Training Log Archive: Frostbite

British Relays, Summerhouse Knott, Ad-hoc.

Such a lovely day, seemed a shame to go out for a run rather than just sitting in the field and spectating. I was doing first leg on ad-hoc, up against a few youngsters on the ungaffled long leg. Freddie Carcas zoomed off the front but I caught him again around #5, then he disappeared for good. Dom was also too fast for me and the last time I saw him was when he lost time at #8. That left me and Adam Conway (no relation and M14 champion from the day before) battling it out for 3rd place. He had the edge on running but he would make a small mistake at every other control allowing me to get back on terms. In the end he just got away from me when there was a bit more track running at the end of the course.

Natasha had a decent run on second leg and Chris Burden brought us home in 3rd (well, 4th but there was a non-comp team - I think Freddie did two legs or something). So I got my first British Relay medal since 1998.

C • Shame to go for a run 2

British Champs, M45L, High Dam.

I really enjoyed this but it was hard work. Spent a lot of time walking up hills, lots of hills, but kept going and managed to pick up the pace a bit when the going got easier towards the end of the course. I was finding all the controls ok but I wandered a bit on each of the 3 longest legs - not going in the wrong direction so much, just failing to assertively go in the right direction.

#2, I was climbing the hill out of the control trying to read the map for the parallel leg #7 to #6. Nothing made much sense until I saw the big tarn and worked out what I had done. Not too much time lost because the parallel line was pretty much where I wanted to go, but there was a bit of hesitancy until I worked it out.

I spiked #2, hesitated 10 seconds before #3, and spiked #4 with the help of a big bunch of people all finding it at the same time. Paul Gebbett was among them and we ran #5, #6 and half way to #7 together.

I was quite happy with my route in the first part of #7, getting quite a good line through the woods and up to the fence crossing. I intended to go from there to the small tarn and along the path through the gap between the hills before cutting across towards the control. What I ended up doing was going too far north and ending up near the big tarn having gone through the marshy gap between hills. Fortunately the big tarn made it easy to relocate and this route actually saved my some climb, but the dithering up to that point must have cost me some time.

#9 I climbed early because I thought I was going to go west of the tarn, but then I decided that wasn't a good idea. I maybe climbed a bit too much hill and could have taken a less steep line further along the slope.

#10 I wasn't sure which of the parallel valleys I was in but when I didn't see a control after the right sort of distance I just had to climb over the knoll to my right and there was the control, no more than a few seconds lost.

Not very sure where I went after leaving #16. I was just aiming vaguely for the crossing points above the yellow field, but realised when I got nearer that it would be a lot easier to aim for the lower crossing point and follow the wall to the control.

I'm happy enough with the result. Not as good as last year I guess but some people who beat me at the JK were a very long way behind on this terrain. I couldn't have got the 4 minutes needed to beat Jase for a medal, but it would have been nice to get the 19 seconds to beat Rich Barrett.

1. J Logue 71
2. B Stansfield 74
3. J Inman 76
4. R Barrett 80
5. N Conway 80

Bywater and the Hollies with Tasha. Verrry slow, so I thrrew in a short near-vertical climb and a couple of hundred metres of faster running in the Hollies. Feeling a bit below par.

West Park fields, Queenswood, Beckett Park

pottering