Training Log Archive: rcro

Anybody out there able to give me a lift up to the BNC on Saturday? Mark Blackstone doesn't yet know if he'll be well enough...

C • BNC 4

Set myself a new record of getting from Alma Road to Temple Meads - 22 minutes. Very good considering I had only 26 minutes until the train left! Tickets paid for and printed at 14:40, left on the train at 14:41. Can't class it as training but I'm pretty pleased with the walking pace, even with my knee still hurting on and off.

Jog over to Coombe Dingle. Legs really struggling to get up Blackboy Hill.

My right knee started hurting once I got there and sat down - hence took things pretty slowly.

A TD3 klub night session, based on pacing. I don't do pacing normally, and tonight's session hasn't encouraged me to take it up either!

to/from the Downs.

Return involved racing a bus - the road was clearer than the pavement, but as it was a firstbus, I won easily.

Gentle jog - same route as last week. Had to keep slowing for the others, but I wasn't feeling in peak fitness.

At least average pace was better - if I want to get to the 1,000 ranking points score I'm going to have to be a lot quicker... My scores for the WIM Galoppen and CSCup Quali (both counting) have gone down, and NGOC Regional (not counting) gone up. If the changes make things fairer, how come David Potter is as many as 248 places higher than me?!

Not the fastest of "runs" today, but at least glad it was clean after last night! Felt that controls 2 and 4 were dog legs a bit, and climbing 2-3 was a real slog for some reason (I'm tired...?)

Control 5 seemed to encourage me to go the wrong side of the fallen tree, but looking at the map I can see that the control was correctly placed. Understandable having difficulty here - only controls 5 and 9 weren't easily visible from a very obvious line feature...

Went slow 8-9 as following a very, very rough bearing, loosely at that; found a knoll as I was going along so came onto the control in it's little hole quite easily, leading Alan Honey into it too. Bearing 10-11 ok but I went too low. Intended to aim off for 12. 13-14 via the string course which I think was the right choice. 14-15 through gateways as I expected there to be barbed wire fences on the straight line route. Wrong! And then didn't really have the energy to run the rest of the open - it was a lot of climb up to 17!

Could have been worse, and at least I didn't have to queue to register or start, or for that long to download!

http://connect.garmin.com/player/64724949

Event: WNL Wentwood
 

Absolutely terrible run! Spent ages at the start deciding where to go, then poor route choice through the early controls.

Went S-1-2-14-16-3-4-5-20-22-28-10-25-6-23-F.

Got 20 and 22 fine but distances felt a hell of a lot further on the ground than the map suggested - have checked the scale but it seems right... From 22 to 28 I hoped to see the junction between two distinct paths and turn off there. Sadly the paths were not distinct, nor the distinct paths that joined afterwards - I got a glimpse of what looked to be a small ride on my left that made me think twice, and then I realised that I was probably heading off the map...

Guesswork and forcing the terrain to fit the bit of map I wanted to go me to 28, same technique to 10. Looked at going in for 24 but decided it wouldn't be wise. 25 easy but then failed to find both 9 and 12 - although I did find a gully (but not the path next to it...). GPS suggests the platform I found near 12 was the one NE of the control.

Wanted to get 11 as I returned to finish but saw a footpath on the ground, assumed I'd gone to far and gave up, later realising that I was following the wrong path to the finish and going in the wrong direction...

2 mins late, could have been much much worse.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/64620809

As I've seemingly felt fit all week, decided to go out again today in lieu of doing any work at all. Went round the Downs in daylight (just... the bloody gps took 35 minutes to decide it had moved just 2 miles since its last use) so that I could add bits in if I wanted.

Ended up taking little detours away from the roads to get some more practice running on mud - if I thought ahead I'd have worn more appropriate footwear. Then was a dash back to get the distance up to 7 miles to see how close I'd be to where I was in October. 30s slower than then but quite happy that I'd have beaten it quite convincingly if I'd stuck to the grass and flat. Still seems that 7 miles is my limit at the moment.

Was a film crew up on the Downs, but at least the damn helicopter/plane that's been hovering over Clifton all week had disappeared by the time I set out.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/64292271

Jog from home to Coombe Dingle. GPSed it tonight (as it found itself so quickly...) so got an exact time and distance. Quite gentle but would have been much happier not running up Whiteladies Road...

A warm up?

A series of sprint courses involving a maze. Head to head with Pete Foster - I won two very comfortably, lost the last by 40s - although 30s of that was due to control failure...

Good fun, but Coombe Dingle gets very boring once you've been there more than once, and running to the far side of hockey pitch when cold and tired is about as un-fun as it gets. Did one of the nights without a torch in the autumn, makes you wonder just how hard it would be to go around without a map either!

Did the maze very quickly first time. Second time the map had gone a bit funny, and I thought control 9 (No 36) was No 39 so spent a minute going around the right control thinking it was wrong! Third time in the maze the control failed and I spent 30s trying it before giving up.

Either something up with the SI cards or the controls tonight as I had problems on two cards and others seemed to too.

to/from the Downs; felt quite good today!

The Clifton w*nkers are still out in their numbers trying their best to get in the way of anyone who looks like they may be running. One prat decided to randomly veer in front of me as I was overtaking him going up Whiteladies Road. He found out the hard way that I can't/won't stop instantly...

UBOC fitness training led by Alice. Gentle jog at a steady pace round Clifton and then the Downs. Didn't get filmed for Crimewatch though...

http://connect.garmin.com/player/63999143

CSC Longleat, brown course.

Nice and enjoyable courses, and despite drizzle as queued for starting the weather held out until after I'd finished!

No real major problems, but got confused with finding an exit from the enclosure between 4 and 5, and interpreting the map at 6. Didn't come through the dark green 10-11 very well either... Didn't find 15 or 22 as quickly as I'd hoped but otherwise quite clean.

Very happy with doing 9k in under 90 minutes - based on previous experiences it should have taken me around 2 hours!

http://connect.garmin.com/player/63695350

The last of the Saturday Leagues I'll be making this season (I hate Worlebury...) so wanted to finish in style. Not feeling great and think I've still some way to go to get over the flu from Christmas.

Relatively straightforward course, with quite long legs, using only about half of the Silk Wood map. Nav fine except for control 114 where I was relying on a patch of dark green on the map being visible on the ground - lost about 2 mins. Generally picked sensible route choices, and felt as though I was probably pushing myself a bit too much going up to the finish.

Finished at least 4 mins down on the winner, but still managed to finish with the fastest average speed I've ever managed at an orienteering competition - 9.7kph; beats the previous record set at Westonbirt 2 years ago!

http://connect.garmin.com/player/63490013

Spent all afternoon reeling with the disastrous result from Kidnalls - if I didn't listen to Brian, or didn't go east, I should have been with or above Alice Bedwell...

Was doing no work, so went out for a late afternoon "run" round the Downs. Nobody lurking in the bushes yet, but the pedestrians of Clifton still seem to want to make that extra effort to get in your way as you overtake them.

Boring as ever, but I decided once I'd got to the Downs that I was going to enjoy this more than Saturday night - and indeed I went a lot further in a lot less time tonight! Despite still not feeling either fit or healthy at the moment, the last two miles felt comfortable too!

http://connect.garmin.com/player/62989614

Had a horrid migraine all last night and this morning. Seemed to be worse if I lay down, or had my eyes closed, so not much sleep...

Obviously pushed myself beyond my fitness and current health last night, so in other words, I must be bloody unfit again!

C • Blame the brambles 2

Event: WNL, Kiddnals
 

Turn turn out at Kindalls tonight - obviously few had been before! Dare to the leave the paths and get stuck in dense brambles and fallen trees; keep on the paths and it's all wet mud...

Went S-26-17-13-25-27-19-21-28-15-F

26, 17 and 13 all straight forward as I'd caught up the person ahead of me doing the same thing before leaving the car park! Also made 26 very easy for Ifor... 17-13 included a lot more steep climbs than I expected, and I would have had no idea where I was if I didn't come across a big concrete bunker. 13-25 by paths as I thought brambles would be horrible, after a minute, the other guy with me followed and overtook me. Took a different route into 25 than him, via the dam so I wouldn't keep with him all the way and ended up stuck with loads of fallen trees with branches making it quite impenetrable - lost 3-4 mins.

25-27 via paths, lights ahead of me, lights behind me, lights to the side of me... Got the control easy, but getting across the stream about the bottom wasn't due to a huge unmapped canyon (the "ravine" at Long Valley was nothing compared to this...) Add insult to injury and it far side (that I had to climb) was fortified by yet more brambles and three fallen trees on top of each other. Getting to 19 was an awful climb through the brambles - I didn't see any gap in them as marked on the map. Got to the top and correcting recognised the path junction, but stupidly listened to Brian Laycock suggesting different - hence ran in the wrong way... 27-19 in just 16:40...

19-21 easy by paths, 21-28 by going back to the paths to avoid what looked grotty and steep. 28-15 by contouring on a steep and slippery slope, then cutting into the brambles to find a path so indistinct that it was invisible. Overshot, but led in by Tim Britton. 2 mins to go at this stage, followed a path with steps hidden under leaves down the hill onto the driveway of someone's house, which had lots of nice security lights sunken into the paving stones.

Concise as always, looked like a well planned course but let down badly the the total lack of any runnability at all - I'll certainly think twice before going back there a third time!

http://connect.garmin.com/player/62547376

C • Lights 1

Not been the best of Christmases - battled home on an unsalted motorway in the snow instead of the cancelled WNL, then a day later seemed to have caught the 'flu. Mostly stayed indoors for the last fortnight - went out once and the bus broke down on me - took that as yet another sign to stop using it. Add in my family's traditional festive feuding and you get a totally unexceptional fortnight of boredom.

Looking forward to being back in Bristol, feeling better, and actually doing some exercise again; it's not as if there will be any lectures to go to until mid February...

Seems that the BOF events list has upgraded all the ASO league events to Regionals, with ranking points; think that is justification enough to try and be meaner with the course planning - just now I'll have to make sure that the controls end up in the right place on the day...