Training Log Archive: IanW

Bit of a jog to and around waiting pen, warm down jog round the assembly field with Catmur after run.

Leg 2 on Men's Premier at the British Relays, held on the Beaulieu Estate. A bit more woodland on the courses today, but the heathland was more runnable so the pace was high throughout. Joe came back fairly high up, even if he had 'hobbled' around over half the course - which meant I went out just after Matt Franklin and with Ed Catmur, Tuomas Tala, Duncan Archer, Jase Inman and Rich Guilliame in the minute behind.

Better run than yesterday but still screwed up a bit too much - overran one gaffle even though had successfully managed to ignore the pack (30") and made two mistakes in the maze of rhodos late on in the course, losing around 90" or so there. Dropped 4 places Was pleased with my ability to ignore controls on other gaffles which I've sometimes had the tendency to be dragged towards. So could have been a sub 6min/k run... but still struggling to sustain that sort of pace across the whole course. Trying to hold onto the train of runners that formed across the heathland was tough and I missed a couple of slightly better route choices while with them, difficult to overcome pack mentality when they're going in the same direction that you want to...

GPS Distance - 7.6km (including 0.2k run-out of field)

Event: British Champs
 

To start, not feeling particularly great... plus bit of a jog and stretch after run.

UK Cup course at Hampton Ridge, alongside the British Champs. Not a good run, struggled physically throughout, hills and marshes particularly, and the navigation was off again. Contours seemed strange in a number of places, some landforms seemed very distinct on the ground and not on the map and vice-versa.

Mistakes

#1 - 15", went to wrong control first
#5 - 20", missed at end of leg, quite a few gullies around
#6 - 2'30"+, missed significantly, misreading the contours & thinking control was further along.
#9 - 30" - stopped just over the ridge when saw a big patch of white I wasn't expecting and having misinterpreted the contours. Worked it out and then spied the flag from up high...
#11 - 45", just poor, direction was off and didn't check descriptions for feature which would have made things obvious
#19 - 1', crap exit from #18 then failed to find route through the gorse... should have planned this one ahead

Plus crap route (or part of route) choices to #2, 4, 6, 7, 12, 16 at end of leg, 17, 19 - primarily too much marsh running, could have utilised some paths/tracks better.

Not a great run at all, can't say I particularly enjoyed the area, or planning either - there was scope for better... Found that the colour contrast on the map wasn't great in places either, the rough open scattered trees blended in too well with the rough open, and was also difficult to pick out the white under the marsh symbol. Both confused me on more than one occasion, especially as patches of trees on open heath are really distinctive, and I use (overuse?) them to simplify the navigation/correct direction. Don't like the use of the undergrowth screen for gorse either, as it makes it far harder to pick out the shape.

Main problem today though was too much compass-only navigation; this tends to happen if I'm running a bit too hard. I orienteer so much better in these areas when using the features in conjunction with the rough compass to correct direction on the run...

GPS Distance - 12.9km

10:30 Warm-up from lab to South Parks, then one loop of the 'terrain triangle'

12:00 Warm-down - another small loop then back to lab

Reps in South Parks round the triangle - bit of hill, bit of marsh, bit of woodland, lots of grass. Longest side of triangle got split into two, so we could do 2 'sides' hard, one easy. Three 5' reps with 2', 3'40" rest (latter as Anne came to visit), switched direction for middle one.

1 - 1.19k - ahr 173
2 - 1.17k - ahr 184
3 - 1.19k - ahr 184

Not feeling too bad considering last few days... quite happy with distances.

and today's result:

Sleep 1 - 0 training...

No way anything was going to happen today...

Tired after the weekend, good recovery now needed

Good stretch after circuits