Training Log Archive: rcro

Went out for a walk with a friend up Dundry Hill from Hotwells.

Took a 1:25,000 OS map with me and soon realised why I gave up hiking and using maps. Much as though they appear to be accurate, at pretty much every "decision point" I had absolutely no idea which way was the right way.

To make things more interesting, the footpaths have taken un-mapped diversions, two of the paths we looked for we could not find, and the local farmer seemed to have overlooked his duty to keep the footpaths clear from brambles. Was quite a struggle, and it rained a lot too...

Good views of the Severn bridges from the top though, but I won't be going up there again in any hurry!

Bloody hell...

"Ran" the middle course, but really struggled with the climb! Legs 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 6-7, 10-11 and 11-12 were all taken walking, the rest mostly a slow jog.

10-11 was a nasty slog after a long run and there were 4 other people around me, all walking up the path. 11-12 was flattish, but I was knackered.

Lots of grip issues again on the one slope towards the west of the Highmeadow map, and had a lot of fights with bracken, brambles, nettles and branches/logs. Survived though, and glad that my trusty old roclites came out of retirement yet again rather than mess up my nice new ones on such a grotty area.

Adam Potter wanted to race me, so started a few minutes after me. He won, by a very large margin...

Still, not bad given the cold I've got, running so much yesterday, and respectably placed overall. Doubt I really could have done any better if I wanted.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/49654463

Event: London: One City, Two Races - The City
 

Been looking forward to the novelty of this, and it didn't really disappoint, although it was most definitely a course for runners rather than navigators.

Ran course 1, Men Open.

Navigation was absolutely fine except for being a bit unsure at where I was when heading to 1 and 11, with the intricate details catching me out a bit at 12 and 21. Worked out 6 and 26 from control descriptions. Had to stop and think what was going on at 17, but I got it fine.

Overall, speed was slightly slower than at Didcot – today my GPS read 6 miles (or 9.66km as it likes to put it) at 64 minutes in, with a general steady pace for most of the north side of the map. Had no difficulty crossing the Millennium Bridge, and GPS said I didn't drop below 14km/h when crossing – the person ahead of me, however, had more of a struggle with pedestrians!

Absolutely knackered after crossing the river, so 15-16 and 23-24 were both more walking than running, and I didn't like 18-19 as they were so close together that it was annoying making such a long winded route!

Overall, performance not bad, and it's the last fast street running course I'll be running for at least a few months.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/49528952

Went for a walk with a friend to Saltford via the cycle path. Chances are that I'll probably be walking the last half of the Long-O this weekend so a bit of practice would do no harm... Bloody boring 4 hours of my life and not worth the £4.15 bus fare back.

Cool weather meant that it probably would have been nice for running for a change. Hope it lasts through the weekend like this.

First race of this year's South West sprint champs. Too hot and unpleasant weatherwise for sprinting, so not great for me.

Involved quite a lot of concentration, although I found that I really hadn't got the time to look at the map in sufficient detail.

First challenge was control 4, having navigated to where it was on the map, found it to be on the roof of a building. 4-5 very short leg, not enough time to read control description, didn't know which wall in the circle I had to go to, hence much longer route taken than was needed...

Went to 6 and found a closed gate in my way, found out afterwards that it was unlocked... possibly cost me a minute or so. 7-8-9 quick.

Bit of a mess navigating to 10, not a huge problem, but tired. 11-12 had a strip of building between them. Assumed it to be a path, but didn't lose much, if anything.

Everything else fine, but thought it was a bit naughty having controls 75 and 76 only a couple of feet apart. Few, if any, mispunches though.

7th of 8, so not too disappointed.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/48717278

Race 2. Second start.

Caught the SWJS chap 1 min ahead of me by control 1 and was still with him at 5 despite taking different routes 1-2 and 3-4. Overtook him at 6 because he didn't seem to notice the nice path straight through the basketball court to the control!

Went past my old room from last summer, got passed by the SWJS and someone in black who started after me, before 7. Dropped back a bit on the exit, but neither were far ahead at 8. Went north side of ponds (surely the only way?) to 9, and cleverly identified a hard strip separating the marsh and ponds to get me ahead of the SWJS guy by 10 (the other being long gone...).

10-11 long leg via south of building site - seems good. 11-12 along a not so good route, but the two of us both ended up together approaching 12. Think I took the better route to 13, just slowly, once again, arriving at the control together.

13-14 heading uphill, and I was determined not to let the person in front get out of sight to ensure I'd beat someone. Both of us read the building at 14 as at the top of the retaining wall, but the map does suggest otherwise. Jumped down carefully (not marked uncrossable) and slowly, pushed quite hard from there to the finish.

Much better run than earlier, although the final push took its toll a bit. Some preparation for London next week....

http://connect.garmin.com/player/48717266


Bit peed off with my GPS at the moment - works fine, but the connections on it's dock are a bit dodgy. With a bit of effort, I can get it to connect for just long enough in one go to transfer to the computer.