Training Log Archive: Anvil

Easy run round the streets. Up along the start of the Cardiff 10K road, over the bridge towards SuperTescos and back down Taff Trail. Got scared along the Taff cause it was dark and thought I could hear footsteps near me, but it turned out it was just the leaves I was kicking about.

Brutal track session, not only for the program but for the weather - bout 2 degrees, heavy sideways rain and wind.
Tonights line up was:
2km at 10k pace (7:24)
3 x 600m with 2 mins recovery (1:57, 2:01, 2:04)
3 x 300m with 90s recovery (54, 58, 55)
3 x 200m with 45s recovery (34, 35, 34)
500m flat out (1:41)
Tough, massive lactic on the last 200 of the 600s and just died in the arse in the last half of the 500. Still, after defrosting, showering and eating it feels good.

Have just seen that OOCup have released dates and are have sandwiched themselves perfectly between JWOC in the Dolomites and Swiss O Week, and the centres near Postonja where I wanted to go in 2006 but didn't have the time. Next summer is shaping up nicely.

Usual easy night run. Even colder - sub zero with the windchill. Thermal, tights, gloves, beanie and I slip in some mud and soak myself through. Felt like Robert Patrick when he was doused in liquid nitrogen in Terminator 2.

40 minute easy run sandwiched between 25 minutes threshold (that I was meant to do on Saturday). Felt good, struggled getting my HR high enough in the middle bit though - only when I went up the hill after Tescos that it got going.
Really cold, got stuck for about 10 minutes waiting for the bridge to close and got pretty chilly.
They were filming an episode of Torchwood right outside my place when I started to run - they all stared at me as I ran past. The TV business must not be very interesting.

Crap balls weekend. Went up to Blackpool for some reason. Planned run on the boulevard on Sat and up in Snowdonia on the way home.
Weather was bloody awful on Saturday - localised flooding awful so I pulled the pin on that.
Got lost on Sunday finding where I planned to run so by the time I got there I only had an hour of daylight left, and my loop was going to be 2 hours plus. And there was cloud everywhere. And my GPS went flat. A dark run in unfamiliar terrain wasn't going to happen. Then it took me 5 hours to get home. Cranky now.

C • Sounds like it's about time... 2

Was feeling a bit slack after pussying out yesterday so did something a bit longer and harder than I usually do on a week night. Pissing with rain for almot the whole run, windy, dark and cold but got it done.
Man Flu 1, Patrick 2.

Couldn't be bothered waiting for the track session so did it myself. Was meant to be 2 lots of pyramids but I wasn't feeling great so just did one and did a long cool down.
Definitely have caught some bug, but I've never had anything like this before - just really sore throat and a little tired when I'm not moving. Fine apart from that.

C • Man Flu 5

Decided what was missing from yesterdays equation was a big case of htfu (it's hard to come by here). Cold still threatening so I decided to force its hand and headed out for an easy run.
Tough to begin with, but once I warmed up felt really good - hurt to swallow though so was spitting all over the place. Frickin' freezing. Fell better now for it.

A sore throat I was feeling yesterday was coming on strong + not much sleep + rainy and cold made me stay in. Watched TV all night with my flat mate. Boring - never again, TV is crap. So many inferior Little Britain and Spicks and Specks clones here. I miss The Chaser too.

Event: Compass Sport Cup Final
 

Surprisingly enjoyable course in Sutton Park up near Birmingham. Kinds of like a squashed together version of RIchmond Park and Wimbledon Common so I felt right at home. 30th/130ish and 12.5km total.
A relatively easy course, except the detail within the gorse was surprisingly tricky in places - you had to be confindent to go follow the edge of the green as it twisted round. It was really well mapped though which helped a lot.
Mistakes:
#1: Probably my only complaint with the course. On an earthbank encased in a strip of green, I got within 5 metres and didn't notice the control as I was trying to find a way to get into the green when the control was on the edge. Why the description wasn't just 'thicket edge' I don't know. 1:45 lost.
#16: Refolded my map and lost contact on what turned out to be a surprisingly tricky leg. Stopped far too short, ran down the wrong track and had no idea where I was. Only really found it when I looked over and saw people running in and out of the gorse maze. Could have been a lot worse. 0:30
#17: Flustered from the previous leg and sprinted off and lost contact again. Had to stand still to relocate - terrible when the leg is all yellow. 0:20.
#25: Got pulled off my a control that wasn't mine in a fairly featureless area. 0:45.
#27: Stupid. Planned to go round the tracks as the forest was too varied too green to run easily through. For some reason I decided that the guy in front of me was doing that too so I just followed him blindly - suddenly we were in the forest. Instead of just sucking it up and going through I turned around and went back out and round. 1:00.
A bit annoyed with all the mistakes, I could have placed a lot higher - though I think a lot of people times are slower than expected, so I think there were a lot of mistakes going on! Also would have broken 6 min/ks for a forest course for the first time if I'd not made any one of those mistakes!
Good course, definately made the most of the area so can't really complain. SLOW came 3rd too which is pretty cool - I think we usually come 8th or something.

C • map and route 1

Amazing trail run in the Brecon Beacons national park. Probably one of the most enjoyable runs I've done in a long time, especially in the UK.
Got a car for the weekend to get to Birmingham tomorrow so headed for the hills to do a loop which sounded good from a website I found.
Wasn't disappointed, it's such cool scenery around there - once you get on a ridge or spur line it's nice a flat, and you run along the edge of these ridges and the gound falls away from you - it's like running on the edge of the earth. 80 mins running, about 2 hrs in total after photo stops!
Here's the names of the things I ran up/down/next to:

Craig y Fan Ddu
Valley of the Caerfanell
Graig Fan Las
Bwlch y Ddwyallt
Cwm Cwareli
Craig Cwareli
Craig Cwmoergwm
Fan y Big
Upper Neuadd reservoir

I love Welsh words

Just an easy cruise around the streets. Thought tonight would be tough since the last couple of days were a bit of a struggle, but loosened up after the first couple of ks, then it was all cake for the rest.

Track session. 5 x 400s x 2, equal recoveries and 2 mins between the 2 sets. Really struggled tonight, felt yesterdays run in my legs and an early start this morning didn't help.
Splits: 75, 74, 74, 75, 76, 75, 76, 78, 76, 76

Found out today I was lucky enough to be one of the 1 in 7 to win the ballot to go in the London Marathon. Shame I'll be back in Oz now, but the place got snapped up by one of the blokes from the club as soon as I mentioned it!

Longish run I was meant to do on Sunday. Bay loop with large city extension. Got a bit disoriented in the city and ended having go run the length of the mall. Apparantly running through the mall is not a common thing cause pretty much everyone stared at me, strange Welsh people.

Wasn't feeling the most motivated, got to bed too late cause I was being geeky with all the splits from Saturdays race (but I won one!). Contemplated doing nothing, but the Hollyoakes theme music was coming from the loungeroom when I got home and I had a Pavlovian urging to get changed and head out.
Did 1km hard/1km easy x 6 with a fair bit of warm up/down on either side. Felt really good on the hard ones, often these types of runs feel easier than a steady state type of thing.
Did a loop of the bay then headed into the City Centre to extend it a bit. Full moon lit up all the dark bits which was good, it's quite nice in the city at this time of night - at least this early in the week.

Went out to Peterborough to watch the great Eastern Run. Would have entered if they did enter on the day cause it was such a cracker, was nice to see a race from the other side though.

Yesterdays map:
http://www.slow.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-bin/reitti.c...
Before you look at any routes, just have a look at the course and just try and work out the best routes on the legs from 18 to 27.
Not sure about the photo that is gracing the front of the city race website though.....

C • Special version 3

Event: City of London Orienteering Race
 

That was quality. This is technically only the 2nd true street race I've done so I don't have much to compare it to, but damn, that was so much fun. The first 80% was through old London Town, with all its twisting streets and covered alleyways followed by the insanity that is The Barbican.
Wasn't feeling the best whilst warming up, my heart rate was pretty high so was a little concerned I wouldn't be able to take it at full tilt. Not much I could do about that though, so started off and just see how it went.
First leg OK, relatively easy as long as you picked the quite narrow alley entrance once you got in the circle - noticed already there was quite a lot of temporary construction barriers about, had an issue with some on the way to 2 (underneath the Gherkin, very cool) and got yelled at by some people so had to go the long way round (turns out only the late starters were effected, dangnammit). Settled into a groove here, most legs involved some sort of route choice followed by reading off the detail in the circle or picking the entrance to a tiny alley, with the exception of 6 to 9 which was a control picking loop through a network of undercover alleys.
First mistake at 14, missing the alley entrance and running round a similar one, probably about a minute. Was impressed popping out of a little street on the way to 16 and seeing St. Davids Cathedral and the first hint of tourists for the day. Unfortunately had to run right through some wedding photos on the north steps and collided with a fairly large gent in a tux and he stepped into my path. Sorry mate, I did yell I was coming through.
Going up the road to 17 saw the London Museum surrounded by high walkways and new the Barbican was looming. Was tiring here and stopped short for no reason there and didn't see the flags on 18 and 19 despite being within punching distance so told myself to get my head in the game just in time to slow down on the leg to 20. This was the most complex orienteering I have ever done, it wasn't even a case of finding the most efficient route, just finding a correct route, there were 2 choices I think that would lead you into the control and a couple others that would lead you to the lower level within sight of the control, but a very long way away from it.
I'm not sure if I got the best routes on any of these; I never ended up on the wrong level, but I never felt I was moving very fast. It was amazing though, I don't think I've ever had to concentrate so hard for that amount of time on a course before. It was such an amazing relief after punching 27 that it was back to regular street orienteering and just a few short minutes from the finish.
Finished 7th out of about 100 overall, about 8 mins down in Nick B. Pretty much beaten by who I would expect and finished above a few other who I'd expect to beat me. Pretty happy with that cause I think I've lost some fitness in the last couple of months. I know I was robbed of a few minutes due to road works that only appeared on the day, but imagine there were people behind me who may have been robbed by more and you can't really get upset about that when you're running through the centre of London. Garmin measured 11.6km, though that could be a little out due to all the undercover running, never lost the signal though.
Did it live up to the hype? Definitely. I don't know how it compares to Venice, but I don't think it needs the comparison - it's a unique map in its own right and I think the race should join the orienteering 'must do' list if it becomes a yearly event. Top marks Ollie & Brooner, just brilliant.

Spent a fair bit of time trying to get the legs to wake up. It was a struggle.

Collected the first 9 controls + 2 more. I think it says a lot about the area that I was happy to go out again and look at the map at a bit slower pace. Was only able to fnd one mistake and it was an insignificant one at that!

Looong day at work, wanted to get out for a bit cause it was a nice evening. Shouldn't have bothered, was a massive strugglesfest and cut it short. Think I need some more food, I think the weekend subsisting on beer and raost chicken has caught up with me. Damn that chickens good though - god bless the Germans.

Went to the track for the usual Wednesday session and some soccer team had booked out the stadium. There's one track in all of central Cardiff and thousands of fields and the stadium people let the club book it out even though the San Doms go there evevry Wednesday and then didn't feel the need to notify anyone in the club. Nice.
So we did a fartlek session through the streets. Have no idea where we went, but it was through some very, very dodgy and remote areas. At one point I'm pretty sure the signs weren't even in English any more!
Pretty sleepy through most of it - gonna have to get some earlier nights.

Usual lap of the bay, dunno why I like this loop so much, but it's keeping me interested for the moment.
Felt great, as you would hope after 6 days off! Pushed hard up the hills (all 3 of them). A bit sore from a few mystery injuries picked up over the weekend, really sore neck, chest and back - the run seems to have sorted them out a bit though.
Looking forward to the weekend, Saturdays race is shaping up to be an absolute cracker.

About to hop on a plane to Munich for the weekend. Have packed running gear - think that may be as far as it goes.....

Track session with the San Doms. 6 x 800 - there was a fairly large group of us so we split into groups, got a lot less recovery than the last couple. Good, but really started to feel the lactic on the last rep.
Splits were: 2:46, 2:42, 2:45, 2:44, 2:43, 2:41 with 1:20-1:30 recoveries. Interestingly, these are better splits than the 800s I ran last week and they had longer recoveries.
A guy who came tonight said I should consider shorter races, that it looks like I have good style and strength for 400 and 800s! Hmmmm.

Riding to track, 5 mins on the stairs, 5 min around the track as warm up.
5 more mins round the track and ride home as cool down.