Training Log Archive: bendover

Event: British Orienteering Championships
 

BOC Classic - pleased with my performance. more later.

GREAT to see Doug Tullie crowned King of The Forest. I remember coaching him in Sweden with Ewan when he was 15/16 and we both thought he had the talent to make it. Its awesome when the talent is matched by the dedication.

I happened to see Doug's dad congratulating him, it reminded me of how proud my dad was when I won the British as an M20. It was great to watch.

BOC Classic Race

gotta be pretty happy with this race to be honest. had that feeling of orienteering rustiness again as soon as i picked up the map, so had to really focus right out of the start triangle.

like craney, my control description holder was broken so i had to run relay style - kind of annoying but not a huge hindrance. mainly a pain when heading into the control circle.

Took safe, controlled routes into the first couple of controls, hit them clean if a little carefully, but was really surprised to see my 3 minute man Tim on the way out of the 2nd control. I passed him pretty quickly, and this gave me a huge boost of confidence to push on.

Greno went well - control 4 was very tricky and i held it together well, i ran a bit off line to number 6, saw the little shits who most likely vandalised the control. a real shame that happened.

my race stayed strong through until 24, once we dropped over the scarp it got really tough going underfoot and fatigue started to kick in - i made a series of small mistakes, the biggest probably being about a minute but they definitely accumulated. i haven't got my map back yet and have yet to look at routegadget, but i reckon it might have added up to around 6 minutes in total.

23rd at the end of the day - if i can find 14-15 minutes then i'm right in there in a pack of strong runners. I had no real problems with the distance today, i think its just a case of improving my strength in terrain and doing more orienteering to improve my flow.

whether this is going to happen is hard to predict; with the move back to london i'm really intent on keeping my training going, but making this training orienteering specific might be tough given the demands of my career and my location.

with 12 months of training and competing under my belt though, i've got to be satisfied with my race on saturday.

finally - really enjoyed the terrain and the course; a world class forest; tough, technical and relentless, with every skill coming into play at different times. i felt like i had to hold my concentration at all times, and was continually punished near the end when i got sloppy. while the winning time was faster than oli hoped for, i'm pretty happy that i didn't have to be out there for another 20 mins!!

C • you're a machine 3

Course 1 - Splits

iw and hfw (inc trip to lidl)

jogging and strides. all good. (sattelites took an age to locate so map is out)

good day today, just been commissioned to photograph the womens pro surfing tour in hossegor, france at the start of june - portraits of Sofia Mulanovich (former world champion) and the wonderfully named Coco Ho; should be a great weekend!

Also looks like I've got an image due to be published in National Geographic. cool!

C • Cool, but 3

iw and hfw x 2

right achilles tender today. annoying, going to ice it and rest next couple of days, maybe just do a real short jog and a few strides on friday.

C • nothing to worry about 6

IW and HFW x 2

iw and hfw x 2 with detour home via Lidl

WSX training from Uni with Gavin Clegg and Dale Paget.

warm up then 4 x 1km with 500m rec. same loop as last time.

I ran the first pretty easy, the second upped the pace a bit, ran at 90-95% for the 3rd km, and then eased right back down again on the 4th. hopefully a good sharpener for the weekend, and i was really pleased with my 3rd km time.

4.20
4.02
3.42
4.16

tired at the end, that's the last session before BOC now, time to chill out. I'm going to need some strength by the sounds of it, undergrowth sounds minging!

iw and hfw x 2

legs felt really good cycling today! that was unexpected!

mountain bike from yarmouth to mottistone down for orienteering. pretty hilly, but dramatic on the sea cliffs by the Tennistone Memorial.

green course - WIGHTO event at Mottistone Downs.

Old School!! control card and pin punch event! good times...

the locals were a bit surprised to see me - seems like they don't get many 'mainlanders' making the jaunt out to their events.

green course was the longest on offer, i tried to run it at a pace similar to how i intend to run the BOC classic next week. map was a little here and there, and the undergrowth was thick, and it was pretty hilly. so all in all (dodgy map aside!) fairly good prep for next saturday.

took a while to get going after the cycling. also neither of my feet feel particularly great at the moment. niggles on the footstrike and some slight achilles soreness. really have to rest up this week and get some early nights. maybe just some short intervals on tuesday.

mtb back to yarmouth from mottistone, this time via strawberry lane. took some random routes through fields that were tough going. ice cream at yarmouth before getting the ferry, then 3 pints of wadsworth 6X at 'The Bosun's Chest' in Lymington.

:-D