Training Log Archive: Psuba

Concorde Chase, Hawley and Hornley, Black.

My first time ever running Black course, and as I need to increase distances in general as part of the Marathon preparation ( https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Peter-Suba ) I also decided that this should not just be the distance but I was actually going to push all the way.

15th / 26 - http://race-results.info/2017/20170129conc/?page=c...

Which, given most of the people ahead of me, is not actually that bad, also considering the time loss as opposed to how much people behind lost, again is not that bad.

I haven't made any huge errors which I think is mostly due to being able to properly concentrate most of the way through. There were a few wobbles but they were fairly quickly corrected which is good confidence boost because as I was pushing the pace I could have been prone to making stupid huge mistakes. Those smaller mistakes still cost though on some of the leg, particularly:
2 - After making it up to the top of the hill open area, I came out a bit to the left of the junction I wanted and started to run on a track that I thought was the one under the line. Instead, this was the one curving to the left of it, and although I noticed but I decided to just go with it as it was too late to turn back or cut across the rough. Still, overall this cost me about 50s
7 - I wanted to use the path across the rough open but wasn't sure how clear it will be, so I ran on what I thought was possibly the path but ended up an indistinct bit of path running on the edge of the vegetation boundary, I have followed this for about halfway before the path actually was in the view and I switched, but not before losing some time here due to the slow going. About 20s I would say.
10 - I wasn't clean through the woods as I was weaving my way through between the green patches so this was longer than it should have been, only to then get stuck through the barbed wire fence - it was mapped as crossable, and it was, but it did take me serious seconds! 20s
11 - I did not notice the path on the map through the green so decided to run around it to the south (perhaps the planner could have made a gap in the line to make it clearer?), lost about 20s
12 - Somehow needed a mental break as I crossed the road so had to whip myself into action, it would have felt somehow good to just walk here. Not sure why??? Lost a few seconds but it's just hesitation as I read the vegetation properly.
15 - no mistakes and yet somehow lost quite a bit on this leg to the best times. I can only put this down to being slow through the rough!
16 - same here, I suddenly noticed someone popping out in front whom I have left behind coming out of 14 who was still looking confused there, so obviously made up all his deficit and coming through. I think that kinds shaken me up a bit and I started to push. Nevertheless made a small mistake out of 16 going down onto the road only to climb with the road straight after - should have contoured out instead even if that was a few seconds lost.
18 - This was a suspicious control to me. I ran on bearing and ended up wy too far to the NE of the control. There was a hide and a platform there which were not mapped. I hesitated quite a bit even though I contoured towards SW but stopped as I did not want to go too far. As it turns out I stopped about 1m before the point from where I could actually see the control and eventually got it. I have a slight suspicion that either the pit, in reality, is a bit further SW than mapped, or the control was misplaced to the pit to the SW of the one marked. Obviously could not check there and then, and the learning (again!) for me is to NOT stop, but keep running until I bounce back from something obvious, as this would have saved me about 40s here and losing the tail of the guy that just ran past me earlier.
20 - I suspect suboptimal route choice here so I lost about 20s
21 - An odd one this, as I have lost almost a minute on this leg but I have actually pushed quite hard. I suspect this was a combination of a.) hesitating out of the control and b.) running a stupid route as there were quite a few options here.
23 - Just overshot and bounced back from the road, in fact, this was a good example of how to lose LESS time which I did not do on 18, but I did here, bouncing back from the road only cost me about 20s.
25 - a compass bearing mistake, to be honest, I was only taking a rough bearing and should have noticed when I jumped across the stream that I should not have. Corrected myself eventually, but really really suboptimal route this way and about 40s
26 - again a large time loss and I suspect this was a route choice mistake, as most of the leg I was running through the forest and not around on a road. 1m lost but considering I was slower let's put this down for 20s. I was also on this leg consuming my gel which I should have done earlier but it seems I was enjoying the navigational challenges so much that I have forgotten about it before!
32 - was the last long leg and I think tiredness has shown here a bit. I once again have gone across the rough open (there wasn't much choice other than a bit detour that maybe I should have, in fact, considered!). More importantly, I almost climbed a small hill I did not need to, turned back on the road and had a thorny branch stripping me of my headband! I took it back but this small detour still cost about 20s.
34 and I suspect the green on the hillside wasn't quite well mapped or at least wasn't looking the way I expected so had to backtrack a few times before I was able to cut across to the road, so lost about 40s here!

The rest was fairly OK, but this still adds up to over 5mins worth of navigational errors, which I think is not a catastrophe over this distance even if it would be fantastic to be error free once. The rest is down to running speed and mostly speed over undergrowth which is something I need to work on.