I hadn't initially realised how long it had been since I had updated this, which I had hoped to do more frequently but alas, life gets in the way. In my last post I outlined my pending events and commitments being the Clough Head English champs counter, BUCS and the British champs, all of which have come and gone with varying degrees of success, but I'll begin with Clough Head.
Having travelled up to the Lakes from Sheffield, I arrived late on friday evening to stay at Matt Elk's house in Ulverston, where I was warmly welcomed by him and Anna in the pub which was much appreciated after a long, hot day travelling. After a brief chat with the locals it was basically just lights out. The next day I opted for a bit of a leg stretch up to the monument (lighthouse) which was pleasant if not horribly muggy! Annoyingly this was all there was for training today, the unfortunate necessity of tapering took over but we still enjoyed a nice afternoon at the inov-8 trail race over in Staveley and took the opportunity to catch up with some of the Ambleside lot. After a massive fuelling on chilli(?) those of us staying at the ShUOC/SPOOK hostel hit the hay again. The day of the race dawned bright and early and the drive across was a delight as we sped through the Lakes in all it's glory. The only problem, if it can be called one, was that it was perhaps too hot! The standard pre race routine ensued of catching up with old friends and sandbagging before things got going. Personally this race didn't quite go to plan. I'm not sure I can really put my finger on it, climbing was ok, but nothing massively special and I was frustrated in not being able to kick on in the flatter middle section, but I summitted ok and carried on with my plan of using the descent to my advantage. Unfortunately, I'm unsure if it was the heat or perhaps not being quite used yet to climbing for half an hour but my legs absolutely failed me on the way down, leading to numerous (I'm sure hilarious) falls but also a deep disappointment at the bottom that I couldn't follow up on my Edale result. My shape was good beforehand but something just didn't quite click today. Still, it was a great outing and despite the result I did really enjoy the race and tried to fully embrace it. It was also nice to see so many people running well, most notably Matt streaking in for 10th on the day! A beer in the sun soon sorted any niggling annoyance out and this was fully blown away in the coming hours by a few more beers at base and then a cracking 3 hour run in the hills on Wetherlam, Swirl How and Coniston the day after. Not a bad weekend all in all!
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| Hot hot hot on the top of Clough Head |
Next on the agenda was the British Uni's orienteering champs. Having been cancelled earlier in the year, it was a bit of an effort to reorganise and get everyone hyped up but we headed down to Oxford in some ludicrously full cars in fine spirits. The relay weather was somewhat cooler than we expected leading to a bit of a cold stand around (especially when Edinburgh tried to play the mind games and were tactically late) but the relay set off in classic BUCS style, a lot of headless chickening off the start line. It was a bit of an odd experience being fully sober on the BUCS relay and perhaps this is what led to my abysmal performance. A cock up on number 1 was followed by some good fast orienteering for 5/6 controls but then losing contact with my gaffle and therefore the pack led to more mistakes rushing to catch up and a generally disheartening run around the rest of the course. It was the classic 'if I'd have chilled out I could have done well' scenario but anyone can say that and so I just needed to make sure the next day I did that... I didn't. After a more than subdued social (featuring a midnight mile around the Bannister track), we rolled across to the individual in yet again crappy weather. Starting late and realistically with little riding on the race I had expected to settle nicely but I felt rushed for the entire course. Whilst not making dire mistakes, my run was littered with numerous time losses which totalled to a horrible amount and undoubtedly cost what could have been a very good performance. It's frustrating that I didn't realise earlier on and correct what I was doing and it's something I definitely need to work on. I knew I was in good physical shape but this had led to navigational complacency, making whatever shape I was in irrelevant. Still, BUCS is BUCS and as such I still had a great weekend catching up with everyone despite some notable absences and it did encourage me to be more focused in the big one coming up, the British.
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| I should really be looking at my map... |
Being in Balmoral, this years British champs did pose a bit of a ballache. Obviously I was going to go up with it being the final selection race for the World Uni's this year, but with much less people that usual making the journey it was a bit of a logistical nightmare. Having initially planned for myself and Joe to drive up together we were thrown a bit of a lifeline by Mary and Aislinn who kindly offered to do the driving, as long as we provided rubbish car journey banter and snacks. As fair a deal as we would ever get so we jumped at the chance. After what turned out to be a fairly entertaining drive up, we bunked in Edinburgh overnight, with myself and Joe squatting in Euan's flat (again, thanks). We also couldn't resist a jog up Arthur's Seat (a new experience for me) and it was absolutely stunning, it somewhat softened my ShUOC hardened opinion of Edinburgh and did also make me contemplate what to do with myself after Australia. A quick fish and chips and we were all set for the race the following day.
Balmoral did not disappoint. Fantastic weather on the way up was coupled by awesome terrain and a great course. For myself, I think an average-poor run with a side order of slight disappointment. The first half was rubbish, binning time left right and centre on the technical western slopes before getting my act together in the middle section, only to cock up again in the last couple of controls. Undoubtedly better than BUCS and physically I felt good right until the end but needless mistakes in the circles really let my run down and is something I've been working on since to try and tighten up my orienteering. My result could have been better however I just about did enough with this and the other selection races to be offered a place in the World Uni's team for a couple of weeks time in Finland. I'm annoyed that I made it more difficult than I could have to have gotten selected, a strong sprint at the JK has really been followed by some very average orienteering in the forest and so I'm determined to take this opportunity to show what i can do on the international stage and to make sure I do justice to the training I've done this year.
The relay the next day was great fun as always. A nice AdHoc team with Rhys and Paul at least allowed me to run and I was happy to swap with Rhys on to first leg with him being a bit ill (no I didn't mispunch!). This race gave me a lot of confidence because I was orienteering with no pressure and mixing with some of the best guys like Cherry and Shminty right until the end before being screwed by the gaffles. This is how I was all my orienteering to feel, everything fit today and is something I'll be striving for in future races. So a good run to round off a great weekend, finally!
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| Near the end of the British champs |
Since then, my focus has had to switch predominantly to orienteering. I did want to have a crack at the fell side of stuff this year but being selected for WUOC was my major aim and so I'm fully intending to use this great opportunity. I've still been racing though and have been really happy to take the wins at Burbage, Bamford and Castleton within a few weeks of each other, as well as lowering my 5k and 10k pbs within 3 days of each other, both on hilly courses so I'm happy with the how I'm running at the minute. Exams proved a pretty weird and stressful time but training/racing continued and they seem to have gone well, but I am sad that uni has finished now. After a week or so working at the Chatsworth Flower Show, it was time to leave Sheffield which has given me so many fantastic memories over the last 3 years. Undoubtedly I would not have improved in my both orienteering and running without moving there and I genuinely would recommend it to anyone who's considering it, I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. For now though, it's back to the Shire for me for the final preparations for World Uni's. The maps and areas down here really aren't great but I'm trying to make the best use of them I can and despite the running also being worse than Sheffield everything is still ticking along nicely.
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| Cheers to the end of uni life! |
This has been a bit of a brain dump and may not even make for interesting reading but I quite enjoy it. I'm really looking forward to the coming months races and then on to the big one, Australia at the end of August. Hopefully as a now unemployed graduand I'll have the time to keep this updated, so watch this space!
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