Training Log Archive: Anvil

Late night and something resembling a hangover made this a bit harder than it should have been.
Did what any good self respecting Australian in South London does and did a loop of Clapham Common. Bit of a boring Common, so glad I lived in Putney, much better options for running. Was nice to see all the soccer, touch footy and AFL games being played - was just like a Saturday morning back home.

Heading down to London after work for the weekend - last one in the big city in the foreseeable future :(

C • Thanks 3

After yesterdays epiphany I got to thinking about the songs that have matched my pace whilst running. I put the ones I could remember onto Poddy tonight to see how the older ones fared with my current fitness level/
The mix tape as follows:
Right Here, Right Now - Fatboy Slim: 4:26 m/km
Music is the Victim - Scissor Sisters: 4:22 m/km
Too gay to public admit to: 4:30 m/km (it was the only English language song that was played on high rotation on every radio station when I was in Egypt and Morocco last year and it's got some kind of sick Stockholm Sydrome hold over me)
Don't stop me now - Queen: 4:03 m/km (last nights special)
You could be mine - Guns N Roses: 4:24 m/km (discovered 2004)
RIght type of mood - Herbie: 4:45 m/km (2002)

Just after I started remembered doing fiddlers to Khe Sahn and it got me into a good rhythm, will have to put that on for the next one.

Good run, felt great - nice to do a short one for once.

I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky
Like a tiger, defying the laws of gravity
I'm a racing car passing by like lady godiva
I'm gonna go, go, go
There's no stopping me

I'm burning through the sky yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I'm traveling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you


New song to add to the 'get you out of a rut' list. Great beat and lyrics, I like how the gender switches through the song - keep 'em guessing Freddie!

Easy run round the bay. Couldn't have done much faster if I'd tried though. Why is it the first half always seems to take so much longer than the second half?

I've been paying out my flat mates for using this as their daily exercise regime and decided to put my money where my mouth is and have a go tonight.

Conclusion:
Balance Games: Gay. Shift your weight from left to right for a minute.
Fat burning: Fun, but ridiculous and pointless - hurt my back doing the hula hoop.
Yoga: Boring, but OK.
Muscle: Good, very good in fact - sore in all the right places. May have finally found something to keep me interested doing core work.

Far too cutesy and gay though. Made my character (my Mii) look like a serial killer.

Getting home at 3am kinda put the kibosh on doing anything except pretending to be awake.

Total Distance: 15.6km!, bridges crossed: 61.
I really don't know what to say, 4 hours later I still feel kinda dizzy and mentally exhausted. The first 6 controls were relatively basic long route choice legs that involved a lot of running and picking the right bridge. I was regretting going so hard yesterday as I was already feeling tired on the way to 4 and was passed by the guy who started a minute behind me.
The fun really started at 8 and I'm now staring at the map wondering where I went on some of the legs! Only real mistake of note was at 15, where I spent too long deciding which was to go, then picked a route that involved a bridge that didn't exist and went quite a long way round to get into the control. Started to feel very tired and began losing focus at 20 - lost contact for the first time of the race going into 22 and was just lucky there were a lot of people in the circle which led me to the control.
Coming out of 24 came into an area I spent a lot of time exploring the day before and was finally able to stretch out and fang it into the finish.
Very sore now, there's muscles in my legs aching that I've never felt before, must have been due to so many fast 90 degree turns.
Not sure of my placing, but I don't think it'll be that good - everyone I spoke to did better times that me. It seems like the better option on the medium length legs was to go out wide where possible with fewer twists and turns and easier navigation. I never did this, opting to try and minimise distance covered - I don't know if I'd do it differently though, half the fun is winding through those little corridors!
Only real disappointment was there was no epic route choice leg, the required you to run in the opposite direction to your control or miles out of the way to the necessary bridge. Lots of micro route choice did make up for it though.
Recommendation: If possible, do it. It's one of the 'Big 3' for the orienteer tourist. Guess the other 2.

C • big 3 4

C • Course 1