Training Log Archive: Jon X

Event: British Middle Distance Championships
 

British Middle Distance Championships, M45A, 5th place.
Strensall Common, 5.4km.

Very well looked after by the Farnworths for our stay in York but was feeling a little jaded this morning! Luckily had a late start time...

Expecting a fast and furious race with lots of vague features and quite possibly controls hidden in holes. Important to keep looking up and ahead to pick out features including other people punching controls!

Lost a few seconds at each of #1 (bang on line but didn't see flag and turned away briefly when ten yards away), #2 (confused when the white by the flag was a lot more like open than I had expected) and #5 (ran left of the line so up then down the ridge). Thought I did the longer leg to #8 okay except for a few secs in the circle but now see I could have run straighter initially which probably cost 15-20secs.

Felt like I was going pretty well though....and then made a proper mistake at #10, misread the contours and ran too far south. 45-50 secs lost.

Back over the fence and two short legs from the stile through some woodland, got the knoll okay at #11 but was worried about missing the small depression at #12 so carefully looked for and ran to the left of the green immediately before it. It would have been better to run to the left of the mapped green not the unmapped green. GPS shows I was bang on line until I angled left to use the vegetation. Should have trusted the compass! 60secs for a 35sec leg and caught 2mins by Martin W.

Still ahead of Martin for #13 but was passed just as #14 came into sight, then gradually left behind. Wasn't helped by heading for the line of people on the long(er) leg to #16 only to find too late that they were all thrashing along a tussocky marshy elephant track rather than along the path, so made slower progress than I would have liked. Easy and fast from there to the end.

5th place behind an SYO podium lock of Charlie (29:22), Martin (29:55) and Chappers (30:34) plus Kenny Leitch (32:08). Enjoyed the intensity of the race, not sure when I last ran sub 6mins per km on a non park/urban event!

C • Impact of other runners 1

Most of the sample controls and found some unpleasant tussocks too. Then run to the start and some token drills. Quick shuffle up and down the field after.

Course 4 - Splits

Event: British Sprint Championships
 

Initial jog and a few drills, then jog to start paying close attention to model map. A few more strides and drills pre-start.

British Sprints qualifier, Heat A.

Looking for good pace but keeping good control, knew I should qualify okay if I did so. Largely managed it and safely into final in 2nd place, 7 secs behind Clive H.

Warm down jog with Graeme.

British Sprints M45, A final, 6th place.

Off the start, short leg, sight the bushes the control is between, leg it across the grass towards it whilst looking ahead on the map - oops ornamental pond in the way, never saw it on the map and I have almost run into it....round to the left but 5secs or so lost and rushing a bit now.......short legs to #2 and #3 but round to the right to #4 and immediately know that is wrong and I should have dog-legged, 10 more secs gone.

Still rushing and quick to #5 and #6 then again go right on the longer to #7....but immediately see there is no gap where I thought there was and I have to go much further round to the right. Push hard and get up the high-but-crossable wall in front of the control instead of going round, but that is another 15secs lost. Starting to think Chappers from 1 min back might get me in sight. Don't look back!

Hesitate to pick a route round to the bridge crossing but don't fall into the no-way-through trap, but still rushing, 5+ more secs by almost going wrong side of uncrossable wall at #12 but check description just in time, then confused by map en route to #13, unexpected grassy bank all along to my right. Eventually work out that it is mapped as white but now I have lost track of the buildings and tracks to my left. Head in but it is too soon, cut through one block then have to stand still and work out where I am. Still too soon and have to go on. It is only 10-15secs lost but feels like ages.

Calm down and take my time to check the route leaving #13, left and right look similar and choose right. Pretty good back from here but not quite on line to the last control and have to go over an extra knoll, means I am 1 second down when I finish. Not for long though as Martin W has caught Mark and they are both already on the run-in.

Martin won in a very impressive 12:46 with Mark third in 13:50. John Duckworth second in 13:25. Then Clive Hallett 14:15 and Kenny Leitch 14:23.

A bit disappointed with time loss and felt like I should have got fourth. Could find the time to have got up to third but it would have needed a pretty clean run...Martin's time was well out of reach.

Run to the start and then drills and jogging in the handy field. Posse warm down after.

Quali - Course H2A - Splits

Final - Course FA2 - Splits

Travelling to York after work.

FVO jaunt for an introductory climbing session at Ratho. Not as bad at it as I thought I might be. Although not exactly a natural either. In general it isn't scary unless you look down. Or is that just a lack of imagination?

FVO night race, Bantaskine.

Still having troubles with calf/achilles but it loosened off okay in the warmup so started off quite quickly. Torch went off leaving #1 but there was still residue daylight and luckily it came back on near #2.

Took the high route to #3 which (it turned out) meant a steep slippery scary descent down into the feature. Helen B braved it behind me and descended the second part very quickly (!) but Fraser and Fi decided it was not for them and went even further round. All of us lost a lot of time to the low route.

Still going okay into the gaffles but torch gave up again at #8. Knew where I was going to find #9 but had to wait for Fraser to help me with #10. Got a quick look at the map and found #11 and #12 (reflective canes with no flag not very easy to find in the dark even when you find the feature!). Knew the way back to the central control at #13 and could see enough to simplify #14 and get near #15 - met Vicki there and sneaked a look at her torch. Found flag and then detoured to a streetlight which let me work out how to get to #16 and #17 (took a while to find #16 concealed in the bush!).

Had to hang around leaving #17 for someone with a torch (thanks Fraser) and so binned the last four and headed back.

Second half of my run was an interesting exercise in map memory and simplification - actually really enjoyed it. Disappointed not to get to play with the whole race though - fun area and Rog's course made good use of it.

6 x 400 with 1min recovery
Tried not to do the first too hard, did it too slow!
89, 85, 84, 82, 81, 80

then 4x100with stroll back recovery
16sec each

Lap of the loch then drills, couple of laps and jog back afterwards.

Legs had felt great all day. However once we got to the exercises my muscles felt like I had been in terrain at the weekend...

20/5 twice, still taking a bit of care of right achilles (it was not as bad as last week though).

Skipped the jog afterwards this week and went straight for the pizza!