Training Log Archive: Rich

Call last night that one of our engineers was ill so ended up covering site work in Wakefield for a couple of days. Post site work recovery run around Pugney's Country Park. Nice evening spoiled only by the flys in my eyes and slightly sore, ominus glands in my neck.

JK Trophy - 1st Leg

A bit of a spirt out the start to get onto the nice path so as not to get stuck behind the masses. Then just settled in the pack after picking my route to 1 to take a good look at the map. People started peeling off and hesitating into 1 so a was a good boost to hit it first and confidently onto 2 and 3; where the gaffles converged and I found myself just behind Sander, for the thrid time and three days, and Murray. Not sure about the gaffling but ran my own race through the next loop and found myself just behind Sander and a little further behind Murray again at 7 with a small gap to the pack behind.

Decided to use the round option to 8 on the tracks rather than up and down through the quarries. Turned out to be some 45s slower as next sight of Sander was him way off in the distance and I merged with the chasing packed (couple of Belgians and a Birtwistle) as they climbed out the quarries.

Easy next few though tough heather, before missing the spectator control by the best part of a minute and making a spanner of myself. Caught by Todd Oaks and Jamie P at this point. Small hesitation on one control but otherwise clean to the end putting in what I had left to come in 4th.

Race of two halves really. Started hesitantly, not into the map scale and more concerned about whether I should have worn my cag from the start is it was pretty cold. After bumbling into one, 2 was fine but lost more time in the now thick fog at 3. 4 looked tricky so though I would decend to the pond and contour from there but couldn't pick out the features and it was very rough going underfoot; lots of hesitancy into the control. Lost more time on 7, silly mistake not picking out the additional depression but biggest mistake came at 10. No proper plan and everything looked the same coming down the hill. Best part of 3mins lost here. A little bit more time lost on 11 through a poor line in the middle section and spending too much time in the rough open.

caught by Poo Boy (3 mins) at 12, which I was slightly surprised at as I thought he would have passed me at 10. Took different lines to 13, me pretty straight, PB pussying out and going round the valley. Converged pretty much together. Sat in behind picking out the detail to 14. At this point it was feeling much more like the OMM than JK M21E Long at this point. here we caught sight of Jonny M (started 6mins before me) which was a bit of a confidence boost and we soon caught him.

Enjoyed the quarry section where I took the initiative and my gel. Started flagging a little across to 22 where I started flagging a little and lost map contact. Luckily Hector had caught me (dropped PB and JM by this point) and tucked in before I started picking out features to realise where we were and got the control ok. Started feeling a bit better down into the valley and was feeling strong up the hill to 26, helped by the fact I could see we were catching Sander. It was a case of legging it after sander and HH for the last few while keeping map contact. So, crap up to 12, but much better after and I think only HH was quicker in this 2nd half.

JK Middle. M21E

Last time I ran here I did appallingly, so was determined to get it right this time. Just about made my start on time. 1 was tricky and was not into the map at this point and overshot losing ~45s. Steady to 2 taking in more detail than ideal but hit the control ok. Bearing to 3 and then 4 was looking easier and as I decended into it noticed Sander just leaving it (2min man). Good confidence boost at this stage. Gain on him into 5 and were then together to 6. We took slightly different lines and both missed 6 losing another 45s at which point we looked up the hill to see HH quickly decending into 6. Led the way to 7 and 8 then we took slightly different lines to 9; all offline. So there was some faffing before we hit this one. I drifted much too left on 10 meaning HH and Sander pulled a 15s or so gap which gradually grew over the next few controls before they were pretty much out of sight after 15. Was clean bar ~10s at 16 though.

4th on the day. Pretty happy with that though it was through technical performance rather than physical shape.

Event: JK 2014
 

Easy lunch time jog out to the Embankment. Stopped off there for some drills along the astroturf cricket pitch.