Training Log Archive: Anvil

Well that was longer than expected! Went to Richmond Park and out to Richmond and back all the way along the river. Once was got to Barnes Bridge after 1:40 I gave Nics the option of going straight back home (2.5km) or keep going the long way round the river (6.5km). To my shock she picked the long way - I think the fact she's booked into the London Marathon in April is starting to weigh on her mind!
Felt pretty good - knees started to feel a bit sore around 1:50 and hammies started to feel on the verge of cramping up towards the end.
Absolute cracker day, 2 in a row - sunny, warm, awesome. I believe it was wet and cold in Hobart today - someone please confirm what hemisphere is meant to be enjoying summer at the moment....

Lunchtime run. Dragged a bloke I work with along with me for some company. He was a bit slower than me so it wasn't that taxing at all, but it was nice to just enjoy the run and surrounds.
Dare I say it, I think it could have been classified as 'warm' today. Probably the first time since I've been here that I felt some warmth in the sun.

Got some new gear in the post so couldn't resist going for a run in the streets in my new reflective glory.
Regular 2 bridges night run with an extension up Putney 'Hill' to make the loop exactly 9km, well, if you run past my flat for 50m at the end). Felt really good and fresh. Almost managed to run through a guarded entrance to some upmarket block of flats. Luckily this accent gets you out of any form of geographic ignorance.

First speed session with Windmilers runnoing club. 4 x 660m x 2 - is that the right way to write it? 2 lots of 4 sets of 660m loops. Joined the easy group cause it was my first time and it turns out it was a little too easy. Lucky there was another guy there who was a first timer who I was able to pace off.
Concentrated on keeping good form and not going flat out. Felt really good the whole way - I'm never doing intervals alone again, soooo much better in a group (especially when you lap people!)

C • national star 2

C • jk 3

Recovery jogs up and down some alley between sets.

Warm up/warm down running to and from the start of the loop. Lots of stretches before and after as well. Who stretches before training? Weird. Felt like I was back in PE at school - the coach who took it reminded me of a teacher as well, he kept getting cranky when people talked.

Knackered and sore after the weekend.

C • rest 2

Regional (?) event at Woolbeding Common
http://www.go.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi...
This would have to be one of the most physical races I ever ran. Combined with the long run the day before, riding to the start and lack of sleep from noisy flatmates I wasn't really in much form for such a hard race.
I'm finding it difficult to adjust to reading maps over here and I think I?ve pinned it down to two reasons. Firstly, I pretty much navigate by contours. Problem is, there is so much more information on maps here, lots more green, tracks, brown point features etc , I'm finding it tough to ignore all the superfluous stuff. - to see the hills for the mounds (forest for the trees doesn't quite fit). Second to that, the topography of the land is fairly different to home. I can't really describe it, but I've never had any problems at home knowing up from down, gullies from spurs etc, but on long route choice legs on this race I was struggling to pick a good route cause I couldn't tell what was up and down. I think the slopes here twist and turn a lot more, whereas back home hills are more simple and rounded.

Anyway onto the mistakes:
1-4: Nothing too bad, but was already feeling heavy in the legs.
#5: My first experience with a brown triangle. I hate brown triangles. I had 3 of these as control sites on the course and there didn't really seem to be anything there. When I questioned was these features were after the race I was told, 'well, they're really nothing'! What they are is old charcoal burning grounds, but now all that's left it a little circle of flat ground. I will never bitch about root mounds in Buckland again.
So for this leg was directly downhill through bracken to a triangle. When nothing appeared I just ran to anything unusual I could see, thickets, piles of sticks, dubious clearing until a big ground of people ran by and I retraced their steps till I found the 'nothing'. Not happy Jan. 1.5 mins lost.
#7: Route choice leg. One cool thing about having such weird hills and abundance of tracks is instead of the usual left, right, straight route choice there's any number of routes you can take for long legs. I started going straight until I realised the downhill was actually an uphill and switched to a wide right leg which had almost no climb. Also made a mistake in the circle so I'm not sure how good my route was - will see what other do in route gadget.
8-15: Was a long slog trying to pick the best line to minimise hills and tough running. Started to feel pretty tired through these ones.
#16: Lazy map reading in low vis pine forest. Ultra sloppy. +2mins
Started to cramp up in the hammies out of 19 and took a of longer track options to avoid bracken. Didn't end up being that bad. Totally rooted by this point.

Getting a little worried that the JK classic is 4-5km longer on a similar map.

C • wtf? 3

From Haslemere station to the event and back. Big fark off hill up into the map. Will be finding lifts now on for events +5km from a station!