Training Log Archive: Mark3

4th, dammit. Miles behind the winner but only a minute behind 2nd, and I lost more than that getting lost :(

I struggle with 1:25 navigation in areas when there's more paths on the ground than on the map, and this was one of those times. Lots of people knew the area or the route but I knew neither.

Settled into 3rd pretty early. After the ford I went left whereas the leaders went right; theirs is on smaller paths but it is a bit shorter and I think they gained 15s maybe here (not a lot in it). My route all the way to the road was fine but for some reason i got disoriented at the road and turned left-right rather than right-left - that meant I was on a parallel path which was fine but more undulating, and the first path I picked to try and get back was at the wrong angle and I had to retrace a bit.
So probably I've lost a bit of time already but still in 3rd and still feeling pretty good. Easy nav and and dull running down to the railway crossing - wasn't expecting the wiggle for the bridge over the railway, but a guy pointed me in the right direction.

After the 2 min timed out crossing it went pear shaped. I'm stilll not sure what happened but I didn't bend around on the track far enough, it actually starts going S and I needed the middle junction, but I branched off SE before that and ended up on a forestry track rather than my intended path. Not sure why I did not pick up on this with my compass, but the track was very muddy, and the correct S track does bend around to go SE after a while. I knew something was wrong but not what - I actually thought I was W rather than E of where I wanted to be. So then when I got to a T junction I wasn't expected I turned left rather than right and lost a load of the height of gained, and then I cut another forestry corner to head further E, started to turn left on a main track and suddenly had loads of runners coming towards me...so turned around. At this point didn't really know where I was but I was at the front of the group. Got to the road and turned left, assuming I was now where I expected, but was actually still 500m away from where I thought and I had to cut back to the path now at the back of the group rather than the front. We then hit a junction and joined with a third group who were on the more traditional line but that was totally different from the one I'd intended. Disaster... I managed to pass most of them on the climb but I didn't want to pass all of them as I still didn't really know where we were.

But once we got to Castle Ring I had some confidence finally, and so I left them to disappear off the way they'd come and I went to go the route back I'd intended on the way out. This worked perfectly although there were some muddy sections right at the beginning and then by the golf course which probably slowed it a bit. That may be why the people who'd gone the 'optimum', just left of the caravan park, arrive back at the crossing a bit before I did. Maybe not a lot in it in the dry.

Overtook them on the climb. Later on though I lost some time by wiggling unnecessarily, once at the Bremen Stone and once a bit later when I took the first right after crossing the river rather than the second. So it took me ages to catch the guy in the third, and by the time I did I had someone else right behind me.

Managed to hold them off off until the end which I was really pleased about, until I saw the results that my 3rd had become 4th since I'd spent less time at the road crossings than the guy just behind me, and also the guy in 2nd had faded loads and I'd have overhauled him with without the mistake. Dammit!

So it's not a massively interesting race but I will definitely be doing it again!

C • Map 5

C • classic trig points race action. 6

Birthday parkrun, 1st.
Not my NENDY but looked like a good course, and I'm glad I went because loads of others were cancelled because of ice. This was a country park centred around a massive sculpture called Dream. It's a massive head looking out over the motorway - bit weird.
Mainly gravel - road shoes would've been fine. I tried pretty hard. Some short sharp undulations and and out-and-back-with-big-loop course - one of my favourite types. Attendance was double what they usually get due to the cancellations so glad to get the win.

2nd after handicapping. Would have won, other than for comical start - failed to read the map properly at the mass start and thought we were on the lower path (control to my right) but we were actually on the upper path (control to my left). Far too anxious to stay in the lead and insufficient map reading led to me leading the whole pack awry, but they probably wondered what on earth I was doing and worked it out much faster than I did. I then punched a control on a different course without checking the code, started towards my next one, realised it was wrong and had to double back again. Looking at the splits this only lost about 90s but it felt like ages and I felt like a wally.

Other than that fiasco the two I chose to miss were reasonable choices and I only made one small mistake on a tiny reentrant where the one I was in was obscured by the control circle. This is mainly an excuse as I suspect I'd have made the same mistake anyway, but still.

Couple of days off and not that busy at work yet so took the opportunity for a long run in the light, not windy and not rainy conditions.
Very muddy everywhere but pretty glorious otherwise. Misty just at the shining tor summit but sunny lower down.
Good route but need to add an extra 130m ascent somewhere as it would be psychologically nice to have a VK loop.

2023 Summary

Good year for results, not so much volume!
Distance 3,042 km; 8.33km per day, quite a fair way short of target.
Ascent 126,268 m; 346m per day, as above.

This is less of each than last year and is a bit rubbish.

But, I did do quite a bit of walking (300km; 18,800m) which improves the stats a bit, more comparable to last year.

As with last year though, in terms of general achievements, I'm happy.
- Winning the Elite City Race Euro Tour. Largely through participation, but some good results anyway
- 2nd in British O long champs in the forest(!)
- 1st at JK Sprint
- Massive marathon PB at london, 2:48:55, beautifully paced
- 1st at British O champs middle and sprint
- 2nd in Happy Valley Trail half
- Completed the Ramsay Round for 3/3 Big 3 Rounds!
- 9th overall in the Lakeland Classics series, my best result, including 7th at Ennerdale
- 5th in Old Crown Round - best Lakes AL result?
- 3rd overall in the Staffs Moorlands Summer Series of shortish flattish races; pretty good for a fell runner I reckon
- Rankin Round solo; 4/3 Big 3 Rounds!
- 6th in World Masters O in the sprint
- Podiums in some summer fell races like 3rd at Eyam and Race to the Summit and Bilberry Fields, 2nd at Middle Fell, and longer ones like 2nd at Soyland Moor and a Peak Raid in the snow, and the Kinder Yo Ho O
- Completed all the Wainwrights, (not all this year!)
- 23 Before Tea FKT (already broken :( ) after falling over on the first attempt
- Best MaccH result in the fell relays, 22nd, since I joined the club; and 11th in the masters road relays
- massive 5k PB 16:50 which I'm still amazed by


In 2024 my target is the Wicklow Round and completing the OCT for a start. And a sub 80 HM, which should be straightforward on paper. And then we'll see! I usually try and fit in some other stuff too.

C • 'I usually try and fit in some other stuff too' 5

1st, although no real competition today.

Annoyed I forgot my road shoes (nicely in a bag by the door) but luckily my regular trainers are trail running shoes. So a detriment for most of it, but not a major one.

Some map oddities (chiefly too-small control circles @20m rather than the requisite 24m - checked) which was a bit distracting.

Very muddy on any grass areas, where the trail shoes did help, although this was only 5% of the course.

Couple of bad-ish choices on 4 and maybe 15 and 26, although they're pretty marginal. The shortest possible route is quoted as 10.7 and I ran 10.8, so I'm happy.

Good start to the o year.