Training Log Archive: Psuba

A real mix.

Jog to the Runners club, then ran the first half of the canal route with the group. Then separated and ran out to Hampstead Heath to test run the medium difficulty POC course in prep for the RC event in two weeks. Quite outdated map, lots of changes including a large area of fenced work site, so had to slightly change the course, also one of the markers is missing.
Then ran back to the hotel via the canal route. A bit of a shower out on the heath but otherwise decent weather.

Ran at just above comfortable pace. Left the HR strap at home so couldn't run on a HR target which is what I planned initially.

Tried to do cadence adjustment when alone and not on the heath.
Had one gel with me which I consumed when I got to the heath, but that was bad planning, seriously ran out of energy at about 100 mins into it.

Event: London Street-O Race #8: Feltham
 

Was undecided as the Feltham Street-O was tempting but would have meant no rest day in the week then.

AS I finished work late and problems with the hotel check-in meant I could not longer get there in time - problem sorted.

Left shin still in slight pain though...

Event: WIM/WSX Monthly Evening event - Fordingbridge
 

Fordingbridge, (supposedly) 1 hour score.

2nd/44 behind Paul P who ran a blistering 35 minutes. (Results)

Pushed to about 80% effort, considering the continuous days of training (today was supposed to be a rest day), so comfortably in contact with the map, but still made a few smaller route choice errors. Plus one of the controls wasn't very precise on the map so I thought it would be on the other side of an impassable fence and planned a completely different route - could have shaved about two minutes with the better route + not spending time looking for it.

Spari training schedule was suggesting 30x300m terrain for tomorrow, but given there will be a Street-O in London (if I can get to it after work) I wanted to bring this forward a day. All I could find in the vicinity of todays event was a 150m long marsh so aimed to do it there. Also cut down the number considering the event just prior.

Wanted to do 20x, apparently miscounted and did only 19. 1m off between intervals, managed the majority in between 3:40-3:50 pace.

Event: Kingston Urban Race
 

Kingston Urban race, Mens Vets/Women's Open course.

I hesitated a lot to come here or the Galoppen near Gloucester. In the end I decided to have a bit of fun, haven't run an Urban race in a while even though they tend to do good for my ranking, at least more so than forest events. I do enjoy the forest more regardless! But having done 8 straight weekends of forest races I thought it would be good to mix it up. Plus it did not hurt that my clubmates could give me a ride so did not have to drive!

Decent run except for a few niggles, suboptimal route choices and one stupid mistake, lost about 2:30 or so on those mistakes all together. 34:08 with the exclusion of the timed out control, I reckoned this could be done in under half hour - and checking the printed out interim results I was bang on, Paul C won with 29:30.

I was contemplating entering the Mens Open beforehand, in the end opted for my age group, in hindsight I probably should have gone for the Open, as I found the course on the short side. I did fade towards the end, mind you, but regardless I felt this to be too short.
There were a few tricky areas on the map, probably not as many as some of the more quirky areas elsewhere in the UK. The course setter did try and use these areas - the problem of course having a race Sunday midday, especially in as good a weather as it was, is that there will be lots of shoppers etc, especially in the trickier, more intricate areas, so clearly they tried to avoid, having too many controls/legs near the river.
I did find it odd that whilst there was a timed out crossing of a busy road midway through the course, there wasn't a similarly timed out crossing of the same busy road about 2/3rd on the way coming back (just before control 19)... so you were relying on some luck getting there when the lights were green (I may have lost some seconds there). You then had to cross the same road again with no timed out bit on the way to the last bit, but it wasn't as much down to luck as before, simply because one had to run the length of the road for a while so you could choose your crossing time when there was a gap in the cars. Nevertheless, I did hear my clubmates talking about seeing someone running the length of that section in the middle of the road in between the traffic flowing both ways.

Trialled the SIAC system on this race, I must say I liked it, a lot easier to get a flow not having to fiddle with finding the exact point for the dibber, just tap the box and go. Won't invest in a SIAC card just yet though, not enough races having them yet for me to be worth replacing my unit that I bought about a year and a half ago only.

Time losses noted on the course splits.

Looking at the results, 12th again (out of 66 on the course), this has been my position in the last 4 races in England... should I play the lottery with this number?

Deep in thoughts (photo by Mark Howell, SN):

Course 2 (W Open and M Vets) - Splits

Bournemouth Parkrun #140

17/386

Glorious day, some breeze, but conditions perfect for a PB. Well, for most people. My legs are still shot from two days back, but I thought I give it a shot. OK 1st km, slowed on the 2nd more than I should have, OK on the 3rd (considering the climb), but by the end of the 4th I was 10s down on what I think I needed to be to achieve my target of sub 20m (and a PB). So at that point I eased off slightly - not too much but enough to give up on it, and so ended up 15s down on my PB.

I think with all the training recently I have improved my stamina and strength, but not my speed. I can see the results positively in an Orienteering race, but in events like this I seem to still have the upper limit of somewhere around the 4m/km mark for sustained pace.

At the moment, happy with the improvement on stamina and strength for the climbs, and I think that remains the objective for this year. I will see later in the year if I can switch to improving pace and get closer to, ultimately around 17-18m.

3km cadence training with Viennese Waltz (haven't done it for a while even though I wanted to consistently do 2 such sessions a week until end of April to see the effects) + 1km simple shakeout.

Left shin ache is still there + both legs very heavy after the Canova session yesterday.

usual exercises + stretching, my legs are feeling yesterdays Canova circuits!!!

2,5x4x500/100 Canova Circuits.

Spari training schedule, which I think is based on the Canova circuits. It was supposed to be a track session but no track here, so... ran by the canal, around cyclists etc. Also sporadic rain.

Supposed to be 500m sub 3:40 pace + 100m plyo 4x, then 900m jog, then start again, this 2,5x so all together 10 repeats.
For the plyo I alternated between high knee / squat jumps / ankle jumps / "indian" hops (did try back kicks but just could not get the motion comfortable).

Boy it was hard work. VERY difficult to track my pace because Garmin was giving me crazy feedback, usually too slow, at one point claiming my pace was sub 22m/km, so I had to rely on my feeling as to the pacing, which wasn't helped by the wind, the walkers, those feeding the ducks etc etc.
Managed the paces of:
3:37, 3:47, 4:09, 3:46
3:52, 3:54, 4:02, 3:49
4:03, 3:55

Doing the plyo instead of a break between intervals makes it really hard as the plyo seems to have taken as much energy as the intervals, so it was a continuous effort basically.