Training Log Archive: rcro

Shorter day around the canal. Legs and rest of me struggling from yesterday and found it quite hot today (out before the thunder and rain). Also struggling with climbing still.

There was an electrically dead BMW blocking the Handpost junction and still there when I got back, but with police directing traffic. Had thought they'd done a recall to fix after all the deaths it caused.

https://www.strava.com/activities/9418141907

NGOC relay at Chestnuts Hill. Made sure I was on leg one to enjoy some head to head racing but I was the only one on my gaffle, it was 700m (25%) further than the other gaffle, and was the only one that left the start to the right - so I was on my own right from the start kite.

The first control was really shitty, having to do a lot of skirting around and through dense tall bracken. The second control was not in the right place, and not visible from the correct location - so then binned 2 mins looking around. It was in the third gully (of two) from the fence, within the circle but bottom left corner. The map wasn’t good here - green or brown.

A bit peeved with the whole thing by now so stuck to roads for the next bit. Control 4 was a big gully next to the road, but on the ground was a small gully, separated from the road by another similar sized gully. Stopped short in the first 4 before seeing flag much further along. Then planned to road again to 5 and started then noticed faint xs in washable purple over that section - had to bracken bash.

Bit tired for the return to Chestnuts. Generally went through all the brackeny bits. Bingo control 6 that lots of people had trouble with (I didn’t, just was a bit concerned when I couldn’t see gully or flag when expecting it). 8, then contouring to 9 not a lot of fun on very steep, loose and rough ground. Needed to scramble up some banks I was glad not to be descending.

Finished well down on pretty much everyone. Not enough teams for it to be “busy”, but with such a large variation of gaffle length and being the only team starting on long - meant we had lost the team race element as effectively 1/2 lap behind at first changeover.

https://www.strava.com/activities/9411364543

Short gaffle, as leg 3. Tom had taken nearly 50 minutes which had surprised me as expected it to be much quickly.

Terrain wise, far far nicer with nothing in the bracken, no steep contouring legs, less climb - just a bit of low stuff at the south east corner. I would have expected the longer leg to use the clean bits instead to make the times closer to equal.

Generally moving a bit better as a result, though still pretty slow climbing and on steep.

Some trouble with 4. I have no idea whether the map was wrong or the control was in the wrong place but I crossed a “re-entrant” with a big marshy pool and water course coming out - but there was no control, and not one mapped on my route in. Went back, found nothing, went forward at higher level then eventually found it behind me. Gps plot makes me think it may have been in the wrong re-entrant. 60-90s lost.

On roughly the right line for 5 and 6 and hit what looked to be a platform with a raised edge and a flag and worried I might have hit 6 first. Fortunately not but a bit sneaky them having such similar numbers (171/181). 6-7 up the steep and through the fallen trees not so much fun.

Rest of the way - nothing too steep, no undergrowth, no issues with map or control. Might have been in a better frame of mind if I had this first!

Only about 10 minutes faster than first leg. Had hoped to be a bit closer to Michael’s time but this terrain wasn’t ever going to suit me.

Team finished something like third last on total time - but we did run the furthest combined course by around 2km.

https://www.strava.com/activities/9411364607

Working until 7 improving a report built by our outsourcers. Not presented as we wanted. Underlying code behind calculations over 100 lines and contained about 30 references to variable dates and names that had been hard coded. Took a while to learn the syntax but fully parametrised and recoded into about 100 characters. I guess the metric for performance is assumed to be amount of code written.

Mountain Road out and back so that I could feed the cat. But it doesn't seem to like me and kept running away until it lay down in the middle of the road.

https://www.strava.com/activities/9400658089

Cefn Onn orienteering. 5.1km Long course.

Never been around this park before and so was good to explore. Generally ok and in touch apart from on 5 (which was in the wrong place and hidden) where I overshot by some margin on wrong path first time. Less in touch at the top end of the map.

Caught Ian at 12 so we agreed to take different routes - him over the station bridge, me off the map to the bottom - but the bridge was 150m off the map rather than just off, so my way was a good 1 min or more longer. As a result of losing the time, didn't take 14 too seriously so went to explore the indistinct path - which looked to be never-ending dense bramble-fest so bailed out quickly (+40s).

About 1:40 off Marcus and the win - think it's obvious where that time went!

Moving quickly on leg 10-11 on road, generally downhill. Had to work hard on the off-map detour and tiring against wind and uphill so pace dropped a lot towards the end.

https://www.strava.com/activities/9395055595

MDC Bryn Arw then Sugar Loaf.

Really not climbing well today. Flat and descending ok, except when fighting fortified bracken. Quick finish.

Back just in time to beat a big rain storm.

https://www.strava.com/activities/9389294635