Training Log Archive: Ollie

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.

C • nope, no injury, just compl... 1

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.

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.

To/from East Putney. Out via London Bridge and Clapham, 16km/46 min. Back via Wandsworth Bridge and Victoria Embankment, 17km/55 min.

Via Regent's Canal.

Via Regent's Canal and Mile End Bridge.