Training Log Archive: bradc

Running late, so I parked up at the top of Linlithgow (by Donaldson's School) and cut out that first 2km and 80m climb. Lovely morning for a cycle but freezing - wish I'd brought my winter gloves! On the speedy road bike today - much faster than Bertha commuter, though a bit of a rough ride on those crappy country backlanes over Cairnpapple.
Forgot Garmin so no HR/route data.

Return route, alternate via route 73 to Bathgate and over the road from Ballencrieff Toll to Linlithgow. A bit harder, to make up for this morning's easy run! Very pleasant, apart from the tough 100m pull in 1.8km to the summit of the road.

BOC M40 Relay, bumped up to the 'first' team due to Dixie's absence. Middle leg between Jon and Jase. Jon had a great run to come in in a strong 10th. I set off ca 5s down on SteveW (Clyde), but with a mass start of juniors between us! I fought my way through them, and eventually passed Steve before #1, which we both fluffed by ca 15s. After that I ran well, only a couple of hesitation errors, and went throught the spectator control into the final wee loop 1m20 up on Steve, who had a shorter gaffle to boot. Of course, when I could see the finish I promptly forgot to navigate and stupidly threw away 1m20 on the last control in the forest, a short 41-45s leg that took me 2:05. Came back in and punched just after Steve. Pulled out 20s on him on the dead run to the final control and finish, but if only I'd not made that mistake, Jase could have gone out with Andy Monro and a clear 1m 30 up on DaveR... oh well. A good run by my standards, nonetheless - and no grumbles from my heel, just a large blister on the sole of my left foot pad.

Found later that the organisers had cocked up on the gaffling, and we'd ended up with three long gaffles rather than 2 long and one short - in fact, I'd run the same gaffle as Jon. Pretty careless, but we weren't in the medals so didn't protest.

Event: British Long Distance Orienteering Champs
 

BOC, Cannock Chase, M40S. Really mentally tired starting this, and it took ages for me to wake up and get into the map. Totally bamboozled by weird mapping of veg boundaries near #3 - a dotted line between two areas of white, whereas in fact one area was tall green pines and the other was open deciduous, missed by ca 3 mins. Then the mapping in the quarry at nos 6-8 was totally wack, too, and by #8 I'd thrown away 10 minutes. Then I switched on, got motoring and set a series of fastest splits, including winning the long long (16 mins) by a clear 3 minutes! Came in in the lead, and I would have won overall, only to discover at download that I really HADN'T been thinking at #3, and had mispunched on a similar control on the wrong side of the veg boundary, 50m away from my real control. Idiot. A long way to come to mispunch, and to abuse a decidedly sore heel.

Short lunchtime easy run to turn over the legs before sitting in the car all afternoon, driving to Telford. Out to Ashfield, back along the river, Laighills and Holcombe Hill. Heel still protesting. Doesn't look like the steroid injection has fixed the bursitis.

First run in a week - heel has been sore. Seemed OK after this short run, although I felt crap and slow. No HR - either the chest strap battery has gone phut, or I'm dead. Debatable.