Training Log Archive: bradc

The '77' race after the 3-day. This was a tough area again, like day 1, and I was tired - not thinking. R heel in a mess so was hobbling; managed to tweak that ankle, and was too distracted by the pain to get my head into the O. Shame to end the event on a poor note.

French 3-day, day 3. Complex again, but the vague stuff in the middle was the hardest bit and scene of my largest error. Tried to take it slow and steady but it was another very early start and my brain didn't engage until #10; lost 3 mins on 1 control, 2 on another and several 1 min errs. Fraser beat me by 4 mins (despite one 10 min error - he was moving much faster than me!) and thus 40s overall. Very large raw skin patch on my right heel. Well, TWO very large raw skin patches, to be accurate. Ouch.

French 3-day, day 2, middle distance. Bonkers 08:16 start. Nicer terrain than yesterday, and very complex rock detail. I ran pretty well (slow and steady) with just one 2min error until just before the end, when I lost 3 mins not realising that the marked 'thicket' was actually a fallen tree. Beat Fraser again by 2 mins, this cannot continue!

Event: The 3 Days of France
 

French 3-day day 1. Having been selected to have the early split on all three days, at least today the starts weren't until lunchtime, so I was at least awake - but the bracken was pretty bad in one area of the map and later runners would have had a significant advantage. Was generally OK, started well, but had one 10-min error (unable to find a control in the bracken despite standing on the rock right by it, then having to eventually go out and relocate - sigh) and one 3m30s, plus a small number of other wobbles: disappointing. Technically v difficult. Still beat Fraser by a minute, though; he was even worse!

Official pre 3-day training at L'Elephant. A gorgeous area, lovely forest, good clean running. Felt much better running-wise today, strong and smooth; reasonable nav too.

Fontainebleau. We decided that we should get some O practice in, so we took Jen & Pascal's old map of Franchard and went for a bit of orienteering practice. Again, felt pretty useless running, but found some control sites.

Two short (ca 10km) cycles with Beccy, and Jamie on the back; not enough effort to warrant logging as training!