Training Log Archive: Anvil

A sore throat I was feeling yesterday was coming on strong + not much sleep + rainy and cold made me stay in. Watched TV all night with my flat mate. Boring - never again, TV is crap. So many inferior Little Britain and Spicks and Specks clones here. I miss The Chaser too.

Event: Compass Sport Cup Final
 

Surprisingly enjoyable course in Sutton Park up near Birmingham. Kinds of like a squashed together version of RIchmond Park and Wimbledon Common so I felt right at home. 30th/130ish and 12.5km total.
A relatively easy course, except the detail within the gorse was surprisingly tricky in places - you had to be confindent to go follow the edge of the green as it twisted round. It was really well mapped though which helped a lot.
Mistakes:
#1: Probably my only complaint with the course. On an earthbank encased in a strip of green, I got within 5 metres and didn't notice the control as I was trying to find a way to get into the green when the control was on the edge. Why the description wasn't just 'thicket edge' I don't know. 1:45 lost.
#16: Refolded my map and lost contact on what turned out to be a surprisingly tricky leg. Stopped far too short, ran down the wrong track and had no idea where I was. Only really found it when I looked over and saw people running in and out of the gorse maze. Could have been a lot worse. 0:30
#17: Flustered from the previous leg and sprinted off and lost contact again. Had to stand still to relocate - terrible when the leg is all yellow. 0:20.
#25: Got pulled off my a control that wasn't mine in a fairly featureless area. 0:45.
#27: Stupid. Planned to go round the tracks as the forest was too varied too green to run easily through. For some reason I decided that the guy in front of me was doing that too so I just followed him blindly - suddenly we were in the forest. Instead of just sucking it up and going through I turned around and went back out and round. 1:00.
A bit annoyed with all the mistakes, I could have placed a lot higher - though I think a lot of people times are slower than expected, so I think there were a lot of mistakes going on! Also would have broken 6 min/ks for a forest course for the first time if I'd not made any one of those mistakes!
Good course, definately made the most of the area so can't really complain. SLOW came 3rd too which is pretty cool - I think we usually come 8th or something.

C • map and route 1

Amazing trail run in the Brecon Beacons national park. Probably one of the most enjoyable runs I've done in a long time, especially in the UK.
Got a car for the weekend to get to Birmingham tomorrow so headed for the hills to do a loop which sounded good from a website I found.
Wasn't disappointed, it's such cool scenery around there - once you get on a ridge or spur line it's nice a flat, and you run along the edge of these ridges and the gound falls away from you - it's like running on the edge of the earth. 80 mins running, about 2 hrs in total after photo stops!
Here's the names of the things I ran up/down/next to:

Craig y Fan Ddu
Valley of the Caerfanell
Graig Fan Las
Bwlch y Ddwyallt
Cwm Cwareli
Craig Cwareli
Craig Cwmoergwm
Fan y Big
Upper Neuadd reservoir

I love Welsh words

Just an easy cruise around the streets. Thought tonight would be tough since the last couple of days were a bit of a struggle, but loosened up after the first couple of ks, then it was all cake for the rest.

Track session. 5 x 400s x 2, equal recoveries and 2 mins between the 2 sets. Really struggled tonight, felt yesterdays run in my legs and an early start this morning didn't help.
Splits: 75, 74, 74, 75, 76, 75, 76, 78, 76, 76

Found out today I was lucky enough to be one of the 1 in 7 to win the ballot to go in the London Marathon. Shame I'll be back in Oz now, but the place got snapped up by one of the blokes from the club as soon as I mentioned it!

Longish run I was meant to do on Sunday. Bay loop with large city extension. Got a bit disoriented in the city and ended having go run the length of the mall. Apparantly running through the mall is not a common thing cause pretty much everyone stared at me, strange Welsh people.