Training Log Archive: martin(uk)In the 7 days ending May 18, 2008:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||
| Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su | |||||||
Sunday May 18, 2008 #
Orienteering race 1:06:30 [3] 6.6 km (10:05 / km)
Harvester Relay, first leg, SYO handicap team.
Lots of debate before the race about who should be running which legs, but in the end Charlie took the long last leg, Dave P took leg 3 and I ran first leg. With Neil on first leg for our A team, I was confident I wouldn't be keeping up with him, so I just wanted a steady run. Hmm.
Set off up the hill on the long first control, amongst a fairly big group that slowly got smaller and smaller. Much greener on the map and on the ground than I was expecting - lots of holly bushes were making it quite difficult to make progress. The bearing seemed about right, but none of the tracks seemed to fit. Never mind, Jon Cross seems confident, I'll just stick with him. Then he stopped dead on a path and started looking carefully at the map. I reckoned we were too far left, so after a quick check to the left I ran to the right and re-located. Found #1 ok then, but well behind others who'd found a better route. #2 was easy, #3 was back amongst the holly bushes but foiund ok.
Overtook a few people but at #4 everyone around me went straight through the block of forest (on another gaffle) but I had to turn back and find it. Far more holly bushes on the ground than on the map, and I lost several minutes. Then missed #5 as well, but re-located more quickly and got it second time. Managed #6 and #7 ok, then there was an easier section through the spectator control.
Lost another load of time at #13 looking for a pit, where again there seemed to be much more green on the ground than on the map. Loads more time lost at #14, an earthbank in the green. Spent several minutes crawling on all fours under holly bushes religiously trying to follow the earthbank, but not finding the control. Out to re-locate, back in to the same earthbank. Eventually found a flag in an unmapped clearing next to the earthbank - what?!? It was almost funny.
No problems at 15,16,17, but finished in 66 mins, which was at least 15 minutes lost. Went to bed not very happy. Rest of the team ran well, so we finished only 68 minutes behind our A team (I thought 70 down would be a good target, and would win us the handicap trophy).
Lots of debate before the race about who should be running which legs, but in the end Charlie took the long last leg, Dave P took leg 3 and I ran first leg. With Neil on first leg for our A team, I was confident I wouldn't be keeping up with him, so I just wanted a steady run. Hmm.
Set off up the hill on the long first control, amongst a fairly big group that slowly got smaller and smaller. Much greener on the map and on the ground than I was expecting - lots of holly bushes were making it quite difficult to make progress. The bearing seemed about right, but none of the tracks seemed to fit. Never mind, Jon Cross seems confident, I'll just stick with him. Then he stopped dead on a path and started looking carefully at the map. I reckoned we were too far left, so after a quick check to the left I ran to the right and re-located. Found #1 ok then, but well behind others who'd found a better route. #2 was easy, #3 was back amongst the holly bushes but foiund ok.
Overtook a few people but at #4 everyone around me went straight through the block of forest (on another gaffle) but I had to turn back and find it. Far more holly bushes on the ground than on the map, and I lost several minutes. Then missed #5 as well, but re-located more quickly and got it second time. Managed #6 and #7 ok, then there was an easier section through the spectator control.
Lost another load of time at #13 looking for a pit, where again there seemed to be much more green on the ground than on the map. Loads more time lost at #14, an earthbank in the green. Spent several minutes crawling on all fours under holly bushes religiously trying to follow the earthbank, but not finding the control. Out to re-locate, back in to the same earthbank. Eventually found a flag in an unmapped clearing next to the earthbank - what?!? It was almost funny.
No problems at 15,16,17, but finished in 66 mins, which was at least 15 minutes lost. Went to bed not very happy. Rest of the team ran well, so we finished only 68 minutes behind our A team (I thought 70 down would be a good target, and would win us the handicap trophy).
Running warm up/down 5:00 [1] 0.5 km (10:00 / km)
warm up
Saturday May 17, 2008 #
Event: JOK Chasing Sprint
Event: Harvester Trophy Weekend
Orienteering race 21:15 [5] 3.7 km (5:45 / km)
JOK chasing sprint, prologue, Bloom Wood.
After several poor runs recently I decided I would really try to focus on this race, get the technique right, and have a clean run. It worked. The course wasn't too difficult, but I got into a nice rythm and nailed nearly all the controls, with just a slight wobble off the best line on one leg.
I didn't feel like I was running especially fast, but I decided to save any pain for the chase and finish the prologue with a little energy to spare. In the end it was good enough - I had 14 secs lead over Charlie, and Quentin was almost a minute behind.
After several poor runs recently I decided I would really try to focus on this race, get the technique right, and have a clean run. It worked. The course wasn't too difficult, but I got into a nice rythm and nailed nearly all the controls, with just a slight wobble off the best line on one leg.
I didn't feel like I was running especially fast, but I decided to save any pain for the chase and finish the prologue with a little energy to spare. In the end it was good enough - I had 14 secs lead over Charlie, and Quentin was almost a minute behind.
Orienteering race 17:10 [5] 3.1 km (5:32 / km)
JOK Chasing sprint, chase.
With Charlie only 14 secs behind me I decided he would certainly catch me at some stage. I didn't want to get caught by Quentin, as I didn't fancy taking him on in a sprint finish.
As it turned out the first two controls were really close to the start, so I was very slow and careful through them, and Charlie was with me leaving #2. That was good - we then worked well together, Charlie leading me initially, then me taking over for a few controls. Between us we hit them all and were running fast. Charlie started pushing hard on one of the uphill sections out of a valley, I dug in and stayed with him. On a longer uphill leg he would have dropped me, but it was only a couple of contours.
At the penultimate Charlie still lead, but I started pushing, punched first at the last control, and sprinted hard to the finish, just a couple of seconds ahead. Nice to retain the flying pig trophy for the Vets class.
With Charlie only 14 secs behind me I decided he would certainly catch me at some stage. I didn't want to get caught by Quentin, as I didn't fancy taking him on in a sprint finish.
As it turned out the first two controls were really close to the start, so I was very slow and careful through them, and Charlie was with me leaving #2. That was good - we then worked well together, Charlie leading me initially, then me taking over for a few controls. Between us we hit them all and were running fast. Charlie started pushing hard on one of the uphill sections out of a valley, I dug in and stayed with him. On a longer uphill leg he would have dropped me, but it was only a couple of contours.
At the penultimate Charlie still lead, but I started pushing, punched first at the last control, and sprinted hard to the finish, just a couple of seconds ahead. Nice to retain the flying pig trophy for the Vets class.
Running warm up/down 20:00 [2] 2.0 km (10:00 / km)
warm up and run to start.
Wednesday May 14, 2008 #
Orienteering 52:00 [1] 7.0 km (7:26 / km)
Ecclesall Woods training. Really nice evening - sunshine, bluebells and not too many brambles. First time I'd run on the new highly-detailed map of Ecclesall, which requires intense concentration! That's not something I'm good at after work, but anyway it was a pleasant run.