Training Log Archive: martin(uk)

Hallam Parkrun.

I felt pretty sluggish, and ran pretty slowly, but it was good to get in some exercise after over a week without.

C • No wonder 1

Swiss 5-days, Day 4, Long, Villars sur Onnons/Les Diablerets.

The control descriptions said 340m climb. A simple look at the course/map would tell you it was far more than that! My watch recorded 560m of climb, and I certainly didn't do any more than I had to. The run-in should probably have been described as a "walk-in", it was that steep.

Anyway, the alpine views were nice, and it was proper tough orienteering. Half the M45 field took over 2 hours, so I was quite pleased with 96.

http://www.o-l.ch/cgi-bin/results?type=rang&year=2...

Day 5 is a mass start on the WOC Long Final area, which would have been fun, but I'm not running. Instead I'm at IOF General Assembly debating "the future of WOC" amongst other things.

Swiss 5-days Day 3, Middle, Col de la Givrine.

Swiss 5-days, Day 2, Mont Chaubert "Longish" Middle.

Swiss 5-days, Day 1 Sprint, Lausanne University

Event: WOC 2012 - Lausanne SWITZERLAND
 

Event: Nottingham City Race
 

Nottingham Urban Race, Mens Veteran (course 2).

After a long day at Graves Park Cliffhanger, and quite a few pints in Hathersage with Andy Simpson etc, I wasn't sure if I was going to feel very energetic for this race. Thankfully, once I got going, I felt ok and got into a good rythm. The tunnel was used again, and some good intricate housing to the north of the city, but the course missed the intricate (multi-level) stuff in the university that caught people out last time. Caught Charlotte Ward 4 minutes by the intricate housing bits, so that helped slightly when the course was going in and out of alleyways.

The castle at the end could have been tricky, but there was a 2-minute road crossing time-out not long before it, so plenty of time to check it out.

1st, with a 90 second win, so happy with that. Another 100 Nopesport League points in the bag. And another Buff.

Event: Cliffhanger Ultrasprint
 

Cliffhanger, putting out Score Course controls.

Cliffhanger was cancelled after torrential rain on Friday (and most of June and July), but the orienteering could go ahead anyway, albeit without the maze barriers for the Ultrasprint.

First job was to get 24 controls out in the more remote parts of Graves Park. Some walking, some jogging, plenty of steep slippery muddy banks.

Ultrasprint, Qualifier 1. Struggled occasionally with the map scale, so a few losses of 5-10 seconds at controls, but generally ok.

Ultrasprint Qualifier 2. Better now that I had the hang of the scale, few misses, but good enough for a top 6 place and into the A final.

Ultrasprint A Final.

Great course with two different sets of butterflies so it was a fun head-to-head race (until I got dropped). Managed to keep Joe Taunton in sight, and it turned out I was in 4th at the spectator control, when I guessed I was 5th or 6th. Rob B came by on the next set of butterflies and made it a sprint finish with Joe for 3rd/4th, and I came 5th. No need for me to sprint, since I'd won the Veterans race anyway, and had Nottingham coming up tomorrow.

Dore Urban event.

Certainly the muddiest urban event I've ever run, as all the grassy areas were a bog. Nice to get to run on the map though, as I missed out when it was used after the Harvester 2011.

Event: Harvester 2012
 

Harvester Leg 7, A Race, SYO Zimmer Stars.

Charlie lost some time on leg 1, but Tim and Dave got us back into a respectable position, and we were fairly easily the leading Handicap team (which was the trophy we were defending). Then unfortunately Marcus on leg 5 completely missed a control, so the team was DSQ. Consequently, I really wasn't motivated to race leg 7. I was hoping there would at least be another team or two close by to race with, but there wasn't.

Anyway, I made a stupid mistake at 1 (went straight to the control, but mis-read the code, so ran away and then came back to it a minute or so later), then struggled with 3 and 4 in the complex path area. Decided that I'd better put some effort in (at least to the navigation), otherwise this could take a really long time.

After that it got better, but I still managed to lose contact at key points in the vehicle tracks area, and threw some more minutes away relocating not very near where I needed to be. Then we headed off across some fields that clearly nobody else had been into - chest high grass, occasionally also featuring thistles and nettles, not nice. Anyway, at least the sun was shining.

Got back just in time for the prize giving, and to applaud the SYO Women's team who won. Without time for breakfast, had to head off for Grantham and an athletics fixture.

North of England League Athletics, Grantham.

Got there just in time after a 3 hour drive from the Harvester.

400H - normally I don't push too hard on this, knowing I have several more track events, but this time I raced it hard. 1st.

Discus - haven't thrown a discus for years, but anything to score a few points. First one barely made it out of the cage, but second was 16m and third about 17m.

3k SC - only 5 of us in the race, and nobody seemed to want to push the pace. The guy in the lead ended up in the water with both legs up to his knees whic amused me, because I always accelerate through the water jump and only get my left foot wet. With four laps to go I decided to push on and I got a 20m lead. At the bell it hadn't increased, and the guy behind came flying past me on the back straight. Nothing I could do, so finished 2nd in a slow 11:30 or so.

100H - again only 5 in the race, and James said "lets make it a Hallamshire 1 and 2". So we did. 2nd, in 21.2.

Triple jump - I couldn't get into the pit off the 9m board, but luckily Grantham also has a 7m board so that worked fine. 8.88m, which is crap, but by now I could barely get any speed up.

C • tough day 3