Training Log Archive: Arnold

So I reckon 75% of running is in the legs and 25% is in the head. (OK, there’s some in the stomach and arms too.)

My legs bit is doing surprisingly well at the moment but my head bit could do with improving - call it a midlife crisis of sorts (although “crisis” is definitely too strong a word. “Evaluation” may be better.)

So overall a decent effort which felt tough but not ridiculous. If I can get the head sorted out, it will be a good winter’s running.

Gentle trot. Felt better than expected and a lovely day again (15C and sunny, perfect.)

Usual Knole loop, except after work rather than before.

Generally tired and still fighting off illness, but it was a beautiful evening and just the right temperature so decided to push it a bit, which actually felt pretty good (except for the achilles which are still annoying).

On a sneaky night away with Abi in the Ardèche region of France. Beautiful views and lovely forest to be running in

The exam results for last weekend are in - 1282 on Friday, 1272 on Saturday and 1219 on Sunday. Which all feels a bit mean (especially the Friday as I beat some good people), but I guess when everyone is bunched together it’s hard to get decent points.

Easy run as have been slightly sniffly all week. Felt ok during, but not great after.

London City Race Part 3 - Middle

Probably a bit overkill to have done this one, especially as technically it was very easy. I still managed to do a 40-second mistake when blue at the end (mistaking one garden square for another) - so ended up pretty far down, although even without that it would have been poor.

So from today I learnt that:
- I’m about 10% slower than the fastest guys
- I can make up a lot of that by having a technically clean run (and without hesitations) if the area is tricky. So maybe above average after all..

Looking forward to some good winter training now.

London City Race - the main one

Heeded my advice from yesterday so no real mistakes - a couple of 10s only. Didn’t hurt that the course shape was the same as the City Race I planned 5 years ago.

However, lack of sleep and training caught up with me so felt very sluggish, especially in the middle. Hung in there for 8th place, only 2 minutes behind second and not far off Paul, Eric, Geoff and Richard; ahead of Wardy and some others.

So on balance, can’t complain. And the fact this race exists at all is just amazeballs - the view on the way to the start (Tower Bridge etc) was just incredible.

London City Race Prologue (Middle)

A few years ago I used to think I was a really good technical orienteer (if only I could run, I might actually do well). At that time it might have been true that I was a pretty reasonable technical orienteer.

Nowadays I still think I’m a really good technical orienteer, but the uncomfortable truth is that I am currently average. This is due to i) orienteering much less frequently; ii) failing eyesight; iii) not being focused enough and iv) taking a generally nonchalant “how hard can it be” approach to orienteering based on the abovementioned fallacious belief that I am very good.

Tonight was an excellent example of all of the above, resulting in 2 biggish (30’ each?) mistakes on what were to be fair really hard route choices.

Having now uncovered and documented this vicious circle I shall aim to avoid it tomorrow by reminding myself that I am currently a slightly above average orienteer at best.

I did manage to beat Geoff by 4 seconds and Richard B by 2, which was rather pleasing.

Street-O in West Norwood.

Very hard course so not sure if the macro route was right. But then all pretty good until I wasted 18 points (and a lot of energy) by getting a 20-pointer near the end only to be almost 2 minutes over.

Good fun though and running felt ok. They have a lot of hills in Norwood though!

Pretty decent effort. Calf a bit tight, a bit of massage should do the trick.

I WILL do more strength. Yes I will.

Getting there. 15C + drizzle felt really nice for a change.

Looks like it’ll take some time to get back to normal fitness - this is 8 minutes behind PB and that doesn’t even include a minute’s break halfway round...

...on the positive side this time would have been a PB not so long ago, and I finished reasonably strongly.

C • I'm curious 3