Training Log Archive: IanW

To start - climb up from the valley felt hard work - an indicator of things to come.

JK Middle - Hambleden. Hilly...

With this race not being a World Ranking event, I'd decided a while back that I'd take it steady to save something for the Long, and concentrate on getting the navigation right. Did a similar thing at Cookworthy for JK2010, and it worked out better than I expected. Today I may have ended up on the 'wrong' side of a pack of Slowies, which meant an earlier start on the Long, but stuck to the plan well.

Although it wasn't the greatest of starts - biggest mistake of the day was to #1, with a 15-20 second miss by not wanting to drop down the slope as much as was necessary. Terrain didn't appear quite as I'd visualised at at 2, but no issues. Happy to hit 3 well, then walked all the way up the hill to 4. Walking wasn't originally in the plan, but I'd forgotten how sapping those steep Chiltern slopes can be, and the walking soon got added to the plan.

No issues through to 9 - let Simon G run on up the hill as I trudged onwards. Regretted taking the straight route to 10, with the extra climb, but the experience of the top guys suggests that was correct. Aided a little by JD from 11-15 - he missed a couple of times, so was in sight for longer than he should have been.

The route choice leg to 17 surprised me (good planning!), apart from a little extra climb to a path, I think I executed this well. The down-up-down zig-zag at the end presented no problems - look up and see the veg changes - and then a cruise down the run-in. Job done.

No issues with new shoes - still very shiny after this run!

The good bits:
- Technically pretty sound, only real wobble was at #1.
- Stuck to the physical plan well.
- Surprised at the time, considering the above.

The bits to improve
- Reading ahead! There were opportunities on the longer legs/hills, just didn't take them. Would have seen the final route-choice leg a lot earlier.

Day 2, Course 01 - Splits

Event: JK 2013
 

Jog to model area, around with the map and back again.

JK Sprint & WRE, Whiteknights (Uni of Reading). Same-y...

I haven't done anything 'fast' the past few months, so didn't really have any expectations. Tried not to go out too fast as that has been bad in the past (e.g. JK 2010) as it put the focus on the running rather than getting the right routes.

First control straightforward, second looked 50/50 and went left - perhaps the only one I got wrong - about 10% longer? After that, the majority of the course was similar length legs with 50/50 decisions. Pick one and run... There was a slight pause at some controls to pick a route, so the flow wasn't brilliant, but it didn't really matter for this one.

Only small miss was at 12 - didn't see the second wall on the map, as it blended into the circle somewhat, and overshot very slightly (5"). Otherwise, a couple of legs where a slightly smoother route may have helped, but that's a bit nit-picky. Routegadget seems to confirm there wasn't a significant difference in the route lengths on most legs.

Was thinking something of the order of 16 or 17 minutes would be a decent performance - ended up a lot closer to some of the usual suspects than I'd expected. Decent start to the weekend, and my best ever WRE score.

What went well:
- Technically sound
- Pacing was good

What could be better?
- Need to force myself to use the easier running sections to look ahead
- Improve routine with control descriptions - hardly checked a code out there. Most of the sites were pretty distinct though.

Day 1, Course 01 - Splits

Run with Hatton - from Branston, round the water park and then up to Shobnall Fields along the bottom of Sinai. Through to Dallow St, back along Shobnall St, through Centrum and back along Clays Lane to the pub. Felt comfortable-ish at 5mins/k for most of the run, managed the first half on verges/field edges so not all on roads. Wind still too cold for my liking...

Snow finally stopped falling - wind still pretty chilling though. Advantage of snow/ice on the pavements is that running on tarmac in dobs is better - gave me the chance to break in the new shoes.

Over to Shobnall Fields via the canal.

Grass/snow reps on Shobnall Fields. 6 x (3' on, 1' rest).

Didn't feel like I was going particularly fast, and wasn't (probably 750m for 'best' rep) - the lying snow and cold northeasterly added to the resistance. Probably not the conditions to run this session and get the best benefit from it...

Very easy home from Shobnall.