Training Log Archive: Mark3

Way too hot for running, felt terrible whole way round.so did everyone else, though.

Wanted to do medium group intervals but disallowed by Chris due to race tomorrow (despite being 1000 years old he is pretty scary when angered) so a few of us went for what started off as a slow run for 6.7k - but we averaged 4:20ks and the last k was probably 3:40... Chris would not have been happy.

In future I will stick to the fast group :)

C • 1000 years old 5

2nd place behind Charlie Maclean (unsurprisingly! although it was his first ever offroad race, he still dominated everyone despite wearing road shoes)

2:12 faster than last year, although it was 420m shorter than last year - allowing for this still makes it 22 seconds faster, so that's okay :)

Won about £15 worth of those Nuun electrolyte tablet things which is pretty good since I will actually use those! Better than another voucher.

Seem to have won the Strava KOM as well which is surprising but I shall revel in while it lasts
https://www.strava.com/segments/7236984?filter=ove...

Not really feeling the 19k, 600m climb from yesterday as much as expected; I'm sure it will hit me at some point though...

Tough.

Thanks to Richard's recommendation, made the correct shoe choice (trainers) as most of the race was hard surfaces.

Found the first climb the most difficult and the leaders pulled away, then ran from Hailes to winchcombe pretty much alone. Map was useful getting the correct turning in winchcombe.

Didn't stop for a drink so gained a bit of time, caught one of the leaders who'd been dropped and a pair of Cheltenham harriers, putting me (unbeknownst) into 4th place.

After the Belas Knap hill, recaught by one of Cheltenham with no map and no idea so I showed him where all the turnings were. We were going a pretty good speed together and coming out of the woods up to the tithe barn we were catching 3rd.

Unfortunately I then let us both down by making two navigational errors:
(1) adding 2 extra gates and some hill by running around a farm rather than through it - it was signed CW alternative route and there were no signs for the main route! Only realised when it rejoined the main path on the other side.
(2) just after crossing the stream, following footpath signs rather than using the map and turning left rather than right, adding a extra stile and some more climb, until I realised the path showed no signs of going right eventually and we turned round.we'd been caught by 3ish people at this point which surprised me as I though we were well ahead.

I pointed Cheltenham in the right direction and he went for it on the last hill; we got away from the others but I couldn't stay with him, so I think we were 4th and 5th. Bit annoying as I think we'd have caught 3rd and been 3rd and 4th without the mistakes, but c'est la vie. It was a good race.

C • Good effort 7

Didn't think I'd have time to get here but managed to leave work early.

Reasonably straightforward course, managed to keep concentration high and only a few lapses-missed a narrow alleyway to 9, came out of 12 too far east.otherwise clean.

No problems with Richard's map (as expected)

First 4 ks were all around 4 mins each which is pretty good for orienteering; slowed down after that, partly more technical, partly tired.quite hot as well.

Looking forward to Cotswold way relay and cheddar 10k this weekend, but a bit upset can't fit in harvester as well! I'll miss the lack of orienteering.

Some not-quite-optimal route choices and one very long pause where I worked out the best way past an uncrossable thing, but otherwise pretty good. Felt like I was running really slowly but not too far off Adam's splits on most legs, so must have been okay.

Some good sprint-style legs which I was probably over-cautious on. Some mistakes in the school near the end where chose to run all the way around a building rather than slowing down to read the map more carefully, and then went to the outside rather than the inside of a fence at the last control.

Mainly good, though.
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move66931893#navig...

C • 39 minutes.... 2

Really felt the lack of interval training recently. Went for the 'sub 18 5k' group at the start (optimistically) and then bailed to the slower group.

[450m (60s), 300m (60s), 200m (3 mins)] * 6
With 450 changing to 400.

450s: 87, 85
400s: 73,75,77,74
300s: 54, 56,55,55,55,54
200s: 34,33,34,35,35,34

Times probably not as bad as they felt.very windy out.

Extremely suspicious climb figure - it was very windy which I suspect has messed with the air pressure somewhat.

Reasonable run, especially some legs, but a couple of mistakes.

Slightly lucky to #1 but rescued by the pond and relocated well. Very tentative to #2 but hit cleanly. Similar to 3 until could see it, then very fast. Similar to 4 really; lucky that line was really good. Safer route would have been to go around via the gate...possibly faster as well.

Leading at #4! Mainly through luck/caution.

Good route to 5 but got stuck in the gorse within sight of the control. Took safe route to 6 going round, hit perfectly but going straight looks like it was a whole minute faster...looking afterwards there are quite a lot of features to tick off on the straight line route so would have been better.

Lucky on 7. Good route to 8 (low) but missed way through gorse and had to backtrack. It was right to go around on 9 and 10.

No real plan on 12 cost time as going straight was made difficult by gorse, got pushed S to clearing and then misread rocks and ended up way too high. Then too far right on 13 and didn't pay enough attention to contours on 14 meant took wrong path.

15-18 pretty good, then too high for the crag before the finish.

No absolute disasters, but maybe 5 mins lost due to just not being accurate enough.

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move66558659#navig...

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move66558474#navig...

Checking out the worm with Richard after the o.

Some pretty good fun jumping around on rocks and trying not to get blown over the edge onto the seals.

Pretty good conditions so bit disappointed with time, not too bad though.

60m of climb in the first 3-4 mins didn't make for a fast time...

No chance of staying with Ben; couldn't pick up the pace after the hill. Catching someone all the way round but wasn't quite close enough by the line, had to settle for 4th. Given the winner was a junior, got the 3rd place beer prize though!

Nice course and a pleasant evening to run in the woods-shame about the hill....

1st /42
http://www.bristolorienteering.org.uk/sites/defaul...

Bit lucky to beat:
Tom - there was an unbroken circle over an uncrossable wall; I didn't try and go that way, but Tom did and lost 50s
Clive - missed a control
but I'll take the victory!

No real mistakes, some route choices could have been a bit better but generally didn't miss much.

One second behind last year's time... Not too shabby on very little sleep.

This was an amazing experience.

Paul and Tommi were both feeling nervous before the start, but I wasn't - I was just pessimistic. The training we'd done over the previous two days had been particularly difficult and had not filled me with confidence.

Based on previous years' results and the training days we'd decided that I would be in the mass start with 100% probability, leg 6 would be there too with 99%, leg 5 as well with around 90% and even leg 4 would be 50/50.

I set my alarm for 7am but was awake pretty much all night anyway... the rain started around 3am and didn't stop... it sounded torrential. I wasn't looking forward to going out.

As I was having some pre-run cereal our leg 6 runner Jouko rang me and said he was aiming to get to changover around 8.15. I knew I needed to be there for 8:35ish for the mass start at 9, so I confidently assured him he'd have loads of time.

As I left the tent I was reminded that rain on a tent sounds much worse than it actually is; no more than a light shower. Spirits lifted somewhat.

Met Tommi by the run-in who told me the news I'd missed - we were doing much better than expected! Not only was Jouko out running (luckily he'd got there earlier than he said as he left at 8:10) but after leg 5 we were in 687th place, a massive 921 places higher than we started (1608th)! Suddenly I felt a bit of pressure.

A mass start for leg 7 runners held less than 2 hours after the winning team had finished basically meant the vast majority of the teams were there. Being in a mass start with 1500 other people is unreal. It doesn't feel like orienteering. No-one is looking at the map, everyone is just trying to get into a better position. And that was probably my main error; trying to find the start triangle and orientate the map too early. In the first 500m I'd probably passed 1000 people by going pretty damn quick out of the start, but there was still 200m of run-out left and I slowed down, and was re-passed by quite a few. Won't be falling into that trap next year! Sprint to the triangle seems to be the tactic.

Then came the actual orienteering. If you could call it that, especially at the start. I was doing a bit of vague mapreading to keep in touch, but mainly just running and trying to pass people where possible in the train. Thanks to my fairly quick start I was "on" a fairly speedy train for the first few controls. Number 2 I got off too early thinking the train was too far right and assuming I was on the wrong one - it wasn't; I was too far left; some time lost, but main problem was losing positions in the train - much easier to lose than to regain. I learnt from this - number 3 I stayed on the train and was rewarded. Then number 4 was a very long leg - maybe 1.5km - and I had no idea where we were for the entire first half of that. It is pretty disconcerting to have no idea at all where you are for 750m, just knowing that there are both people in front of, and behind you, probably hundreds, and trusting that someone ahead is going the right way! Then we went over a footbridge and I worked out where we were; still pretty lucky to find the control though. Similarly to number 5; perfect straight line and hit the control, but doubtful would've been able to do that without the train.

Number 6 was my biggest mistake, was in the right train but not confident enough. Found another few controls and relocated off number 7 (I was actually expecting it to be number 7, and they weren't that far apart, so not altogether terrible. The problem was by the time I'd got 6 and been back to 7 again (one of my best splits as I'd been there before, still 23 secs down on split winner), my train had left. Bummer. I was on my own.

Another very long leg, tried to go more or less straight, not really sure where I was until halfway-ish until relocated on a ride in roughly the right place - result! Picked up the pace as followed the ride, overtook a couple of people although still suspiciously quiet. Then found the edge of a taped area and assumed I knew where I was; followed the tape to the track...hmm; track is at the wrong angle. Oh dear. Relocated on drinks station! Turned out there were two taped areas, but they were 500m apart! The ride had forked and I'd taken the wrong fork while being busy overtaking. I hadn't actually taken a terrible route overall, but I was lucky to have such an obvious feature to relocate on. By the time I reached the control there was a train there - although an annoyingly slower one to the one I'd been on a few controls ago, so held up a bit through the next few controls.

Bit of a wobble on 15 but I knew something was wrong and relocated well. Then another long leg to 16, navigated a bit as the train was starting to spread out, and picked up some places, same through 17/18/19; knew exactly where I was and starting to feel confident. From 20 to the finish, ignored the trains as much as possible and picked my own routes; often the same as the trains but felt I was in control and able to cut corners and make up places. I suspect this was only possible because the pace of the trains was slower and so I had time to make the decisions.

So pretty good overall - there's definitely a balance to be had between navigating autonomously and sticking with everyone else, and I think the ideal balance changes throughout the course of the race. I was trying to do too much on my own near the beginning, but that was definitely the way to go later on.

Only one getting-lost mistake and one route choice mistake, and only 36 minutes down on Thierry over 17k running distance - I will take that. Feeling proud of myself, and especially proud of the whole team:

Paul gained 463 places
Tommi gained 67
Mark gained 221
Clare lost 2
Antii gained 172 (coming 297th on his leg, best performance in our team!)
Jouko lost 189
I gained 110, coming 386th

Our final position was 766th out of the 1779 that started. We can definitely be happy with that - and starting in 766th place next year will definitely give us a chance of coming even higher up next year.

Watching Venla,etc.lots of walking around!

Technique practice.getting into it a bit more.

Swim in the lake (vähä-parikas) before cooking sausages in a grill-shelter over a proper fire-excellent.apparently this is a traditional Finnish thing to do!

Brrrrrrr

Although warmed up after swimming for a while!

Not good.

Struggled a lot with pretty much all the controls...not really runnable and quite rocky everywhere.quickest bit to run on is the bare rock.biggest mistakes caused by assuming things would be obvious when they weren't!

It's going to be a long Sunday morning...

C • Good luck 1

Pretty windy tonight unfortunately...

10k PB,woop!

Bit windy but otherwise good conditions, and a very quick course.Went through 5k on target (18:30) and then 18:45 for the next 5k is pretty good.

3.40
3.45
3.47
3.44
3.44
3.43
3.49
3.50
3.51
3.26

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move65288452

As my good deed for the day...(year...) paced some guy in my club to 50 mins, entirely successfully.

It was weird starting in the middle somewhere and it being busy for ages! Kind of the the Bristol 10k but at a slower pace.

Lovely evening for running and a great course.definitely tempted to race it properly next year.

Happy with this; seem to have made fewer mistakes than others; closer to James than yesterday and some good margins over some notables

+120 James
-60s Clive
-90s Tom
-210s Richard Barrett/Paul

Richard in particular lost loads of time on #4 and #15; 4 understandable since there wasn't a lot of time to plan that (I stopped for about 10s after 3 and got annoyed with myself for doing it, but looks to have been the best tactic!) but 15 there was lots of planning time so don't know what happened there.

Few times where I missed junctions or undershot a bit, 10s here and there, need to work on keeping concentration up on the longer legs rather than planning ahead too much.

http://www.wim.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#54&cours...

Route choice on #20 could have been better, didn't realise quite how far S I was pulled looking for a gap in the hedge.

Feel like I know Poole pretty well now!
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move64881923#navig...

Course didn't require as much concentration as Great Hollands last week but it was nice to have a 1:4k map again. Had an identical multi-level control to 2013 so had a little bit of an advantage there.

No big mistakes. Missed an alleyway on the butterfly +15s maybe, then a few hesitations.

ANNOYANCE: there was a level crossing on the map right next to the main shopping place with a bridge next to it; quite narrow. When I got to this the barriers were down, so I had to go up and over the bridge. There were crowds of people gathered to watch the train; children etc. It was maybe +60s compared to if I'd have got there with no train.

Now I think that's unfair, so I mentioned it at download (not in a complainy sort of way, just "in my opinion that wasn't very good" kind of way). The official (? don't know their role) was pretty defensive and said that because it was clearly a level crossing, I should have taken account of the fact that there might be a train when planning my route.

TBH I think that's a bit ridiculous if they don't mention it before the race. The guy was like "well it's just like crossing a road", but I don't agree. After all, being picky, the barriers aren't on the map, and therefore for the purposes of the competition aren't actually there, so it seems unreasonable for an unmapped uncrossable feature to be there for some competitors but not for others...

Anyway - rant over. I'm interested as to how many people agree/disagree, though?

Didn't affect my position and managed to beat Tom, so all good :) its just the principle...

James well ahead as expected.

C • Level Crossing 5

Unless you count crazy golf this evening

Must remember to wear headbands now it's summer - unpleasant sweat in my eyes for most of the race!

I was determined to beat the first woman (she had grey hair for goodness sake) but she was too good up the hill and opened up a massive gap.I was catching her on the downhill but far too slowly! She was very impressive.hopefully I'll look her up and find she's one of the best runners in the country for her age...

Aside from the uphill parts (ie, most of it) felt like I was running ok.

EDIT: actually pretty pleased now I've seen that only 90s behind Matt burns who won; thought it would be far more than that

Running pretty good, orienteering pretty badly.into 2 far too early and then imagined lots of earthbanks.bit of time loss on 3 as well while I checked every single wall corner.Matt caught me up at 4 and I followed him to 5, then 6 easy.overtook him on the long run to 7 and gained 25 secs or so, which I promptly lost again on 8.ahead again on 9 as came out of northernmost gate, but then got stuck in some woods to 11.together to 12, then went W to 13 and got ahead again.crossed wall just N of the uncrossable bit and so gained some more time to finish, but nowhere near enough to make up for that lost on 2 and 3.

ISSOM map doesn't really work at this scale; you can only see that there is a way through between the mansion and the wall (up some steps) with a magnifying glass.

Not done any intervals for ages and since I missed the track session yesterday thought I'd try the Tuesday one on grass.

5 x 1200m

4:06, 4:08, 4:11, 4:11, 4:19

First one a bit quick; last one a lot slow. It was as windy as yesterday but not raining; felt tough although 5 reps was manageable.

Didn't fancy going outside; could have dealt with cold wind or rain singly, but not both.

The aim is to do tomorrow session instead...