Training Log Archive: Mark3

First category AM fell race - 18km, 1200m climb - 5th/30
http://www.wfra.me.uk/1482.xls

Not sure how much stuff to take over the bare minimum - erred on the side of caution due to the forecast and probably had more weight than most others, but at least felt safer!

Missed the corner-cut to Fan Frynych so ran a bit of extra distance, but otherwise running quite well. Soaked within about 30s, although it wasn't raining that much, the ground was saturated and there was lots of spray.

Wasn't entirely sure of the best place to leave Beacon Way so just followed the guy in front - very unused to the scale so had no idea the really obvious thing I could see was the Roman Road until actually getting to it. But after that, ran up the first half of Fan Nedd before it became too steep.

Didn't realise there would be a fence along the road so route down from Fan Nedd was a bit circuitous. Fell over a few times coming down.
First river crossing was thigh-deep ish, didn't have any trouble.

Came out far too far S on Fan Lila (I think this is because if you head directly uphill at the start you are going E, but the hill bends gradually so if you keep going directly uphill you end up SE), I actually thought we might be too far N but I decided to trust Gary and that paid off (thanks Gary!). Had a 9bar walking up that which was quite hard to eat but pretty enjoyable.

Followed Gary past the steep-bit off Fan Lila to an equally steep-bit which he trounced me going down. Then watched him enter the river, lose footing, get swept downstream a bit, find something to cling onto and rescue himself. I thought "I'm going to find a better place to cross than that", then promptly picked a worse place, was up to about waist-deep when got to the very fast flowing bit, then was suddenly neck-deep and being carried downstream trying frantically to grab onto a rock, all of which were slippery...eventually caught one which nearly pulled my arm out of it's socket, managed to grab onto a bush with the other hand and haul myself out...phew. This was terrifying. I'm amazed to be not more badly injured; only a few cuts and bruises from the rocks on the river bad. Fell running is hardcore.

Started to get a bit foggy at the top of the (very long) walk up Fan Fawr, lucky to come out exactly at the trig point which provided some confidence. Then followed the path down the steep bit (so steep that any other way seemed impossible) and took a different line to Gary on the last bit on the basis that if we went the same way, he was always going to beat me down the hill. He still beat me, but we couldn't see each other for most of it which made it more exciting :)

Very enjoyable, probably nicer than it would have been in 25 degree sunshine but getting a bit chilly in the wind, especially after the soaking.

C • Good race report! 1

4th I think.pushed really hard - it has so many corners!

Could definitely feel parkrun in legs going up the hills, otherwise ok.

Mistake on number 1, the purple line covers a bit of contour detail (that's my excuse anyway) and had to relocate on number 4, 2 mins lost.

Concentrating really hard on planning the whole leg to the attack point, and this worked well.no other mistakes, although road was better choice to 16 and it would've been better to aim off left rather than right to 23.

Tried a different tactic - last time, went for it up the hill, died and then struggled with the rest.

This time, took it easier on the hill and let the top three disappear into the distance, then had more left for the remaining 4k.enjoyed the race a lot more - but was 15s slower.sigh.

Nearly caught 3rd and won more beer though :)

Exploring control sites, making sure there are things to attach controls to, map corrections...after all, there are only 10 months or something to my event!

It was raining so I didn't take a pen.
However one area of the map has loads of good control sites and would definitely have benefited from one - needs a revisit :)

Edit: couldn't check one site because some teenagers were having sex in it.there will be a prize for anyone guessing the correct location (one guess per person)

C • What area? 4

Screwed by the maths here...

The concept was:
Each team (of up to 6 people) has a bag with 18 counters; 6 green, 12 red. Do an 800m lap, take a token; keep going until you have all green tokens.

The geeks at work (including me) calculated that even though the max distance here is 18 laps and the min is 6 laps, the expected number of laps isn't 12, it is in fact just over 16.
however since there were 30 teams competing, the likliehood was one of them would be lucky - and they were; I think the winning team only did 11 laps.

Jason and I did the full 18 - we were particularly unlucky - actually I did 10 since we ran the last together.

I think we were 8th/30 - morally we were 2nd (with the luck factor removed) and the winners were a team of three, so I think this was a pretty good performance. And a good way of making an interval session a lot more fun!

800s: 2:29,41,41,44,46,44,41,47,45

so not bad consistency other than the first where I really wanted to come back in the lead! It was a by-no-means-flat, gravelly 800 as well...

At work for 2 hours longer than normal and then it was dark by 9 :(

C • and... 1