Training Log Archive: Forest Demon

For whatever reason, I felt utterly atrocious. Felt like I was going to be sick the entire way around, and could barely get moving. Whether it was the heat/being ill/tiredness, whatever it was, I was shite.

Very little else to say about the race. Not very hard technically, and apart from a daft mistake at 4 when I crossed over the ditch without realising it, and continued down the hill, no errors either. Just felt awful, and dropped the team 2 places. Oops - so much for anchor leg.

So, the British Championships. Not actually much orienteering involved, in hindsight - sure, there was some routechoice, but nothing too complex. Not really ill anymore, but feeling tired in general.

1- Ran off up the hill in general direction of the control, past the cliff, hit small path, dropped down to control. Easy.
2- Headed Eastish to the edge of the hill, along the edge till the massive thicket appeared
3- Contoured round the hill, could see it from a mile off
4- Having done alright so far I immediately rectified that with a 90 degree error out the control... oops. Should've checked my compass better, though I realised fairly soon. "Why is there a hill to my left and flat ground ahead when I should be going down a hill to a path?...."
5- Bombed down the hill on an unmarked extraction lane, and popped out at the building. In my genius, I chose the eastern road junction, because it was directly south to the control from it, though involved crashing through plenty of veg. Ofc, it was slower going than running along the lines of trees from the other junction directly to the control. Slight lack of thinking there, still hung up after 4's derp
6- Just after 5, Olly came past, so there was 3 minutes gone. No way I could keep up with him, especially on the paths. Chose the Southern most light green to run up near 6, looked far easier to get up than the earlier route.
7- Crashing down the narrow ride from 6, could hear a fast person breathing down on me, popped out onto the road, and there was Aidan coming by - 6 minutes gone, and only 4km in. Followed the large train of people into the control, catching up Craig 15 minutes in the process.
8- First long leg, not that there was much thought needed for the route. Mark was apparently just ahead somehow, according to Craig, verified by Rona going in the other direction. Long dull run out to the drinks point, followed by being too far right to the control - distracted by a whole host of others heading towards 9, and not thinking properly about my direction from the large crags
9- Though the others had gone high, I didn't fancy a slog through the heather, and dropped down the hill on a sheep track heading for the woods. Up the hill past the boulders, round the hill and into the re-entrant. Slightly too high, so had to drop down, but it was probably the best place to spot it.
10- Up the gully, up and over the bend, simples
11- Bombed it down the hill, somehow managed a fastest split
12- Easy leg, dropping a little height to the giant crag in the ride
13- Looked ahead earlier at this leg, and already had a plan for it. Didn't fancy the hill climb on the south route, especially not with tired legs. North route may have had a little more climb overall, but looked to be a lot nicer in spreading it out. Dropped down to the field, and along the path. However, path legs are not my forte, so rather slow
14- Spotted Ciaran leaving 13, so hooned it after him. Wanted to at least catch up *someone*
15/16/17/18- With the end in sight, cheered up and sped up a bit, especially since the control pick section was actually pretty fun.
19- Trash across the hillside to the stump, could spot it a mile off
20/F- Simples

So an okay run technically, a few wobbles and daft mistakes, but nothing very major. Only downside was speed - not fast enough, though some of that will have been from being ill past few weeks. Long gap to the podium though.

Travelling to the British Championships.

3x Hip flexor exercises
10+10 Monster band walks
2 lengths Walking lunge
6+6 Single leg box squat
10x Goblet Squats (6kg)
2 lengths Spiderman crawls
Broomstick exercises + 10 overhead squats with broom

3x8 Overhead squats (20kg, 25kg, 30kg)
3x8 Overhead press (20kg, 22.5kg, 25kg)
3x8 Reverse lunge (30kg, 35kg, 40kg)

3x3 Tuck jumps
3x6 Split squat jump
6x Box step-off into long jump
3x(3x4) Lo hurdle jumps
10x Dot track
2x5 TRX row (feet on box)
2x6 Roll outs

Stretch and roll

Was gonna do something longer, but my knee was feeling a bit sore for whatever reason, so did short run and stretched it out.

Jog around short circuit. Throat felt still a little tight, probably from all the coughing/constricted breathing fun times.

3x Hip flexor exercises
2 Lengths walking lunge
6+6 Single leg squat
10x Goblet Squats (6kg)
Broomstick exercises + 10 overhead squats with broom

3x8 Overhead squats (20kg, 25kg, 25kg)
3x8 Overhead press (20kg, 22.5kg, 22.5kg)
3x8 Reverse lunge (20kg, 20kg, 30kg)
Given abuse about being too light - probably should increase weight a little more.

9x Tuck jumps
12x Split squat jump
4x Lo hurdle into long jump
3x(3x4) Lo hurdle jumps
3x4 Dot jumps
2x5 TRX row (feet on box)

Stretch and roll

Should have done some intervals in the afternoon/evening, but feeling lazy and it was also the Blues and Colours awards, and I got a Half-blue, hooray!

What is less hooray is sitting at home with mild anaphylactic shock due to some unlabelled sneaky walnut bread at the fancy dinner, but hey, you win some, you lose some.