Training Log Archive: Psuba

Event: SOC Wessex Night League Event
 

Romsey Wessex Night League, more a Street-O type event, except that there were proper controls out (thank you) as opposed to the SLOW Street-O events where you have to write down clues at every "control". Touch-free punching also meant better flow in/out of the controls (usually - I had to double back for a few that didn't register first).

Well planned by RHF, you really had to think and there were quite a few options, not only for the generic strategy but specifically in between quite a few pairs of controls the route to choose. This is in my mind an indication of good planning as it reduces dead running - even though some of that is inevitable in a street event and there was some here too. A really nice intricate area in the NE corner of the map, had to take it carefully and almost felt like a Sprint event in that area with lots of rapid decisions and the opportunity to practice route simplification a bit.

2nd place, exactly like I expected when I went through in my head driving there trying to guess the likely contenders. Dave C won, and whilst in hindsight I don't think my strategy was the best, he seems to have followed most of the same strategy, so this was purely about him being faster than I am. Not really a surprise there, but a confirmation of an aim for myself to work towards :)
Made a few errors amounting to about 2 min altogether (this includes changing my mind and doubling back a few times), and from a running perspective felt quite tired in the middle section. Once I conquered the uphill it became easier and somehow I also felt fresher from that point as well, so tried to push.

Balham Street-O

No clue about position, as it is not published yet, but probably didn't do very well. As usual, didn't really have a good strategy and running wise felt quite a slog. Not sure if it is the long drive up (late to get there, thanks to traffic), yesterday's training, lack of warm-up... but this did not feel good from a running perspective. I suppose one needs these type of sessions too for improvement - the Street-O events are anyway forming part of my training regime simply to get away from boring running. Navigation is usually simple, but still there were quite a few tactical errors in the ordering of the controls that I have made.

Getting food!

To Uni for the Wessex training as a warm-up. Late as usual as I haven't used this cycle so had to do some unexpected maintenance...

A blend of the Wessex Tuesday training and what is in the Spari training plan. Wessex session today was Medium hills and I just got to the location when everyone has finished, partially because I was late getting to the Uni, partially because I kept getting lost running to the location... but in any case I already started the training instead of just a warm-up as that happened through my cycle commute there.
Spari training session was supposed to be a 45-49 min fartlek session with a 2min fast - 4 min slow type run on level ground, so I combined the two by running a roughly 2+min fast / 2+min slow pace, but of course it ended up being an undulating run. Once I got to the Wessex hills location, I then continued by running the full length hill, with each rep up/down the same effort (usually the effort is only up with recovery down), alternating the effort every 2nd rep, doing 10 of these before going back to the Uni.

Still running in the 1/2 size larger training shoe, but the toe started to stop bothering me now, even though it is still far from being fully healed. I will try normal size shoes from the weekend. Felt quite good after the session.

Back from training

Long session through St. Cathrene's hill, Ramsdown and then through the estuary. My first semi-terrain run since the toe injury to gently "test the waters". Still running in a 1/2 size larger, not really ideal running shoe. At least the toes felt mostly OK.

I messed up my eating regime during the day as I was tied down with updates to the club new website and did not realise the time. I then had to eat quite late and quite close before I had to leave to get to R. This may be the reason that my HR was all messed up - it was a purposely slow run but my HR was much higher than I would have expected at this tempo normally.

Energy was also lacking and whilst normally I would expect to last this distance without a gel I actually had to have one at around 35 mins! Again probably down to the messed up nutrition through the day.

Got quite dark by the time I got to R due to starting late but good views from St.Cathrene's hill.

Had some lasagna with R+K after we went through some website work updates. I got a lift to the cliff tops from R before I jogged back home as a semi-cool down exercise. I have to say I now felt why I keep the rule about time between eating and running - not a good idea to run after eating!

Very tempting to go to the BOK Event, in the end though I think sanity won and I settled for the Parkrun today. I do prefer Orienteering and from looking at an older map Leigh Wood would have offered some interesting route choice and terrain challenges. However, I think it is better to allow my toe to heal properly and not jeopardise the season, so stuck with less terrain and less risk for kicking something again in the rough and aggrevating the injury.

So this was just a Parkrun, but I was late for that as I could not find my barcode! In the end it turned out to be a modified route for me then, although distance wise almost the same, but I started late from home rather than from the startline, so had to join the crowd from about 600m on, then comb my way through it looking for Ian. I finally caught him up at around 3km, then ran with him to the finish at about 80% effort.