Training Log Archive: murraystraining

Jogging about, before and after, including a nosey about the model map - cut it fine for the start so didn't do any drills. Naughty but maybe helped me slow down at the start?

British Middle Distance Champion! I've felt for a long time that I have the ability to produce a good middle distance performance but I've not quite been able to put it together for a whole course before. So what was different today?
- Not rushing in the technical sections. Lots of glances at the map to get a picture of what was going on, leaving nothing to chance.
- This was aided by using a magnifier for the first time ever, reducing need to slow down too much to build the picture.
- Taking each leg on it's own, some fast, some slow. The fast ones were flat out, the slow ones were technically precise. I'm not sure I was flowing through controls particularly well, especially in the technical areas, but for me to get a result the priority was always going to be on finding the things.
- A little bit of luck! Like #1 being visible from where I thought it should be (I had the reentrant pointing in the opposite direction in my mind) and finding some burnt heather on the long leg to 10.
This is my tenth season as a senior orienteer. Before today I've never been in the top 3 in a UK Cup middle distance - JK, BEOC or selection race. Hopefully this isn't the last time!

C • Champion! 8

Rough estimate of warm up & down before and after each race. Lots of laps of the warm up map!

Safe qualifier. Wobbled a little when I jumped ahead from 8-10 - fortunately I was navigating on autopilot to 9 and realised what was going on pretty quickly. Didn't feel like I was firing on all cylinders though, particularly in the middle third.

A really good championship sprint course. Unfortunately I couldn't deliver a championship winning performance - Kris and Chris were better than me today and credit to them for that. I lost time on 6 (too busy trying to see if the gap between the buildings was closed and I missed the route out of 5, ending up going all the way left around the building. I think the best route was right but judging by the splits no one took it? 14 I went up and down the steps rather than staying low - only a 16s leg though so not much time lost. the longer leg to 17 I didn't plan properly which was poor given there had been some simpler legs before it. I'd even seen Oli on the left hand route but I didn't even consider it and went the longer right hand route - another 5s binned. I knew I was under the cosh by this point so really tried to push on and had a good spell - from 17 to 23 I closed the gap to Kris from 10s to 3s but I couldn't keep it up and wasted time on the final couple of technical controls. I can't really explain the mistake I made here, I even walked back to the car via this area to try and figure out what I thought I'd done but it still made no sense to me. All I can suggest is that oxygen starvation got the better of me and I didn't give the final section of the course the respect it needed.

All in all probably a fair result. I'm not sure how I was physically - I felt fine, but at the JK I gained 20-30s on most people on running speed which wasn't there today and I got found out by the minor misses. Perhaps I can deduce something from my HR data later. If I was off my usual pace for purely physiological reasons then I can explain them by the poor sleep & tough session this week. If it was because I wasn't attacking enough then that's something to work on (probably something to keep working on anyway!). One thing is sure - my "sprint Thursdays" will definitely have a renewed focus between now and NORT.

Journey-splitting FNHR up the Pennine Way to
Windy Crag in the beautiful evening sun.

Still tired.

Lap of Riccarton.

Technical sprint training on HW. Low intensity running as legs are still stiff from Tuesday night. I think poor sleep this week (mouse visits) hasn't helped their recovery.

C • Peanut butter 3

My calves! Ow!

Yep, last night was pretty tough.
Streets visited: 1 - Drum Terrace.
AZ Stat: Projected completion date - 31/3/2018

Evening off yesterday to start freshening up. Aimed to get caught up on all the jobs that need doing, actually spent it caught up in following the horrendous scenes from Boston.

Blown to Meadowbank, laps + strides

4 sets of 4x300m with 100m jog into the wind between reps (~32s) and 4 minutes between sets.
Moving quite nicely at 47-48s reps. Starting a second or so behind Max and James so someone to chase but also meant going the long way round at times. Dropped a 43 for the first rep of the second set when Max got trackrage at a sprinter standing in lane 1 and got a surge of adrenaline. Picked up the final set to go 46-47-45-45 - had been losing concentration a little before this.

C • Looks good 1

Death march back to the office. Spent.

Shorts & LS tee!

C • I'll raise you 1