Training Log Archive: Mark3

Probably my best ever performance in British champs. In the lead when I finished! I'm aware this should always happen in a seeded race, but it never has before...

I've run here before and I knew it was very complex and the vegetation obscures the contours and the paths are hard to distinguish between the mapped and the not, so the plan was to be slow and careful and not try and go crazy just because it's a middle.

So slow to 1 and 2, going back to the path each time.undergrowth made visibility very low so thought this was safer.did cut corner on 3 but it was slow going - this reinforced that paths were best. Bit of luck required on the next few controls as the contours didn't seem quite right - retrospectively they're fine, i think at the time I was just struggling to see them through a steamed up, rained on magnifier.

Slight 90° path error to 6 but worked it out ok.very slow to 7 and 8 in the technical stuff.went a very long way round to the east to 9; I think way would've been better. Slow and careful again 11-13.then three straightforward controls which I could've done faster but was still in caution mode.

One mistake on an easy control near the end, overshooting rhodedendrons, but identified it fairly fast from the size of the bush and corrected.again pretty safe to the end, but I knew i was doing ok by that point and I didn't want to mess it up!

Beat some people who are much better than me, which is always nice :)

My foot was fine for the whole race but aching really badly walking around and back to the car afterwards, so who knows what's going on there.

Major plus point here is that my foot felt fine while running. It didn't feel quite right between the races, or wandering around afterwards, but it wasn't really painful, just weird. So should be fine to run tomorrow.

Enjoyed the heat.fast and furious start with a few left/right 50/50 ish choices but mainly just fast.

3 route choice legs:
11-12, across marsh or round path?i chose path.I think this was a good choice - certainly is from the map.

17-18, missed option to go under underpass and went a longer way.about 100m so 25s maybe.

18-19 round path rather than down steep bank.this is longer but beat tom here who said bank was vertiginous. So only really lost those 25s - a good run.

100s behind Eddie though - can't compete with him anymore.

Heavy rain.

Some good choices on the first few legs; very different from the heat.I think they were marginal, but definitely made you think.took all choices differently from Nick - I avoided two flights of stairs - he was about a second ahead on each but I had more energy remaining...

Good to 9. Mistake on 10 - went around some OOB that turned out to be IB; about 100m extra distance, 25s.

Then big mistake 19-20 unfortunately.missed that fence became crossable after bridge and so descended muddy path rather than nice slope and added extra underpass, 35s.

So more like a minute lost in the final compared to half that in the heat.
Enjoyed it though, and still pretty good runs for a big competition.

Definitely played it safe with the OOB :)

Spent several hours researching which exercise bike to buy.

Then actually went cycling and remembered that I hate it.

Started looking at cross trainers instead.

C • Crosstrainers 2

Worried about this. Nothing Google suggests for this part of the foot sounds feasible other than a stress fracture.

I don't want a stress fracture.

Starting to get painful even when walking.

Pretty painful to walk. Going to have to start cycling if this continues :(

C • stress fracture? 1

Mystery pain along bottom left edge of foot. Bearable but extremely unpleasant. Decided against intervals and just jogged for a bit to see if it went away. It didn't.

Sad to miss Blaise. Calves ludicrously tight though; couldn't even manage a jog.