Training Log Archive: IanW

Another gorgeous day, went out and did same loop as 2 weeks ago, as cycling doesn't seem to affect the ankle (well, no pain anyhow...).

Some nice views as the sun slowly got lower on the horizon, felt like I was moving well but the bike is a bit 'clanky' and in need of a decent service...

Event: City of London Orienteering Race
 

City of London race - Men's Open. I'd been looking forward to this for a while, and then the dreaded injury curse struck again, however I was going to go whatever. Walked round the course mainly at a brisk pace, as this didn't hurt the ankle, it felt really slow at times so attempted a slow jog in a couple of places. The ankle seemed OK at the slow jog pace, but ultimately didn't want to risk anything...

A fun race, typical urban terrain to start with presented no real problems at walking pace, except for the unexpected cranes/roadworks blocking off potential route choices, nothing much you can do about this though. Good little control pick between Cornhill and Lombard St was tricky even at walking pace. Avoided getting myself in the wedding photos by St Paul's Cathedral, before looking ahead a bit further and seeing the Barbican complex looming on the map. Took most of the way to 17 and 18 to work out a decent route between 19 and 20, having already seen the obvious pitfall to 19 - very glad to be walking at this point, don't think I would have stood much of a chance otherwise - the need to read ahead has rarely been greater! Jon X later showed me a potentially faster route, but one that needed descending and ascending flights of stairs.

The key to navigating round the Barbican was soon worked out - that the thick black uncrossable walls were your friend - cross one and you change level. The walk from 20-21 allowed me to see all of the controls were on the upper level, and that there was generally an obvious route on one level to get between them. Perhaps more importantly there weren't any non-obvious routes going up/down on the longer legs as much as I looked for them. Took one potentially faster down/up route to #27 but I think it was similar to 19-20 in terms of the distance saved/stairs trade-off. Some split-level legs - the ones where you can see your next control 50m away but 5m below you, and then have to go about 400m to reach it - would have caused even more confusion around there!!

Good fun, would have been even more so had I been able to run - thanks very much Ollie for spending the time mapping/planning. Now to hope that there'll be another one next year and that I can run!

Garmin distance to follow, around the 11k mark I'd think.

My Route

I think I might well have to flag the 'injured' status again... am still doing London tomorrow but at this point in time I won't be running - pushing off on the ankle is just too painful... grrrrrrrrrrr!!!

The only real 'cause' I can think of is linked to overpronation - off to the physio at some point next week then. Fortunately cycling doesn't seem to hurt it so that might well be the training method of choice in the coming weeks.

Grrrr again - was really looking forward to racing round London...

Pyramid of hills, with jog back down recovery - 2 sets of 30", 1', 90", 2', 90", 1', 30" down with 5' rest between sets.

Approx distances, fairly consistent during and between sets:
30" - 135m
1' - 250m
90" - 355m
2' - 460m

ahr exc. the 5' recovery, ie during reps/jog down, was 185. Paced the session fairly well but working quite hard towards the end.

But when I went to jog to the shops after the session there was a strange sharp pain in the ankle during the "push off" phase, not pleasant, hope it's nothing serious...

Jog over to South Parks from home, checking out a few parts of the partially updated map on the way down through the park. It looks better but is by no way finished yet...

Standard Monday circuits session, back inside now and last one before the masses reappear...