Training Log Archive: tommig

Another BOK success! 4/4 relay trophies won, two more to go.

Map memory relatively straightforward as park and buildings, no issues other than last control the veg came up faster than expected so briefly confused. No more than 5s confusion.

Sprint also relatively straightforward one confusion over whether wall/veg crossable so ran round long way.

Proud to run with Paul, Gavin, Carolyn and Matt.

Nice longer training run to get a bit of distance in legs before Tunturisuunnistus in 1 month time.... course lengths have been published as 21,2km on Day 1 and 20,1 on Day2. Climb hasn't been mentioned but usually somewhere between 600m and 1200m (most likely at the lower end in these fells, but still need to up training a bit).

Felt pretty good until coming down off Walton common where my heel started bothering me again, it had been bad after Clevedon, and all day Thursday, but on Friday felt like a miraculous recovery... will see how painful it is tomorrow, lots of Ibuprofen I reckon might help.... was a nice route, good pace, never felt out of comfort zone for long, able to chat most of the time other than up steepest hills.

Good swim in Marine Lake followed by visit to Mum's to pick up car. (And Erinna wanted to meet mum whose first words were "ah, you're the girl that ran through the pine tree hedge...!).

Bike to blood donor centre

Return presumably 1 pint lighter... blood pumped out in 3:57. Wonder if that is my PB?

Set off too fast, got caught trying to get down what I thought was a path between houses but no so had to back track to 2, lost a fair bit of time. Thoroughly enjoyed running on a Clevedon map, odd though passing various friends houses (thinking oh, James & Becky live there, Bruno and Fortuna there, Did a paperround here, shame Gary's parents have moved or could have got a glass of water here...). In the end ran out of steam halfway around saw Jane going up hill to 14 and though bugger, she's catching me... in the end she beat me by possiby 30s or so, first time this season dammit :)

Leg 1 (15), choice of fast and boring, or interesting, of course I took interesting. It was shorter too. I was 32nd on this leg, losing 1.11 to the leader.

To 2 (16), I couldn’t see a particularly interesting option avoiding the path, so took the path until the edge of the marsh, followed that round to S tip of pond. Another guy cut over the hill here and gained maybe 10m on me. He went straighter also over the next hill, where I stayed down below the crags and came around the spur from the east, thinking that was a pretty safe route. Actually I think over the top would have been faster, and pretty safe too, as the bare rock was pretty distinct up there. 23rd on the leg, so pretty decent.

To 3, (17) I wandered a bit left on my bearing and ended up mistaking the small bare rock hill for the end of the line of crags, and got caught under the small crag in the light green just W of the N end of the line of crags. Figured out then where I was and rest of this leg was easy. was 57th on this leg, losing 1.14 to the leader which over that short distance is not good.

To 4. (18) Started pretty well on this leg, will be interesting to see routegadget when it is up. Got a bit tangled up in green on the exit from the control but in the end hit the small path, then right on the trail, cut across on the small path and down to the lake edge. Went below the crag but actually over was probably faster as the path at the bottom was a bit scrappy. Followed the path SW and hit the marsh easy. Crossed it and started up the rocks. Why?? I should have stayed low, taken the path that ran all the way around the bottom of the hill and just stayed in contact all the way to the control. Instead I cut across. Went up onto the bare rock top of the hill further South than I realized, and where I thought I was on the tops of the bare rock where there are two small hills next to each other, I was actually one set of rocks further south… alarm bells did NOT ring when I crossed too many hills, I just kept going on the same bearing, mistaking the big crags I passed for the smaller crags higher up. Fortunately realised as I dropped down the bank that I had overshot and was at the southern end of the veg boundary and the green, picked up a couple of guys who were milling around and led them back north along the veg boundary (as they were muttering it can’t be this far North surely) and straight onto the control pretty well. I really should have either stayed low and gone around, or reacted when the hill top wasn’t doing what the map said it should…. Anyway, pleased to have relocated properly. was 59th on the leg and I think my biggest loss of time, losing 5:30 to the leader.

To 5 (19) Climbed up on a rough bearing, hit a crag in a re-entrant with a rock south of it so knew where I was. Aimed for the north edge of marsh, aiming to follow indistinct path off the NE edge of Marsh, crossing big track and straight onto control in effect. I actually took the bigger path from SE corner of Marsh, but realized pretty quick, before I hit the big track even. Went to the big track to fetch some speed and followed it round to the corner of next marsh as a decent AP. Just went in a bit vaguely from there to the open and got distracted by the bigger hill E of control before realizing it was too far away and spotting the flag. 37th on leg, OK, and getting back into it.

To 6 (20) My best leg by far, a relatively easy one. Dropped down to trail and followed it N, cut the corner on small path then all the way down to marsh and across. Followed diagonal path up hill and curved round into marsh between crags. Came up onto bare rock from between the 2 N most crags and knew EXACTLY where I was, the map fit, the bare rock looked perfect, and sure enough, there was the control. I nearly kissed it I was that happy. 10th on this leg, only 35s down on the fastest, could not have done it better had I been given a 2nd go at it.

To 7 (21) last navigation leg and longest leg too. Could not see a particularly obvious route through here, so decided to rough bearing it. Lots of unmapped paths and tracks going in all directions, so tried to just pick up the ones going roughly the right way and keep some speed up. Was going fine across first marsh and up onto next line of rock. Something happened here, not sure if it was a path, or just sort of bouncing off the rock features, but I take a 45 degree wander onto a wrong bearing. I had been a bit concerned that I was going too far south, but this was overcompensating big time. Crossed the little marsh thinking I was crossing the tip fo the bigger marsh just south (didn’t clock that there was no open marsh to be seen!) and so fully expected to come over the next small rise to find the big track. No, was in a valley with a path in it… eventually twigged I was properly north, from where I wanted to be, and followed next spur round, across tracks, then followed the small paths until popping out onto next track just N of the large Rock Knoll feature. 21 was trivial navigation to find it. 36th on this leg, reasonable. 2:40 down, not bad for such a long leg.

All that was left was a scramble through the scrappy bit of forest to the big trail and then really open up and run as fast as possible to the finish. 11th on the run in, just 25s down, overall pretty pleased.

End result 24th of 115, 10:28 down on the winner, and according to the mysterious formula of this website, I made 7:14 time loss to mistakes. I think I am pretty happy with that, and whilst I am sad to be leaving Finland, I am also happy to be leaving with a string of pretty good orienteering results in the bag…., am beginning to mostly understand map and terrain better here. Next Finnish orienteering likely to be Tunturisuunnistus!! Cannot wait.....