Training Log Archive: Leon

Tired legs

S6D Forres Sprint - 6th, 18.57

Having heard the GB Men say in the WOC sprint, they thought they'd done well but were disappointed with the result, I can concur fully after this run.

Finished thinking I'd done well with one 20s error to #17, but examination of the map showed a bigger time loss than I thought.

#1 - #5 were fine
Went back out of #5 to High Street and along, when clearly south route and up steps to #6 is quicker, at least 20s.
Blindly followed man ahead into #7 instead of looking at control description and so ran round 3 sides of building.
Had to make quick decision #7 - #8 and messed up, went round on road to south, which was clearly slower than north route. Then looking at map after spotted central route, so at least 45s lost here
Then good to #17, entered car park and expected to see control, kept running and punched, but luckily alarm bells rang and control code was wrong, had to back track and go round corner to N, more relieved I realised mistake than making mistake.
Then hard work all the way to finish, a bit slower in woods, and walked the very steepest bit of hill, had to stop and check once at top of woods.
Finished strongly across field

S6D - Forres Sprint - 1 - Splits

S6D Day 2, Strathfarrar, 59th

On paper an improvement, but all down to having a late start and following some tracks, mainly in the 2nd half.

Route gadget very useful here, otherwise would have only a vague idea of where/why I'd gone wrong.

Lost time to #1, correctly spotted knoll but went too high and up one re-entrant too soon. Understandable

#2 - #6 remarkable spot on on trace, inc a 20th split to #5 but I can't claim much credit there were people to follow and tracks and although I was trying to keep up with where I was I wasn't wholly on top of this, only roughly.

#7 - didn't drop far enough, think Jack C caught me here for the first time, to be fair was hard to identify features in this area

#8 - lost at least 5 mins, ran a bit hard to get away from Jack, tried to match hills with contours on map, thought I'd done this and spotted rocks in distance where control was in distance and ran there. Alarm bells should have rang when no-one else was about. Was well short. Tried to match tree mapping to what I could see but that didn't really work. Carried on and ventured too high, just off the map (would have been useful to have more map, and less logos and silly swirls), 2 other folks looking here, but basically realised everyone else was heading down a bit, and though this didn't seem right to me, there it was.

Then we got into following the tracks 9/10/11, would have managed 9 easy enough, 10 perhaps with a little problem, but 11 really was a huge benefit and no way through those ferns with nothing to guide me.

Saw Jack ahead again approaching 12, having passed me while I faffed at 8, and I managed to punch before him, then ruined it by taking at silly route over river and down to road instead of just down to road, and unbeknown to me Jack came past again.

13/14 fine

Over to 15, on my own here and first 2/3rds of leg I was doing well, could see Jack in distance again, was convinced he was going wrong by going left and so I was about 250m back and kept straight trying not to lose height, then I saw him punch so had to change track. I was higher than I thought it was.

Caught him as we faffed round 17, being slightly west, but I got to 18 first, ran off and missed 19, when I hit fence line so Jack came past again. Then we legged it in via 20 and 21, so he gained the minute on me he started behind me.

Enjoyed the end bit, better area than yesterday mainly because the second half was better than the first. Though if I'd had an early start may think differently.

S6D - Day 2 Strathfarrar - C39 - Splits

Achagor S6D Day 1 - M21L, 77th

Standard crapness.
My initial reaction was I did alright on the first 10 and then it all fell apart, but the splits say I was pretty much hovering around my finishing position throughout, which was a surprise but the numbers don't lie.
Thought I was fairly slow and accurate through the first 8, using compass more than ever, even realised when I had gone off course to 7.
Dave caught me into 9, and followed him towards 10, but clocked he had drifted left and so I kept right.Feeling pleased with myself I was bemused then to find it was where I thought it was and so drifted and faffed around trying to work out where I was in relation to road.
Took a wrong turn on way to #11 and was too stubborn to back track so lost a lot more time here.
12 was quite good (35th quickest, amazing) managed to stay quite straight and hadn't been worn down by terrain and conditions.
But then went awol to 13 too far south and very rough to get back on track.
Too low to 15, though the map seemed dodgy here, and now the flies hit me, something I had never experienced before!
By this point the last thing I wanted was a long leg across stuff you can't run on, and it is these legs that make orienteering very un-fun but something about taking rough with smooth etc
Essentially walked it all with my map on my head to keep flies off.
17 was fine, but decided to take paths to 18 just to get legs going again, ran right up to control somehow didn't see it and looped around for a while before finding it where I originally thought it was.
Silly mistake to penultimate control too, but by this point I wasn't bothered.
Hard, I expected nothing less, and not downhearted by that, more by the fact the bits where I thought I was doing (relatively) well, I wasn't.
Onto the next one...

EDIT - GPS on RG doesn't look bad, maybe I'm just too slow in execution

S6D - Day 1 Achagour - C39 - Splits

Inverness parkrun - 2nd, 17.24

Knew it was a race for 2nd after it was mentioned regular winner and sub 16.30 runner Gordon Lennox was in attendance, and sure enough, he ran off and was never seen again.
After 500m I was about 7th, but by end of first lap was 4th, and soon moved up onto Nic Barber and we pushed each other round the second half, just managed to get away with 600m to go or it would have been another sprint finish failure.
Flat course but all off road. Quite strange running round the fenced off campsite!

Pacing Dad home to a solid 27.30

Didn't feel great

Nairn sprint (Blue start) =10th, 17.06

Was a bit concerned about the amount of off road, i.e sand dunes, and I was right, this cost me a top 5 thanks to one mistake. Nailed the rest of it and the pace was good.

#5 - #6, hit 5 from the road to south, knew then that 6 was slightly west of north, and (so I thought) adjusted accordingly. Forgot to take into account road into 5 was slightly SE so I had actually gone due N from 5. Faffed around in sand dunes for about a minute, didn't panic but probably should have realised what I had done in about half the time.
Slight error to #9 turned in to uncrossable wall from road - had to back out and come in from south.
From this point was holding someone off on the red start which I managed. One slight hesitancy in eastern park section.
Even managed a sprint finish!

Highlight was the cat sat obliviously at #4, unfuffled by the chaos around it

S6D - Nairn Sprint - Men_Blue - Splits

Event: WOC 2015 & Scottish 6 days
 

On the way to Inverness, stopped at Loch Katrine for first visit to where my Grans ashes were laid to rest.
Beautiful spot.
Did 2 miles out and back, felt very good, hardly trying at all.

Travelling etc.

Over the fields to Burley, chased some bloke up to Woodhead, back across fields. Nice.