Training Log Archive: Mark3

Wanted to go for a run but too much admin getting in the way - haircut, mortgage appointment, trying to sort my falling-apart CWR team, interview prep, sorting money owed from various trips, choosing an OMM prize etc etc... Don't even think I'll be able to make event tomorrow, which is a bit of a shame as looking at the map from previously, it's a good one. Sigh. #firstworldproblems

Touristing and traveling. Saw world's biggest geothermal spring and failed to find a crater. First ride with Uber. Big fan.

Light rain overnight resulted in a pretty wet tent which made it heavier, but we'd eaten so much food that weight was about the same.

[kit review]
- The jetboil zip was amazing. Boiled water in no time at all and used barely any gas. 100g easily enough for a 2 day MM. Excellent purchase.
- Taking a zippo was much better than a disposable lighter
- I probably had too much food and it was too inconvenient - I think I'll dismiss the homemade flapjack in future and have cereal bars instead
- I just had the two meals, and flapjack for breakfast. This was fine, although maybe would have wanted the hot meal had it been cold
- Chewing gum would have been more effective than the tooth wipes
[/kit review]

Set off with a few options. After a straightforward first control, decided we had time for one of two controls - decided against the (extremely steep scree slope for 500m) first one as too energy inefficient. Then all the controls were straightforward really, we had done (ahem) the hard navigation the previous day, so we just had to keep going. We'd decided that to go for the one extra control we'd need more than 50 minutes left at the preceding one - we thought it would take an extra hour but it was worth being 10 minutes late - and we had 47 minutes. We decided it was better to be early and to risk it.

We won...on time. So only just. We scored 10 points more on day 2 but were 28 minutes early...2nd place were 22 minutes behind overall on the same score overall having got 10 points more on day 1.

So we'd done enough to win - but it would have been far more comfortable without the navigation errors on day 1! Still - that's only my second time with a 1:40k map (and 25m contours!) so it wasn't too bad.

Results: https://www.theomm.com/omm-iceland-2016-2/

Tom (my partner from my running club) has been doing lots of training (he even gave up drinking, bless him) and he can keep pace with me on the road, but he's not as fast over the rough terrain (see link yesterday). He promises to continue training for the Saunders next month!

Well deserved trip to the Blue Lagoon afterwards. Legs felt like new afterwards - great post-race treat.

I would definitely recommend this race! Small field, no trophy...but still £50 prize each, and the opportunity to run across terrain like nothing I've seen before.

Not as hard as the regular OMM - I think it was the fact that it was a score class that means you don't push yourself as much because you just omit a control rather than taking a risk - and nowhere near as hard as Transylvania.

Wow - Iceland is great.

Interesting format - map provided 30 mins in advance and has all controls on for both days - controls can only be scored once, so you need to have an overall plan...

After using an old Dartmoor map to practice at the airport, and coming up with strategies, we calibrated a piece of string with 5k intervals for a 1:40k map and decided we'd aim for about 30k in 5 hours, and 25k in 4 hours. Then we would plan our route for the second day first, then ignore all those controls and get the most points we could on the first day subject to that.

This worked extremely well - better than I'd hoped.

What let us down was my pretty-poor navigation on the second control of the day, in the mist... visibility wasn't great; we'd just found a pretty hard control on a ridge "rocky outcrop on ridge" - not rocks not on map - only contours - made finding said rocks tricky. Luckily they were enormous. Then we were unable to find "top of gully on ridge" (note that neither the ridge nor the gully were actually on the map). We came to the conclusion that we'd been too high up - which looking at the GPS afterwards was technically true - although we'd been >500m too far up slope, and the large flat area on the map was not the large flat area I had thought it was... this meant I wasn't confident enough in our position to risk the next control in the mist either, so made the decision to ignore those two. Retrospectively we were where I thought we were, so lost out on some possible points.

Next few controls straightforward and got us some confidence back. Then one on "northern shoulder" but which was marked on the eastern shoulder on the map - again, in the mist, we decided not to waste time looking for it.

Then another easy control before 2k straight line across a lava field - think this for 2k - which destroyed Tom mentally - then a few more straightforward controls before coming in 5 mins early for the overnight camp.

Result - 240 points; joint 3rd (two teams on 250, two on 240).

Other than missing those controls, we had judged our distance/time pretty much perfectly. We were a bit lucky in this - we could have gone much further in easier terrain; but some of the paths weren't as easy as we imagined, and these factors pretty much cancelled out.

We were disappointed as we knew we'd been far enough to be 90 points higher - and we'd chatted to other teams and knew that they hadn't! I can only really blame 30 of these on the map quality - 60 of them are due to me, which was frustrating. However - we knew that our plan was good, and we hoped that other teams had "used up" the easier controls near the Start/Day 2 Finish and then we could recover ourselves on day 2...

Incl. warm up and down.

Managed to snatch Daryl's CR but will only last until he has another go I suspect...

Felt tough. Certainly don't feel in marathon-running shape; but then I didn't last time, either, and that went ok!

C • Stoke Gifford 4

'My' orienteering event in Stoke Gifford.

It was going well until I was attaching the fourth control of the day to a lamppost outside someone's house, and she accused me of 'encouraging people to run next to her house' and went off to ring the council. This is ludicrously comical afterwards but was an incredibly stressful argument at the time. 'With all the other things going on in my life right now, I don't need this!'. Quite - me neither.

Other than Tim Sands' (I think) campervan getting stuck in the car park due to the mysterious addition of a height restriction barrier (his wife was NOT happy) and Gwen parking her car in the ditch (the AA refused to rescue it because 'it wasn't broken down')...and somehow managing to have control 10 and 11 in the same place in the Green (thanks for spotting this Richard - the previous 5 people who saw the courses didn't!)...and getting 111 and 117 the wrong way around and not being able to change them back because the gripple key got stuck in a gripple...everything went fine.

Massive thanks to Clare and Tommi for personing the road crossing, Paul and Ben for collecting controls, and Phil for doing every job I asked him to (the event would not have happened were it not for you).

This was an extremely stressful experience and I'm not going to be doing it again any time soon! Planning was good though - and feedback on the courses was generally positive - so might have another go at that. But organising is not for me!

Packing for OMM

New pyramid session; 400,600,800,1k,1.2k,1k,800,600,400.

Felt tired for some reason so this was a bit of a struggle, but persevered until the end!

400s: 80, 77
600s: 2:03, 2:03
800s: 2:49, 2:49
1ks: 3:33, 3:36
1200s: 4:20

Under the circumstances, not bad - not fast, but consistent.

4th/116 starters in Transylvania. I am pleased with me.

C • Rest day? 3

Jumps right in at #1 for hardest things I've ever done. Sorry, OMM!

The Romanians know what they're talking about when they say 'technical descent'. More when I'm not falling asleep.

About 6th.

EDIT:
Should probably get around to writing something here for future reference before I forget it. But three weeks after is not an ideal time!

4th/116
http://www.transylvania100k.com/#!2016/myjwh

Set off at what I thought was a pretty quick pace based on knowledge of what was to come, (about 4:20s) but the leading group of about 5-6, with Jack in it, were running about 4s and soon disappeared into the distance.
Kept running, mostly on my own but trading places with a couple of people, until we left the main path and joined a forest path, and then a bit further until it got too steep.

At that point I was thinking 'this is tough, but it's not as steep as the Blorenge'. Then - it became steeper than the Blorenge. And that went on for a really long time! So it was mostly walking uphill through trees... until we emerged at 8k so...well, up a mountain! With snow in the reentrants and glorious views. There was some contouring which was possible to run with care needed not to fall off the snowy bits. Then another climb up to a strange snowy shelter, and then it began to misty...and then there was a bit of a snowy downhill...and I began to regain some ground and passed some people, and then I started to pass people on the 50k and 100k who'd started 2 hours before, and it became hard to know who was on which race.

There was a technical, steep descent through some trees into the checkpoint; at this point it wasn't clear where to go, people kept pointing me toward to the food, but I just wanted the route! I should have remembered the route better - I thought that the courses separated here, but they didn't; they all went the same way. So lost about a minute in the confusion.

There was a bit more rocky uphill, where I managed to impress lots of people on the 50/100 by running bits of (not sure why they were impressed, they were going so much further!) - and then the course turned into this snowy wall which looked impossible from afar - it was the sort of this experts ski down - but when we got closer there was a rope to pull yourself up. There was maybe 500m of this? It was tough. Looking at Strava flyby, Jack was about 6 mins ahead of me when we got to the top of this. Obviously I had no idea; it could have been half an hour.

This point was about halfway in distance; I thought that the last 15k would be easy because it was all downhill. I had not considered that 2300m of up also means 2300m of down, and that is a lot of down.

It started of through varying depths of steep snow, which was hard to run fast in because the depth would suddenly change. Then there was some heathery grassy stuff which was nice to run on as long as you avoided the rocks. Then it became steeper and steeper until it genuinely became not a race and just a mission to get down safely. It was seriously precipitous and very dangerous. I actually feared for my life on several occasions and after a fall where a bashed my knee on a rock quite badly, I started taking this very very slowly. I'd caught a bit on Jack on the first bit of down, down to 4 mins, but after this steep bit the gap was back to 6 mins again.

Then - finally - it levelled out a bit as we got into the forest and became a bit more of an orienteer's dream - technical but nowhere near as steep, meaning I could go pretty quick. Didn't stop at the next checkpoint as wanted to keep up momentum.

Then after 23k or so - overtook Jack - was not expecting this! He was really struggling to run downhill after a knee injury. Felt really sorry for him because he's much better than me. But it made me think I wasn't doing as badly as I thought I was. So that inspired me to push a bit harder.

Psychologically this was really tough because I'd mentally budgeted for between 3 and 4 hours, so maybe 3.5. But it was already nearly 4 when I overtook Jack, so I really needed that.

I can't remember when I had my first two gels, but I needed the third one at 4 hours 15. Managed to pull out a few 4min ks on the section very near the end (downhill, road) but was dead for the unexpected undulations afterward.

Amazed to come 4th. Amazing views, very hard work but very rewarding. Would I do it again? I don't know. I'd definitely do something similar...

Need I say more?!

Bit disapointed; same time as best 2015 time and 7 seconds slower than 2014 time. Very good running conditions.

Mile times about 5:44 and 6:00.

2x(3x450m),5x300m,10x150m

450s: 89,90,90,91,89,89
300s: 56,58,58,57,56
150s: 26,27,26,27,26,27,26,28,26,26

Can see the dip in performance from having no track sessions for 2 weeks. Bit windy but not overly.

EDIT: 6th/87
http://islwynrunningclub.org.uk/documents/Sirhowy%...

I think this went quite well although don't know place yet; top 10 I think.

Mostly on hard surfaces, with one fun bit through the trees. Some pretty steep downhill on concrete and tarmac which were pretty unpleasant. In a mini race with two other guys who were overtaking me up the hills, but my pace downhill was too much for them and I ended up quite a long way ahead. It almost seemed like there was more downhill than uphill in this race!

Trail shoes a sensible choice, though would've been doable in trainers.

Tried a new gel with both salt and sugar in it. This was unnecessary today as it wasn't that hot or that far or that hilly, but wanted to test it out. Purported to be 'lemon and mint' - more accurately 'lemon and salt'.It was much less nice than the regular ones.however, if it works, it's not unbearable. Will only use them when it's really hot, or maybe if I'm taking three gels, the salt one will be the third one...

Woop - 5k pb (for the UK)

2nd -
http://www.parkrun.org.uk/blandford/results/weekly...

Out and back, wide course along a railway path - hence pretty flat, with a couple of minor slopes.

Paced pretty well: 3:37,37,35,47(hill is here),30

Great to be back under 18 finally.

http://www.wimborne-orienteers.org.uk/16%20Club%20...

1st /40 - it's been a good day! Admittedly not that much competition, and reasonably straightforward courses - but this meant that any mistakes were punished pretty heavily.
A few hesitations in the first race and overshot a few controls by a few metres, but didn't do a lot wrong in the first race.second race didn't do anything wrong.

Too windy for me to do well unfortunately.coped with the heat well, though.

3:37,47,46,40,45,4:05(!),3:51,39

12th/282
http://www.westonac.co.uk/results/2016/33rd_Prom_M...

Decided to do this rather than Bitton as will do Weston Prom tomorrow.

Nowhere near as bad as last event here - the map still has issues in places, but all the controls were in the right place this time.

2 main losses; +1min on #3, control was on an unmapped path which was so major I assumed it must be the mapped path. And +90s #14, picked the darker green rather than the lighter green side to climb the hill (why?!) and got pushed over to the crag; ended up climbing up in the steepest place - it was a hands and knees job.

Otherwise good, and splits other than those were within a few secs of Phil. Still 7 minutes behind Ben, but what can you do...

C • Why? 1

Gentle jog with Daryl.

Haven't decided whether to do Bitton 5k or the o tomorrow yet.
Will have a look at the map of penpole in a bit to refresh my memory...

C • Penpole 1

It was a bit raining. Also my knee was a bit sore.

Regretted not going to track until about 8:15pm where it suddenly became a lot raining and I was glad to be indoors.

http://www.mid-wales-orienteers.org.uk/results-arc...

7th/15

Dire. Should have come 4th. Ran off the map and lost 10 minutes! Literally.
Not only that but ran right past the control, but ignored it because it was 300m away from where I thought it was going to be. Looking at Garmin I ran an extra 1.4km+. This was not my finest hour. Basically caused by mistaking one set of big rocks for another set of big rocks. But the large, obvious path I was on, next to the rocks, is not on the map. I didn't really get on with the map in general - but that does not excuse my rubbishness.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1159369...

Rest of the course - I have some good splits and some bad ones, but tbh it was all a bit eclipsed by the above.

Getting pretty hot out there - 28 degrees at one point.

PB by 10 secs or so on this course so pretty happy with this - did not feel good at any point, though; I think longer distances are just more my thing.
Very good conditions. 2nd behind some 14ish year old.

Note on shoe selection: I have now come full circle - my first pair of proper running shoes were the original Adios. After two successful pairs of those I fell under the spell of believing that shoes were magic - and tried inov8, saucony, asics, mizuno, nike... but it's good to be back wearing the Adios :)

First race entering as MDC!
http://pontypoolrunners.co.uk/Steam%20Bunny%20Stom...

Parkrun not the best prep. Quads full of lactic after about 100m. Walked up hills I'd normally have run up (at the start; later I'd have been walking anyway). It was hot and sunny. Felt bad most of the first half. Lunch at 10am (4 hours before!) is still not a big enough gap.

Tbh didn't think it was a great race; nothing like as scenic as a race in the Beacons. And it was very badly signed (I know it was a fell race, but if the map you distribute is just black and white google maps, you need good signs). Also we were told to take our own lines...but not the locations of the checkpoints or even how many there were. I only didn't get lost by just following the people around me. Ended up coming 4th as 2nd got lost. Clare ran an extra 2km. When I left there was still at least one person out there somewhere (and this is after the sweeper was back). I don't think this is a race to do again unless they sort themselves out.

My app worked!! I'm a proper developer now.

C • Lost Runners & Markers 1

More ice and stretching, etc

I have successfully* finished writing an app for my Garmin which will calculate and display the change in altitude between a set point and where you are now. In theory this can help you contour in mountain marathons where altimeters are allowed.

In practice I had this feature on my Suunto and it wasn't particularly helpful - but it could have been, in the fog or something.
Plus it was a good exercise in coding... and patience...

*okay so it may not work yet; I need to test it on a hill - but it doesn't break the watch, and that's a success in itself!

11th/116 - http://www.tach.org.uk/s/Wrington-Woodland-2016-co...

About 30s faster than last year - hooray!

Very dry conditions meant trainers were definitely the right choice. Several steps were very muddy but less than 1% of the course.

B&W came 3rd team behind Weston and Southville.

Stayed ahead of Clare Prosser... Just. It felt very strange to be pushing hard for the whole race; massive contrast to the marathon.

Good course, especially the last km downhill through the woods at the end.

Knee felt fine, but will keep icing and exercising just to make sure.

2nd/60.

http://www.bristolorienteering.org.uk/sites/defaul...

About 50s down on Matt Whipple...But he did plan here last year. But still - even with a perfect run I only lost 30s or so in total looking at splits, so fair play to him, he's running well. I actually had a really good run myself so pretty happy. Courses very well planned.

Good to beat Geoff - he was 30s up and then had one disaster and lost 2mins on #9. I'm sympathetic because it's usually me that this happens to... Since I started 90s down, I caught him here, and I was quick enough to stay with him/slightly ahead and get away from him with a better route choice. He caught me back up on the penulttime control - but I got past him again up the hill (not my strong suit). So that was really good, and it was great to have some head-to-head racing and not go totally to pieces - good relay practice!

No knee pain which was a massive surprise!

I think I must have stopped gps at some point during the run by mistake, so no idea how far I ran. Looks like it happened in the trees I unwisely cut through; probably got pressed by a branch or something.

Including:
Foam rolling side and front of quads
Quad stretches
Theraband-leg raises and clamshell
10 knee bends (door)
15s thigh contractions (chair)
10 straight leg raises (chair)
15s hamstring stretch (chair)
15s itb stretch
10 squats
5 single leg squats
5 wide stance single leg squats
5 lunges

All that stuff will be *3 in future now I've learnt them.

NHS choices tells me my knee will be indestructible in a fortnight.

I may be paraphrasing.

Also plank + skisit as normal

Very very slow run to see if knee hurt. It did. Not much, but it definitely felt like it would get worse. Best to be safe I think.

Ice.

http://chiptiming.co.uk/results/?sport=1&year=...

2nd. Although a couple of people must've either got lost or dropped out? I thought I was going to be 4th.

Course possibly a bit short? Hard to say with GPS gps inaccuracy - I measured it as about 1k off, which sounded a lot at first - but a few hundred metres off over 10k would be pretty reasonable, so actually it might be fine. Either way, an extra k would take me to more or less exactly 3:15, which was my target anyway, so meh.

Turns out marathons are hard. Found the last 6 miles really brutal. Would've been better in road shoes I think as its been so dry.

Only 3 gels and I think that was ok. 1:15,2:00 and 2:35.

Tropical and pink grapefruit both nice. Cola not so good. Blackcurrant, Apple and orange the worst I think.Still got lemonlime, berry and pineapple to try.double espresso was amazing but tastes more like a dessert than a gel. /gelanalysis

Scenic course for 11 miles, then up onto salisbury plain for 15 miles of monotony. Alone for the whole thing, overtaking walkers who started throughout the early morning.some gates and roads and things, but not many.

I suspect I could get the 3:05 London qualifying time on a flat road course - but do I want to go through that again? It was not fun.

Knee is pretty sore, right, centre, just above knee cap.Will do ice and stretching.