Training Log Archive: Thraws

Last trip to Houghton to check timings on putting out controls. The four on Friday night should take a half hour. The eleven furthest ones need about an hour and a half. Which leaves the thirteen on the junior courses, which Lucy should manage in an hour if she finds the sites. I taped six, where it wasn't obvious. Everywhere was muddy, but at least there is no flooding. Then collected maps from Mike.

Used the car in the afternoon as I had to put event notices up at Houghton after work. Weird day in the office, me the only one there because everyone else at an exhibition in London.

Still no bike and feeling restless so went for a run. SEJS circuits have helped with back problems, and core was OK, but the imbalance across the two legs felt very obvious on the hard surface. It wasn't a problem but right pelvis and left shin feel very strange. Plan was to run steady until I started to feel tired and I got the distance about right. Good cardiovascular session.

The bike is at the shop so I'm driving to work. It needs a new sprocket and chain set, the third on this machine. The guy in the shop and me worked out I've pedalled somewhere between 15 and 20,000 miles in the last ten years. Hope to collect on Wednesday.

There were a lot of bad things about this run but there were some good things too. First, the area was almost entirely saturated, which I hate. Then, the southern half was fairly good running but it was almost entirely covered in loose holly, which made it just about impossible to run on a bearing. And it was flat as a pancake so you couldn't use the contours. The northern half contained a lot more detail and was hilly. In fact, it was pretty brilliant. All my mistakes were in the first and last thirds, the southern part, and there were a lot of them. Four looked difficult, a knoll in the middle of a large light-green block. I tried to attack off a path bend but was just a bit too far south and once I missed it I was sunk. 4 mins 30s lost. At 6 I was distracted by some bushes about 50 yards south of the control-bush. After giving it the beans on the easy leg to 17 I ran down the wrong path and headed right into the trees instead of left. The people I'd just overtaken must have wondered what course I was on. And one mistake leads to another so my bearing to 19 was not careful enough. The 'blue depression' symbol confused me at 20. The ride run to 22 really needed a boat. Given the size and number of mistakes the overall pace was OK so the middle third in the northern half must have gone well. Quite a few people fared less well. Enjoyed it but not sure it was worth taking on the north circular for.

With 28 controls in less than 6k it was clear this was going to be about planning ahead, as you would in a sprint. There were probably only 7 or 8 controls that provided a technical challenge greater than you'd get in a sprint race, and people made mistakes at these. One of them was 2, which I made a hash of, and to make amends I had the fastest splits on legs 3 and 5. Saw Lu leaving 6 so went a different way to 7. She was leaving that one too. I couldn't catch her till 12, then I got stuck in the mud so she beat me to the map exchange at 13. The best bit of Ditchling is the dry field in the middle. I turned the map over to plan ahead while crossing it. I was too far left to 14 so took the path route to 15 to recover but lost contact with the small paths near 16 and was glad to see it. After I'd finally found the road crossing I did the next five reasonably well, but was lured into some dark green by a small path near 22, and lost time and a place here. The rest was easy, but after 35 mins I wasn't 'sprinting' any more. Great training fun on my of my least favourite SO areas.

Mostly open fields or hillside so technically very easy. Somehow overshot 2 because I was looking for a veg boundary instead of a ditch, and struggled up the mountain to 5. It was cross-country running to 11, but the hill found me out again. I stopped about 15 yards too early for 12, then ran to a highly visible flag on a knoll which was almost 100 yds before my 13. The biggest problem was exiting here, though, because I couldn't find the path through the fight and ended up just bashing through. Probably about 3 minutes lost. The sight of lost orienteers led me to neglect my AP to the tricky 15 and I was pleased when it just came up. Then it was down and up the hill again. Small mistakes cost me a lot of places, but it was so nice to be warmed by the sun. I could have run without gloves for the first time in almost three months.

Checking control sites and map for Houghton in three weeks. It would be easier if I knew where we are parking so I could work out a suitable start The start is the hardest thing about planning. The forest is almost perfect, a mix of lightning fast high visibility beech, and lower vis coppice and saplings. The map has loads of features so it's just a case of trying to avoid the brambles. My planning principles are to devise courses I'd enjoy running and mix long and short legs if the area allows it. There are quite a few other people around, almost all walking dogs. They make an extraordinary amount of pointless noise.

Slight miss on 1, but could see Lu by the time I got to the open on the way to 4. Overtook three or four others on the way to 7 but couldn't catch her, then she went in from the field on the way to 8 too early. I shouted but she didn't hear. Opted for mud-free route to 9, and was glad to get 11 clean as it had the potential to trip people up. Couldn't see 13 because I was looking for a re-entrant, and opted to attack 15 up streams, which was wrong because I lost a lot of height. Made the same mistake on 17 in reverse. Delightful little SO area which was just right for a middle race of this sort.