Training Log Archive: rcro

BOK training run from Hotwells - along the gorge then back through Leigh Woods.

Stopped off to go to the toilet on the way out so gave Ifor and Charles getting on for 2 mins lead. Sought out to catch them and did so after about a mile but then wasn't able to pass them - they must have sped up, my GPS says I was consistently running in the range 13-16kph throughout the 4k so I hadn't slowed down. Eventually managed to drop Charles and think I may have pushed Ifor a bit towards the end.

Gentle through the woods, little detour for the more adventurous. Odd little efforts up hills and along well lit bits of flat to the bridge, by which time I had decided to set a new marker on Strava for crossing it - shaved another 6s off now top 5 of 178!

Felt like I was running well throughout, not appreciably feeling tired at any point so probably good to carry on for some more. Obviously starting to get toward where I want to be in terms of fitness and stamina.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/278040322

7.3km blue course.

Much easier than last night but still interesting. Started out in the fields but would have preferred it later on as went a bit too fast and struggled going up.

As got into the west part of the map, contoured at a slow pace. Took the top route 11-12. Given the controller am surprised that courses were designed such that the most obvious route (to the south) would have meant running along the narrow road (no pavement) that vehicles take to get to the car park...

No real mistakes but getting to 10 was a bit rough and not totally sure of the map there. It seems that, like last night, all fences were uncrossable but it had been decided to overprint over only a handful. How hard can it be to overprint uncrossable boundaries?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/277028322

NGOC League at Painswick. 6.2km blue.

A little bit cold for me for once. Didn't feel in the mood to push it so coasted around at a fairly slow pace.

Took the less obvious northern route 1-2 which avoided all the climb but crossed two double tagged fences - think they wanted it to be uncrossable but there was nothing mentioned in the start to say any of the map wasn't to ISOM and I wasn't going to stop to read the key. Took the fence crossings fairly slowly and barely put in any effort running the leg as a reward for avoiding 7 contour lines...

From 2 until 11 I wasn't really sure where I was on the map at any point but had the luxury of Caroline Craig being just ahead of me and I relied on her a bit when I couldn't match the map up. Lost a huge amount of time on 11 - got to the crag to the NE but spent a lot of time faffing around and descending very gingerly.

Apart from ballsing up 14 at the bottom of the map and 17 being slightly wrong (cost me only 10s or so as I realised quickly) the rest of the course went quite well - first time I'd ever run on the bottom half of the map.

Was 5th when I left, behind all the usual names. Beat Joe yet again so no reason for me to complain.

Enjoyable run - best I've had at Painswick by some way. Was some talk in assembly about it actually being remapped at some point. Think if they mapped it to 1:4000 scale or so would be great for some forest sprint races.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/276594387

Also now have controls for the WNL sorted! Nearly organised...

WNL around Tyntesfield in a snow storm. Decided to wear a base layer as very cold in car park - started to regret this once I got going but did notice fingers go a bit blue.

Route S-161-134-130-146-164-160-162-124-143-103-120-157-147-118-152-156-159-125-163-155-138-139-158-140-126-136-F. Missed two and 1 min late - should have dropped 67 points.

Think I took the best route out of the start as it meant going down the big hill rather than up. 146 awkward as required a dog leg - lucky I was led into the control.

Lost over a minute on 163 - it was a hard control to approach from below. As time was getting on got 138 on way out rather than intended on way back. Contouring to 139 not easy a got there by luck rather than judgement.

Very pleased to find 158 but had less than 7 mins to finish so had quite a trek.

Really enjoyable - between this and Mallards Pike for my favourite from the season. Even managed a few scalps...

Looks like I'll end the WNL season on about 7750 handicap points, meaning I've won that league despite my best efforts not to, and the main league on 5400 points. John Embrey should now be over 5500 points so I'll have to settle for 3rd place overall for this season.

BOK training run from Thornbury. Just me and Ifor so pace was faster and less stop-start than I had hoped.

Left work late so was in a rush and forgot torch - lucky that most of Thornbury is well lit bit had to be very careful in the dark bits.

Got to see lots of bits I'd never been to before - would be great for an urban race.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/275410876

Event: Studland CSC round
 

CSC Qualifier at Agglestone near Studland. 9.1km brown course.

Bad to 1 - saw there was a rock behind it but ran toward the wrong rock. Saw people exiting so went back. GPS implies control was 20 yards too far north. Saw 2 from 1 so easy. Straightish to 3 but got ankle caught - miracle it survived to complete the run.

Route to 4 ok but didn't fully expect there to be a great big hill given there were no contours. Walked round for a little bit, looking lost and then somebody found it for me. Great big unmapped re-entrant between 4 and 5.

Map well dodgy around 6 and 7 didn't feel that re-entrant with 6 was going in the right direction, then was caught in the huge re-entrant just SW of 7 that was mapped as the smaller one. Disregarded the possibility of being in the wrong re-entrant as the trees didn't match the map. Eventually found that 7 was in a re-entrant half the size it was mapped.

Path 8-9. Ws knackered by now so walked lots - was also into the wind. Stupidly forget I was ignoring contours and as the map said I had to cross a contour line to get to 9 I went up. It was on the flat... No trouble with 10-13.

Mess of 14 - couldn't tell whether the gully was high or low. Went high (through horrible thigh deep heather and gorse) so could look down for it. Turns out it was low, and not a gully. Around top to 15 - dropped very many more contours than mapped... 15-16 crossed the mapped gully at it's unmapped right angle bend. Was going to go over hill to 16 but in the end went around as decided it was low.

Then good up to 22. Exited to the north, went for a long time without crossing any path and ended up on the path to the finish - managed to miss the one that loop around the control. Ran fast down but started hesitating where final control would be as there were people up a big hill to my left. Based on map only big hill was covered in gorse and I assumed the veg was just mapped wrong. Matched path bend and realised that my control was at the top of said big hill despite an absence of contours.

At leas the run in was good and the finish wasn't 20 yards the other side of a shut gate...

Good area let down by terrible, terrible map. It may be brand new but if the Galoppen is here in a couple of months time I won't be making the journey unless it is comprehensively remapped first.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/274547363

Barely slept last night and struggled to force any substantial food down me today. Concerned it'll be a repeat of last year - last three months and end with me completely running out of all energy at a race and having to be rescued by first aid. We'll see...

WNL Sallowvallets.

Route S-7-12-6-23-5-9-4-20-24-18-8-26-15-19-16-1-F. 345 points I think.

Slow into gully at 7 - v.v.steep. Then loads of brashings in block to 12 - found it hard going, saw something white a long way to my left, disregarded it but turned out to be the control. Made a bit of a mess 5-9, nothing on 9-4 afterward.Should have gone via 3 to 20 but may well have cost me over a minute.

Brambles before 24 much worse than mapped. Ditch obvious but managed to overshoot and had to turn back. Did a rough bearing and pace count to 18. Stopped after a while to look around as I thought I should be pretty much in the centre of the circle and looked for a platform, found one and it even had a control on it...

V slow down hill to 26 - hard going as was making the stones roll and these were the same stones that I ended up treading on as I continued my descent... Bit slow to 15 - knew roughly where I was going but needed a breather.

Proper running fast around 19 and 16 - much much faster than I managed at Walcombe earlier. Needed to as I had 10 minutes to do over a kilometer with 140m climb... Heard a startled grunt after leaving 16 and suddenly found a wild boar 2ft in front of me - it ran off but I took a wide berth. Ascended the hill much much better than I did at BUCS but decided not to get 11 as thought time was tight. Then remembered that the finish was actually 200 yards the other side of where it was mapped and had a hell of an uphill slog to get back in time. Just managed but seemed to be suffering the affects of dehydration quite badly as I got to the pub.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/274050347

C • energy preservation 3

C • Boar 2

4.6km green course.

Due to nature of area the first leg was about 1/3rd of the whole course and was mostly trivial - just run through muddy fields between gates with no route choice or navigation required. Did this too fast and was tired after the first mile...

Then began to slow down. Just about held on to Duncan for most of 2-4 (so, 300 yards...) mostly because he wasn't sure if the wall we were told not to cross was crossable or not (if it were uncrossable, the control was inaccessible...). Slow down the hill as in ankle preservation mode. Went in too early for 6 - knew roughly where to go but feel path could have been mapped better and control should have been mapped as a platform - I naively went up there looking for knolls as per map and ontrol descriptions!

From there was well into energy preservation mode (for CSC) too and 6-7 was taken at a fairly leisurely pace, stopping briefly to admire a pile of dead birds in one of the fields. Contouring 8-10 a bit dodgy for ankle but made fair progress. Far too far north for 11, suspect the map may be misleading as I went straight through the middle of the undergrowth yet GPS says I seemed to skirt the top of it. Wasn't the only one to do this.

Finish quite a struggle.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/273832154

Year end work now finished for me after just 16 days (!) of overtime. Fingers crossed I can now get back into training as I was doing before Christmas.

Devon League event on Hound Tor/Hay Tor. 5.3km blue course.

Potentially a nice event but ruined as typical from Devon. Finished wondering how the hell they used controls sites next to huge unmapped cliffs!

Took paths as much as I could in to 1, going slow over rocks to preserve ankle. Moment I left the paths it was horizontal brambles placed perfectly to catch your feet - tripped over twice being decided there was no way I could run through it. Wanted to go straight to 2 but marsh looked very dodgy so went up and around. Map unclear at 2 - control between two crags but it was not between the only two crags mapped in the circle but was half way up one...

Bit lucky with 5 as saw someone punch from some distance away. Bit off at 7 as map a little deficient. Feature was a boulder in an area mapped as boulder field and not sure it was in right place. Worked out where to go and lost only 30s or so.

Long leg to 8 - went straight through the marsh and came out on the path where I expected. Cut across the rough and ended up at the top of a 10m high cliff with a stream underneath. No mapped cliff between path and stream so assumed I must have gone off the map. Went along and found more cliff and kept going until I realised that this cliff did not end and I would have to go down somepoint. Turns out I was on the map when I hit the cliff - almost exactly in the centre of the circle, just on the wrong side of the feature. Not helped by the control not being put in the right place - based on the mapped bend in the stream it was getting on 100m too far NW, but it felt a lot further. Punched the control, crossed the stream and tried to run through the white on the other side. It was impenetrable and I had to back out and go round.

Then a bit fed up for the rest of the course. Gorse ok into 11, not nice coming out. 11-12 the only runnable bit of course and was entirely into a headwind. Ran straight through the mapped huge bush after 12 as though it wasn't there... Hurdled the gate at 13 as had a sign saying we must not open it or climb over.

Paths unuseable for nav towards the end but found pond with no problem. Then just before 15 got properly tripped by bramble and jarred my neck a bit as I landed. Could see 16 as climbing hill out from 15 - didn't look to be the right place according to map but wasn't wanting to bother interpreting all the black dots - went to it in hope it was correct and it was.

Cannot believe the cliff was not mapped at all at 8 - not even a form line. Duncan and Mark reassuringly in agreement.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/271788776

Not happy with entry fees either. Flyer said £5, they charged £6 - apparently as a consequence of the new BOF levy. They've known about the new arrangements for some months so how hard could it have been to have put up an updated flyer on the website? Might also need to have some words about them refusing to offer student discount - I'm sure this is something we agreed with SWOA via Erik Peckett two years ago as standard.

C • Maybe 1

Event: British Night Championships
 

Marking sites in Cannop for WNL. Wyedean rally going on so lots of cars everywhere and parking officials seemed to be scaring other people away (including me) from going into the car park by the Ponds. Result was that I saw only three other people in all the time I was out marking sites.

Have now settled on the main car park for start/finish as the other one I considered was too small. Have marked all the non-trivial sites and they seem to be useable without needing any modification. Lost a good 5 mins trying to find one high scorer, another couple on another and found a third where the map isn't quite right on the feature but I was led to the same point when attacking from various different angles. Will have to hang a few quite high...

Didn't appreciate quite how poor the Cannop map is in places for showing where the gradient changes sharply - found my self descending an almost sheer slope on two occasions and the contours didn't suggest anything of the sort! At least will not affect finding the controls.

They've done a fair amount of thinning on the west and top side of the map - far more brashings now than back in December and a lot of extraction tracks. Some bits, however, much more runnable than I've ever remembered previously.

Finished off by testing the quality of the food at the Rising Sun.

BOK training run around Ashton Court with new guy Paul.

Was all too far and too fast for me tonight - still not recovered from the weekend.

Split off from the slower runners at the top of the zig-zag so not much hanging around. Didn't like going through the bottom field and it knackered me for the last hill.

Suffering some blister problems by the end.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/270114279

C • Paul? 2

Event: Midland Orienteering Championships 2013
 

WIM Winter Warmer on Ibsley Common - 10.2km brown course. A long way and the heather made it hard work.

Couldn't see much of the area before the start and was the first brown starter for some time so nobody to follow - start on a path junction with an immediate decision point... Very quick to decide where to go and got 1 ok - then in avoiding a marsh ended up looking on the wrong hill for 2 - c60-75s lost. Unsure to 3 but the contour features were unmistakeable. Knocked off track going into 6 by a smart looking OUOC athlete looking in the wrong place - didn't cost me any time though.

Was then running with Mark pretty much from here to the finish (7-8km!) - was ahead until just after 11 and ended up leading him in to most - took an odd exit from 8 so I wouldn't give the site away - he missed it. Bit dead for the slog up to 12 but held on to Mark through here and for most of the long leg down to 14.

Ankle twisted crossing path halfway 13-14. Got going again after a bit and suspect no major damage done. Followed Mark a bit to save navigating, identifying which level I should be on but then getting distracted by a big path that fitted the map but parallel to where I wanted. Slow out to 15 - went cross country through the bracken. Unsure if the fire was mapped or was just obscured by the control number.

Surprised to see Mark still exiting 16 as I entered as thought I'd slowed a lot. Managed to not get lost to 17 so overtook him before the really horrid heather around 18. Managed to fall off the path 21-22 before a slow 9s run in split.

Think I lost about 3 mins. Felt like I was running well through the heather. Was (just) 5th when I downloaded - 4 mins down on Burley, 2.5 mins on Dale. Probably one of my top 6 best runs but suspect it won't be a top 6 score.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/269178611

NGOC Informal at Crickley Hill. 5.6km blue course

Very steep area - quite small and some "interesting" planning that meant you had to be on the ball to go to the controls in the right order.

Cleanish run but lost a bit of time on 2 as control was not in the right place in relation to the path junction below it. Didn't spot the best route to 4 (along the bottom, then the road) so had a bit of extra height climb. Walked up the hill - really lacking any energy to run on the open at the top - 5 surprisingly well disguised.

Poor route to 7 but didn't cost me much, straight line to 8 not as quick as going back to the path - the fence wasn't as complete as mapped! Unsure which path I was following to 9 - turned left and found a fence - confirmed I was correct, then found quarry to tell me I was in exactly right place. Left 10 and went toward 14, looking ahead realised next control after was 15, realised my mistake and turned around! Should have gone around path in woods 11-12 - crossing fences very slow. Lost more time crossing fences to 13 - should have gone around and through gate.

Good from there on, steadily overtaking other runners. Final climb was a struggle.

Managed to beat Joe today so pleased with my performance.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/268664689