Training Log Archive: martin(uk)

JK Relay, Mens 120 class, Newtyle.
I was looking forward to a close race with others in the M120 class, but in the end we were way off the pace. It wasn't technically difficult, but there were some big hills, and I was just too tired after 4 days of racing. I could have sworn I'd overtaken Ben Stansfield (I certainly passed him at the top of the first hill), but the gaffling was such that he got by me and finished 2 minutes quicker. Disappointing.

JK Day 3 Craig a Barns.
This is not the sort of forest I enjoy. Went out without any kind of concentration, and proceeded to lose about 5 minutes in the first 4 controls. Having decided not to just retire straight away and save it for the relays, I then jogged round and got my navigation going reasonably well. Escaped without too many more cuts and scratches from the terrain.
Looking forward to the relays, which hopefully will be nicer...

JK Day 2 Dunalastair.
I expected this to be tough physically, and for it to show up my lack of terrain fitness. It was also tough technically. I wasn't expecting to be anywhere near the top 3, and my focus for the weekend is the Sprint and the Relay. Anyway...
Lost 30 seconds or so on 1 just not spotting the small clearing in the green after I climbed too high. Next couple were fine but then the climb in the open to 4 was confusing (this is where the trees had been missed off the printed maps in error). I was on line and the contours fitted, so not an error, just hesitant. Slight miss at 5 climbing too high, then bigger miss at 6 not descending low enough. 7 was fine, but a slog through the marsh, and maybe there was a better line.
My lack of focus showed at 8, where I inexplicably ran up the wrong hill at the end of the leg, costing another minute. Went straight on 10 when round on the tracks was probably better. Missed again at 12 dropping too low down the back of the hill. By now I was pretty tired and it was just a slog through the terrain.
The control pick from 14 to 21 at the end was fun, though I wasn't necesarily getting the best lines between controls. Si Patton caught me at 15, and although I thought he was on a different course, I tried to stay with him anyway. Turnes out he was on M45. We also got together with Simon B for the last 3 controls, so the three of us were racing hard at the end and I ended up with two fastest splits. :-)

Event: JK 2012
 

JK Sprint M45, Livingston. Great new sprint area consisting of a mix of intricate housing estate and then parkland with good contour and vegetation detail. Despite a tough week at work I managed to get focussed and ran really well through the first section in the housing. I'd studied how the river bridge crossing worked, but then somehow forgot about needing to go back under the bridge at the far end. Worked it out after a few seconds. Then into the complex hill/bushy section, and again I lost a few seconds, probably because it's harder to judge scale in this sort of area compared to the housing bit. Lost 30 seconds (and the lead) at control 19 when I was completely thrown by the skate-park, which was all tarmac but mapped as olive - I read it as the mapped tarmac to the SE. Anyway, worked it out in the end and pushed hard over the bridge and into the finish. Was 25 seconds down on Dave at 19, but got it back to an 18 second deficit at the finish.
As I finished I was announced first, so it was clear that Dave P had declared himself non-comp (having been on the area in his Event Manager role). So I won, but I feel like I came second and should have won properly!

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