I manage to stick to the plan, got up early(ish) and headed over to the Haresfield Beacon car park in plenty of time to make way over to the Painswick Orienteering.
As I arrived at Haresfield it begain to snow. Not a lot but by god 'eck it were chilly - I could feel me cockles shrinking. I switched out to a thicker top before heading out. I took it pretty steady and just enjoyed the scenery. After five minutes of running I was fully warmed. It was perfect conditions really. The slight frost firming the ground so it wasn't too muddy through the woods.
Some time later I arrived over at the golf course above Painswick and duly began to get right bloody cold. I registered my run but then had to wait about half an hour before I could go orienteer. I put on an extra layer but it didn't really help. The biting cold bit me and my hands began to go white, as they are prone to do.
Once finally underway in the orienteering my hands did finally warm up with about ten minutes to go - doh. Control of the compass was trickier than normal on account of the cold and even folding and re-folding the map took more time and effort than normal.
As to the actual orienteering I final broke my duck. Just like last week I made no major cock-ups, a few dilly-dallies but definitely no massive 'I don't know where the hell I am' incidents. However, unlike last week, I finally smashed the hour barrier on the blue course. Well, I say smashed. Does 59 minutes and 59 seconds count as 'smashing the hour barrier'? It does in my book anyway - which, coincidentally, is the official book of smashing the hour barrier as authorised by the National Association of Smashing the Hour Barrier.
Anyway, with the orienteering complete I didn't hang around too long to get cold again and promptly set off back to Haresfield to complete the days training. In all I covered a little over 24km with 560m ascent, breaking down as 10.5km/250m to Painswick, 7.5km/150m for the orienteering and 6.2km/160m for the return journey. Job done I'm all set for tomorrow's Ironwood Challenge and really rather buoyed by the fact I'm managing to keep the momentum going - I might not die on the Welsh Mountains in June after all......
As I arrived at Haresfield it begain to snow. Not a lot but by god 'eck it were chilly - I could feel me cockles shrinking. I switched out to a thicker top before heading out. I took it pretty steady and just enjoyed the scenery. After five minutes of running I was fully warmed. It was perfect conditions really. The slight frost firming the ground so it wasn't too muddy through the woods.
Some time later I arrived over at the golf course above Painswick and duly began to get right bloody cold. I registered my run but then had to wait about half an hour before I could go orienteer. I put on an extra layer but it didn't really help. The biting cold bit me and my hands began to go white, as they are prone to do.
Once finally underway in the orienteering my hands did finally warm up with about ten minutes to go - doh. Control of the compass was trickier than normal on account of the cold and even folding and re-folding the map took more time and effort than normal.
As to the actual orienteering I final broke my duck. Just like last week I made no major cock-ups, a few dilly-dallies but definitely no massive 'I don't know where the hell I am' incidents. However, unlike last week, I finally smashed the hour barrier on the blue course. Well, I say smashed. Does 59 minutes and 59 seconds count as 'smashing the hour barrier'? It does in my book anyway - which, coincidentally, is the official book of smashing the hour barrier as authorised by the National Association of Smashing the Hour Barrier.
Anyway, with the orienteering complete I didn't hang around too long to get cold again and promptly set off back to Haresfield to complete the days training. In all I covered a little over 24km with 560m ascent, breaking down as 10.5km/250m to Painswick, 7.5km/150m for the orienteering and 6.2km/160m for the return journey. Job done I'm all set for tomorrow's Ironwood Challenge and really rather buoyed by the fact I'm managing to keep the momentum going - I might not die on the Welsh Mountains in June after all......
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