Training Log Archive: Jon X

British Relays, Men Premier, last leg.
FVO (Will, Roger, Jon) finished in 9th place.

Couldn't make the FVO M40 team so scored a bonus extra 1.45km in distance running Men Open instead - last leg after Will and Roger. Will came back in 19th about 4mins down and then a great leg from Rog brought us all the way through to 6th place after two legs. Hospital pass mind you - handing me the longest gaffle and a posse of teams in the 30secs behind!

Ran pretty well (massive bubble in my compass notwithstanding) except at #16 when I confused unmapped bushes below my control for mapped green above it, and lost my nerve (and 45secs) coming back down the hill to check a wrong control that I had correctly ignored on the way up it! That cost a place as WCOC must have come through on the low gaffle while I was faffing, but we ended up 9th which is not so bad, reckon we would have taken that before the start. Not a patch on the other, multiple trophy winning, FVO teams though!

Legs not too bad once got moving beforehand, another painful shuffle afterwards.

Event: BOC 2012
 

British Championships 2012, M45L, 5th place.
Winner Graham Watson 70:59

Pretty chuffed with performance and result to be honest, this type of area not usually my best plus not sure what to expect after feeling a bit tired and low on energy lately.

Warmed up well and pushed pretty hard from the start. Dropped maybe 45 secs on sloppy route to #4 (didn't really realise at the time) and then got the long leg to #17 wrong in two ways - decided to go right of the out of bounds but didn't allow for the additional wall crossing which meant a zig-zag route to use the crossing points. Now think left looks quicker. Compounded things in the middle of the leg by re-using my sloppy route from earlier (slightly worse actually) and probably losing another 45secs!

Couldn't see the knoll under the green on the map at #19 and lost position while I was peering at it, relocated quickly but again maybe 30-45 secs lost. Dropped from 5th to 8th there but pushed hard to the finish through the short steep wooded section at the end and got the places back :)

Ran to start and then stretches, leg swings etc at start. Short painful shuffle round field afterwards. Thoughtful of the organisers to put a pub beside the shuttle bus queue!

Jog with MC, down to vote and back. Another clear sunny evening, fingers crossed for this weather at the weekend too...

FVO evening event at Barr Wood.

Interesting planning by Jase and (seeing as I had never run along there before) I took up his offer of a route through the fields right along the western boundary of the map on the long leg. Not a good choice as met much rough terrain and eventually had to climb deer fence back into the woodland, took four (!) more minutes than Adam on the leg.

Other than that largely achieved aim of running not jogging but also running not racing, still an alarming amount of time behind though.

Was a bit disappointed with how far left I ended up at #13 after following a bearing through the wood......however in the pub all was revealed when I realised I had taken a bearing from 12-13 but actually headed for #13 directly from #11.....

Easy jog up to the Touch map, back down pushing a bit harder on the steep sections.

Uphill steady then downhill quicker, a few stops at controls. Some tough heather higher up. Another glorious sunny evening although running west was a bit of a challenge, straight into the setting sun!