Training Log Archive: Leon

City of Bath Urban - 2nd, 40:29

A boost after yesterday, a good clean run, felt in control and on top of course throughout and solid route choices, just need to push myself a bit more and get the legs really moving.

Not sure why split to #1 so slow, must have set off too slow, held up at road slightly.

A bit slow into and out of #6 but spotted nearest exit to steps was in fact a bridge and went higher, probably best to back out and down to road.

After last weeks discussion etc about levels, marked different experience with #15, understood what was going on and took best route, though I can understand why others didn't totally.

If a canopy is something you can't run on, a different colour should be used for multi level runnability in my opinion, maybe a test somewhere would be useful.

22-23 proved problematic, went south to river, fell down steep bank, then running on tarmac failed to notice incline as looking at map and fell forward, just avoiding a nasty head impact.

Enjoyable event, slight feel the legs could have done with a bit more mixed length, mainly a few more short legs thrown in. But great all the same.

Event: YHOA Urban League
 

Event: BOK Blast
 

Doncaster parkrun, 2nd, 18:15

Hard but slow
Much grass, though flat
Course descriprion on website is wrong
Still struggling to surpass 90% effort

Sheffield Urban - Prologue, mp

As usual, found a way to mess up a chasing event
Nearly ballsed up #1 but stopped and sorted myself out
Like others, was thrown by purple line crossing uncrossable wall at end of a path, to 5 wouldn't have gone that way otherwise
Missed #6, distracted by other runners, planning ahead, generally not concentrating on the here and now
#9 was another mapping pain, should really have simplified and used road, but cut past tennis courts, saw hedge ahead and on map, saw it extending to road, but purple line covered gap between hedge and wall, went right around mobile building, also trapped in fire exit walkway en route. Otherwise would have been a good route choice
Overshot #10 slightly
Slightly longer but easier route to #12 allowing to plan ahead
Too far en route to #16 due to head down looking at map, but did pass #19 so this was easy to work back to.
Came wrong way out of #26 for short spell brain freeze
Took route under canopy to #28 and under crossable fence
Solid but not spectacular run without m/p which I was annoyed about at the time, less so now really.

Sheffield Urban Final (3rd for course) 30.20

Bit difficult to get going running alone, eventually did
Slow and accurate 1-3, went north to 4 cos I wanted to see where 5 was, and out to north from 6 to 7
East 8-9 which paid dividends and was good 9/10/11 but a bit slow 12-15
All straightforward to the long leg where I stuck to the road along the south and cut in from there, was thinking I could cut into #23 from the SW but in reality this was impossible, so had to go round and in from north - faffed a lot whilst figured out how to not fall over in flats - if in a head to head would have just got on with it - lost a whole minute
Slightly longer way round to 24, coming out saw Richard Robinson coming in so thought I better not let him get past which gave me a bit of impetus
Having passed 26 took the steps as saw how grotty the direct route was - gained 30s!
Stupidly came out of 28 south instead of east

Again, solid but could do better. Missing some micro route choices and not running fast enough.

White Rose Summary

Will need to take a look a splits but

Sprint: Good
Long: Bad
Night: 50/50
Middle: Average, could have been good had I run a bit harder from the off.

Need a rest, no running til Saturday

White Rose Middle, 8th, 43:33

For me, not bad, but not the usual changes of direction in a middle which might have caused me issues.
Could have set off a lot faster in reality, only started running hard about half way round once I realised I hadn't had any big screw ups yet. Thought processes improving all the time.
Didn't enjoy contouring much, and the finish was a brute!

Agree with Richard that #17 wasn't mapped correctly, sort of fluked it.

Enjoyable.

White Rose Night, 160 pts

Much like Richard, first 15 v.good, unbeknown to me was having a tete a tete with Dave and we kept crossing & overtaking. Almost felt like a proper orienteer. Got to the furthest control in 15:04 so all good.

Second 15 all went wrong, spent too long looking for #58, after taking a bad, rough route out of #59. Decided to simplify and just go for the easy ones on the way back but somehow this didn't really happen and wasted time thrashing about in the rough stuff trying to get 2 close to the finish. A shame really.

White Rose Classic, Black - 1:17:07

In summary:
Pace - Pretty poor, suspicions confirmed that lately I seem to get stuck running at 85-90% and can't really hurt myself. Hopefully a couple of easy weeks will help.
Navigationally - Good, the cliff side terrain certainly would have been my downfall in the past, so this shows improvement. Tried to be a bit slower in order to be more accurate. Seemed to produce results. Some errors later on, compounded by losing my head a bit, see below.
Techonolgically - Left dibber at home, so hired one before yesterday's sprint. Filled in form - BLACK course, also explicitly asked is the card OK for 40 controls. Lady confirmed it was. Well, you can guess the rest. Got to #32 and it wasn't bleeping. Thrashed about a bit, then someone else came along and got a bleep straight away, it was then I realised what was going on. Had to manually punch the remaining 9 controls (plus 14 which had no unit) This made me lose concentration a bit, as I was frustrated to say the least, mainly again I didn't push myself as hard as I think I could have.
One of those things I guess, human error, can't have a go at volunteers without them there would be no event, and it was a great course/event.


Onto the course itself:
#1 & #2 straightforward
#3 slow but straight I think, kept on the right line
#4 can't remember! but ended up on the open bit of concrete and in from there
#5 - OK
#6 - up the steps
#7 - Peered behind the olive green at first before going a bit further
#8 - Some confusion due to tape blocking optimum route off, so round via north. Had dropped down steps next to cliff railway
#9, 10, 11 - straightforward (knew there would be a beach leg!)
#12 - took the left zig zag
#13 - staightforward
#14 - cut across park, then straight up, veered slightly to east of churc before correcting and going left
#15 - north and cut through car park
#16 - back out of 15, northerly route and into control from north
#17 - up step
#18 - we all knew there would be an over or round leg, had predecided I would go round, which comparing splits with Dave and Richard, didn't work, by a fair margin in the end, at least 30s, prob over a minute
Also confused by mapping around skate park, but found control OK
#19 - Good, direct route cutting corner of path
#20 - couldn't see path entering from open space, ended up overshooting slightly and climbing up directly
#21 crawled up on the most direct route and down west set of steps
#22 - from north
#23 - slowed on approach to park to be sure of correct route, which I took straight in
#24 - over bridge but mind played tricks on me, thought I'd seen code 84 when it was 81, on exit thought this is a long course to mispunch, so got 20 away and went back to check, lost 15-20s
#25 -ok
#26 - eyes playing more tricks on me, went straight to #27 almost got there, realised, and went back to #26, lost about 1 min I reckon
#27 - pleasing in a way as was disorientated at this point but managed to realise where I was quickly
#28 - northerly route
#29 - over bridge, past church and cut across car park
#30 - error, went right out of alley so had to to turn around, 20s lost, otherwise ok
#31 - had clocked this a while in advance, but had no idea what the symbol meant. Tried to identify where centre of circle was, tried to look at next leg but couldn't work it out. Had to go above first as this would cost less time than going down first. Helpfully, someone else was peering over the edge which gave me all I needed to know.
But the symbol is wrong, apparently it means tunnel but it blatantly wasn't a tunnel, canopy symbol would have been correct which I recognise! Overheard other people saying the same
#32 - knew it was in the undergrowth but slowed due to people running towards me as I went down, and also caught glimpse of traffic cone which same colour as a control!
#33 - slow but accurate
#34 - north route, but then lost it and ran down dead end, coming back missed steps exit and ran round to south. Prob lost a minute.
#35 - took zig zags but may have been better round to east of #32
#36 - fine
#37 - fine, but pace bad
#38 - slow and accurate again but think made wrong route choice by coming in from NE rather than SE
#39 - leg of purgatory
#40 - slog direct

So some positives and some negatives.
Hope to see a couple more events like this though, combo of urban / non urban is a good test

C • #31 7

Event: White Rose
 

White Rose Sprint - 11:33

A solid run, with one costly error

Had semi-clocked where #1 was and told myself to go right, but still ended up going left. I actually reckon left was marginally quicker, not much in it in distance terms but the steps would slow you from the east.
Road to 2
Hadn't realised 4 was on the inside but didn't make any difference.
Then checked control desc. for 5 and my eyes must have played tricks on me as I read it as outside corner, obviously it wasn't, so going south meant I had to hack to the left side of the astro turf. I think in the back of my mind I was confirmed in my reading by the football match going on which made me think well it must be on the outside.
A silly mistake in most circumstances but I'll remove the silly in this instance as I did bother to check.
With that in my head, checked description for #8 about 4 times!
Round via road to #11
Was very honest and ran on actual path to #15 rather than punching from below which after the event I'd say over half the people I saw did, a good 5 secs + gain there to be had.
Went south both #15-#16 and #17=#18
Didn't look like you could squeeze into #20 from the west when I ran (early) so took the steps, apparently later this was possible.
Into #21 from the west.

Good courses given the area.
Pleased with my planning ahead, was always on top of this, and speed was good, just a shame my eyes deceived me. Lesson is to double check I guess.

Download. This looks like fun tomorrow!

C • I went right and was happy ... 2

Embarassingly slow cycle home via Wetherby/Otley

Mitigating factors
- headwind all the way
- heavy rain from 20 miles in
- distinct lack of cycling

Even so, 13.1mph is a pitiful average speed for an essentially flat ride

Seems unfathomable that I managed this in 1:36:05 just over a year ago.

Run from Massage at West Park via Meanwood trail to Leeds station

Felt quite good

Solo session round Highroyds

10 mins (2) 5 mins (2) 5 x 1 (1)

Pretty tough
Last 2 mins of 10 was a grind
5 mins felt like I could go quicker but couldn't engage top gear
1 mins followed a pattern of hurting a lot after 40s

Could have been better, could have been worse

Sprint training session organised by Steve Whitehead

Good fun and useful too. Hopefully can focus a bit more mentally in the races in the coming weeks, slight feeling I'm not concentrating enough.

Extended version of Thursday's loop, out a bit further towards Dick Hudsons, and then up to 12 apostles and back on bridlepath
Very strong westerly wind but felt quite good and flew home the last 3 miles in 17.15.

Scunthorpe parkrun - 2nd, 17.11

Thought I was running a sensible race, but by the end of the first lap of two my reliance on the two guys in front of me to slow a bit wasn't being fulfilled.

Then the guy in 2nd stopped.
The he came flying past
Then stopped again
x 3

Obviously doing some sort of session, but it threw me somewhat and was in all reality a bit annoying, though I've considered doing something similar myself, but haven't, and I certainly won't be now

Anyway, guy in front was well away but with 4-500m to go when he pulled in for the last time I clocked I was on for a reasonable time given the bad wind and found some more to hold onto 2nd as he tried his final effort to catch me again. As I managed to speed up, slightly disappointed I was able to, to be honest.

Seckar woods with Mick
Slippy twisty overgrown in places, not sure what he was raving about it for but good to run somewhere new
Very easy pace

Struggled out of the door, was glad I did, back of Highroyds, Odda Resr, onto Burley Moor and back via Bleach Mill.
Took it easy mind

Run round Newport, up to the catherdral, down to the Transporter Bridge and then along the river. Quite nice

River and Hospital run.
Got it done, bit windy though.

Round Hill 'fell' race - 27th, 1:05xx

Not being far from home, in an area I should explore more, did this as a Sunday run, though had second thoughts on seeing the incesscent heavy rain when we set off for race.
Not a fell race at all, more of a trail race, only one steep hill which I ran up anyway.
Turned out to be very enjoyable, ran well within myself all the way round and just had fun. Picked it up slightly last mile.
Great race/course/area, recommended.

Cheadle Hulme parkrun, 1st : 18.21

Surprisingly pleasant course given entirely in the sports grounds of Manchester Rugby club/Cheadle Hulme CC, reminded me of a school XC course. There was a girl doing in barefoot!
Was 98% grass, cricket pitch lap, lap of grounds x3
Took first lap easy and was out on my own, wound it up from there.
Felt like there was more in the tank

Another wet Friday night run round Highroyds, felt quite good though

Finally got round to running the Jennyfields urban course from May.
Bit of a farce for the first three controls as everything was so overgrown couldn't see/find half the paths and the ones that I could go down were waist high with overgrowth.
Took a while to get the legs going after that, and even then hardly flying.
Made a couple of small mistakes, won't bore you with the details so long after the event but all route choices seemed correct following review.
42:05, would have got nowhere near Kris Jones' 35:20 I reckon, think if all had gone well maybe low 37's, high 36 at a push, although hard to say all told

Burley Park - Becketts - Hawksworth Woods - Canal - Kirkstall

With Nick, Tesfae and Justin. Nice run, sociable, friendly. Highly enjoyable

Track - 5 x: 800, 200 jog, 400, 400 jog

2.33, 71, 2.32, 69, 2.31, 69, 2.28, 68, 2.28, 68

Very pleased with the time, but boy it was hard work
Had no one to work with and none of the other 4 did the whole session anyway. Also very humid. But a boost for me, really.
I say I had no one to work with - I could have had, except the guy who sat in behind me for the first 3 800s, was nowhere on the 4's, dropped out, then threw in a 2.21 on the last one.

Ran to Charlotte's via Esholt wood and Buck wood
A good route, thought direct via Hollins Hill would be shorter but perhaps it isn't.
Or if I took the best route through Buck Wood it might not be, but I climbed straight away and had to drop a little to make the bridleway path that supposedly passes a trig point but I'll check that out another day
Moving quite well, could have ran a lot longer tonight.

We went for a jog round Buck wood

Lots of things needed doing today that I had been putting off for too long

Pendle parkrun, 1st, 18:01

2014 - race #80 (also parkrun #80)

An improvement on the last two weeks, not that it could get much worse
Always seem to turn up to the fully off road ones on a bad day, would have had the CR if conditions had been as good as last week
As it was, could have gone quicker anyway if I had any confidence, but told myself not to take the lead until halfway, the killer hill at the end of each lap made sure I didn't push too much too soon anyway.
Don't think I'll be doing much in August to be honest, have fallen into the get a head start on winter training too often in the past

Pleasant gentle Hawksworth loop. Got quite wet but warm enough so it didn't bother me.