Training Log Archive: IanW

Event: British Elite Middle Distance
 

Went and checked out the finish/spectator and start areas, back to car to get changed then perfectly timed jog to start area, 30 secs before my call up. Bit of stretching in start box, short jog/walk after run.

British Elite Middles at Hopwas. Wanted to attack the course, knew that straight and fast was generally the way to go, and remembered from the JK'05 Relays that green wasn't always that bad, apart from the rhodo. Bit of a different mentality to that needed in Sweden.

So plan was to go for it, try and push from early on especially if it wasn't a tricky opening. And it worked pretty well, certainly up to the spectator control - only a few hesitations on trickier legs but managed to spike them anyway.

Tiredness started to kick in a bit about 30 mins in, probably went out a little too hard - it felt a bit too much like hard work in some parts. #17 was the first error of sorts, hesitation over the path network (seeing the quarry sorted that) and remembering the description incorrectly caused faffing (30"). Slow-ish to #18, slightly poor line out to #19 meant was too high (15"), poor route and hesitance to #20 (40") and then a crap exit and poor compass to #21 (15"). Bit slow to the last couple as well but only about 2' lost across the course - one of my best runs for a while; I like middle distance courses :)

Ended up 46th/128 on course, top 5 were Crane (35:15), Johnson, Fraser, Sprot, Northrop. Just pipped by Jon X (46:16). 5 UK Cup points though, in a pretty competitive field, happy with that!

Route - Actual Distance ~7.5k

Men's Open (Course A) - Splits

Easy day before the weekend, trying to sort out the calves and other assorted leg muscles.

Well they haven't chucked me (or anyone, I suppose) off elite at the British Long. 15.7km of beautiful Culbin Forest, here we come :)

Taking advantage of the longer evenings - started off in the light anyhow, bit dark under the tree canopy by 8.15pm. Home - Barracks Ln - Golf Course - Magdalen Woods - Brasenose Wood - Shotover - Old Rd - Lye Valley - Churchill - home. Taking it pretty easy, put a bit more effort in on the hills but they still didn't feel too taxing for once, even the 55m climb up onto Shotover. Last 3.5k or so felt really cruisy, felt like hardly any effort necessary - nice feeling :) Really wet underfoot in places in the woods, but the usual dry and hardness on Shotover itself.

Unfortunately the shin reared its ugly head again, definite pain noticed. No idea why, it seemed perfectly fine during Sweden, maybe being active for a week then sedentary for a few days hasn't done it any good? Not cool - just as I'm feeling quite fit and vaguely in form again. A bit of management (read stretching, strengthening exercises and careful training plan) needed to get it through the rest of this month at least, with the British and Tio coming up. The season eases off a bit after that, only a few more big events...

Wanted to get out and do something today, left the lab a bit later than planned and so went out on the bike at around 7.30pm. Still pretty light then, but had the headtorch on the helmet prepared for later, and needed it on some of the narrow country lanes with the classic archway of trees across them. Same route at just before BUSA (home - horspath - wheatley - gt milton - cuddesdon - garsington - cowley - home), wind was far less of a problem today, although the leg muscles probably felt a little too tired at the end of the ride for my liking.

More recovery from Sweden

Back from Sweden, wish I was still out there...

C • Varsity Match 5

Attempt at circuits. After a while, body said no and head felt funny...

Outside again though, nice and sunny although a bit muddy.

Jogged round to the waiting pen, just before the leading first leg runners came in. Joe was up there at the spectator so was expecting to go out with some sort of pack, 2 or 3 minutes down on the leaders. It turned out he'd made a big mistake late in the course and lost 10 minutes, so a bit more jogging up and down the changeover pen to keep warm. Eventually went out about 30 seconds down on Chris W...

Måsenstafetten relay - leg 2 for OUOC. Had seen a bit of the map before and it looked tricky - didn't run anywhere near full out, was just trying to get it right after Friday's screw-up. And the photos showed the terrain was lovely, if a little tricky:

http://www.okmasen.org/Stafetten2008/Skogen080315....

although it was a bit tougher underfoot than I expected - the recently melted snow made the moss/bare rock combo slippery even in 'O' shoes

There were several "how the hell do I do that" moments but took it steady and only two errors of note (2' and 1'), both of which corrected relatively quickly. Slowed down when I needed to, and stopped to check the map a few many times where it looked particularly difficult. Pretty happy with things afterwards, having avoided any silly or big errors, felt a bit more comfortable with 4m contours which made the terrain a bit easier to read. Maybe a bit over-cautious, but preferred to do that rather than completely screwing up.

I now really want to learn how to orienteer faster in this sort of terrain - the speed some of the guys who went past me were doing was quite amazing. Probably could have kept up with some of them, but then wouldn't have had a clue where I was... Still, noticed a significant improvement since I was last out here 3 years ago and in more technical terrain! This run certainly boosted the confidence a bit after Friday's relative disappointment. Bring on TioMila :)

Scandi relay changeovers - simple, no faffing with map issue or taking map out of a bag/breaking a sticky seal, no opportunity for cheating by taking cheeky peek at the map, big changeover area with full view of spectator, run-in etc and you can enter/leave as you please as you don't yet have a map. Easy to understand, and they work very well.

Why don't we do this in the UK? Was suggested for this year's JK, except it was vetoed. Why, you ask? (Cue laughter and utter disbelief). Apparently, because "the JK Relay is bigger than Jukola". Yes, you did just read that right. Some numbers to enlighten you:

JK Relay 2008 - ~500 3 man teams, 40 4 man teams. ~1650 Runners
Jukola 2007 - ~1400 7 man teams, 9500+ runners. And that's not including Venla (~750 4 man teams).

On what planet are these guys living?

btw, the Scandi system might well make an appearance at BUSA Relays next year.