Training Log Archive: IanW

Control hanging, checking, collecting, and looking for Ed and the keys...

C • whoops 1

SE Sprints, Race 1

Enjoyable race, thought I'd gone out too fast on the open heath at the start but might have been advantageous for the second tricky part in the urban estate. No big errors, a couple of 5 second hesitations on controls 5, dragged slightly wrong direction out of 4, and almost taking wrong road en route to 12. Slowing down to find a route into 13 paid off.

Getting the navigation in the urban section paid off - was in 9th coming out of the heathland, but finished 3rd behind GG (12:36) and Sarah Rollins (14:17)

GPS distance - 3.35km

SE Sprints, Race 2

Mostly in the estate this time, and although simpler to begin with, was running too hard for my navigation with Sarah and GG on my back - this run was a bit more scrappy.

Thrown by the map on the way to 3 - the black dots on the wall blocked one of the paths and stopped to check it was accessible, then hesitant on route execution (7"). Missed small path to 6 (5"), instead taking route I knew from Round 1. Got route through to #10 wrong turning one road early, but not very costly time-wise. Got ahead of myself to 14, almost going up the path to a house (8") then took a poor route to 15 through the alleys rather than along the road (10"). GG caught me 2' just as we left the estate area, then it was all out to the finish.

Looking at routegadget, also didn't see shorter route through the garages to 8 (5-10"), instead going the long way around.

So about 30" of mistakes this time, but still pretty good going, an enjoyable course and some good practice/a confidence boost before next weekend. A double victory over Roger T is a rare event! The more complex urban sprints definitely suit me better than the open parkland types.

GPS distance - 3.27km

Various warm up/down before/between/after races. Checked out 14-15 of race 2 with Eddie - not much between north and south road route choices, alley much slower...

Tempting to cycle in again today, but thought a rest day was in need.

Shotover loop from lab with Stu. Feeling pretty heavy legged for first half hour, then hit Brasenose Woods and there was a bit of spring in the step. Walshes are on the way out, r. shoe starting to fall apart...

As it seems to be a popular topic, some thoughts on the JK. Overall probably a bit better than I'd expected, navigation on the good side of average but plenty to work on with the running.

- Sprint - fast parkland isn't my type of race - just don't have the speed. Major problem with navigation was lack of planning ahead, something I really need to work on.

- Middle - went out with the intention of taking it easy with the long in mind, did so and was fairly clean with the navigation.

- Long - surprised myself, felt good running-wise for the whole 2 hours, probably the best physically I've been for a classic. Navigation wasn't so hot, combination of the 1:15 map, running a bit too fast at points and letting the numerous tracks on map and ground distract me from the important bit - the contours. But no major blunders - resulting in best World Ranking score so far.

- Relay - without the silly 90" mistake on #11 I'd have been really happy with this. Much easier to navigate on a 1:10 map, simplifying the legs well and running was good.

Things to work on:
- Navigationally - planning ahead, and reading/visualising/simplifying the small detail
- Physically - get fitter and faster! More long runs for the classics, and some intervals/faster short stuff for the sprints.

C • one way to do this.. 1

To lab, first time since early November. Bit of headwind made things a bit slower, plenty of stops at lights too.

Home, going pretty well, surprised at lower HR than this morning. 52km/h max speed down into Chiselhampton.

Half-arsed circuits session

with plenty of stretching after

JK Relay, Braunton. Pretty good run apart from one 90" mistake on #11, which was easily avoidable. Still pretty pleased to have a run like this at the end of a long weekend.

Running hard and feeling surprisingly good having just run a classic, pleasing as last two JK Relays have blown up after racing the three previous days. Navigation pretty good, though control flow wasn't great round the NW loop. In the mix with the top M120+ teams but don't currently have the speed to keep up/hold them off, can lead the winning team into controls on sand dunes though :)

Other non-spikes were too low at 3 (15"), hesitant through the detail into 9 and 10 and up to 18, then a poor route choice to 19 (20"). So not too shabby.

GPS distance - 6.9km