Training Log Archive: Duncan

1st leg for UBOC's first JK Trophy appearance in a while with Abi and Matt Whipple.

Thought I'd actually try to not screw up a major relay and not go off too fast and then fail. Having Crickmore in the mix and Jamie P instead of Ben Stevens (who is my usual relay partner) made things a bit different to usual so wasn't sure what to expect!

Was one of the early people on the left hand route to the first control with Murray and Ciaran. Followed Murray across the un-seasonal march though which was a mistake as it was horribly tussocky and I was not as strong. Ciaran apparently stayed on the path and turned up at the front of the right-hand routechoice. I was stuck in the middle watching streams go past out on either side.

Eventually got to #1 well well down and then wasn't very sure of the following to 2. In the train to three and started moving up. Did my own thing through 4-5-6 picking people off but with a bit of hesitation. Think I probably had the shorter 5 gaffle but people took some loong routes to the other one.

Straight line towards seven and exited the workings with Tristan and catching Rich who went round so in 3rd/4th/5th place. Could see someone in yellow in front but didn't realise it was Sander, just spied Murray in the distance.

Got passed by Tristan, Jack Wright, the Swedish guy and FVO (Dan Stansfield) though the next few. Tried to make it up by going straight to 11 which was working until the marsh just before the track did turn out to be pretty marshy.

Medium through the spectators with a few mistakes and hillier gaffle meant I dropped some places again. Surprised to see Todd and Vokes back in the mix. Everyone looked slow on the last loop but so was I and only caught Matt and Jack at the last control. Jack was more motivated for the finish and blasted the run-in. Back in 8th 3mins down on Murray but 22s on third (Tristan)

Abi was a bit tired but Matt pulled the team back into the top 30.

Set off medium-fast out the start to try and show Lewis and Willy that they would need to make an effort to catch me! Steady in from there. Two, just looking out for the rocks and reading it in. #3, saw and followed my 3 minute man and executed perfectly the parallel mistake onto the wrong hill, even after stopping for a decent amount of time to check. He spotted first so dived over the hill and punched. Guessed Lewis was around so got on with it but played it very safe to four going high via the tree and dropping in from above reading everything in which was quite slow.

Was slow to #5 just remembering it was a 100 minute race. Didn't really 'get on with it' as much as I should have through the next lot and agreed something was funny on the way to 7!

Saw 10 was a killer leg so went slow but still lost contact, relocated but then rushed off to the wrong control which took me a while to put right. Wavy to 11. Plopped over the hill nicely to #12. Took a silly high route out of 12 to the top of the hill and massively over-estimated the steepness of the valley so wasted a bit of time. Up the nice re-entrant fine but should have trusted the compass more to get out of it and between the hillocks.

14 struggled in the middle part and read things slowly in. Started to feel tired on the gradual incline to 15 with no food. Got through the quarry with a few hesitations. Slow again to 22 making sure I got there okay, didn't believe it was our control though being so visible! Down to the road crossing following some M10/20s had three drinks but missed the punch. Out of breath up to 26 and checked a couple of other pits first. Tried to push on with lots of other people towards the finish and finally got to follow my 6 minute man into 28. Kept going and stopped him mis-punching at the second last!

~105 minutes so ~13 down on Hector and 10 on James Tullie. Say 5 mins of big mistakes; 5 mins of bad routechoice, 'not getting on with it' and food; leaves another 5 for running which isn't too bad for that long. Never saw Willy!

An enjoyable JK weekend with races and the hut. Never felt like I got the speed I've had around in training but maybe I lost that with going home beforehand. Sprint just wasn't great, never really felt it. The middle was okay after a slow start. The long was fun but never superfast and a similar, decent but not stellar, result to last year.

Went off route on the run to the start with Jonny (second-hand red and white tape is the worst thing ever) so was under a little pressure.

Did the first control as planned, taking my time to read the map, using my compass to point me in the right direction, and navigating my way in using the contours. On the longer second leg I thought I would take the time to fold the ridiculously sized map but my compass wasn't very good so crossed the spur at the left-hand contour-depression and then roughly dropped down into what probably was the right valley but then kept going and dropped towards the next one over. Faffed for a bit and climbed towards the stone and towards the control, saw Ben Stevens (2 mins behind) come into the area and stop so tried to sneak away quickly. Was waaay left on 3 (bad compass) and punched it the same time as Andy Llewellyn (4 mins behind). Spotted a cliff but not the cliff on the way to 4 so swung waaay right with Ben and eventually dropped down to it with Malley (6mins) just coming in.

Calmed down there and the rest of the course went pretty smoothly again orienteering like I did to #1 (and had been at last month's training).

Was steady to 6, and got it nicely while we watched Ben run around, led through 7, 8, fell on 9 and watched Andy absolutely arrow #10 while I was unsure. Got back past Jonny and up to Ben on 11 but did not trust them at all on 12 so hung back but should have been more confident. The same on 13. Round 14-19 okay but could have been more aggressive. 20 could see. 21 also wasn't sure about at all so dropped off then tried to catch up by the finish.

Lots of mistakes then some good-ish steady orienteering. (=26th / 39.12 / +9.57!)

To the start, then to pick up jackets with Jonny, then with Willy and Jamie.

Event: JK 2014
 

Easy jog round from Jonny's car to Cabot Tower and back to home.

Was medium up for it. Planned one in the start-lane but then mis-read #6 to be #2 so went the wrong way round the fence losing 15-20s. Very steady round 3-4-5-6. And orienteering fine but just not feeling it around the rest of the buildings and up to 15. Felt shocking on the long leg but somehow managed to only loose 6s. Then got to the 17 tree and couldn't see anything so just ran to the only control I could see and punched it without checking (apparently it was on the ground). 18 just read it to be opposite the re-entrant, and there it was, or not. Did feel weird on the way to 19 but didn't think much of it. Then just got home from there without much pace. (~17th / 16.07 / +2.06)

Driving back to Bristol.