Winter so far

It's been a while since I have posted anything, for several reasons, but primarily because I've been just a bit too busy. It's been a winter of highs and lows so far but I thought I would write a short update on my progress towards next season, as well as some highlights from the back end of last.

In my previous post, the individual season had (largely) come to a close and I was set to race the Hodgson Brothers relays and the British Fell Relays with Dark Peak. Both of these races went well, both personally and more importantly as a club. As a team we have a really strong crop at the moment, made stronger with a number of recent additions, and we were excited to head into these races which had been at the back of everyone's minds for a while. Obviously a number of other clubs, especially the Lakeland based ones, would field strong teams, but we were confident we could give a good showing of ourselves, especially at the British relays which were on home soil.

The Hodgsons were up first. It's a race steeped in history and I was excited to get my first crack at it. We had a couple of unfortunate injuries but still got out a good side. Neil and Pete were stable on what sounded a very fast first leg, before handing over to Oli and Josh who battled the fog and longer leg to hand over to Max and Tom. Their race by all accounts went brilliantly and set myself and Rhys out in 3rd, chasing Ambleside in a close 2nd and with a fair gap to Carl and Mark of Keswick ahead. Coming off the back off the summer, I was feeling good, certainly in the best fell shape I've ever been in, and was ready to race hard with Rhys who I knew wanted a good run. Unfortunately he'd been suffering with a bit of a chesty cold in the build up, but we still climbed well, closing on Ambleside and maintaining the gap to Keswick. It would have been foolish of me to try and lead the leg as Rhys knows these hills as well as anyone, so I settled in for a fun bash across Fairfield over to St. Sunday, sliding down scree and ducking in and out of boulders, happily and blindly following Rhys wherever he went. It was actually, for me, quite a humbling sight to see how he tackled this rougher terrain and it became even clearer to me why he's as good as he is on the hills. Over to St. Sunday, we'd kept the same gap to Ambleside and closed again on the climb to the summit, but were just unable to close the gap on the fast descent as Matt and Gary just pulled away slightly. 3rd was still a good performance for us and we certainly went home happy with our efforts and ready to fight again in a couple of weeks at the British.

The bottom of St. Sunday Crag with Rhys on the Hodgson relays.

Dark Peak's fell relays at Fairholmes will certainly live long in people's memories, if not for the racing (which was excellent), then definitely for the arena. Set with the backdrop of the dam looming above us, it provided the perfect ampitheatre for the gladiatorial efforts we would be putting in that day. Again, we had a couple of late drop outs, but our team was as strong as it could have realistically been. Josh ran well on first, battling hard to set Max and I off in 8th place. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to race with Max, especially as he was to be moving away soon after. There's something which just takes the pressure away completely about racing with a mate, it felt as though we were just on a run out in the Peaks ready to smash seven bells out of each other across the rolling moors. We set off hard, in pursuit of the teams ahead knowing that our main targets were Ambleside, Shettlestone and Keswick. By the top of Lost Lad, we had closed well and our belief in ourselves grew with every step. The terrain is unforgiving, but we were prepared for this and worked hard through the rougher patches. By Wet Stones, we had moved in to 2nd and took an aggressive line across the valley in pursuit of Keswick. We bridged the steep valley at the bottom about 30s~ behind them and this gap held to the finish, despite our best efforts. To say we were delighted is an understatement, being only 30s behind Carl and Mark after an hour of racing was as good a run as we could have hoped for and is a real confidence boost moving in to the senior classes in the next couple of years. Tom and Rhys were stable as expected on the Nav Leg, losing a couple of places but setting Ben out in a strong position chasing the medals. Unfortunately he just missed out but against the calibre of runners on that leg it was a difficult task. Everyone ran incredibly well and we were definitely proud of our 4th place behind some incredibly strong teams.

Top of the first climb with Max on the Fell Relays

Chasing hard with Max off Lost Lad.

Initially, I had planned that this would be where my season ended, but a couple of weeks before I off-handedly volunteered to partner Tom Saville on the Elite Class in the OMM as we were driving back from the Hodgsons. I have wanted to run the OMM for a number of years but because of various reasons and races such as JEC, Euromeeting etc, it just simply hasn't been possible. Having spoken to Oli, we both felt it would be a good end to the season and force me to take a proper rest after, so on paper, it wasn't a bad decision. I was as fit as I could have been for it and was confident that Tom's ability and experience over the long distance challenges would see us through. I've written about the OMM in greater detail on my attackpoint (links below to each day), so I won't go in to excessive detail here but will summarise my experience as best as I can. For me, the OMM holds significant heritage and respect in both the orienteering and fell running communities. I remember growing up when my Dad raced the KIMM and then the OMM and how incredibly brutal and miserable he made it sound and I knew that I couldn't wait to try my hand at it as well. We arrived in Largs in good spirits having weighed our kit during the week before. After panic googling how to make the highest calorie flapjack I could, I felt like we were ready. The first day was a mixed bag. Obviously I have never raced this far before but figured that the overall was still a fair bit less than my usual mileage in normal training, so tried to break it down in to more managable chunks for myself. We went well for the first 4 hours or so, before I hit a horrible rough patch and suffered for the next hour. Thankfully, Sav is an absolute slave-driver and kept ploughing on whilst I moaned and ate and the moaned some more behind him before my soreen kicked in. We finished the day reasonably well, sitting in 3rd place, 20s down on 2nd and a way off Hector and GG in 1st.
The second day went much better. After a night of spooning on foil balloons, being slapped by a wet tent and eating the best two pot noodles I have ever tasted, we were fired up and ready to push as well as we could. Tom perhaps took a little longer to get going today, and we were caught at 3~ by a number of other teams, including Nic Barber who never fails to lift anyones spirits. Having ran with them for a while we took the tactical decision to push on the good running before the road crossing and got a gap. From there, despite obviously hurting after many hours of running, we made good time and came in to finish 3rd. Hector/GG and Ali/Tim had battled together all day and we would have been hard pushed to close any gaps to them, but we were very happy with our efforts. As my first mountain marathon and 2 longest runs ever (previous longest Edale Skyline 2018 [33km~]), I was absolutely delighted. Whilst the OMM is not something I will be rushing back to (I'll come to this next), it was brilliant to get one in. Again, running with a good friend also made it that extra bit fun and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who hasn't yet done one.

Day 1: https://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_11224/period-1/enddate-2019-10-26
Day 2: https://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_11224/period-1/enddate-2019-10-27

OMM 2019 podium (5 orienteers!)

Following the OMM, my plan was to have a 2 week break before building into next season. Unfortunately, as has so often happened, I rushed back too soon, with the fatigue from the OMM being somewhat delayed and tricking myself in to thinking I was fine. Whilst I did feel ok, it became clear that my body just wasn't recovering as it normally would after such a massive stimulus which meant I was just running myself further and further in to a hole. This is not to say that I was doing anything exceptionally difficult, but even the little I was doing with some short jogs, climbing, bike rides, was too much for my depleted systems.
During the first day of the OMM I had taken a bad fall and bashed my shin. This was a little painful, but also meant I had been running awkwardly over terrain for a day and a half which had worn my hip flexor to a point of fair discomfort. I did acknowledge this and after some stern words from a number of sane voices (Mary, Jenny J, my Dad to name but a few) I took some actual rest which seemed to have corrected me to an extent. Then, the first run back where I felt actually normal at the Nottingham University orienteering event, on warming up my hamstring pinged which was a little disconcerting. Proceeding to then race an 11k urban-o course was perhaps not the best response and this led to a further month and a half of limited running due to this discomfort. This really took until Christmas to fix itself, and even now I can occasionally feel the odd bit of tightness.

Still managed to get a fun weekend of hiking in up in Snowdonia despite injury.

It's safe to say that in the 2 months following the OMM when I was dealing with these niggling injuries, I was a real arse to be around, which does so often happen when running and racing takes up such a big part of your life. I'm hoping that this episode, which could certainly have been a lot worse, serves as a reminder for me in the future to not be so pig-headed when it comes to training and injuries. Looking back, the extended break this gave me from real training is actually something of a benefit. Sure, I'm not as fast as I have been at this time of year before but then the races I am targetting come in the spring and summer, so worrying about my current shape is unecessary. I have been buiding back up to fitness over the last month or so and there is certainly a high level of fitness carried over from last season, which if anything, was probably maintained rather than damaged from more limited training. I feel as though I'm in a good place to push on from at the moment and I'm relishing the chance to get racing again when the season comes around in a couple of months.
This season will see a definite focus on orienteering after something of a hiatus last year. Whilst I raced at the JK and British etc., I had no fixed goals and was happy to focus on improving my fitness moving in to the senior ranks and enjoyed racing in the hills. I will definitely still race on the fells this year, and intend to get a full English championships score in if possible, but my real focus is on the maps. Being back in Sheffield is a great situation to be in to prepare properly for orienteering competitions, as well as a number of training camps and warm up races lined up, so I'm excited to get racing again soon.

It's been a busy year so far with Masters studies as well, but that's far less interesting to talk about here. That is pretty much a summary of what's been happening the last 3 months or so, I'll try and be a little more regular with updates as the season progresses. I'd like to say a big thanks to Norman Walsh for continuing to support me in to the next season, and everyone else who helps me out in numerous ways with running and orienteering!

Walsh's after the Ramsley Moor orienteering event last weekend.