Training Log Archive: Mark3

Another hot one, car said 31. Naturally I'd chosen to start at the warmest time of day.

Straightforward course. Two legs where I think I missed the best choice but otherwise flowing well through the controls. Had to slow down for a couple of minutes with severe stomach pain which then more or less disappeared shortly afterwards. 1st of 4 when I left.

Main thing was proved to myself I can still run the day after being in a bit of a state, which is powerful psychologically.

15th/171, including 31 retirements.

The hottest day of the year and then some. The hottest race I've ever done. Didn't enjoy it!

Got the questionable nav out of the way near the start - after crossing the road bridge I was convinced that we needed to stay on the E of the river (which is true) but I thought that meant we didn't cross any more bridges (which is not true) - so ignored the bridge over the tributary (and the compass) and led a couple of people to a dead end. So there's a couple of minutes, if I do the race again!

The vegetation after the waterfall was tough going in the heat, bilberry/long grass, the trods seemed few and far between. Decided to go off piste and go via Bera Mawr since there was a bit of a trod leading up to it. Strava makes this look like an ok route but it was a bad call, boulderfield just over the summit made it really slow. I imagine the best route from the falls is to get up onto the spur as soon as possible...which is basically what everyone else did. Paid the price for the earlier mistake and ending up at the back, basically!

After that didn't do a lot wrong. Drunk 1L by Carnedd Dafydd and had an extra 0.5 in my bag but it was awkward to get out, so decided I'd just get down to Bryn Poeth - wasn't that fast a descent though (3k and brackeny) so pretty dehydrated at the bottom. Drunk about 4 cups and filled the bottles again.

Felt pretty grim up from Ogwen to Y Gribin, the latter being a trivial scramble even for me (I wouldn't even describe it as such). Saw Em coming back down retiring with heatstroke :( it was about 50/50 whether I did the same but I thought I'd try and make it to Pen Y Pass and see what happened. My throat started closing up and I was finding it hard to breathe all the way in, it was pretty unpleasant.

Luckily Fawr is the less rocky Glyder and there was a (small) breeze on the top, so felt marginally better for a bit, but breeze stopped for the way down and the lower I went, the temperature just increased again. Quite a fun descent guessing which trod was going to end up in the right place without being able to see, did this pretty well. Had drunk another 750ml by the CP so just filled up 500ml.

Path up to Ugain felt like it went on forever but I was constantly overtaking which was at least a bit of a morale boost. Passed N pretty near the top too. At Snowdon felt dizzy, nauseous and basically terrible, had to lie down for a bit with my eyes closed. The walk back down took nearly 2 hours I think.

Felt much better after food but significantly burnt despite factor 50 _ I guess the constant prolific sweating washed most of it off.

Didn't look up for the whole race. Would like to do it again with cooler weather as it's probably quite scenic!

Smashed it;
https://www.deeside-orienteering-club.org.uk/resul...

No real competition, but still. Good race, barely did anything wrong. One crag where I went to the top and it was at the bottom.

Em did well too.

Nice evening. Path around the Moss in Summer is really dodgy though, grass and heather on both sides means you can't really tell where your feet are going. And it's a narrow path! Went over on my R ankle and had a 30s sit down trying not to cry, then 30s of limping, then manned (personned?) up and was just really careful round the remaining part (most, unforts) of the run. Not a sociable one as single file for the most part.

Feeling largely tired.

3rd of 32 but a very mediocre performance. Mainly just lack of precision, which was required more than usual due to the high bracken. Should have ignored the indistinct paths and focused on rock and contour features. Did well on the running/uphill legs, but too many mistakes.

The humidity did not help my mood; it rained loads yesterday but still feels as stifling as ever.

Significantly raining. Soaked. Feeling pretty tired, but got round. Good chat kept it going.