Training Log Archive: AngusL

First time out in the wet and rain. Beautiful coming through Richmond Park in the dark: no wind, no rain, so quiet - spookily so as other cyclists pass silently in the night. Brilliant!

Event: The 5th City of London Race
 

SLOW City of London 2012
Delighted to finish 9th out of 102 finishers. Great day as usual.

The first five controls were a quick journey round the Temple. I got into this quite well, taking the slightly longer southern route to #3 (which was more in my flow than the shorter north route) and not spotting the blocking fence to #5 which forced me to re-trace my steps.

Picked up the pace once out of the Temple, onto familiary territitory (my first job with KMPG was in Salisbury Square) and narrowly avoided crossing New Bridge Street!

Stopped on the way to #8 because my watch was set incorrectly and was distracting me. It might have taken me 30-60s to fix - I'm not sure - but if I'd known how well I was running I might have ignored it.

Running again, and on memory through to #9 and #10. Next route choice issue was the approach to #11 in the Barbican. Went north to the underpass and then came up the western staircase, not the eastern which would have practically put me at the control. Not a disaster, but it cost me another 30s.

Paused to work out my route to #12 then ran it practically from memory. Very pleasing, and flowing well. Good route to #13 on the lower level, but overshot an exit and had to backtrack about 10m.

Use the long leg to #14 to plan the second half, then headed through the market to #15. Mistake here, overshooting the control by 10-15m and not looking behind me to spot it. 15s?

Very clean running to #16-18, in and out to #19 via the same route and back again from #20. Might not be the absolute shortest route but it required minimal map reading.

Very quick down to #21 (4:00/km on route; 5:00/km straight line!) and back on familiar turf (I know work for Deloitte around New Street Square). Should be among the faster ones through controls #21-24.

Let down by a poor indirect route choice back through Temple, then sprinted in from the finish past a very excited and most welcome twins!

So, an estimated loss of 2:40 overall. If I'd recovered all that, I'd have placed third. As it was, I was ninth. Even not resetting my watch would have moved me to 5-6th. Probably my best run ever.

Race pace a blistering 6:34/km. Over-run was about 35% on the part I recorded.

Results at http://cityrace.org/files/2012/results/05_-_men's_...

Courses 2 & 5 - Splits

Ranmore Common and Staple Lane
First ride out with Jonathan

SLOW Chelsea Street-O
Once again failed to spot the purple overprint against the deep blue background of the River Thames… Reasonable distance covered, just not many points. 32nd overall is a very poor result for 12.2km. Route choice failed me.

Ranmore Common and Staple Lane
Lovely early morning ride. Cold at first, but soon warmed up. Absorbing the hills with ease, which is nice.