Training Log Archive: Ollie

Brown course at Ightham. A really nice, quite technical area, tough going in places due to the late-May vegetation growth, but few brambles or nettles. I had a good race, although my general pace was a little slow, especially near the beginning as I was tired from biking to the event. I picked up speed later on though, and finished with too much energy to spare.
I made just one significant technical mistake - I failed to hit a pit in a green area, to be fair it was a bit of a bingo control.

As mentioned above, my start was slow, and although I didn't make any bad route choices or get lost, I took longer than I should have. I exited 2 poorly, not seeing a path above, and getting stuck in some green. I hit 6 before 5 - but the two were only 100m from each other, and indeed the location of 6 was useful for finding 5. I failed to pick up my intended path from 6 to 7, and hand to climb up a steep bank. Leaving 9 my direction was poor - 30 degrees too far left, which meant I had to go very slow as 10 was technical.

11 was a great leg - I beat my peers here. 14-15 was an untimed road crossing leg, which I needlessly rushed. And 15-16 was very poor - more walking up a big bank, followed by the aforementioned bingo control. From then on it was flat and straightfoward. Took a bit of a tumble as I was speeding up for the penultimate leg. Was annoyed to find I'd kept too much energy in reserve as I sprinted for the finish.

Overall, I'm pleased with the result - I just wish I'd paced myself better. A nice SAX area - I've been to a succession of not great areas in Kent, but this (and Eridge) prove that, sometimes, Kent does have worthy orienteering areas.

My route.

Selected Results (39 starters, 34 finishers)
1st Paul Nixon 57:37 (great time!)
3rd Simon Evans 61:06
7th Simon Errington 65:35
8th Ollie O'Brien 65:59
10th Don McKerrow 71:01

Bike from home to London Bridge station, then from Sevenoaks station on an exciting, hilly and partly off-road route to the Ightham event. Back the same way until the outskirts of Sevenoaks, where I diverted through Eridge. Unfortuantely my bike blew a puncture at Sevenoaks, so no return leg home once back in London. The bike is locked up at Charing Cross, long may it rot.

Event: Rowney Warren UK Cup Middle Races (World Ranking Event)
 

Missed today's event to get some rest and continue to recuperate.

Event: British Sprint Champs
 

Heat for the British Sprint Championships in Milton Keynes. Overcast and damp, but not raining. The heats were to the south of the park - the first half was through a housing estate with numerous alleyways and tiny parks.

Unfortunately the first few controls were a catalogue of mistakes: On the way to No. 1 I misread the map and overshot badly, costing me 45 seconds - a big mistake for a sprint. I was still misreading the map on the way to No. 2 - another 10 seconds. I left No. 3 at the wrong angle, wasting another 20 seconds. No. 4 to 5 was also bad - I was confused by a playground and swung too far to the left - another 20 seconds.

From 5 onwards I was OK - the legs got longer and less technical, and the course moved away from the housing estate and into rougher land, and then into ornamental woodland. I was overtaken by a few fast people, and latched onto them for a couple of legs, which was useful - although I had great problems punching at some of the controls - Wasting 10s in some of the 30s legs is not good! But, the remainder of the race was generally fault-free and fast.

Noticed after the race that the inner side of my right O-shoe got ripped during the race, resulting in a large hole. Should still be OK for a few more races though.

"C" Final for the British Sprint Championships in Milton Keynes. Damp, raining hard before the race. The finals were very spectator friendly and were in the main, ornamental part of the park. A specator viewpoint on a spur meant the first half of the course was very visible, including a hill-climb leg right through the viewing area.

I still managed to make quite a few mistakes on this race. It was only the "C" final but I had a good reason to keep up a good base - Simon from SLOW was starting two minutes behind me.

To No. 1 was a short uphill leg which I tackled at a fast pace, feeling the pain when I got to the top. 2-3 was only a 30m leg but i still managed to head in the wrong direction. I was having some problems with the intensity and shortness of the legs - 6-7 was a 10 metre leg (!) but I still hestitated, not believing it was so close! The split was 12 seconds, almost certainly my shortest intra-race split. I wasn't sure of the direction leaving 7, such was the pace. 9-10 was the infamous hill leg, but I wimped out and went around. Then, the course took us away from the specator arena and through rougher ground - past roads built for houses that weren't there yet - very MK! The last section was back through the ornamental woodland - I started to tire here unfortuantely, and made a poor route choice from 19-20, not noticing a good path. 21-22 was another poor route.

Overall, not as scrappy as the heats though, and my pace was slightly faster. I finished a respectable 12th out of 42 - but then, it was only the C final.

I haven't been able to do any training this week for the weekend's races, as I've been ill since Wednesday. Feeling somewhat better now so I'm probably going to be along for the British Sprint champs on Saturday, if only to spectate. I probably won't be doing Sunday's race though, so that I get a good rest.

From parents' home to beautiful Crichton Castle. Lovely sunny day, great scenic route on empty rural roads.

The return journey, which for some reason I found much harder - possibly because the hills going back seemed much bigger, even though the amount of climbing was actually the same...

The original plan today was to go to the Andover event with OUOC. However, last night's party was unexpectedly large, and Oxford was a long way, and I reckoned that I wouldn't be doing myself a favour with only 2 hours of sleep. Plan B therefore was doing a short memory race in Essex. But on waking up, a full scale hangover was in progress, so I skipped that too.

So I ended up finally (4pm) going on a long, leisurely bike ride up the Lea Valley. On the Lea Valley, you can bike pretty much from the centre of London to the edge, without going on roads. However, as I suspected, most of the Lea Valley is exceptionally dull. The highlights were the Regent's Canal/Victoria Park, Enfield Lock and Gunpowder Park, and the section north of Waltham Abbey. Everything else was just the canal, industry and grass.

The route was from Angel, along the Regent's Canal (very busy indeed on this nice, sunny day) to Victoria Park, then following National Cycle Route 1 through Hackney Marshes, Walthamstow Marshes and up north through the Lea Valley, via Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield Lock. I passed under the M25 after around 2 hours - which was my unofficial target time for leaving London. Then, after a stop at Waltham Abbey, continued north up through a nice nature reserve, back on to the River Lee Navigation, finishing finally at Broxbourne. Throughout the ride I was on good surfaced, off road tracks, and with virtually no hills, it was a very easy 30 miles.

Route, excludes the final 3 or so miles home from Liverpool St station.

Definitely the first day of summer today! 23degC outside :-) and even warmer in my flat :-( Time to pack away the heaters and get out my mega fan.

I suddenly seem to have acquired Attackpoint ranking points. From my understanding of how the system works, I'm fairly sure this is because I ran in the same JK Sprint race as BorisGr, so thanks Boris! [edit: and thanks andyd!]

C • AP rankings 3