Training Log Archive: rcro

Further testing the watch with first "intervals" session in a long time. Bit hot for it really.

Good effort up Melbourne Way to reclaim the KOM with 13s headroom. As expected it took a lot out of me. Followed with 5x 1 min along the bottom part of Vancouver Road - about 10m change in height, mostly at the end. Starting and finishing in the same place with times 60, 59, 59, 57, 56 - so reasonably consistent.

HR peaks weren't as high as I was expecting for the effort, but it was going down a bit more quickly than yesterday. The barometer does seem a bit hopeless though as under-recorded by 60m (vs. strava which over-recorded by 20m)

Excellent sync though - just a shame that windows 10 update took 3 hours so couldn't get on to update training log until 10.30.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1632186178

Event: Midsummer on Gower Weekend 2x2 relays
 

2x2 Relay on Cefn Bryn - Leg 2 in a team with Tom Cochrane. (Course 1B)

As expected from following an M21, was one of the later teams to pass through. Got 1 ok but was very slow - terrain very rough here. Then messed up 2 by turning off the path a bit early and turning too sharply - again rough.

Given how rought it was, then went right around the path for 3 under assumption terrain would be rough on the straight (in hindsight, it was just bracken so I added 600m unnecessarily). Went straight through bracken 4-5 which was ok, but found the climb hard, again another very hot day.

Overshot 6 and went down the hill to another small boulder. Then 8 was a bit of a disaster thrashing around waist deep bracken looking for a negative feature. I was a bit unlucky and just missed it first time and binned 4 minutes.

Faster from there, and was actually nice and runnable. A good climb up to the finish - sadly at that point HRM had decided to stop recording again.

A disappointingly poor run. Had wanted to be under 28 to match Tom's time on first leg (1A).

https://www.strava.com/activities/1629681897

Last leg - running on the A side this time. Tom had lost a bit of time running the B so was one of the last to start and several teams had already finished. Wanted to make sure it was a good run to finish off and hopefully pull back some time.

The plan failed on the way to 1 when I went to control 201 first, then overshot the correct 202. Fortunately things got a lot better after that and moving quite well and bracken was passable. Found a nice unmapped trod for most of 2-3 and tried to stick to paths for 3-4-5. A little bit cautious into 6 - had been pulled a bit too far east so didn't see the thicket where I was expecting to.

Another stop by a boulder looking for 7 but easy to work out where to go. Bracken quite un-trampled so guess this control wasn't on many courses.

Made sure to be very careful on 10 towards the end - a boulder just off a path - since just before starting had watched somebody make hard work of it, and it was not missed by the commentary team... With the wind having picked up the climb up from there to the finish was hard work.

Overall a fun weekend with weather to match. Pleased to end on a fairly clean run.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1629684372

Suunto playing up with the sync as it's Sunday - but not nearly as bad as it has been.

Run to experiment with the watch and HRM. Again really hot and tired from lack of sleep and two hard runs so feeling pretty tired. Sticking to a route with known distance (5.45km) to check under/over-recording.

Heart rate recording all the time is a positive but reading a bit high, and with a couple of efforts thrown in was not showing recovery very quick. That said, I don't know how much heat and tiredness affected me as it felt like I was working.

Altimeter didn't record brilliantly (missed 20m at bottom of Bassaleg Road) but positives are that sync was nearly instantaneous, and the GPS plot and pace seem to have recorded well right from home :-)

https://www.strava.com/activities/1629984291

Event: Midsummer on Gower weekend - Open Event
 

Midsummer on Gower day 2 at Oxwich. 4.2km Green.

Undergrowth has come up since last time here, but still mostly passable. A very hot day that made running hard.

No big mistakes and apart from heat/climbs knackering me was moving quite steadily, but cautious in longer terrain for ankle and snakes.

Bit of a loss on 1 stopping too early, then went out to run by the beach for 2. Wasn't expecting such an increase in height 5-6 before quite a bit drop - then caught Oscar at 7, passing at 9. 10-11 hugged the fence and was a vague path. Went around paths 14-15, then made my own route with trods down to 17, stopping a bit too early and not finding a control. Slow into and out of 19 as it was rough.

A great fun course, helped in part by having a good run.

Spent a while at the finish getting burned before going for a walk on the beach before a dip in the sea with the Bailey/Curtises. Even Phil went in up to his knees without too much complaining!

Afternoon was a walk west down the coast line (with another dip in the sea) and then swing into the campsite for a few hours on the way back to the car.

Another good day, and how orienteering should be.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1627552857

Event: Midsummer on Gower Weekend - SBOC Local Event (Summer League 2)
 

Green course on Merthyr Mawr (west).

Flow and navigation not all there and wasn't really confident going to 1. Quite a lot of terrain and rough so was trying to stay on the paths and elephant tracks as much as possible.

Some trouble at 5 cost me a few minutes. Contours not totally as I would have expected and a few other people looking around. I thought control would be to my right but allowed myself to be distracted by the contours to the left.

7-8 crossed fence and went along path but was pretty sandy so not sure it was better. Looped the whole hillock at 12, then thought I was on the path to NW of control at 13 so made parallel error. OK into finish running back through the start.

Overall legs not moving well and tired - but reasonable result.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1625527093

Event: Summer Street Challenge
 

Urban on the new map of Longlevens.

Moving quicker than I have done for a while, but clear demonstration of loss of pass from missing speedwork, alongside general tiredness.

Reasonably nice course and most of the time took the best routes. Only most of the time as the best route on the long leg 9-10 was the same as where I ran on 5-6-7 so instead went the shorter more interesting route through the fields, across the pipeline, but ending with a lot of steps. Definitely slower.

HR kept dropping out.

Seems NGOC is unhappy at the low attendances, but nobody wants to actually go out and advertise or promote the races... I'd previously said I was stepping back, and with so much work on I don't have the time to do this even if I wanted to.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1623635457

SWOC local based on Roath Park. Fairly straight forward with lots of running legs but enjoyable enough on another hot and sunny evening. Legs still struggling to get going but at least today was another sub-9 hour day in office.

Again, "they" need to learn to put a flag on the finish, especially when so close to the start! At least no clear box put next to it today! ;-)

https://www.strava.com/activities/1621478526

MDC run on Mynydd Bedwellte. Legs wrecked from another long day sat at my desk in work (originally was supposed to be holiday, then a "short" 7 hour day in office, then extended up to 8 hours when the trains were cancelled) - so took 5k to get moving and making poor progress on the descent to Abertysswg, on the tarmac and heading back up the main climb.

Really struggling on anything rough or rocky (which was quite a lot) - these shoes really don't give the ankle any support. Once it got smoother was moving quite well and did a reasonable effort up to the trig near the end.

Good route and nice evening to be out. Pub cheap and cheerful with two courses and drink for £9.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1619416206