Sunday Feb 26 |
 | Cycling hills 1:57:29 [4] * 16.1 mi (7:18 / mi) +300m 6:54 / mi | |
| slept:6.5 weight:156.4lbs shoes: Brown Leisure Shoes |
| Cycle from Holmbury St Mary to Leith Hill (3 miles continous uphill) then later up/down to the summit itself, then several miles up/down hills on country roads, then a lovely long coast down to Dorking. Finally, from Waterloo station to back home, stopping for for some coffee. Pretty slow throughout except for the downhill bits of course! |
Saturday Feb 25 |
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| Event: 35th Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Match
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| Cycling hills 1:18:01 [5] * 12.7 mi (6:09 / mi) +200m 5:51 / mi | |
| shoes: Brown Leisure Shoes |
| Fast/frantic cycle through London to Victoria (via Buckingham Palace) then slower cycle on country lanes from Holmwood Station to Leith Hill. This latter section involves at least 200m of climb. Finally, a lovely 3 mile free-wheel down from Leith Hill to Holmbury St Mary, where I was staying. |
| Orienteering race (Varsity Match) 1:15:23 [3] ***** 8.93 km (8:26 / km) +235m 7:28 / km | |
| spiked:24/29c slept:5.0 shoes: Standard White O-Shoes |
| Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity Match at Leith Hill, Surrey. Running for JOK (ex-Oxford) on the Men's A course.
A great race for me personally, in beautiful, technical terrain. I had some personal demons to conquer on this map, having had a disastrous run in my only previous outing here. Leith Hill is a small, technical area, quite Scandinavian in nature, particularly with the sunny, cold weather, open and intricate detail and a dusting of snow on the ground. Due to the size of the area, the race was in two parts, with a map change near the start, around half way around. The planning style was very much taking us into the difficult area for a couple of controls, then out for a couple of long, easy ones, and then back in, over and over again, until you made a mistake. I forced myself to run at a slower pace than normal, and pleasingly did not make any mistakes that cost me more than a minute - it's been a while since I've had a clean race.
The first three controls were a warm-up through the edge of the tricky area, then a couple of easy ones. I actually ended up at 5 before 4, as I dropped a little low around thick vegetation, but this was OK as it was only a few metres from 4, and my split from 4 to 5 has got to be the fastest of all - 18 seconds! The course then did a long loop in easier terrain - I was a bit slow here, although some of the features were very subtle. After another technical section, which I unwisely took a chance on and got lucky on, it was time for the map changeover.
Leg 17 was long and tricky, and relied on an accurate compass bearing, but I was lucky to strike it pretty much on. After another jaunt through the difficult bit, which I had no issue with, there was another long leg away, I was extremely lucky here as I hit the control while thinking I was quite some distance from it. One final run through the tricky section was again OK, I was going very slow here so as not to mess up a so-far good run. The penultimate leg was long, and I switched off a bit - dangerous, as I deviated by about 30 degrees, and had a long plod to get back on the line. Probably only a minute's mistake as I picked up the pace.
Unfortunately, Oxford and Cambridge were unable to run on the Saturday, as the latter team were stuck on a motorway. So they ran on the Sunday, in cloudier but still pleasant conditions. I was a little bit hungover so just spectated at the race, before psyching myself up for the long bike home. In the end, Cambridge took the team trophies, just, as they had strength in depth, and Alan Elder took the Men's Individual Trophy for a storming race in 62 minutes - you have to be pretty good to run at that speed and not make big mistakes, in an area like Leith Hill. Helen won the Women's Individual though, so Oxford didn't quite go away empty handed. |
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Men's A - Splits |
Friday Feb 24 |
| Cycle Commuting (In to Work) 10:02 [2] 2.12 mi (4:44 / mi) | |
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| Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 9:26 [2] 1.6 mi (5:54 / mi) | |
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| Shortened route. |
Thursday Feb 23 |
| Cycle Commuting (In to Work) 9:13 [2] 2.13 mi (4:20 / mi) | |
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| Gently snowing this morning.
Fastest ever split into work - this'll be tough to beat. |
| Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 14:24 [1] 2.27 mi (6:21 / mi) | |
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Wednesday Feb 22 |
| Cycle Commuting (In to Work) 11:21 [2] 2.13 mi (5:20 / mi) | |
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| Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 53:27 [3] 8.99 mi (5:57 / mi) | |
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| To Victoria, and later back home. Strong headwind for much of the way. |
Tuesday Feb 21 |
| Cycle Commuting (In to Work) 11:02 [2] 2.21 mi (5:00 / mi) | |
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| Spinning tempo (Self Program) 39:47 [3] 15 km (2:39 / km) | |
| ahr:150 max:158 slept:6.0 weight:154.2lbs shoes: Gym Trainers |
| Finally under 40 mins. 416kcal. |
| Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 12:59 [2] 2.12 mi (6:07 / mi) | |
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Monday Feb 20 |
| Cycle Commuting (In to Work) 9:45 [2] 2.12 mi (4:36 / mi) | |
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| Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 12:39 [2] 2.12 mi (5:58 / mi) | |
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