Training Log Archive: OllieIn the 31 days ending Oct 31, 2007:
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Wednesday Oct 31, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 20:25 [2] 6.9 km (2:58 / km)
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 22:06 [2] 7.34 km (3:01 / km)
Via Angel.
Tuesday Oct 30, 2007 #
Cycling (To/from Event) 1:41:00 [3] 31.0 km (3:15 / km)
To Putney, via Clapham Common, then back via The Embankment. The former is definitely the better route.
Monday Oct 29, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 20:58 [3] 6.9 km (3:02 / km)
GPS Time. At lunch - towpath was busier than normal.
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 22:36 [2] 6.7 km (3:22 / km)
Via Angel and Mare Street.
Saturday Oct 27, 2007 #
Cycling (To/from Event) 1:04:04 [2] 17.29 km (3:42 / km)
Home to/from Waterloo (incl. through station) and Teddington to/from Bushy Park. Return home was via Spitalfields.
Trail Running race (BPTT) 19:52 [5] 5.0 km (3:58 / km)
165th Bushy Park Time Trial. Cool and a bit damp, but bright blue sky. Behind a guy with a buggy most of the way - he was a useful marker. He said he normally does about 20 minutes. Overtook him with 200m to go.
Cycling (To/from Event) 1:43:53 [3] 31.0 km (3:21 / km)
From home to Waterloo, then from Surbiton to Hinchley Wood. Then back to Surbiton, then interchanges at Clapham Junction and Victoria, then from Beckenham Junction back home via the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. Last section was 15km, completed in around 45 minutes. It was dark, and raining.
Friday Oct 26, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 19:01 [2] 6.84 km (2:47 / km)
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 17:15 [2] 5.78 km (2:59 / km)
Via Percival Street and Houndsditch.
Wednesday Oct 24, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 17:28 [3] 5.98 km (2:55 / km)
Via Camomile Street and Percival Street.
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 24:11 [2] 6.81 km (3:33 / km)
Tuesday Oct 23, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 19:03 [3] 6.9 km (2:46 / km)
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 21:46 [2] 6.78 km (3:13 / km)
Monday Oct 22, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 20:01 [3] 6.83 km (2:56 / km)
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 23:17 [2] 6.85 km (3:24 / km)
Sunday Oct 21, 2007 #
Orienteering race (District Event) 1:05:56 [3] *** 8.36 km (7:53 / km) +230m 6:56 / km
spiked:16/24c slept:7.5 shoes: Standard White O-Shoes
GO District Event at Puttenham Common and Britty Wood. Ran the Brown course. Finished 20th out of around 80 runners - the winner ran it in just over 49 minutes.
The weather was very pleasant (cold but clear) and the forests looked lovely, with their autumn colours. There was a lot of bracken though, some of it neck-high, which hadn't died back. This made some sections quite difficult. Annoyingly, some of these sections were marked as white forest (i.e. runnable.) Most of the land was nice to run on though, and it was a lot nicer than last week's area. Like last week however, I benefitted greatly from running late, and the elephant trails through the worst of the bracken was very useful.
I made a really stupid decision at the start, and tried to run the first leg dead straight (well, it was marked as white, flat forest!) instead of down the nearby path. I didn't have an attack-point set up, so hit the next path not knowing where I was. A similar problem happened with the next one. Most of the rest of the course was OK, apart from quite a few 20 second errors on the approach to controls. However, late on as I was getting tired, I made my two biggest mistakes. The approach to 16 was through low visibility forest and I didn't set up my attack point correctly, so overshot the control without seeing it. My approach to 18 was very poor - I hit a track, failed to spot it was east-west instead of north-south, and so headed off in the wrong direction.
Passed Ian on the way to No. 4, he was walking in the other direction. Uh oh - another injury? Oxford overall seem to have done very well though, it looks like a potentially exciting team for the VM next year.
Reasonably pleased overall, the time is not bad, but I know I could have done better. The area was nice, but not very technical, thanks to the many paths, and I shouldn't have been making these kinds of mistakes.
Mistake analysis:
To 1: Poor route choice (2m)
To 2: No attack-point (45s)
To 5: No attack-point (1m)
To 8: Poor map-reading (30s)
To 16: No attack-point (2m 30)
To 18: Poor navigation (2m)
Finished off with a snack and a drink at the Good Intention in Puttenham, before cycling along the very sandy North Downs Way to Guildford and so back home.
The weather was very pleasant (cold but clear) and the forests looked lovely, with their autumn colours. There was a lot of bracken though, some of it neck-high, which hadn't died back. This made some sections quite difficult. Annoyingly, some of these sections were marked as white forest (i.e. runnable.) Most of the land was nice to run on though, and it was a lot nicer than last week's area. Like last week however, I benefitted greatly from running late, and the elephant trails through the worst of the bracken was very useful.
I made a really stupid decision at the start, and tried to run the first leg dead straight (well, it was marked as white, flat forest!) instead of down the nearby path. I didn't have an attack-point set up, so hit the next path not knowing where I was. A similar problem happened with the next one. Most of the rest of the course was OK, apart from quite a few 20 second errors on the approach to controls. However, late on as I was getting tired, I made my two biggest mistakes. The approach to 16 was through low visibility forest and I didn't set up my attack point correctly, so overshot the control without seeing it. My approach to 18 was very poor - I hit a track, failed to spot it was east-west instead of north-south, and so headed off in the wrong direction.
Passed Ian on the way to No. 4, he was walking in the other direction. Uh oh - another injury? Oxford overall seem to have done very well though, it looks like a potentially exciting team for the VM next year.
Reasonably pleased overall, the time is not bad, but I know I could have done better. The area was nice, but not very technical, thanks to the many paths, and I shouldn't have been making these kinds of mistakes.
Mistake analysis:
To 1: Poor route choice (2m)
To 2: No attack-point (45s)
To 5: No attack-point (1m)
To 8: Poor map-reading (30s)
To 16: No attack-point (2m 30)
To 18: Poor navigation (2m)
Finished off with a snack and a drink at the Good Intention in Puttenham, before cycling along the very sandy North Downs Way to Guildford and so back home.
Cycling warm up/down (To/from Event) 2:15:21 [3] 35.29 km (3:50 / km)
shoes: New Brown Leisure Shoes
To Waterloo (very fast indeed - 16m) then from Farnham to Britty Wood, then Britty Wood to Puttenham (got slightly lost on the way.) Then Puttenham to Guildford, via the North Downs Way, which was a bridleway but was very sandy indeed later on, so I had to push my bike on the uphill and level sections. Finally from Waterloo back home.
Saturday Oct 20, 2007 #
Cycling long 1:51:44 [2] 27.31 km (4:05 / km)
shoes: New Brown Leisure Shoes
Slow cycle with Anna. Along Regent's Canal, up through Islington and Highbury, then through Finsbury Park and the Parkland Walk to Highgate. Then down to Highgate Cemetary, then through Holly Lodge Mansions and back down to Tufnell Park, Holloway Road, Islington. Then back home via City Road and Bethnal Green Road.
Thursday Oct 18, 2007 #
Cycling (To/from Event) 1:41:00 [3] 33.0 km (3:04 / km)
To/from East Putney. Out via London Bridge and Clapham, 16km/46 min. Back via Wandsworth Bridge and Victoria Embankment, 17km/55 min.
Monday Oct 15, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 18:56 [3] 6.81 km (2:47 / km)
Via Regent's Canal.
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 23:04 [2] 7.13 km (3:14 / km)
Via Regent's Canal and Mile End Bridge.
Sunday Oct 14, 2007 #
Event: NOC Compass Sport Cup Final
Orienteering race (CompassSport Cup) 1:11:49 [3] *** 9.8 km (7:20 / km) +195m 6:40 / km
spiked:28/30c slept:3.5 shoes: Standard White O-Shoes
Running for SLOW for the CompassSport Cup at Sansom and Blidworth Woods, near Mansfield. The course (Brown/Men's Open) was dominated by brambles and bracken - the team were aware of this and were dreading setting out. But I fortunately had a very late start, so had few problems with the undergrowth. Indeed, I could have saved quite a bit of time by taking more daring route chocies, e.g. through some of the "fight" vegetation.
A pretty clean run, with just a stupid mistake on Leg 12 (failed to see the obvious way, and made a 90 degree error) and Leg 24 (didn't navigate properly, so briefly lost contact with the map.) I had a good run overall, but didn't really push myself at any point on the course - as I was expecting to run into some very physical sections. They didn't materialise, and I tried to speed up at the end, but probably left it too late. Very pleased with the time though - within 3 minutes of Paul, and beat Matthias. Feeling great on the course and generally at the moment, and know I have more in me.
How GG managed 52 minutes is beyond me - he is a very good orienteer, but running 5.2 minute Ks in that kind of terrain is superhuman.
Earned 74 points for SLOW, out of a possible 100. Was 32nd out of 126 finishers. SLOW finished 6th overall in the competition.
A pretty clean run, with just a stupid mistake on Leg 12 (failed to see the obvious way, and made a 90 degree error) and Leg 24 (didn't navigate properly, so briefly lost contact with the map.) I had a good run overall, but didn't really push myself at any point on the course - as I was expecting to run into some very physical sections. They didn't materialise, and I tried to speed up at the end, but probably left it too late. Very pleased with the time though - within 3 minutes of Paul, and beat Matthias. Feeling great on the course and generally at the moment, and know I have more in me.
How GG managed 52 minutes is beyond me - he is a very good orienteer, but running 5.2 minute Ks in that kind of terrain is superhuman.
Earned 74 points for SLOW, out of a possible 100. Was 32nd out of 126 finishers. SLOW finished 6th overall in the competition.
Cycling warm up/down 36:00 [2] 13.2 km (2:44 / km)
To/from Waterloo station.
Note
I lost my GPS receiver on the course today. I think it slipped out of a hole in my O-trousers. Bummer. Time to get a Forerunner 305 and have it strapped to my wrist.
Friday Oct 12, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 16:00 [3] 5.99 km (2:40 / km)
Via Camomile Street and Percival Street. Quite damp on the ground. Going fast as running late.
Cycling (Back Home) 30:55 [2] 9.44 km (3:17 / km)
Via the Tate Modern and Tower Bridge.
Wednesday Oct 10, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 18:29 [3] 6.81 km (2:43 / km)
Along the Regent's Canal. Going very fast as another fast cyclist was just in front the whole way, and he was easy to follow - until he slipped on leaving the canal at 6km and I overtook...
My cycle-computer measured distance is around 4% less than previously as I pumped up my tires yesterday using a pump with gauge - the previous pressure was as low as 25atm (should not be less than 40!) and the tires are no up to 55atm. A rough calculation - radius 25cm, was 24.5cm before due to the tires being so soft. Circumference has increased by factor of r1^2/r2^2 = 4% further travelled per revolution - but my cycle computer hasn't been recalibrated. I think it's now accurate, having been overestimating how far I've travelled. This isn't going to stop me passing the 2000km milestone which should happen in the next day or so.
My cycle-computer measured distance is around 4% less than previously as I pumped up my tires yesterday using a pump with gauge - the previous pressure was as low as 25atm (should not be less than 40!) and the tires are no up to 55atm. A rough calculation - radius 25cm, was 24.5cm before due to the tires being so soft. Circumference has increased by factor of r1^2/r2^2 = 4% further travelled per revolution - but my cycle computer hasn't been recalibrated. I think it's now accurate, having been overestimating how far I've travelled. This isn't going to stop me passing the 2000km milestone which should happen in the next day or so.
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 20:59 [2] 6.78 mi (3:06 / mi)
Along the Regent's Canal. Defintely feels better with properly pumped up tires.
Tuesday Oct 9, 2007 #
Score Orienteering race (Street Race) 58:49 [4] * 10.1 km (5:49 / km)
spiked:29/38c slept:8.0 shoes: £20 Lightweight Running Shoes
SLOW Street-O score around the City of London and Bankside, starting and finishing at Exchange Square, just north of Liverpool Street Station. My route went down beside Broadgate, to Tower Bridge, then across the bridge and along Bankside to Southwark Bridge. I then headed to London Bridge and then up to Bank, then around Finsbury Circus and went around the Liverpool Street Station area itself.
Each checkpoint involved answering a simple question, e.g. what's the name of the pub here? I got 410 points out of a possible maximum of 540. Annoyingly quite a lot of people I knew got between 415 and 430 points - and I missed an easy 10 pointer that was only 30 seconds away from the finish. Serves me right for not having a proper timing watch. Also, on crossing Southwark Bridge, I should have headed straight north and got a few of the high-scoring controls near the Barbican complex. My other mistake was stopping for at least two minutes at only my second control, at Aldgate. I didn't realise what I was supposed to be looking for, there.
My route is here.
Each checkpoint involved answering a simple question, e.g. what's the name of the pub here? I got 410 points out of a possible maximum of 540. Annoyingly quite a lot of people I knew got between 415 and 430 points - and I missed an easy 10 pointer that was only 30 seconds away from the finish. Serves me right for not having a proper timing watch. Also, on crossing Southwark Bridge, I should have headed straight north and got a few of the high-scoring controls near the Barbican complex. My other mistake was stopping for at least two minutes at only my second control, at Aldgate. I didn't realise what I was supposed to be looking for, there.
My route is here.
Monday Oct 8, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 20:09 [3] 7.1 km (2:50 / km)
Via Regent's Canal.
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 25:34 [2] 7.11 mi (3:36 / mi)
Via Regent's Canal.
Sunday Oct 7, 2007 #
Orienteering race (City Race) 57:03 [3] *** 7.1 km (8:02 / km)
spiked:33/43c slept:7.0 weight:68kg shoes: £20 Lightweight Running Shoes
Warwick Town Race. Course A - 43 controls! 11 of these were in and around Warwick Castle, including a butterfly loop.
The castle was the undoubted highlight of the course, and in here many mistakes were made, including a couple of accidental climbs up various medieval towers to the battlements. One control required to be visited four times - it was located in the (dry!) moat underneath one of the entrance bridges. Other exotic controls included one in a cellar - rather dark! - and one on a cafe promenade. Two were in the assembly arena too. These were visited very near the end when people were tired, and then there was a "trap" leg were the apparent shortest route ended at an uncrossable wall, the spectators ensuring maximum competitor discomfort. There were some very short legs too - several ~10 seconds.
I had an ok run - a really poor set of two legs upon entering the castle meant I blew it and wasted five minutes - the legs should have taken 30 seconds each. Finished 13th of 30 runners in M21.
Mistake analyis:
To 1: Poor navigating, hit 2 on the way although 1 wasn't far. 10s.
To 3: Was reading map while jogging, trying to figure out how I could get to the next one, and managed to hit horizontal car park barrier. Not really a mistake, just silly.
To 6: Possible poor route choice trying to lose some people. 10s.
To 8: Overshot turning off road, then overshot control slightly. 15s.
To 9: Hesitated near nettles, took overlong route. 15s.
To 11: Poor exit from 10 (90 degrees the wrong way.) 20s.
To 14: Poor exit from 13, doubled back. 20s.
To 16: Trap leg, fell into the trap. Control on other side of uncrossable fence. 1m 30.
To 23: Poor exit from 22 (90 degres the wrong way.) 20s.
To 24: Horrendous. Went to 25, although wouldn't have made it. 2m 30.
To 25: Equally horrendous. Ended up high above control. 2m.
To 29: Poor map reading, both on leg and at control. 30s.
To 35: Hesitated on approach to the control (fourth time to this one!) 10s.
To 40: Control failed to punch, almost didn't realise. 10s.
To 41: Trap leg, fell into the trap! 20s.
So, nine minutes of mistakes at a city race! A shocker...
The castle was the undoubted highlight of the course, and in here many mistakes were made, including a couple of accidental climbs up various medieval towers to the battlements. One control required to be visited four times - it was located in the (dry!) moat underneath one of the entrance bridges. Other exotic controls included one in a cellar - rather dark! - and one on a cafe promenade. Two were in the assembly arena too. These were visited very near the end when people were tired, and then there was a "trap" leg were the apparent shortest route ended at an uncrossable wall, the spectators ensuring maximum competitor discomfort. There were some very short legs too - several ~10 seconds.
I had an ok run - a really poor set of two legs upon entering the castle meant I blew it and wasted five minutes - the legs should have taken 30 seconds each. Finished 13th of 30 runners in M21.
Mistake analyis:
To 1: Poor navigating, hit 2 on the way although 1 wasn't far. 10s.
To 3: Was reading map while jogging, trying to figure out how I could get to the next one, and managed to hit horizontal car park barrier. Not really a mistake, just silly.
To 6: Possible poor route choice trying to lose some people. 10s.
To 8: Overshot turning off road, then overshot control slightly. 15s.
To 9: Hesitated near nettles, took overlong route. 15s.
To 11: Poor exit from 10 (90 degrees the wrong way.) 20s.
To 14: Poor exit from 13, doubled back. 20s.
To 16: Trap leg, fell into the trap. Control on other side of uncrossable fence. 1m 30.
To 23: Poor exit from 22 (90 degres the wrong way.) 20s.
To 24: Horrendous. Went to 25, although wouldn't have made it. 2m 30.
To 25: Equally horrendous. Ended up high above control. 2m.
To 29: Poor map reading, both on leg and at control. 30s.
To 35: Hesitated on approach to the control (fourth time to this one!) 10s.
To 40: Control failed to punch, almost didn't realise. 10s.
To 41: Trap leg, fell into the trap! 20s.
So, nine minutes of mistakes at a city race! A shocker...
Cycling warm up/down (To/from Station) 1:07:00 [3] 23.0 km (2:55 / km)
To/from Marylebone station. Out via Bethnal Green Road, Old Street and Euston Road - going fast, 29 minutes. Back via Euston Road, City University and Regent's Canal, 38 minutes.
Saturday Oct 6, 2007 #
Trail Running race (BPTT) 19:59 [4] 5.0 km (4:00 / km)
slept:6.5 shoes: £20 Lightweight Running Shoes
162nd BPTT and my first outing for over a month - I'm slacking, need to make the trip there more often. My eleventh appearance overall. It was the 3rd anniversary of the race, so there were loads of people there - a record 544 completed the race, myself finishing 82nd. I was surprised to manage under 20 minutes, as, because of tomorrow's city sprint race at Warwick, I took it quite easy, and didn't have a watch to pace myself.
After a faster start than normal, I noticed at 0.7km I was quite near the front, so eased off, and pretty much held where I was rather than do my normal strategy of pinning down people and overtaking them. Felt really comfortable and good all the way around, didn't find the final 1.1km straight the big challenge it normally was. Was even able to accelerate for the final 100m and overtake six people, without the usual extreme pain.
I am undoubtedly a good finisher - I overtook a fellow SLOW runner at 3km, and finished 40 seconds ahead of him in the end. It would have been interesting to see if I got a negative split for this one.
Stayed around for the mini-party and prize-giving afterwards. I was delighted, as was everyone else, that we all got a free "Impossible Was Nothing" BPTT T-shirt on finishing. Considering the race itself is free, and there's free drinks and snacks - getting a free T-shirt as well is very cool.
When I got back home I fell asleep for several hours! I'm not sure if this was the race (it does normally make me drowsy afterwards) or just a general lack of sleep. It's now 6pm and I'm confused...
After a faster start than normal, I noticed at 0.7km I was quite near the front, so eased off, and pretty much held where I was rather than do my normal strategy of pinning down people and overtaking them. Felt really comfortable and good all the way around, didn't find the final 1.1km straight the big challenge it normally was. Was even able to accelerate for the final 100m and overtake six people, without the usual extreme pain.
I am undoubtedly a good finisher - I overtook a fellow SLOW runner at 3km, and finished 40 seconds ahead of him in the end. It would have been interesting to see if I got a negative split for this one.
Stayed around for the mini-party and prize-giving afterwards. I was delighted, as was everyone else, that we all got a free "Impossible Was Nothing" BPTT T-shirt on finishing. Considering the race itself is free, and there's free drinks and snacks - getting a free T-shirt as well is very cool.
When I got back home I fell asleep for several hours! I'm not sure if this was the race (it does normally make me drowsy afterwards) or just a general lack of sleep. It's now 6pm and I'm confused...
Cycling (To/from Event) 59:00 [3] 18.0 km (3:17 / km)
shoes: New Brown Leisure Shoes
To/from Waterloo via Blackfriars, and to/from Teddington to the BPTT.
Friday Oct 5, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 20:13 [3] 7.09 km (2:51 / km)
Via Regent's Canal.
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 24:03 [2] 7.08 km (3:24 / km)
Via Regent's Canal.
Thursday Oct 4, 2007 #
Cycling 1:27:24 [2] 25.15 km (3:29 / km)
Out and back along the Greenway to Galleon's Reach. Out via Hertford Cut, back via Regent's Park.
Wednesday Oct 3, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 20:54 [3] 7.09 km (2:57 / km)
Via Regent's Canal.
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 21:40 [2] 6.63 km (3:16 / km)
Via City Road and Broadgate.
Monday Oct 1, 2007 #
Cycle Commuting (Back Home) 26:52 [2] 7.07 km (3:48 / km)
Very wet on the ground, headwind. Via Regent's Canal.
Cycle Commuting (In to Uni) 20:47 [3] 7.02 km (2:58 / km)
Via Regent's Canal. Aiming for average speed of 20km/h, had to push quite hard as a little tired from the previous day.