Training Log Archive: Mark3

I knew that on paper I should win this but that's why orienteering differs from running!

Looking at the splits I won by being consistent and not making any major mistakes, rather than being particularly fast. Qualified 1st. Four went through to the A final.

Area was way more technical than I was expecting for the qualifier; I thought that they'd save the complicated stuff for the final, and they did save the multi -level, but still a really well planned course where I missed the best option a couple of times.

M35 British Champion :)

Similar to the qualifier, did well mainly because despite a really bad start I kept my nerve and didn't do much else wrong. It helped having been to the area in 2016 and doing some old map geeking beforehand.

It's nice to win; I'm not kidding myself that M35 is a particularly competitive class but still, a win's a win. Only Ben S of the 35s who entered Elite qualified for the A final, and I did beat him, so I was at least the best 35 on the day. Beaten by two of the 40s though, but then again they are pretty strong so not too bothered.

Looking forward to try and squeeze in some more urbans this summer.

Jog round the first 11 controls of WOpen to get in the 1:4k zone.

Lost concentration a couple of times - not used to having to be 100% focussed on the map. Useful reminder.

5th.

Hooray, didn't get lost! Ennerdale cancelled due to Weather (secretly relieved as didn't fancy being in 60mph winds for that long) and so managed to get a last minute entry for this.
Lovely day; bit windy and overcast so didn't get too warm.
Started fast down the hill and in the front group with Allen and Steve Vernon. There was clearly no way that was going to last though, and after the rough downhill section (which was great fun) I was 5th but in touch.

Then the first river crossing I took pretty safely using the rope for balance and lost a bit of time, and a position to someone who ignored the rope.
Stayed 6th all the way along the fun undulating forest path, gradually catching, then finally caught and passed up the zigzags to Lud's Church. Lovely and cool in there! Great run along the ridge, could see 4th place Buxton in the distance but miles away. The front 3 were long gone.

Steep down through Hanging Stone and back to the forest, really nice running (forgot how nice this area is actually) and no real sign of anyone behind me.
New slight route for this year was to turn right at the bottom and then left for a second river crossing.

I have Form with river crossing (near-death experience #1) and to me it looked like the rope was across a narrow, fast flowing section of river. So I elected to ignore the rope and cross lower down where it was wider. The first step was an inch deep but the second step was waist deep; this threw my stride off somewhat and I ended up pretty much into my neck...bashed my knee on something which is prettily red on the photos.
So lost a bit of time pulling myself upright, getting out of the river and being generally wet. I could hear people very close behind now so I think I lost a bit of time on the downhill too. So consciously sped up a bit despite weird knee twinges and stayed comfortably 10s+ ahead to the end.

Got a trout at the end, obvs. Assumed it would be filleted but nope; head and everything. Emma will deal with it.

Really fun race actually. Please to only finish a minute behind Buxton although 3.5 behind Allen as per nowadays. So 2.5 mins between 3rd and 4th. More of a consistent stream behind me. Still a pretty good result.

My knee seized up and feels a bit grim atm, so hopefully it's okay for tomorrow.

Last day at work. So pretty busy getting everything finished.

Also went to see a couple of houses at lunch. One wasn't very appropriate and the other we will make an offer but expect to be outbid.

Pretty poor performance, but I think did just enough to beat Sam by 7s.
On the plus side did the very small number of urban controls really well, but was rubbish in the park, not precise enough, and still got caught by an uncrossable.
Nice change from fell running though. Good prep for Sunday.

It's not going well this season when it comes to mid-week fell race navigation!

Started well. I was excited for this race and was feeling much better than yesterday. Running well up the track, and then bore (bore? Is that a word?) left at the junction to go over the stile and steeply downhill as planned to cross the stream right next to the lake. Very happy so far.
A little lower than Allen in front of me on the contour, through the squeeze stile, up the wood a bit and then diagonally cutting the corner, all exactly as planned. Came out just ahead of the guy who'd been just ahead of me at the Cage - so not a massive amount in it but defo a good choice. I think on a less boggy day it would be even betterer, but there'd been a thunderstorm less than half an hour ago.
Still all good to Bowstones and think the two of us were in 6th and 7th there.
Then the issues began - went through the gate expecting to turn right, but there was a flag to the left. The two in front had both gone left. I knew that wasn't the right way. But...there was a flag. On the compulsory flagged section.
I followed the flag.
This was a bad move.
It was 1200m further (3 sides of a square, rather than just the 1). So annoyed! Someone must have moved the flag. Gently seethed and started running super fast, catching the guy ahead. Then we got back to all the people who'd gone the 'right' way (by no means everyone; loads did what we did or a slightly less bad variation) and I had a load of slower people to overtake. But actually we'd been doing so well that we were still pretty high up.
However then came the issue that meant I'm not to bothered about the flag - turns out I'd misunderstood the instructions and the CP wasnt at the end of the compulsory flagged section as I'd thought, it was halfway through the free route choice section. Therefore my excellent route choice (which was much faster, thus validating my o skillz) was let down by the fact that it misses a checkpoint and therefore I'll be DQ'd anyway.
But whatevs. I'm running pretty well.

I noted last time that I wanted to consider the stile and steep down as a choice, but I failed to reread and so didn't do that! One to do before next year. Also Chris E went diagonally though the rough to the park corner and thinks it's much better, between the trees I guess, so that's one to consider too.

18th, 3 mins behind Allen, 5 behind winner Peter Bray.

Felt pretty ill before the start but after the first climb felt okay.

Nice route, pretty easy for a fell race, not much ascent but some nice technical stuff along the rocky edge. Extra bog thrown in for good measure to avoid the bull. Outsprinted by one guy at the finish who I decided wanted it more than me.

Allen is just in another league now.

Can't really compare with last time since it was 2k shorter, but beat all my segment times at least. Although mostly not by very much. But it was a very short race!

FKT :) with Joe
Only a Thing since June 2020, but still: exciting times. Knocked 20 mins off the record.
https://hbmr.org.uk/thehodgson4/

Since recceing this last year I was confident that with some better lines and a higher effort then the record was beatable even by me, so I took advantage of the enforced day off caused by returning from Jura a day early and roped Joe in (note to self: have as many part-time running friends as possible) for a go.

Cloud all day and a bit of wind, but still shorts/tshirt weather. Surprisingly humid actually, the 800ml I took based on Duddon on Sat was only just enough.

Incidentally the time today was identical, to the second, to the time of Duddon on Saturday.

No real choice up to the isthmus; took the lower path but much the same, and contoured Anlgetarn Pikes rather than over. Managed not to climb half of Rest Dodd this time and so saved a few minutes on the recce. It was a bit boggy everywhere still, but nothing on last October (unsurprisingly) and the route down from Caudale to Raven's Edge was lovely. Crossed the wall to come down on the S side as planned, which was definitely faster.

I think we hit Kirkstone after about 1:50 so we were pretty optimistic. I think Joe was putting in at least a bit of effort but he never dropped back at all so I reckon he could probably have gone faster. I was going as fast as I could maintain.

Good lines all the way to Fairfield and then successfully contoured Cofa for the first time (very happy about that), a surprising number of false summits on St Sunday Crag and then we blitzed the descent.

Basically it was an awesome day out, great route anyway, and the FKT was a bonus. It will get beaten pretty soon when someone 'proper' has a go, but until then, #glory.