Training Log Archive: BrandNewMe

4th day running of stress at the start. Got there 30secs late, grabbed description and map and set off.

The course was a few orange controls mixed in with some hunting around for ditches / pits. Fun nonetheless. Kept trying to shake off some punter who was on m40 but I never fully managed it. We got to the end and he shook my hand and said 'you run very fast', which was odd, as I was thinking that for someone who was carrying an extra 20kg than necessary he could shift surprisingly well.

A 45 sec mistake and a few 20secs and a few 10. Standard stuff when hunting for bingo pits etc.

http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

Day 3. Accidental lie in made it the third day in a row if sprinting to the start. Legs felt empty and achey today. Sciatica playing up too. Great forest, a big control pick of a course. If my legs were up for it it would have been awesome. It was fun enough though. Ditched 1 min looking for a pit in the green at 2 (I must have been within a metre on my bearing going in and didn't spot it, then 3 mins later by being silly at a control. 3rd, 1min down. Need to concentrate more tomorrow. Earliest yet start though and 2k to the start. It is not looking promising...

http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

Belgian 5 day 2. Wre

Laurence cut his chin v badly last night so after getting up at 3:30am we got out of a&be at 10:30. So ray sacked off his early start and we had a lie in. Still nearly left it too late, arriving to the car park w 20 mins before the start time, with a 750m run to the start...

Picked up map and regretted not bringing a magnifier. V detailed. The bloke I started with caned it off which was quite distracting. Wobble to 1. Went around the path to 3 when others went straight. The brambles on the map had died back. Others went straighter 4-5 but I don't think I dropped too much. 7 was odd, as was 9 where I probably dropped at least 20secs. 12 was odd. On a gulley, which I couldn't see on the map. Still can't now, but it must be there. 14 caught up a Swiss girl and let the distract me. 25 secs maybe. 15 dropped a bit by rushing. Got away from the pack 16 - 19 when I misread my description and ran past my control. 30secs. Bummer. So scrappy, but I haven't been in the forest consistently for ages. 2nd to Amelie is no disgrace. I thought my form just now would have me much further down.

GPS on the interweb somewhere apparently. Ray had fun watching the action on a big screen in the assembly area / bar. That's the way to do gps!

Won a big posh expensive bag of bath stuff / scented candles, as did the Amelie and meik. The guys got a hamper of 15 different Belgian beers. Ray was gutted, as was I a bit. I wouldn't have minded a hamper of choc either. Beats a buff though!

http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

Belgian 5 day. A pleasant enough bramble fest. Sapping soft forest meant no 5min/k. Thought I would be penalised for a late start too but it was a punching start (a rather ambitious split start). Leffe and frites to recover.

http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

Good tempo road run.

Felt ok. No Achilles or calf pain, and just managed to finished before the stomach cramps got too bad.

Such a bad stomach. Legs felt bad to start with but didn't get worse so ok

Tweaked my back quite innocently trying to dress Lucy. Excruciating. Off to a show in London tonight so the training was walking there. Was probably about 14 miles in rain and wind. So drenched I had to buy new clothes when I got into town.