"It Looks Quite Nice Out", I said

"We might not even get wet"... Maybe not the best thing to say on the anniversary of the 'Michael Fish' incident. Might not get wet? Within five minutes of getting out the gates, on the lunch run - yes, you heard that right, the lunch run - it was pissing down. Martin and looked like drowned rats by the time we once again reached the sanctuary within the company gates. But it was bloody good to get out there despite the torrential rain. And would you believe within five minutes of getting back inside it stopped raining and the sun came out - toss.

We set off steadily, heading for the clockwise Dundry loop. Eyes stinging with the rain, we hit the top in 16:45 - that was a surprise. Splashing through the ever increasingly deep puddles we continued to run steadily. I finished a little behind Martin in a time of 32:29. Two and a half minutes faster than the last time out. Pretty pleased with that, especially as I was holding back a little. I was thinking ahead to the next run, I know I should be able to knock a bit more off - using a bit of the old psychology...

Been a good day. Got quite a lot of items ticked off the to-do list at work and that's me done for the week. The weekend starts once again... No sure if I'll make it across to the mountains tomorrow. The forecast looks a little bit pants. Think I might wait out a ride and get out there on the bike when there's a break in the weather. Not sure I'm going to like it on the wet roads though.

Back To The Humdrum

Well the enjoyable weekend couldn't be sustained into the week. On the plus it's another three day week so I don't have to suffer long..

The results of Saturday's orienteering are in and I got a bit of a shock. For a moment I thought I was 10th of 12. I knew I mucked up a few controls but two from last? Surely not - fortunately no, there was another page of results! [phew, wipes brough] 10th of 30 isn't quite as bad. It's not great but I managed to claim the fastest split for control two. OK, so it was only an informal event but in places I think I'm getting there. More practice is required picking out the features on the ground but I'll get there...

The Doddfather

It was a pretty good day for the Harriers of Chepstow. We acquitted ourselves with aplomb at the British Fell Relays - I wanted an apple but we had to settle a plum. From a large field of 176 (although I think there were actually only 162 on the day) we managed a pretty decent 41st place. That makes Chepstow the 2nd most premier fell running club in East Wales [smirks to camera].

Matthew 'The Lawsonator' Lawson got us off the a cracking start, putting us firmly in the top third of the field. Next up were Peter, Paul and Mary - 'cept Mary had the day off. They stormed through the field to put us somewhere towards the top twenty or there abouts.

Then came the doddering duo of Paul 'The Doddfather' Dodds and little ol' me. We were pretty evenly matched. He outpaced me on the flat but I caught it back on the ascent but neither of us got too far ahead or behind and all in all we paired up pretty well. We had the navigation leg and all in all did a good job. Can't really grumble on our choices. We brought the team home in 29th at the end of leg 3.

We handed on the 'theoretical' baton to Mark 'The Butcher of Bakersfield' Harvey. Mark is more at home - at home - but he put in a steady performance never the less. At the finish he could be heard complaining about fall pretences and muttering something about where were all the roads he was promised...

So all in all a very credible performance. Top quarter is pretty darn good in the British Fell Relays. The weather was great. The sun shone down all day and not a drop of rain was to be seen. It really was a great day out.

Now for the stats, my leg was 11.5km with only 1,600 feet of ascent. For the Shropshire hills we got away lightly - result. The time? 1:17:44. I think I sleep soundly tonight...

Another Heap Of Kak

Another day. Another orienteering event. Another couple of horrendously badly run controls - and I even managed to get off to a good start for once! I guess that was my downfall. I got cocky - except I didn't, not really. I just plained screwed up a couple of times. At that cost me. Ho hum.

As it was an informal/training event you get the map before you start but I didn't look at it other than to fold it in an appropriate place. I wanted to treat it like the real thing. So I dibbed my dibber - and then I dibbed my electronic score card to start the clock - fnah fnah.

I decided to focus on choosing the right route rather than the straightest line. It worked well to begin with. I picked off one and two quickly. Made an error of judgement out from two to pick up the path. The undergrowth was too dense and it slowed me. I really do need to start learning to read these fancy pants orienteering maps.

Once I hit the track I got over to three, four, five and six quickly. Seven was alright but I cocked up to eight. I misread the path I was on and faffed somewhat before realising I hadn't travelled far enough. I lost myself three or four minutes on what was really a very simple control.

Nine and ten were on the money but I monumentally mucked up eleven. I knew what I was looking for in terms of the symbol - an earth bank - but on the ground I really wasn't seeing it. My gps track looks like a spiders got at it. That pretty much spoilt what was going to be a decent performance - for once. Still, as long as I can learn from it I'll have a more chance of knowing what to look for in the future.

From there it was all pretty easy apart from a slight blip on fourteen but I didn't cost me too much time, maybe 15 seconds. All in all I pretty happy with how I orienteered today. I'm starting use the map features more and the compass less - and that's a good thing. I'm starting to run to the map and not solely the compass and it seems to make one hell of a difference.

I'm finally starting to get the symbols but I still have a long way to go with the map features, mainly the density and feature boundaries. As my Nepalese Ghuru would say, there's no alternative to practice, practice and yet more practice. I really enjoyed it out there today. Oh, and did I say I jogged a couple of k there and back for warm up and cool down. All that's left to do now is pack my kit for tomorrow's Fell Relays and then sit back and relax. Come on the Harriers let's do ourself proud - by not coming last...

A Bit Of Nothingness

It's been a day of, well, nothing. I managed a little pootle in the morning before the rain came and since then I've been busy doing nothing. And very relaxing it has been.

Looking forward to mucking up the first three or four controls in tomorrows Nine Wells orienteering - as per normal. I'll no doubt run far to far to the first couple before I get used the scale. And if the pattern of my orienteering holds true I'll complete that last three quarters of the course in the time it takes me to run the first quarter. I really hope I can break the pattern...

Today Was A Bit Rubbish But Ended OK

Called to site for urgent issues this morning I eventually got the particularly painful nut cracked. Ooh er. It's been a thorn in my side for a few days going on a few weeks. Mind you, it's been even more of a thorn for the lads that get called out during the night to re-start things. That said my reputation was being shredded. Increasingly vilified by my worshippers and with my magic fading I had to come good if I was to get out of there alive. The natives were beyond getting restless. The drums were beating and the fires stoked.

Finally, as we sounded out ideas, the answer revealed itself - now I could make some reference here to the ghost of Mr Saville flashing but that would be in tremendously bad taste, so I won't - as the sun set in the western sky. With the last vestige of daylight lost to the horizon I downloaded the last of the modifications and with that the plant purred into life and the harmony of the universe was restored - of course, then some bastard pulled the plug and we had to restart from scratch - ahhhh, but I got home eventually... 

A Rest Week

Going to take it easy this week. Last weeks racing and training was pretty good and with a double header weekend coming up I want to be rested. Up Saturday is the orienteering - I wonder if I can get past the first few controls without a major ballsup - no, probably not. Then Sunday it's the Fell Relays in sunny Shropshire. Feeling pretty confident for the navigation leg - assuming I'm still down to run it. I can't claim to know the lie of the land as well as I do the black mountains but I think I can get by...

A Time To Prune

And by 'eck did I ever. The bush - stop it - in the front garden - I said stop it - was out of control. It ain't any more. I was pretty brutal but I'm sure, come springtime, it will fire out the green shoots of recovery - unlike the economy, oooh political, right, I'm stopping there. To be fair it does look a bit wrecked but I'm sure it will be fine and honestly, it really did need to be done.

Anyway, I managed a ride this afternoon although to be fair I didn't feel like it. Wasn't really up for doing anything but I forced myself to get out there. Would have regretted wasting the day in its entirety if I hadn't. All that's left to do now is look myself out a recipe for dinner...

I'm Back On The Road Again

I decided to take the bull by the horns. Lace up the old road shoes and get out there for something a little quicker. I chose a reasonably hilly route. Nothing too steep or sustained but enough of a challenge that I was reduced to a asthmatic wheeze once or twice. Surprisingly it wasn't too boring. Almost enjoyable if the truth be told.

I set out at steady pace along Velthouse Lane. Half way along passing a nice bit of eye candy running towards me - cue the pulling in of the stomach, reduced wheezing and trying to look more like a runner than a plodder - it didn't work.

The run out of Blaisdon generally wound it's way gently upwards before crossing the main road for the larger of the climbs to May Hill village, Glasshouse and May Hill itself.

I pushed along the flat, held my own on the ascent and as the run progressed I ever so slightly increased the pace. The last couple of miles, down hill, were great. I really focused on my form and pace. It felt like I was going at a fair lick come the end - probably wasn't but it felt pretty good - although I was beginning to blow come the last half mile.

All in all a very satisfying run. I covered the 16.4km in 1 hour and 18 minutes with somewhere in the region of 1,000 feet of ascent climbed. Job done and now I sleep...

Today's 16.4km road run with 1,000 feet of ascent

Finally The Inbox Is Empty

I very nearly lost the will to live going through the inbox. It took all day but it's done and I'll be starting next week on an even keel. Phew [wipes brow].

Haven't managed to find myself a descent race for tomorrow. I can't be arsed to drive ninety minutes for a two miler to Fan Fawr and back. Part of me quite fancies it but the non-mental bit says, don't be a dick. Guess I'll be staying local. I quite fancy trying to run a little faster for once. Perhaps I'll run alternating fast and steady bits...

Gee It's Great To Be Back Home

Home is where I want to be. I've been on the road so long my friend, And if you came along I know you couldn't disagree.

The training was really worth while but it is definitely nice to be back on home turf. The drive went well apart from the stretch between Bromsgrove and Worcester on the M5. The highway agency - or total dicks, as I prefer to call them - had the signs showing 2 lanes. Everyone else seemed to interpret that as panic, panic one lane closed. Panic... Only there wasn't any lane closures. We had the full shilling. All three lanes were open for business. The mad rush to two lanes causing stop start traffic for miles was totally unnecessary. Is the death sentence for highway agency bosses too severe? No, I didn't think so either.

Putting my feet up right about now, ready to climb aboard the good ship back to work tomorrow...

More Bruntwood

Back out there again. It looked like we were headed for a wet one but the dark clouds held firm their grip on the wet stuff. All the better for us. We managed another half hour session but we ran a little faster tonight. With a little more effort and it felt pretty good.

So it's the final day of training tomorrow followed by the drive back down south. There'll be no time for training and I'll be glad to get back.

Bruntwood Park Golf And Country Club

Okay, so it was only a pitch and putt... After what was a slightly boring day we managed to get out for a half hour run. It didn't rain so we were happy. Not the most exciting but there it is. All being well we should get back out there tomorrow. With the lie of the land sorted we could probably take it out to forty five.

Sunny Cheadle-shire

Ok, so I lied about the sun. It has not been sunny. In fact it's been raining quite a bit. Apparently that's normal up North.

Not going for a run tonight. Been a long day. The drive was surprisingly flowing and the course has been okay so far. It got a bit boring there for a while but the trainer rallied late on and I managed to stay awake.

Looking towards tomorrow it's going to be another long commute... I reckon the walk will take somewhere close to four minutes. All being well we - that's Graham C and I - hope to get out for a run tomorrow.