Training Log Archive: Jon X

Event: British Relays
 

British Relay M40 with Steve Barrett and Dixie, me on first leg.

Not my best day.

All the male relays started together with a cavalry charge down the forest road, once it sorted itself out then despite losing a few seconds at #1 and #2 I soon found myself in the group at the front of our relay with Martin Ward for SYO and Clive Hallett for BOK both on my gaffle, Tim Griffin and Simon Patton also right there (no pressure having picked myself ahead of Simon!).

All was fine until we went into the low visibility green - even there I stayed calm and made sure I got #7 but dropped a few yards on the others so had to do my own thing to #8. Got a little offline so carefully chose a different attack point - misidentified it and overshot. Suddenly a few more teams visible - mostly clearly past me and on their way to #9. Got #8 but 2 mins lost.

Ran hard on the safe route to #9 (ring knoll in green), didn't see anyone, got into the circle, onto the feature, no flag, oh shit. Check location, check feature, still no flag, oh shit oh shit. Out to check again, there were Clive and Martin looking as puzzled as me. Thinks...well, at least the two other top teams aren't ahead of me! Very confused, they thought it was the feature too - we knew we were at the front - could it be missing? Even wondered about going on - but that is a major gamble, better to stay and be very very sure as if it is missing the leg will be voided anyway. Checked in several directions - all the while runners on the other gaffle going past - panic panic - I really did seem to be in the right place though - confused confused -checked the description again - unbelievable - had read it wrong and been looking on wrong side of feature. Got back there and found it nestling down in some heather and hung low, almost didn't see it this time either! 4mins lost at least.

Carelessly let Martin and Clive see me get it, ran off too quick as a result, missed a minute or so at #10 in my haste and they passed me. Couldn't really see them ahead but ran strongly to the finish, got there about a minute behind them but down in 13th and 6 mins down on Old Man Petrie for Clyde, who picked his way safely through the green and came home first. Nearly 3 mins down on Simon too of course....

Steve and Dixie ran much better than me and repaired most of the damage but a small miss by Dixie in the green let Clyde pip us for third place - sorry guys!

That is the most frustrating mistake I have made for a long time. It was bizarre as I didn't really know what to do to try and recover as I was sure it was the right feature, very confusing! Maybe let myself be distracted a bit by Martin and Clive - as I didn't know what to do maybe they would find it! But so frustrating, if I had just found it when I first arrived then I would have been away and we might have been in a race for first not a race for third.

Dammit.

Event: British Long Champs
 

Today was the day then.
Months of training through the winter.
A great night's sleep.
A nice sunny day.
A good warm up and feeling bouncy at the start.
A clear plan for the race.

In the start lanes the map was every bit as sexy as anticipated, but just as expected, exciting!

Off the start despite good intentions found it very difficult to go slow enough and control route, went slightly left of line and then over-corrected right of line when didn't need to, slowed down at the easy point mid leg to be sure then inexplicably ran too fast into all the knolls where the control was. Stopped one knoll too far, turned round and saw it, v relieved and gave myself a good talking to, 45 secs lost already.

Hesitant to #2 to get properly into map and in control, then felt more ready to get on with it, by #3 was going properly and pushed pace across the flat area towards #4. Getting there I saw Simon P heading across from the direction of #5 (started 2 mins ahead), ignored him and kept to my plan, found it clean ahead of him. DId my plan well to #5 even though (it turned out) Simon was moving so quickly as he had already checked #5 out!

Long leg to #6 and ran hard, aware of Simon to my right until the last part of the leg. Then control pick in the light green, good to #7 but then missed the little col before #8, hesitated and saw a tape hung high in re-entrant, dropped down but no flag! Relocated straight away but 40sec more lost.

Pushed hard through the next section and thought I did it well, however went to the drinks (right of line) on #10-#11 and then got back on the 'natural' route (left of line), looks like the extra distance cost me 30secs.

Felt tired coming out of #11 but this made me take enough care to #12 (judging by the splits too much care!), felt okay again after that. Ran strong to #14 but misread hill shape and missed 20sec.

Round the track via the drinks to #15, moving pretty quickly but not in control in the circle, followed Ricky Baxter instead of slowing and we missed it too far to the right. Brief panic and back up the hill to it, another 45sec gone.

Back on it for #16 and #17, slowed in circle for both. Found #18 v tricky and took it slow, was stil one knoll too far right, had paced it too though so I knew it was close - stopped to consider and be calm and it was 15m away, only 20sec lost.

Looked to run the last section in the white aggressively and be cautious in circle, then be cautious in the green at the end. Running strongly dead straight up the hill to #19 and again to #21, but climbed too much at #21 and ended up crossing the ridge at the track too far left, wasted the effort of running hard by unnecessary extra distance, 30sec lost.

Cautious in the green but still pushed left by terrain at #23, lost 30secs there but unscathed otherwise although being cautious lost me a little time to others.

Tired again to the last control and on run-in, finished thinking I had dropped maybe 2mins and pretty chuffed with that and with finishing in 6th place.

(1st Bill Edwards 66mins, 2nd Tim Griffin 68mins 3rd Martin Ward 69mins).

In retrospect I had a couple of route wobbles costing time plus missed a few more than I remembered on finishing. Lost maybe 4 mins in total but pushed hard, would have had to run slower to save some of that time.

Pleased with my 6th place in a strong field and pretty satisfied with how it went - although the more I look at it the more I can see how it could have gone better!

Great work on the course planning by Steve Nich, glad for him the event was such a success after he put so much time into it over the past few months.

Can't wait to run a race here again!

Good warm up and feeling great by the time I started.
Unfortunately no warm down as I was straight into faffing about with relay team changes....

Too busy and so short of sleep over past two weeks and feeling tired the whole time, not good.

Glands are up and have a cold sore, hardly surprising, v not good.

Definite rest day today, good

AIso I discovered yesterday that I am staying 1km from the BOC car park on Fri and Sat nights, v good.

Big lie-in on Saturday morning methinks, v v good.

Into Tentsmuir to training start/finish; back to car via collection of the elusive control number one!

Nice little loop planned by Gary, some of the open is now low visibilty green which was good for forcing sharper navigation. Forgot my compass which was less good from a pre-BOC practice point of view. Always okay to the circle but technique a bit sloppy for finding them (flags flat on ground which helped highlight this), a few bits to think about before Saturday.

Second loop, collected the second half after Rosco caught me up at #6 (I still think it was too low!)

Map was astonishingly iffy at #1 even though I found it okay, then three or four legs through felling later - easy to see the shape which made it straightforward.

All good fun though and a nice night for it.

FVO intervals with good turn out tonight, even more Stevensons than usual!

Warm up/down plus drills, right hamstring has been tight for ages and was struggling to loosen it off beforehand, need to get it some physio after the weekend.

Speed session on the grass pitches, not too much bearing in mind the weekend.

We did 2 sets of 15s/30s/45s/60s/45s/30s/15s with 30s between each and 2 mins between the two sets.

Felt pretty good but a bit wary of my hamstring so held a bit back on most of them. Looking forward to some good training in Tentsmuir tomorrow and then two easy/rest days before the race of the year on Saturday!

C • Tentsmuir 4

Felt tired but driving home it was such a nice evening that I had to get out and do something, nice easy run just as the sun was setting.

Did Leckie loop, went anti-clockwise for a change. Pheasants everywhere!

Breathing very easily and going an okay pace, lots of little niggles though so reps tomorrow then an easy few days with lots of sleep for the rest of this week. That's the plan anyway!