Orienteering (British Relay Champs M40) 49:38 5.16 km (9:37 / km) +293m7:29 / km ahr:169 max:190 shoes: VJ Irocks (red) 2017
I LOVE RELAYS!!
Paul ran first leg faster than expected, so went out with a bit of pressure! Loved every minute of it, beautiful forest, terrain I could actually run through and was orienteering well. 1 could have stayed on path a bit longer, and 2 maybe took the safer path option. 3 went over on my ankle and heard a crunch enough to make me scream, but it seemed OK so carried on and no real problems. A bit sore now in the evening but should be fine tomorrow. Hit 3 and 4 dead on, 5 came down marshy re-entrant then veered left after 2nd wall, straight onto control. 6 across the brashings, 7 round paths, 8 up path then contour round, maybe 15-20s lost after getting distracted by wall crossing. 9 took a moment to consider checking a control that obviously wasn't mine but then trusted my nav and was right. Spectator run through sneaked past the backs of club mates, think nobody noticed me go through... pretty well spiked all the rest of my controls, very happy with my own performance and then nearly beat an M21 on the sprint finish but he got me at the end. 7th on my leg nd brought us up to 9th. Really pleased with how it went, Our 3rd leg runner Mike unfortuntely mis-punched but we were an n/c team anyway with no expectations due to injury, so just was able to enjoy my orienteering. Enough running for one weekend though!
On later reflection and having talked over Quick Route maps with Phil and Jane, I could have been bolder on my route choice to 1, cutting corner and using a fence as an AP. Both also felt I went a very long way round to 2. Also could have prepared a bit better so I wouldn't have needed to stop for a pee at 2.... otherwise still happy with my routes. Had I known 4-5 would be obstacles of fallen trees I might have gone a slightly different way.
Run warm up/down (Jog to start) 18:11 1.68 km (10:47 / km) +140m7:37 / km ahr:132 max:153 shoes: VJ Bold (2017) Orange
10 AM
Orienteering (British Champs M40L) 2:43:27 11.19 km (14:36 / km) +715m11:04 / km ahr:148 max:184 shoes: VJ Bold (2017) Orange
Well, that was 163 minutes of fun! Pretty slow, just not fit enough or good enough. Two big mistakes, into 5, must have been close all the time, and then 19 was just on the wrong hill....... slowest finisher, but at least 5 people retired so I beat them at least! I like that Strave reckons I was not moving for over 45 minutes.... I don't recall stopping very often, especially with SIAC punching, so I must have just been running so slowly up the hills that GPS couldn't track any sign of movement!!
On later reflection, a lot of my navigation was OK. Just not able to go at any speed at all in the terrain, and possibly took some overlong "safe" handholding routes.
Orienteering (BOK/UBOC Urban 1 Stoke Bi) 46:35 8.13 km (5:44 / km) +154m5:14 / km ahr:169 max:177 shoes: Feet2 - 2016 Orange
Great start to the wednesday urban series, well planned courses by Matt Pickering (unofficially) and Ben Mitchell. Had a bit of an advantage to 1 as had seen that you could double back through the start and round the outside, but lost all the advantage as got there so fast I didn't have time to plan ahead. Saw Jane on a different course at 2 and struggled to keep up with her to 3. 9-10 took a longer, slower route outside the wall and down path, simple route and had time to plan ahead but I suspect quite a lot of time lost. 12-13 went Parrys Lane way to avoid climb and didn't get caught out by wall on way to 13. 21-22 couldn't decide whether to cut back through paths or round road, went through paths which on reflection looks marginally longer. 23-24 happy with right hand route, 28-29 went downhill and back up, in hindsight think southern route faster and less climb. Very enjoyable start to the series and really enjoyed the fast and complex start and finish with longer legs in the middle. Thanks UBOC!
Run (BOK Failand Inn, Failand) 1:03:06 9.63 km (6:33 / km) +211m5:54 / km ahr:153 max:175 shoes: Feet2 - 2016 Orange
Nice evening for a run with Ifor and Jackie, not too fast a pace with the British Champs coming up at the weekend. Felt surprisingly fit pushing up the hill with Ifor towards the end. First of the Urban Summer series tomorrow then take it relatively easy until the weekend....