Training Log Archive: АТ

After school bike ride. Bit windy but at least it wasn't raining, kept the pace steady apart from one effort up one of the local hills to try and get a PB on the strava segment. Legs felt a bit tired so just as well that I was going easy. Having an easy week coz I'm planning on doing to races, 1500 on Wednesday, and a parkrun on Saturday. Hopefully can get some PBs!

Straight after the bike ride, tea was in half an hour so got the core done in the that time.

Haven't got on the roller all weekend so was a bit tight for a change!

Event: British Middle Championships (UKOL)
 

Jogged 5 min to the start, then sat around for 5 min coz I had ages. Then 15 min of drills and stuff, getting in the zone.

Naphill and Park Wood.

Started 4 min behind Jake so one of my aims was to try and catch him but I thought that 4 min was a bit too much to catch on a middle.

Started off quite slow and the legs felt unresponsive but that stopped me from shooting off and making a mistake so fine there. Came into #1 from a weird angle but I hit it resonably, probably not the fastest. #2 was the dodgiest control, on boulder than was more like a pebble than a boulder. Didn't think that it was mine until I saw the pathetic excise for the boulder and ran to it. The next few were fine with some crawling through holly bushes...
Slight overshoot at #6 but came back onto it quick enough. By this time I was running with a SYO man, we were both a little too far left to #7 then the next two were easy before the road crossing.

Crossed the road and had a slight breather/ unfold the map and fold it again for the rest of the course, then set off again.

Next few controls were short sharp ones, bit dodgy on #12 where I overshot it by quite a bit, not as much as the guy I was running with and I dropped him. Next section was a nice easy path run bit with a little navigation. Then into the last loop before the finish. Started struggling a bit physically which meant that I missed the best route to #19 but I don't think it really mattered. Was scrappy inside the control circle as well coz it was hidden behind a tree and I couldn't see it!
Last little bit into the finish I started sprinting all out, then coming into the finishing field I finally saw Jake and put in a bit more effort than was necessary.

Good run, minimal time loss, felt fast and Jake only just managed avoiding being caught. Took a nice 3 min win and my min/km were third out of everyone, beaten only by James Gillis and Matt Elkington, so very happy!

Event: British Sprint Championships (UKOL)
 

Warm up for the prologue. Ran round the warm up course, got back and realised I had 2 min left to warm up!! Not good, got a few drills in but not much.

Prologue: Distances are all straight line as no Garmin.

Started off at the same time as Lachlan and JBone so wasn't too worried there. And I was 1 min behind Jake who was on the same course as me so I wanted to try and catch him

Started off OK not very confident and just feeling like I hadn't done sprint in ages. Really weird area with blocked off routes all over the place, you just had to read the map carefully, something I didn't do!

Got to the swap over point with only about 15 sec of mistakes so bot too bad and then it started going downhill. Lost concentration and was very scrappy, with lots of time lost. Then I got very confused and went to 23 before 20, and I didn't even go the fastest way to 23 which lead to quite a bit of time lost. Think this was because I had seen Jake and had nearly caught him then just lost it completely! Very annoyed. More time lost again on the way to 23 (was actually supposed to be going to it this time!) Just coz of a really bad route! Not too happy. Just running too fast for my brain and really not concentrating enough!
Came third in my heat behind tom and Jake but tom DQed himself for jumping over fences. Got through to the A final although from thy performance I didn't think I deserved to!

Got a proper warm up in this time. After all the fuss about start times I was worried I that I wouldn't get a warm up. But starts got delayed so I got a thorough warm up and some motivation from Finn and motivated Daniel. Felt decent!

Finals:

Knew how I wanted to race this one, at a slower pace than the heats so that I wouldn't make as many mistakes! At least that was the plan.

Started off well, 1 and 2 were nice and smooth. Then apart from accidentally knocking a kid flying at #3 the first 6 controls were all fine with the best route choices. Then #7 and #8 I didn't have the best route but didn't make a mistake either so I wasn't too worried at the time. #9 was another route which I would have done differently but I don't think that I lost too much time going the way I did. Saw Finn who was my 1 min man coming out of 9, which spurred me on. 10 was the only one in this section which my route was perfect. #11 I went one way round the building, should have gone the other way just to get some flow going. #12 I took the right hand option, left was quicker but then you had to spot a little gap in the fence to have the confidence to go left. #13 I took a slightly longer route than what was necessary so I maybe lost 20 sec. Ran the wrong way out of 13 for like 5m before turning round and coming out the right way. Was starting to lose the navigation at this point so I slowed down and got the rest of the course right, apart from some if the routes.

Very pleased with the result #BritishSprintChampion! Nice win and shows that I can actually do sprints. Looking forward to getting back in the forest tomorrow :-)

Rest day before British Sprints and Middles, got a 6 hour drive down south now, lucky me :-(

Holme Wood

I remember this wood as being a lot nicer than it was tonight! Very slippy and a bit grotty in places. And a lot of height climb, easily in the 300s. Map was very dodgy and the planning wasn't the best but one leg was interesting coz he'd blanked out the map so it was just a straight downhill bearing. Was running with Dan at this point and we both went to the right feature, but instead of the control being on the crag which is what it said it was hidden in some rocks below the crag. Took a relocation from below it to look up and realise where it was! Bit annoyed. All good fun though. Legs were so tired on the uphills! Calfs killed so I walked all of them ;-)

Complete rest tomorrow, give the legs a break!

Bit late but glad I got it done!

Back to the normal intervals session tonight:

2 min jog
8 min, as 4 min threshold, 4 min hard
2 min rest (walk)
2 * 4 min hard, 2 min rest (walk)
2 * 1.30 hard, 1 min rest
2 * 1 min hard, 1 min rest
2 * 30 sec flat out, 30 sec rest

Felt OK for the first few, then on the sprints it got a lot harder, legs were sore and had to push it quite a lot to go the distance. Don't know how fast it was in comparison to other session but the watch seemed to think that it was quite fast.
I did the sprint coz I missed the track last night due to no one being able to take me, and finding out today that I've got a 1500m race next week, can't wait!!

Jogging back home very steady.

I AM KNACKERED!! Legs are gone, definitely need some rest before the weekend!

Hate people who just don't let you past...!!!!

Drills, sprints, then a nice easy jog to that start mark. Very Windy tonight!!

Progression run, upping the pace by 10 sec each Km.
First km was surprisingly hard work, even at 4.00min/km just because of the wind! Then it got better and the next 2 km's felt a lot better and quite comfortable, then it suddenly went from a nice pace at 3.40 min/km to struggling quite a lot on the last two, very weird. I think the body had just said thats enough can't go any faster. Still finished but the last 2 km were probably just as fast if not slower than the two before it! Quite dead at the end! Donno how I feel about it, was good then, very very hard. Need to work on finishing speed I think!

Walking home, just down the village.

Achilles has gone very sore again, and calf is tightening up, bit sore in the legs!

Normal core workout

3 lots of:

45 sec flutter kicks, 10 sec rest
45 sec russian twist, 10 sec rest
1 min plank, 10 sec rest
45 sec double crunches, 10 sec rest
45 sec leg raises, 10 sec rest
1.10 min plank, 10 sec rest
50 sec left plank, 10 sec rest
50 sec right plank

1 min rest

Felt like I hadn't written this in, in a while and had just been saying "Normal core".

Giving the body a complete going over today. Hadn't done much arm work in a while, thought that better change!!

Four lots of:

20 bicep curls
15 tricep dips
10 arms raises (side)
10 arms raises (infront)
15 press ups

Arms were pretty tired at the end!