Training Log Archive: Psuba

The JK, day 3, M40L

Kilnsey dale - windy and hailstorm in the 3rd 3/4 of the way through.
This was going to be the physical day and it was, but still technical enough in most places.

12th like yesterday, surprisingly as it felt like the mistakes I made were less justified than yesterday, and in general this was more of a runners course which, although made a lot of improvement since last year, still not my forte.

Control 2 - really annoying as I was on top of the rock face, looked down and could not see the control. Then ran down and ran left then right before returning to find the control bang on where I looked for it in the first place. lost 1:10 but annoyed as it felt this was hidden which it should not have been.
3 - couldn't get past the previous time loss so took it more careful than should have, like yesterday should have simplified the map and ran down the reentrant until the cliff, instead navigated all the way - 20s
4 - no problem finding this, but just like #2 it was tight to the cliff so had the climb down to see it.
5 - and one more like it. I was on top of this again, looking down and could not see it. I looked around and was convinced I was in the right place, so climbed down, and the control was there. 20s
Francis S (F from now on) who started ahead of me by 1m caught me up here (yes, I have got ahead somehow despite the mishap with the cliffs), and from here we kept overtaking each other as one or another of us made a small mistake until my big mistake at #16
8 - stupid me. Climbed on the hilltop from 7, looked ahead and aimed to the left of the rock field... Only the wrong one. So rounded the next hill from the left (realised my mistake once I was next to the cliffs so no confusion only lost time due to extra distance), losing about 1m. Lost all my advantage to F at this point who now ran ahead of me until after #11
#14 - A little switch as I was bogged down in the parallel reentrants prior to the one our control was in, wasting about 45s, enough for F to get ahead as he obviously had more clue than I did on the exact reentrant needed.
16 - the biggest mistake I have made. The hailstorm caught me at this point which did knock off my concentration, just wanted to finish and of course I ran past the control then suddenly having no clue where I was exactly. Wondered around for about 4 minutes before finding the control.

So, sum of about 7:30+ mistakes.

Clearly my iRocks are a half size too big, sliding about and so ended up with blisters despite the taping.

C • Controls on crags 2

Th JK, day 2, M40L.

Very middle distance feeling course (of course longer).
Great detailed tricky area, but boy am I not used to the 1:15000 map any more! Extremely hard to read in this very detailed area, had to use my magnifier A LOT. Some of the paths are hardly visible on the map and I was surprised when I saw them, had to stop/slow down a lot to check the map. In a few areas I should have simplified the map more and then would not have to slow down so much, but it is hard without practice. Also quite unstable under foot, lots of rocky and slippery areas and I was quite careful often slowing down to avoid my ankles turning. I have started doing strength exercises lately and would need to do a lot more of them to get the ankle strength to trust this area. On that topic, The Supra wasn't very good in this terrain, I think I'll go back to the Oroc 280 once this pair is thru.
In some areas I still could not cope with the climbs but better than last year, well 1 hour less...is progress, even if the winning time was also faster than last year.

Course won by a huge margin by Marcus P - Geoff came 4th and started a few minutes after me, caught me up near No. 5 and only saw his back for a short while ( chose a better route than I did).

1 - already took the downhill very cautiously
2 - one of those where I just had to stop to read the map, in hindsight could have simplified more, lost about 20 s
4 - long-distance leg, chose a good route but struggled with the speed especially uphill.
5 - this is where Geoff caught me up, I chose to run a bit on the path taking some climb, but this was unnecessary complication and climb - 30 s
6 - got confused near the control, the layout of the land wasn't quite like on the map, but stupid of me to stop as again I could have simplified the map. This was after an uphill section so could have been my brain did not get enough oxygen? 2m
9 - veered right on the bearing so lost at least 30s
12 - took a gel and a longer route running straight up from the track bend, only to find the control not there... I suspect either the map isn't right, or the control was to the NW of the hill it should have been on the SE side of (I.e. On the next spur end). 40 s
13 - found it difficult to make sense of the map here with the thin spur top, so went to both sides in the middle of the leg. Could and should have simplified to just run until the green patches which is what I then did, but by then wasted at least 1:30
16 - saw a crossing over the stream and took it, but I was too eager as I should have continued and crossed next to the control. 20s
18 - another area where I had to use the magnifier extensively, still ended up too high and on the top side of the green - at least I knew and corrected, 1m
19 - just veered right on the bearing and ended up too far right. 45s
20 - again chose to run around on the path but had to stop to check what I could not see on the map. 10s
21 - chose the suboptimal crossing, 15 s
22 - chose the higher path to run on, but got out too late so had to validate which resentment was 'mine'. 45s
24 - slipped too low and rounded the rocks to re-orient myself, 20s
26 - should have run right, the runability would have been better, 20s
27 - messed this up badly and I had a bad feeling that I wasn't slowing down enough here. Drifted up, bounced off the fence, then Drifted left and corrected myself from the pond. Which I could have used in the first place as a simplification feature... 1:30

Sum about 11m navigation mistakes, which feels about right, the rest of the gap as usual is running speed. 12th/36

JK Trail-O

Tried the Elite course, great that the rain held off. Some spots of rain only, in grand location and had some tea in the Abbey afterwards.

Event: JK 2016
 

Includes doing the model event

The JK, course 3 (M21 Open, M35, M40), Leeds University

Fairly good run although in hindsight with many suboptimal route choices.
Great weather - from the forecast it looks like the last good day?

12th/156 (course), 5th/38 (class)

controls:
1 - confused straight away after rounding the building so lost about 10 seconds looking around and fixing myself
2 - long leg, at the last bit chose to run the wrong way around the building so losing another 15 sec
5 - wrong way around the hedge, 5 sec
7 - confused by map turning initially and ran an extra distance in-out around building site, lost about 10 sec
8 - ran down the longer stairs and around, 10 sec
9 - mistook a wall to be crossable so had to run extra distance around building - 15 sec
17 - confused a few times rounding buildings picturing the map incorrectly, 8 sec
20 - initially had the right idea but as I was running I thought the stairs I planned to run up were leading to the wrong level so took a longer route - 10 sec

All together lost about 1:25 which funny enugh exactly how much behind Paul in 2nd I finished. Of course, that would be comparing a spotless run with Paul's actual one...

Anyway, good fun and most of these suboptimal choices I did not realise during the run.

Kings Cross Runners Club 5K - canal route

Recovery run and cadence training along the Thames South bank (well, after getting there).

Trying to balance taking it easy with training high cadence - not easy.

Ran to Margaret Island on the Danube bank - with a beer in hand to give to G. Must have looked quite funny!

Margaret Island demo "run" with the community with the aim to make running events more freely available and running safer. About 100 of us with police leading us up :)

Back from Margaret Island - tried to use this as a mini shakeout session after the weekend, although didn't really speed up anywhere.