Training Log Archive: Frostbite

Bumbling along, speeded up a bit towards the end.

Neither fast nor slow. Legs still work.

Oringen day 5

Made it into the chasing start 79 minutes behind Johan Ivarsson, in 103rd place. I knew before I started that I was going to struggle physically and sure enough on the way to number 1 I was left behind by the people starting around me. By number 3 I had lost any illusions that I was racing and just trying to keep moving. This was the most physical day (or at least it seemed that way) and I spent a lot of time wading through marshes, climbing fallen trees and pushing through green and not really seeming to get anywhere. Eventually I reached the steep slope overlooking the town and I relaxed a bit telling myself it was all downhill from there. Typically I ran downhill straight past my first control on the slope but I stopped before I had gone too far and crawled back up having lost a minute or so. The rest were spot on and I plodded along with the grannies through the extended run-in and into the stadium to finish. Very slow for the day (131st), but I only lost a couple of places overall to finish 105th.

Overall I was fairly happy with the week. Physically I was struggling from day 2 onwards but I kept going and even on the last day I wasn't that far away. I wanted to make the chasing start (tick) and finish in the top half (tick) and keep below 10 mins/k for the week (would have been a tick if it wasn't for struggle on the last day, or that dodgy bingo green control on day 3)

According to Winsplits I made 7:26 of mistakes all week, 5:22 of it on that one control.

Day results
1 Gjermund Urset 50:51
41 Alistair Cory-Wright 61:07
86 Andy Thorpe 69:01
124 Nick Howlett 76:12
131 Neil Conway 78:42

Overall results
1 Johan Ivarsson 218:35
59 Alistair Cory-Wright 283:08
105 Neil Conway 323:38
117 Nick Howlett 333:38
129 Andy Thorpe 350:13

Oringen day 4 - middle distance.

Very tired now, but at least with middle distance there were no long track runs and I could just concentrate on finding controls. Pretty good apart from 2 where I got pushed off-line by unmapped grot, and 10 where I emerged from the green not entirely sure where I was and descended left of the control. I relocated and went straight to it but decided it wasn't mine (It was clearly in a clearing, I was looking for a wall end). It took me about half a minute to work out that the wall ended in the middle of the clearing.

Narrowly beaten by Nick, a few minutes ahead of Andy. Alistair now out of sight.

1 Olov Vikstrom 25:32
35 Alistair Cory-Wright 32:23
100 Nick Howlett 39:10
103 Neil Conway 39:20
139 Andy Thorpe 44:28

Oringen day 3. Feeling a bit better after a rest day. Mostly ok apart from number 5 which was supposed to be a boulder in a strip of white surrounded by green, but was in fact a boulder hidden in an area of young trees with low visibility and certainly not white forest. I missed it anyway first time, following a different strip of white too far to the right, relocated straight away and tried to cut back across the green to where the control should be. I was expecting to find the other patch of white but just ended up in more green, climbed out of it to relocate, came back to more or less the same spot then hunted around until I found the control. 5, maybe 6 minutes lost. I don't think this was a very fair control, about half the field lost 3 minutes+ on it.

Alistair beat me comfortably on this day and I was never close to him again. Andy also chipped a bit more off my 40 minute lead from day 1, but I managed to stay ahead of Nick.

1 Gjermund Urset 45:49
43 Alistair Cory-Wright 57:34
111 Andy Thorpe 68:51
130 Neil Conway 71:56
141 Nick Howlett 73:59

Oringen day 2.

Easier navigation than day 1, bigger more obvious contour features. Felt pretty tired from the previous day but moving ok for the first half of the course. #6 was a long leg and I took the track option. I think this was fastest but by the end of it I was knackered and from there to the finish I was much slower. #10 was also a long leg and I opted for more or less straight, but this involved crossing a big marsh which might have been slow. Other people were faster going round the paths. Wobbled a bit near the end on a couple but didn't lose too much time.

5 minutes behind Andy and Alistair and much further down the field. Nick also beat me leaving me as last Brit for the day.

1 Johan Ivarsson 43:51
97 Andy Thorpe 66:18
101 Alistair Cory-Wright 66:54
117 Nick Howlett 70:52
119 Neil Conway 71:05

Event: O-Ringen 2015
 

Oringen day 1. A bit of a vague area with low indistinct hills and lots of marshes. Plodded along, found all the controls ok apart from losing contact a bit en-route to #3 - relocated without too much trouble or time loss about 100 metres short. 69th place, 1st Brit and also beat Alistair.

1 Henrik Brohede 45:56
69 Neil Conway 62:35
88 Alistair Cory-Wright 65:10
127 Nick Howlett 73:25
198 Andy Thorpe 101:35

C • Lord 3

Jogging around the park mainly, returning along Weetwood Lane. Did a single sprint up Dunny Hill to see how fast I could go. 2:05, which is a bit quicker than I have been doing reps.

At last a bit better, managed to maintain a higher HR.

Stepping stones, slow at first not feeling great but picked up as I got going.

A bit better than last week. But not much.

Not really very enthusiastic - put it off all day until I eventually went out at half past 5. Tried a bit until I got to the Ring Road, took a minute to get across and never got going again. Just jogged home.

4 x Dunny Hill. 2:18, 2:18, 2:21, 2:26. Struggled on the last one.

Steady Woodhouse Ridge, Sugarwell, Tunnel How Hill. Feeling a bit out of sorts and had a headache by the time I finished, but moving ok.

Chevin and Danefield with 4 big climbs. Tired legs and struggling on the hills, but easily quicker than in the winter.

Adel Crag. Lots of effort but never really got moving, and struggling by the end. Again. A section of the moors is over grown by long grass at the moment and that really knocked me out of my stride.

Not feeling like doing much I jogged to Woodhouse Ridge and proceeded to zigzag incoherently up and down the slope, alternately sprinting, bounding or striding the uphills. I couldn't make a very satisfactory route out of it and ended up doing more flat running than anything else. Distance is a guess. (I mean even more of a guess than usual).

Felt rotten in the evening - crampy twitchy calves and feet, slept bad.

Slabbering Baby. Very very hot. Most of the run is in the trees but the shade didn't make any difference, just hot hot hot. Set out at a sustainable pace and sustained it.