Training Log Archive: Frostbite

West Haigh and New Park Springs, Brown course. Very slow, just plodding around. One mistake on a pit where I was stood a few yards from it but couldn't see either the pit or the flag, went away and found a bigger unmapped pit, came back to the right place and found it the second time. 1 minute lost.

Many many minutes lost just bumbling along, couldn't go any faster again. 20th out of 25. Al Buckley won in 52.

Seven arches. Couldn't go any faster.

Lindley Bridge to Fewston Dam and back. Pleasant scenery, miserable day. The middle section of the valley from Dob Park onwards has gate after gate every 100m or so, hard to get going.

Very wet and quite cold.

Don't know why I bother saying that. Only 3 days this year have not been wet and cold.

C • Wet and cold 1

Woodhouse Ridge and Sugarwell Hill. Absolutely died coming back up the Ridge. I had to walk up the last big hill. Poor.

Seven Arches.

Woodhouse Ridge, Sugarwell, Stainbeck, Tunnel How Hill. Put a bit of effort into the hills. I wanted to get it over with really, wet and cold.

Northern Champs, Wass, M50L

Very physical course with lots of climb. I coped fairly well with the physical stuff but lost time on the climbs. Also a bit of time lost with mistakes.

#3 didn't find the elephant track going up from the road at first so I got in some brambles, then climbed a bit too high and reached the rocks above and a little short of the control. Easy to relocate but a bit careless. 1 minute lost. I should have come down from the ride above but didn't see it on the map. I did see it at the junction but had made my mind up by then.

#8 the contours didn't seem quite right below the control, the re-entrant coming up from below brought me out too far to the right which caused me to ponder for a few moments. Then I looked behind a different plausible boulder before finding the right one, trying to find the mapped boulder in the middle of a mapped boulder field. 30 seconds lost.

#13 coming downhill through green I was fairly sure I was left of the line, but when I came out into the open forest I couldn't make any of the contour shapes fit so I turned left instead of right, turned back round when I saw the boulder with a control on it. Had I come out of the green just a few yards to the right I would have been able to see the control. 1 minute lost.

Enjoyed it, apart from maybe the last loop which seemed to be gratuitous climb without any real orienteering interest.

1. Charlie 62
2. Duncan Harris 66 (he started 4 mins before Charlie)
3. Martin 67
4. Ben S 69
5. Nigel B 72
6. Parkino 73
7. Me 75

C • Ditto 1

Parkside Road and Hollies, much the same as yesterday but with longer faster bits. Feeling a bit more sprightly today, getting used to the heat.

Parkside Road and the Hollies. Some faster bits, mostly slow.

Super slow-mo running with Tasha. To Bywater and back through the Hollies. By the end I couldn't go any faster anyway. The heat.

toddle round the park in the sunshine.

7 Arches. Feeling a bit sore from chasing Jase and Charlie on Sunday, and feeling a bit slow but kept moving fairly well.

Drier and warmer.

Long Distance, Lingmoor. Much happier today. I felt I ran pretty well, just one poor leg #5 where I took the path route but got a poor line trying to find the path in the first place, then when I left the path I got a little too low and banana'd and hesitated into the control - maybe a minute lost over the whole leg. I got the right route I think on #9, up the big hill to the path then an easy line into the control, better than trying to cross the very steep slope with ravines that was on the straight line. Jase nearly caught me 4 mins at #8 but I beat him to #9 because he went across the slope. At #10 Jase and Charlie (8 mins) were right behind me but I held them off until #13. After that I was desperately hanging on to the back of them, getting dropped on the uphills and chasing them down on the downhills. I finished 20 seconds behind Charlie and 12 behind Jase. I gained 5 places from #10 to the fniish, but I would like to think I would have gained places here anyway without any significant climbs.

9 minutes down on Graham Patten, 8 on Charlie and Quentin. Much better than yesterday.

Middle Distance, Graythwaite East. I should have really enjoyed this but somehow managed not to. Felt that I was struggling physically right from the start, made a couple of significant errors one of which was significantly stupid, never really got used to the map or the ridiculous scale (1:7500). Result miles down, 10 minutes behind Quentin.

Through the park, up the ring road, back through the Hollies. Did a few drills and strides back through the Hollies to get moving but never really quite managed it. Grey and miserable.

Very slow with Evie. It was me that was slowing things down. Grey and miserable.

Tannery, park, weir, Mill Lane.

Not much left in my legs when I started and the first leg up and over the hill seemed to take a very long time. Just kept going, found most of them without any problem. Lost time at #13 going to the wrong bell-pit, about 30 seconds.

I really don't like this map. There are lots of paths on the map and lots of paths on the ground, but they don't seem to be related to each other. The pits are a bit randomly placed. The greens, tees and fairways on the golf course are mapped with bright yellow, but there are also plenty of other bits of mown grass adjoining the greens, tees and fairways that are mapped as rough open.

Woodhouse Ridge and Sugarwell, sticking in the main to the surfaced paths. Charlie couldn't handle the pace on the first hill. As soon as he started dropping he started pulling faces and saying "Ooooh Ooooh my calf hurts" before wimping out and going home.

I carried on at a steady plod.

Meanwood Sprint course. I had a 3 minute stop at #1 while I discussed with Evie what training we were doing. She opted for a steady run on the paths. I did the rest of my run a little quicker than on Weds. Terrain runs in Meanwood are hard work.

Woodhouse Ridge and Sugarwell Hill. Ridge muddy and slow, Sugarwell dry and fast. One navigational error.

Meanwood sprint course. This was always going to be hard work but days and days of rain have made the woods very heavy going indeed. The last climb was on hands and knees. Even the field was ankle deep. The main reason for doing it was giving my new Mudclaw 300s a try-out. They were ok, a bit of heel rubbing, good grip.

Slow, but then I was never expecting to be fast. I had a little rest at each control.

JK Relays, Beaudesert

Very wet, cold, muddy. 2nd leg after Dave Alcock. He had a decent run to hand over to me in 7th place. I trogged along at a decent pace, a bit weary and struggling up the hills but nowhere near as bad as I was in the relays last year. I kept pace with the people around me (Calvin Routledge who got away by half a minute in the end, and Julian Birkinshaw who finished half a minute behind me). I dithered on #2, looking first at another control on a different part of the thicket, and then dithered again trying to find a non-spiky way out of #2. I nearly got the valleys confused half way to #15, sorted myself just in time. Tired brain. Handed over in 6th, team finished 5th. Not bad.

JK Day 3, Beaudesert

A bit of a poor course, too many easy controls and long track runs. I was a bit hesitant amongst the thickets for the first 2 and couldn't work out where the yellow was supposed to be so I missed #2 to the left by 15 seconds maybe. I missed the path cutting in towards #3 because I was following an enormous elephant track instead but can't have lost much. From then on it was a slightly tricky orange course - track run, attack point, control, over and over again - until #13 which was a bit more vague and I hesitated a bit coming into it. At this point Simon Patton came past me and dropped me straight away, although I was close enough to see him get #14 and #15 before he disappeared on the long track straight track run to #16. What a disappointing control, then turn round and straight back along the same track to #17. Nigel Bunn caught me just after #17 and I could still see him through #18 and #19 before he got too far ahead. I think I got the right route on #20, to the right and through the green, then a small miss at #21. I went straight to the pit on the edge of the circle to the NW and took a few seconds to work it out. Maybe half a minute lost, but when I got there Nigel was coming back from the opposite direction. He disappeared again after #22 when he headed along the slope into the green while I climbed up to the track along the top of the hill. He reappeared further along the track then dropped me for the last time over the last 2 controls.

Quite happy with this result considering what the course was like, and only 30 seconds or so lost at one of the many pits.

9 minutes down on James, 7 on Alistair and Charlie. Nigel did 65 for 4th place and Simon 66 for 5th. I was 14th.

Overall I was 13th but only 3 minutes behind 7th. Not so bad.