Training Log Archive: FE

Staples - almost dark, felt easier today.

To Staples - between the showers. Faster coming back when it was getting wetter and darker. Needed all the gears near Clandon.

Very slow on flat roads with both feet clipped in.

Lido(shorts) - only time for a short swim.

Calf - last Sunday reminded me to avoid running on paths in the summer.

Lido(shorts) - 50s, mixing things up with drills, slower & faster.

Fell Raiser shoes too tight. Feet, ankles and calves battered from rough and relatively hard rides on Sunday.

Lido(shorts) - need to mix things up. More emphasis on drills and pausing every 50 and no timing.

Event: SO Capite Wood Level C (incorporating event 4-of-7 of 2016 SO Champs)
 

Capite Wood - Southdowns - Green - Picked up wrong map (been talking about orange course at start) a hint of what was to come, 2nd leg was 1k on rough rides a brutal reminder of lack of fitness, 5 - 45s thought control was a ride (eyesight), 7 too far north 15s, 8 switched off on tracks and thought I was further on map gully fitted and no control - 2.15, 11 did something similar followed stream punched at reentrant 120m, before mine!, Then going to 12 nothing fitted, eventually realised but could not be bothered to punch at nearby correct control 11 -2.15, 13 -30s RC (turned out to best RC and best leg for me even at "given up" pace), finish did not see fence uncrossable -30s.

Two firsts picking up wrong map and going 50m and not bothering to punch properly, so dsq. Psyched myself out by 6, too "simple", too track based and I'm not fit attitude. Need to pace myself better as brain might be sharper and little chance of a second wind when you are relatively unfit.

No event next week and a chance to follow a different routine. Hope to get out on the bike if calf will allow.

Lido(shorts) - around 3s quicker. Marked contrast between effectiveness of higher right elbow and tendency of left arm to pull down early with a lower elbow.

Steady improvement in recovery times in all areas each week recently.

Lido(shorts) - Did fists for part of wu that helped with getting higher elbow pull, also expelling air more forcefully helped. 3 x 100 in 2.10.

Before work, only 4 people in the pool - luxury!

British Middle - Leith Hill - A couple minutes late for start after buying compass, visor and O glasses and Alan Leakie kindly gave me a punching start (worth a beer). Lost around 8-9 mins including 90s in man eating vegetation. 32nd finisher and current leader when I finished (this is a truly weird sport at times!). Finished 8th at the head of the pack and 4-5 min gap to 6th which softened regrets for errors. Felt distinctly rusty and flaky on a few legs. Geeking helped to visualise terrain on the west side. Rushed things too much after first big wobble instead of using it as a warning to keep slowing down when unsure - hindsight!!!

1. West embank -30s, 2 Memorised wrong code -10s, 3 -20s, 5 looked at another control -10s (still 4th fastest), 8 Needless expedition grot then confused where I was 2.45 min, 9 Took wrong small path (confidence waning) 60s, 11 Visited another control -30s, 12 struggled with map 60s, 15 longish route -10s, 17 appeared to be an extra track and couldn't fit rhodies 1.45 min, 21 dragged north by veg -15s.

Looking forward to rerunning this on a dry summers evening.

Race speed to reach start late!

Event: British Sprint Championships
 

Lido(shorts) - tried out the buoyancy shorts. Nothing like a pull buoy, far less buoyant and centred much higher which wasn't a great surprise. Might be my imagination that there was a seesaw effect depending what was happening further up my body.

13/14 both leg exts, balance on inner calf, strecthing.

Lido(nws) - crowded. Some progress with catch & position. Need to relax more. Ordered buoyancy shorts as a more convenient way of getting some of the benefit of a wetsuit.

Nerve pain only and even that settled down by lunchtime. Surreal in a nice way. Happy days!

C • Great progress 2

Kingswood TVOC - Short Green (5% climb). Went for it today and had a hunch the race would suit me. New 1:5 map with 2.5m contours with a huge mapping effort to get the myriad of holly variations on the map. Tricky with most of the controls in the green visible from 5-10m only, an area where no one has a perfect run. 1 - overshot, thought kite 30m after start was start triangle 30s, 3 - climbed a bit/not straight 15s, 8 - better to have stayed on path -10s, 12 - drifted and never saw paths 40s, 13 - map fitted too early for my liking, came back to AP 15s later.

Taking around 20% longer than Pete on the same legs mainly uphill. Just goes to show even swimming can keep CV level reasonably high.

Proper mini wu that helped to get into the flow from the start.

Lido(ws) - 100wu & wd. Plan was to do something longer but as usual starting too fast, so did 100s.

No ibu yesterday and tried being active today. So far so good.

Congo Stream - SN Training - Moving much better than 10 days ago. Rusty losing a good 2 plus minutes within the the circles with training kites.