Training Log Archive: Bashman

Easy
Ran home from Cara's after some heavy lifting loading a minibus. Along the country roads feeling absolutely brilliant the whole way. Weather was perfect and the only noticeable difference to Bulgaria were the smells (same weather). Over Culter and then back on the main road. Strangely not unusual for me to feel great after a hard week's competition.

Easy
After a couple of hours of sleep I woke up feeling wide awake and great given the circumstances so headed out for a goodbye run. Down to the other Hotel looking for any hungover people then back up some tracks to the abandoned ski jump that I found the other day. Scrambled up a 50% gradient and then found the structure that jumpers used to start from. Must have been quite a popular place because it was standing well. Walked up the ~60m high concrete jump on staircases that seemed to be held up by nothing, with no handrails or anything, got a bit scary up top when it began to shake on every step I took.. Looked up to see the most stunning view I have ever seen. By climbing this jump I had climbed above the cloud level and all I saw was a see of cloud to the north and the blue sky above. The cloud moved in in a surreal manner and covered the jump. It may have been the lack of sleep but it was a crazy experience. I then made my way down when a whiteout began to form back below the cloud level. Ran back through the relay area, down a steep ski slope, and to breakfast to see hardly anyone had woken up.

Junior World Orienteering Championships Relay - Leg 1 - 15th

The thunderstorm at the start didn't help very much with my preparation for this. Feeling tired but still up for a fight, and I knew everyone else would be too. Yelled the GBR chant with 20s to go, as happens every year, with Oli and we were ready to go. Nikolov started us off and I had to elbow my way to the front. Was at the front out the field already confident on number 1 (http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...). Punched it high up and headed down across the car park to number 2. Picked my own route through the network of paths and got to it near the front. Stupidly followed the first few out the field, including team 1 from Czech. 3 of us went the long way round the stream and lost a ridiculous number of places. Ragingly we dropped down under the bridge and then exited really craply once again...

Long way round the building although nearly everyone did this and we hit the steep climb. My hill legs were more than dead so I cut into the terrain early with the Czech once again and we gained a few places. I did minorly overshoot but I was running with Sweden 2 (who came in 1st) down to the next few and wasn't too far down. Didn't really focus on the long leg and found myself alone on a path which I thought was the best route. I frantically crossed the stream to join the pack but found the wrong control.. Quickly enough corrected and I was fighting for places once more.

Slowly made my way up to Oli without needing to do much nav on my own at all and we headed to spectator together which was really sweet. Final climb up was a killer and onto the top of the course in the middle of a ski slope. Heading down I decided that sliding on my arse would be faster and honestly made up a few places by sliding for about 50m. Legs were stinging from all the nettles but I overtook Oli and finished about 15th, only a minute from the front 3 and in the middle of the "chase". Felt like I'd had a nightmare though.

Could have gone worse I guess. Analysing the results, I beat all the podium team's first legs except the New Zealand one who was 6th. Beat Assar for the 2nd time this week but still didn't feel too happy because I knew I should have done better. Good experience though, as was every race this week. Team didn't do too well and we finished 20th, not our year but confident that GB will podium in the men's relay in the next few years.

Live - http://bgodays.org/europe/index.php?name=comp&e=9&...
Results - http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/Results_relay_JWOC.pdf
Splits - http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/Split_times_Relay.pdf
Map - http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

WU/D

WU

Junior World Orienteering Championships Middle Final - Men's A Final - 17th by 5:30

My attitude towards this race was perfect. Didn't care about the result at all and was prepared to make a few more risks compared to yesterday and to hopefully push the pace a bit more. Start list was like this:

Riccardo (ITA) +4 . Martin (SVK) . Me . FIN . SRB . DEN . AUT -8
http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/JWOC_Startlist_Middle_F...

So it looked like I was in a fast sandwich with a few old friends chasing me down, and I was excited. Messed around a lot in quarantine, and even in the start boxes. After a quick pre-race pee at -2 I was ready to enjoy it. Picked up the map and it was a similar scenario to yesterday. http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map... except today it was everybody who would struggle to find 1. Decided to nail it on a good bearing in the hope to find some lost straggler. Sure enough I found the Fin but he seemed to be pretty lost. I relocated off a re-entrant behind it and dropped the guy without him noticing, still lost about a minute though, but could have been worse. Funny thing is that if he had heard the control beep as I punched, then almost everyone's result would be different.

Then refocused and went off towards 2. Was surprised to see my 8 minute Austrian man heading to 2. He jumped on the train though and we caught up my Danish man on the way to 3. Slightly hesitant approaching it when none of my attackpoints worked, but nipped in front of the gang and got it. 4 looked tricky and I knew I had to find a good attackpoint from the stream. However, I got distracted by the high pace set by my chasers and ended up leaving the stream at an unknown bend. Spent 2 minutes faffing around on the hill and I knew my race was pretty much over. Eventually formed the train again at 5 but I was having none of it and ran away from them. Good route to 6 and I just relaxed my head a little bit.

I was approaching the clearing when I heard a huge crashing noise behind me. Shocked to see Riccardo, Martin, the Fin, the Austrian and Dane all in a single-file train right behind me. Raging to see Riccardo in another train and I had no other option than to board it. Got quite annoyed and took my own lines but it was hard to make a different route choice on legs where straight was always great. We powered through 6 and 7, and I desperately tried to get to the front but the pace was ridiculous! Up to 8 and I was pushed to the back with the Austrian, but still doing much of my own nav. Caught them again on 9 and slogged up to 10 once more. Here I unleashed some speed and lead the pack into 11, and a bit of the way up to 12 (I was the one who noticed we were at the re-entrant and diverted to the control). But it felt awful. This wasn't the sport of orienteering that I enjoy, and it wasn't a relay either. Decided that if I finished in front of them that would make up for some of it.

Prepared my final push and stuck mid pack for 13 and 14. But I didn't quite realise how big the final hill was and they almost all came past. We caught up the Serbian and a random French guy at the penultimate, destroyed them, and then finished still rapidly. By the end it must have been a train of 8 or 9.... and Riccardo was winning because of this, bollocks.

Even though I was high up at the end I was not happy; my result was undeserved. Best GB guys result? Still not happy. Beat Aidan? Couldn't care less. Beat all the Swedes? A nice chat up line but nothing to be proud of. The fact that they weren't top 18 today simply emphasised the "corrupt" orienteering that was going on today. Just to show how fast my train actually was, the winner ran 20:06 from Radio 1 (control 4) to the finish, the FIN who drove the train a lot of the way ran 19:33, Riccardo 19:34, Martin 19:58, and I ran 20:32 (slower due to the time they caught on 5 and 6, and gained on the finish).

The good, but still slightly annoying, thing is that everyone in the train was raging except Silver medal Riccardo, who caught the FIN at number 1 just as he punched it. The Italian took the result as a great success, and respect to him for the first Italian JWOC medal. He obviously sees orienteering differently to me. I'm not going to change my views very quickly though. On an area like this, it was a bit silly to hold any final, especially with a first control which would ensure pack running for a good amount of runners.

If only that damn Fin had heard me punch number 1.. My best run of the week was the qualifier, rant over.

Start List - http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/JWOC_Startlist_Middle_F...
Live - http://bgodays.org/europe/index.php?name=comp&e=8&...
Splits - http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/Split_times_Middle_F_AL...
Map - http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

C • High five 4

WD

Junior World Orienteering Championships Middle Qualification - Men's Q1 - 13th (Qualified), 3 mins down

After the long I realised that I was capable of running a good race in the Bulgarian forest, even against 20 year olds. My top third result gave me the confidence to achieve my goal for the JWOC Middle - to qualify to the A final and nothing much more than that. I was "awarded" a late start by the selectors which felt quite good, and the same start time as Aidan, which was even better, at least I thought. Quarantine was very chilled. Chatted to various people and eventually began my warm up feeling quite relaxed but focused - the WU map certainly helped me achieve this.

Soon enough me and Aidan were fist-bumping our way through the pre-start boxes. With Zoe 1 min in front and Lucy 1 min back, everything felt pretty awesome. We fist-bumped one last time, stared off our Kiwi rival for a bit, saluted to Lucy behind us, and were off into the mental terrain.

I was instantly struck by the complexity of the terrain, and I'm pretty sure Aidan was too. http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map... But thank god, there was a small path to set me right. However when I couldn't find this I panicked and looked over to find Aidan for comfort. He seemed to have found his first control which was clearly short of mine, damn.. I went on a rough bearing, did a rough relocation and found the control. Nice, off to 2, found the path this time but wasn't sure on where I was along it. Took a stab in the dark, put off by Aidan once more, but soon it came out of it's camouflage. Refocus to 3, good bearing, slowing into the circle, bang on, nice.

4 looked quite straightforward, across the two streams, hit the path to find Lucy, along the opens and up the trail of boulders. 6 was fine, saw it from a mile off, and I was happy to see that 7 was a real recovery leg. Straight out to the path but was really stupid to not see the link, although I heard a few people missed this. Still a few seconds lost. hit it well though and overtook a Canadian to get to 8. A bit off line to 9 but didn't lose much and found it perfectly. Didn't really plan for 10, there were people running around like headless chickens but I was focused on hearing and seeing assembly, hitting the open, and finding the control, which I did. Straight to 11, no problem, same with 12. Then 13 looked like the final tricky one. Aimed for the stream, found the stream, followed the stream, met Zoe, found the control. I pushed to overtake a train of girls but Piotr had just caught me up, raced him to the last control but he was a lot stronger up the hill and beat me in by 2 mins.

Job done, goal accomplished. Adding up the mistakes cost me 2 minutes, but no where near as bad as some other peoples runs. By far the best race of my week, and I was proud to say that I did all the work. Beat Aidan in by a few seconds, obviously on a different gaffle though, and it was a really nice feeling to know that I had qualified. Only Kiwi'd today, but beating the Long champion seemed to make up for that. Top boy of the day for GB too.

Live - http://bgodays.org/europe/index.php?name=comp&e=7&... - very far down at the start once again
Splits - http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/Split_times_Middle_Q_AL...
Map - http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...
.

C • Like 1

WU/D

Easy
Making up for not having a WD yesterday. Found some cool single track but wasn't the best in road shoes....

WU

Junior World Orienteering Championships Long - 10.2km, 275m climb - 45th, 15 minutes back

After the poor sprint performance I was slightly lost. I had blown what I believed to be my best chance of a good result and now had the mindset that I didn't stand a chance in the tough terrain in my current form. Thankfully with the help of some coaches though, I was looking forward to a very early start and a fun experience today.

After spending very little time in the nicest quarantine I've seen so far - 1700m up in the Bulgarian hills on a sunny morning, staying in a chalet beside a ski resort - I was ready to go. Toe was bothering me a little bit but I managed to numb the pain a little bit on the WU. Into -13 or something stupid like that and we were sent off on 70m of steep climb to the -3 box. Got there just behind Rhona and the view were amazing, 1800m above see level on the start of a ski lift. I was 21st start for the men, out of 156, but I didn't let this get to me, and instead focused on the people that I was going to catch nervously looking at me on the start line. Very relaxed in the boxes, but got a little bit put off by the Swiss tank 2 minutes behind me.

I was off down a nice track and a bit surprised by my first glance of the course - http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map... . They seemed to have ignored the nice terrain on top of the hill and instead lead the guys into some crap. And crap it was. Bouldery, steep ground making it torture on my toe. Slowly down to number 1, really not wanting to miss it. Hit it and had already decided to path it to 2, no other good option. Numbed my toe in the marsh, and never noticed it again after this. Along the path and then up to 1, seeing my Romanian 2 minute man hitting the path as I was exiting. For some reason I decided to try heading straight to 3. Soon got stuck in some kind of green that I've never seen before and had to retire back to the path, losing a bit of time. Came up to 3 just as the Swiss, with an Aussie who I had caught, was arriving. Damn.

I was puzzled with what Kiril was thinking when he planned 4. It seemed too straightforward. Sure enough spotted the long way round but was 100% certain that the straighter route was still better. Struggled to get to the road though and got stuck in some horrible rough open just before it. Soon cut down and began to tempo the road bit, giving my brain a rest. Tanked it to catch a Japanese guy who was surprisingly quick. Ignored the water station, too early, and then began to slowly overtake him. Soon enough got him and looked back to see he was dead, poor guy! Pathed it as far as possible and then entered the forest a bit confused, possibly running too hard. Waved about a bit but then spotted the Lithuanian, who I confused for the Romanian, and the Aussie. Let them "lead" me in but they messed up and I pipped into the control in front, knowing exactly where we were.

This section was awful physically. Huge boulder fields were absolute hell for my feet but also tricky to navigate through. The Aussie clearly hurt himself a bit, and after asking if he was alright, myself and the LTU dropped him. Through the next water point but we both ignored it, too much work to be done. This was also the first radio, and I was very far down. Bad start, it became a pattern for the whole week. Set off slightly off to 7 but we soon spotted it. Crossed Oli's path on our way to 8. I was leading our small train, and it was a good route too. We got to the second track quickly but we were obviously going too hard because soon enough we hit the stream not knowing where we were. We headed up a stream which I was wishing was the right one but I soon saw the marsh and knew 9 wasn't far off. Legged it to 8 and then back to 9 after this. Thankfully the LTU had a different gaffle so I didn't see him again, too much stress. Went through the butterfly quite well. Second loop was a bit dodgy but I was safely on the way to spectator now. Took a quick sip, got a new map, and refused to take the gel Jackie was offering. Didn't need it at all! Went through in 49th

Caught a Bulgarian guy going up the chute and past him into 17. 18 scared me though and I quickly forgot where I was going. Very luckily, my bearing was awesome and I hit it bang on, slowly but bang on! Up to 19 and I saw the Swiss that I had overtaken heading to 18, never expected this to happen! Lead our group to 20 and then I chose to take the road to 21, on my own. My brain needed a break and it was worth it. Hit 21 to catch up my 10 minute Austrian. We went off line to 22 which was a shame because I was in 38th (top 40) at 21. I lost some time going slowly to the last control too, slightly annoying, but the people who overtook me here were almost all being towed. Finished strongly, no need for any water or food! 45th

Quite happy with that performance, seeing that I wasn't even running it 3 weeks earlier.
Ended up catching 7 people and not overtaken by anyone (finished ahead of the Swiss) which is quite nice too.
2nd best GBR mens performance and also much better than the Sprint.
Beat last years champion and 1 Fin, 2 Swedes, and 3 Norwegians.

Unfortunately finished at the back end of a big pack of people and if I had been strong to 4 or 8, I could have been a lot higher.
Would have liked to have seen what would have happened with a later start but oh well, good experience. I'll know my capabilities for next time.
Kiwi'd, Aussie'd, Germany'd, Brussle'd

Start List - http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/JWOC_Startlist_LONG_MEN...
Live results - http://bgodays.org/europe/index.php?name=comp&e=6&...
Splits - http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/Split_times_LONG_ALL_JW...
Map - http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

Morning jog, feeling really good.

Junior World Orienteering Championships Sprint - 3.7km opt. - 65th, 1:40 down

I had high hopes today. In recent years I found that sprint was a good discipline for me and although my speed isn't as high as the best, I had the required technical skills to efficiently navigate whilst running at quite high speed. However, today was not my day.
My preparation had gone well and had surely been good enough to pull out a higher result than 65th. Together with some help from some of the team, I made the sprint map by endless hours of looking at streetview, pictures and google earth. Looking at some of the courses we had planned, we had almost nailed the shape of the course, even though we got quarantine wrong (but this didn't trouble anyone). I had got my way with a slot in the late start block, the model had gone well, and I found myself relaxing in a very nice quarantine in Samokov Arena (sports hall). In terms of nutrition, I was happy with it too. Everything was perfect.
Soon enough I was heading down some stairs to -3. Loved the atmosphere, indoor start. Start flag was on a backdoor and after seeing my -1 man heading across the bridge by a reflection off a window, I was off chasing him down. Quick look at the whole course, nice, had loads of time seeing as I was racing across the bridge with no other choice. Before this I had ignored all the heavy rain that had started during the middle start slots, there wasn't point of stressing over it. But out in the area there was no ignoring it. It was going to affect me on the slippery cobbles, wet grass, and deep pothole puddles.

I fought on nevertheless and nailed 1.
Safe route to 2 but possibly a bit slower. Not really noticeable on the splits.
3 was straightforward. Obviously put so we could plan 4.
I was told I took a bad route to 4, but I'm still happy with it and I wasn't far off best split.
50/50 route to 5, I chose 50.
6 was good but
I exited badly, distracted by 8, and took a long way round. Losing 10s.
8 could have gone worse, I slowed quite a lot because of slippery surfaces around the sports hall, nailed the route though.
Surprised that 9 wasn't more of a choice. Easy, but running speed was slowing down.
10 good, a well-geeked area.
And so was 11, but I lost 20s as I was planning 12 and ran right past it. Then, looking back at number 10, I confused myself and ran about like a headless chicken. Race over - if it wasn't already.
A bit of a longer route to 12, not really noticed on the splits though.
Then began to get exited for spectator, it was as expected, even the control before.
Bad exit to 13 but shouldn't have cost much and it wasn't my main worry. I got out onto the public road at 13 and it became treacherously slippery underfoot.
Slid about into 14 and then spectator. Had to pretty much jog into it to avoid a wipe out (as some people did apparently).
We had pre-planned 16 but I had almost lost hope. Thought I may have crossed something illegal, couldn't really be bothered.
Good to 17 and 18, just feeling sick, tired and helpless though.
Also fine to 19, hearing Jackie from assembly telling me to move it, but it was almost impossible on the slippery streets. 2 steps forward, 1 step back.
20 and finish, slowing down a ridiculous amount into the punches.

Very mixed feelings with this. I knew I had done rubbish, and I knew I could have done so much better in dry conditions. But I think something else was a bit off, and I reckon it's pretty simple. Lactate threshold speed, which comes with age, is lacking. Let's hope this changes by next season. I really shouldn't have made any time losses either, but I think the reason for my mistake on 11 wouldn't have happened with the obviously demoralising rain. I thought this was my best chance at JWOC this year, and it took some doing to change my mind about this after the sprint. Little did I know that this would be by far my worst result of the week...

Beat 5 Norwegiana, 1 Swede but was:
Kiwi'd (so was everyone), Aussie'd, Yankie'd, Brussle'd and Spain'd

Splits - http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/Split_times_Sprint_All_...
Map - http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...
Photos -

C • well done onwards and upwar... 1

Inside WU

Event: JWOC 2014 - Borovets, BULGARIA
 

Sprint Model