty well. Others were fine, compass work was relatively good and aiming off well.

Second course of the evening, labelled 'hard'. Had problems with holding lines through vegetation/brashings on this one and so decided to re-run one leg in particular after completely screwing it up first time round. Other screw-ups were:
- heading towards the wrong distinctive tree, which didn't have a re-entrant just beyond it, in one of the open bits
- not seeing a reflector after being just the wrong side of a fallen conifer on a veg boundary, and then heading (for I don't know what reason) the opposite way along the boundary to that I should have given the direction I'd aimed off.

So two compass errors, and one act of considerable stupidity, on this one...

college engineering dinner + 30k at the weekend = no exercise