Training Log Archive: rcro

Hope from work a bit late as PLC board meeting to decide how much money to let us spend and boss's boss's boss's boss came to talk to us at 4.

Easy short run from home to give me time to write up the risk assessment for Thursday whilst watching bake off.

Found road running much easier tonight - maybe linked to eating out last night (client entertainment...) and at lunchtime (York team visiting), and eating a LOT of malteasers throught the afternoon.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1255264970

Event: 2017 Welsh League Event
 

Welsh League at Whiteford Burrows. 8.8km Brown course.

Legs surprisingly fresh given yesterday, but did start tiring from 19 onwards.

Had terrible run here last time so hope was to be cleaner and was fairly good. Generally knew where I was all the time. Losses:
2: 30s as went in too early and continued along ridge
3: route choice took me through pretty thick undergrowth (not on map). Maybe still was best route
4: 20s as too far east and found the level.
8: 60s - went to depression to east, think the veg on the ground encouraged me - then went in wrong direction looking.
13: went straight and hit much worse undergrowth than expected - ended up almost hitting the path to W to avoid.
14: 60-90s on route choice as got bored of path quickly so tried to go around avoiding climb. Ended up further west than I wanted and went via 17 - and still had climb at the end.
20 - went out to path and then fairly straight - as per 3 undergrowth was much worse than mapped. Then at end went to depression to E and had to relocate. Following path right down and approaching from S would have been quicker but not hugely - 30s

Fairly good run overall. Results print out shows me -6th/13. Generally moving at same speed as Tom when neither had mistakes, most of the splits only a few seconds difference.

Would be a good place for night-o!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1252338771

Event: Western Night League
 

Legs not up for this and large amount of single track meant not "racing" fully today. Stuck to this by starting near the back, which gave me a hell of a job of overtaking. Lots of stop-start in the bracken, going off path to pass and then getting stopped by people pulling out in front, and then walking...

Hit the wind along the top, but kept jogging until the last 60m climb to the top. Passed John Aggleton here so was first MDC (I think) for a bit... right calf feeling unhappy after the flat so gave even more reason to slow down - so no records today. Incredibly windy on the top!

Reasonably quick for me on the down, but could have gone faster. Tripped a bit on the steep bit just before Forest Coal Pit corner. Reasonably try on flat part after corner then slowed right down on the climb as trying to reattach race number as the wind had ripped out all 4 corners by this point and the needles were doing their best to get stuck into my thumb. Turns out all in vain as 3 of the corners had ripped out again after a k so I just held it.

From the turn (which was earlier than it used to be, making the course slightly shorter, but much nicer) picked the pace up along the ridge as nice running, and slowed down along track at the end.

A good route for a run, and surprised time was reasonably good for the effort put in.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1250606650

WNL on Trellech Common. Poor run with lots of mistakes. Thought the terrain was better than expected, as was nice early on, then hit the brambles after 17 minutes.

S-6-14-18-1-9-20-17-24-25-19-26-30-23-27-11-22-29-16-28-10-7-13-2-F. 510 points (of 600).

Not taking it too seriously so just aimed to get an hour's night running in and go where ever - maybe showed in navigation as pulled well off line after 14 (knew it!), didn't go left enough on 20 and various bigger mistakes further through the run.

17 seemed much higher up the hill than I thought - would have lost much more time if Tommi hadn't just exited from it. Around path to 25 then straight to 19. Compass said I was pulled some wa left - so went a long way down path to compensate and overshot. Had established best route to 26 would be around the paths, so I went straight and ended up fighting big brambles. Big big overshoot on 27 and relocated from track corner. Attacked by a load of burrs going into 11 and stopped to remove them all as they were digging in a lot.

Then a good section as from leaving 11 to getting to 7 was pretty clean (yes, lucky of 16 being led in by Jason). Then a balls of 13 as cut through the open (not to be advised) and then into wood expecting gully in the trees. Found path beyond and got confused before working it out.

5 to 5.5 mins of mistakes - so if I was a bit cleaner would have had time to finish up with 28-15-8-10-7-2-13-3-5 and then around the road for an extra 45 points. Not enough speed post fell race (and to be honest, in that terrain I wouldn't be faster) to really consider 12/21/4.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1250971123

NOTE - I didn't "just" beat Clive, I completely outclassed him! ;-)

Skipped the pub as car park looked full and there were a load of zombies by the entrance smoking fags. By going straight home was treated to a fantastic firework display at the racecourse :-)

Once home in the dark learned how to (a) dismantle my car key, (b) reassemble said key, (c) dismantle car door handle, (d) reprogramme car key, (e) reassembly car door handle - so it means I'm back to having two working keys after one packed up this morning. Answers a question I've long had about how the plastic "spare" key disables the alarm when there's nothing electronic - it doesn't. Glad I did it at 9pm rather than 11!

C • Zombies.... 1

Legs tired from last night so a rest day today. Then wanted to eat a big oreo chocolate bar after lunch so became a Burley rest day.

Slow pace and short route, but quite undulating. Actually going better jogging than I'd felt walking.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1248006698

C • Burley rest days 1

First time at Lliswerry for a long time and legs feeling a bit crap. Hartridge Hill reps so nothing too hard.

Started out with group 3 so that I ease back in to it. 4x 3 reps, did first 2 sets as long stride low cadence and it felt pretty easy and thought I was going faster than group 2.

For third rep started quicker and then was lapped by group one on the first down so had them for company - and unlapped all of them... As in front of group 2 by this point joined them and did 4 for the last two sets and feeling I had been trying by the end.

Quite a nice interval session as the effort is about 40s and recovery is double that, and not a *huge* amount of climb. Passing everyone by virtue of not slowing down half way up and so carrying more speed after the corner onto the flat.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1246725165

MDC run on Merthyr Mawr sand dunes. Traffic was awful - took an hour, and went to the pub to avoid driving later so had to jog over to meeting point.

Fields all very wet and slippery - these shoes are hopeless on wet/mud, but these are also my dedicated sand shoes.

Legs not feeling good from too much sitting down and not enough stretching so sticking right at the back and going slowly. Much better on the sand though and going reasonably quick and descending almost well.

Return was quite quick as left the others and went off alone as I had extra k to go back to car.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1245189405

Event: CompassSport Cup Final
 

NGOC's first time in the "Cup" final - at Virtuous Lady. 9.9km Brown.

Expected it to be spending a lot of time fighting on impossible slopes and turns out I was right. Not my idea of fun - enjoyed the fell relays much much more.

First 2/3 navigation was trivial but getting to controls was not and lost many minutes on the slopes. Particularly area around 4/5 where it seems that all courses from blue onwards visited so I where 400 or so had already run and there was nothing to grip onto. Lots of others really struggling too.

Good news at least is that the ankle got most of the way from start to 12 without twisting but it wasn't to last and hurt a lot for a while.

Last part of the course was more a case of trying to read the map where it's all just lines. Combination of tiredness, and the problems I have with seeing sharp contrasts meant I couldn't really see it at all and lost time on 16 and 18, and then again on 22 as just didn't really get the map matching the ground went to the nearest control to relocate.

Some OK splits but really not my terrain. Club did reasonably well to finish 6th - there was an outside chance we could have got 5th had things gone our way but seems DVO did better than I had expected. Has got us noticed a bit.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1242198601

Planning my street-o in Kingsway (Gloucester) and making notes for map updates.

Wind was strong for carrying papers but rain held out until the very end. Plans for using lamp post numbers and fire hydrants hit a snag when the appears to be a lack of either. Did see a couple of trees with light bulbs hung in them so couldn't not incorporate that into a question!

Turns out I did 18k - which might explain why it took so long.

From close to control site 29 up to Gloucester Park, back down the Bristol Road into Kingsway and then back to the car in Quedgeley.

Got me the join to Kingsway so just the Hartpury gap to get all of Gloucestershire overlapping. But at some price - the return was a lot of running without actually going anywhere, and once into Kingsway it started raining - a lot. Totally drenched and blinded by rain in eyes within a few seconds. Character building.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1240355453

Started later than planned as first the train home was cancelled, then the next was delayed 20 minutes, and had some phone calls to make.

Weather pretty grim so was some effort to get myself out at all. Ditched the third (waterproof) layer at the start of the main climb as warm - although was never pushing "hard".

Once up near the top visibility was pretty much zero - could see my feet and on full beam maybe 4m ahead. Did very well to actually find the trig. Quicker coming down but still taking it easy.

The drive home took half the night. Road shut at Bassaleg for roadworks. A48 shut after Castleton because of roadworks... (and let's not forget the M4 is shut eastbound for roadworks this evening). No idea what the official route from Machen (or Bassaleg) into Newport was supposed to be. With this level of project mis-management and lack of co-ordination anyone would think the Welsh Government were involved...

https://www.strava.com/activities/1238074667

AGM later and no time to come home from work work in between - won't get back until nearly midnight :-(

C • swoc night event? 2

MDC on side of Merthyr Common.

Getting there from work was less effort this week - starting off with a brand new "Super" Express Train (be warned - the seats are significantly less comfortable than those on the Thames Turbos...), followed by a bus, and lastly MY CAR!!!

Fairly steady run catching the end of a beautiful sunset. Surprisingly legs felt quite tired so didn't really accelerate or go very fast (maybe I caught something from the "Super" Express Train?)

Nice easy route but opted out of the unknown scramble up to Morlais quarry and carried on at sedate pace with John to the path and back.

Really need to emphasise the importance of all runners carrying a back up light - 2 had torch failure tonight.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1235017531

Have to say I was quite happy with the old strava dashboard.

Crap night's sleep - one guy in the room kept getting up and going in and out every couple of hours, and snoring incredibly loudly (could hear through ear plugs) when in the room.

Weather better than expected. Pretty windy, but warm and fog was only down on the very top. Didn't rain beyond a few spots.

Leg 3 (navigation). The map advertised as 11.2km with 850m climb but not sure how this was calculated as I did over 300m more climb. Possibly it was intended that runners were expected to contour around Moel Eilio and jump the fence where there was no permitted crossing (as, apparently many teams did...) rather than a fairly tedious 300m climb to the only marked crossing at the very top, only to turn around a lose it immediately on the other side!

Despite not feeling strong, think Martyn and I had a good run. Went out in a fairly poor position - c.150th, and just 2 mins ahead of the mass start. Planned most of the routes whilst heading out on the road, and had performed our first overtake before end of the taped section. By CP1 had gained 8 places, 15 by CP2 (arguably there was some route choice here, as ours was shorter than the others!), and then another 7 or 8 teams on the big climb.

Once on the top was in the fog and wind was incredibly strong. Got down to 3 ok, and identified a big train of people ahead going too far south. We cut left (but not by enough!) to overtake all, including "traitor" Sasha who had a 10 min headstart :-)

Route to 4 required some bravery, and I was hoping to have someone ahead to lead us down through the crags - but they were all wimps so we had to decide when to turn off the edge into the fog. Was actually quite nice in the end - very steep, slippery to a degree, but short cut grass. Still lost place to most of the group we'd just overtaken.

Along the bottom through the bogs was a case of catching up, with the help of the last sharp climb we did, and got some more by CP6 and descent to the finish. Had expected the drop down to be a nightmare based on stories of finishers, but it was mostly just very boggy. Only places we lost going down were the two teams we overtook *after* CP6 - which is a success for me :-)

Shame not to break 2 hours, but think we had a pretty good run and splits will be interesting. Take out all who cheated on 2-3 and might look better. In all think we overtook 30 teams :-)

Good fun - despite some reservations beforehand. Martyn was a good partner and helped me push harder than I would have on my own. Glad I came.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1231683379

Results show us 76th/180 on the leg. I suspect if you remove the cheaters or equalise in some other way (they gained at least 10 mins...) we'd have been in to top third :-)

Event: NGOC League 10
 

NGOC League at Danby Lodge. Huge turnout again - 178!

First time actually orienteering since the SHIs, and with calves not happy on Tuesday didn't want to do any damage so took it easy when it felt hard. Also pretty ankle-unfriendly so slow in terrain.

No real mistakes apart from turning a path too early for 2 - and not realising quite what I'd done until going through the same area again on leg to 12.

Think I took the best routes the rest of the time - just at a steady pace. Reasonably quick to the finish.

Followed with 4 hour drive up to North Wales, after I managed to get away from people who kept wanting to talk to me...

https://www.strava.com/activities/1230262716

Picked up "fixed" car from garage. 2 year warranty on the new clutch and flywheel - which will also pay for other damage caused should it fail. Invoking it first thing tomorrow morning as strong smell of burning clutch, making worrying amounts of louder clatter than before, and the pedal doesn't always come back when I take my foot off it :-(

Stopped off at Risca leisure centre to get some off road in. 16x 1 min with, mostly, 30s rest in between. First intervals I've done in a long time so hard. Pretty wet and muddy underfoot.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1227100163

All being well should be able to pick up fixed car tomorrow. Strictly no more road running until after the relays so now on a rest day. Hopefully be able to do a couple of laps of fields in Rogerstone or at Risca leisure centre tomorrow afternoon to help keep the legs turning.

Left work at lunchtime feeling very tired as the hotel was a bit disappointing and barely got any sleep at all. Long train journey and Stanedge tunnel made me feel quite drowsy...

Picked up from Abergavenny station so avoided the nightmare traffic chaos around the M4 - but we started 20 mins late as the Cardiff lot weren't so lucky.

Followed the race route to the top (which was windy) then came straight back as short of time.

Calf went from being tight early on, to uncomfortable, to in pain as we went up the cone - had to stop 4 times to stretch it. Sunday is still a long time away and 10 hrs sat on trains over last 2 days really won't have helped - but not really up for the Fell Relays now, sadly I'm stuck with it as there's no reserves left!

Nice to be off road. Not nice that all the road running has broken me.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1224365945

Travelling to MDC run, via Manchester and York...

Seems i have got lucky with seats and have about 2 ft legroom both ways so can do a bit of stretching.


---
Picked the right day for it! My usual train home broke down so would have taken getting on for 2 hours to get home - *almost* as long as it *should* from York. Got to love GWR!!!

Legs pretty heavy from yesterday as expected. Short recovery jog by a reasonably undulating route. Generally going ok up but knees not so happy down. Really struggling with humidity today - think my cold has worsened somewhat, and corresponds with fairly high heart rate compared to previous few weeks.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1220503140

Event: Junior Home Internationals Individual & Welsh League Event 2017 / Relays
 

Definitely feeling tired and hot weather and strong headwind ALL the way made this tough.

Off the train at Pontyclun, loop around to Miskin, up through Hensol and then across to Bridgend via the back roads.

As per last week, just wishing it to be over for the last 8k and not helped by the wind being much stronger in the estate around what's currently the Ford factory. Legs and rest of me really feeling it after 4 consecutive days of 10k+ tarmac.

Have now planned how to link up my last 2 runs in the vale (Porthkerry and Penarth), but there's no way I'm putting myself through another 20k of tarmac tomorrow so it will have to wait. Map below shows fairly good percentage of total mileage now joined up now - just one 30k run Ledbury to Gloucester would do most of the rest.
https://citystrides.com/users/2892/map

https://www.strava.com/activities/1219214453

Returning the courtesy car to the garage. Sounds like car should be fixed for when I'm back on Wednesday.

Ran home via Mountain Road but took a different route than I planned so ended up at the cattle grid by Twmbarlwm, having gone up an incredibly steep hill.

Feeling pretty tired - week of trains being messed up and far too much road running, didn't have much to put in today.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1217988278/overv...

Car still not fixed... so Brynglas as the last place left to run. Feeling tired today so not going very hard. Reasonably big hill up to Brynglas.

Guessing the way off the other side and some of the off-road alleyways were a bit too dark and rough to run. Only really just about light enough on the cycle path at the bottom but a great view of a huge moon at the far end of the valley beyond Caerleon.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1216739054

C • What on earth is wrong with your car?! 2

Car still not fixed so more roads from home. Duffryn and Bassaleg tonight so leaves just Brynglas and Malpas before I've done every direction in a fortnight.

Slow pace to start down the hill but found an extra gear along Forge Lane so the second half was reasonably quick for similar effort.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1215239056/overv...

MDC run from Tintern. A new route to the west taking in Barbadoes Wood/Botany Bay and then down to Fedw Wood.

Actually quite a nice route with some good single track paths. Some lively cattle in the fields but avoided the worst.

None of the group ahead of me waited at a fairly key junction about 1k from the end so left 7 of us guessing the way back and eventually did via some descending through terrain (it wasn't as bad as expected). Really not a good show from a safety perspective - could easily have lost people tonight.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1213790728