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toilets are available....in the woods
Or if you're exceptionally cheeky like me, sneaking rond the back of the sports centre, and using the football and rugby players ones
if it's been very rainy the day before, be careful of running through "puddles".
One year I jumped into what I thought was a puddle, only to go up to my shoulders. It amused the guy behind me muchly. Whereas I was just pleased I'm over 6ft or I could have been in trouble
let me carry on my work as resident TVXC expert/anorak
2 laps. Long hill, steepish, but not too bad about 5-7mins into each lap.Rest of course, is firm trail, bit of mud, a couple of other very short but steep little climbs. Then near the end of the lap you have some particularly muddy fare just by a kind of lake, which you circle. This then leads you on a fairly long ending on woodland, back past the finish to lap 2,
Come that stage on lap 2 you are liteally screaming where is this finish!
Never raced this one too well to be honest if you look at my finishing positions last 2 years. Would no doubt have done better this year though
I'll be doing an 18miler instead at easy pace. A run designed to make Wokingham feel a doss 2 weeks on!
I strongly dislike lapped courses.
The first lap at Reading (Bearwood) went on forever. The second felt quicker as I knew what was ahead.
Yesterday's club 6 miler had to be an easy, as when I started to run my body said no. I've had a very busy week - 4 days in Wales so 2 return trips. Poor sleep in hotels and generally tired. After 5 miles I managed to put some effort in for the hills.
Undoubtedly due to adding a long run on to club mileage, and increasing from an average last year of ~40 miles a month to the 92 I've done in Jan.
A couple of rest days until Sunday!
nothing like travel to disrupt things Chris. And agreed on lapped courses, a reason I'm not too fussed about missing sunday!
Good luck all. Sprint I want to see you duck into the 30s, and Chris, higher than last time is your aim
Travel is not normally an issue. The family are used to not seeing me for a few days, then seeing me pop in and get changed before heading out for a club run.
Datchet 160t, Sandhurst 144th, Reading 128th, Tadley 120th. I can only assume that less people turn up as the season goes on. Aiming for less than 120. Here's hoping.
Datchet is usually the highest by far to start the season off...and then you are right, taking out HW which you missed, the attendances do slightly go down but narrowly. But you've still shown progress which is good work.
Before this series of 6th to 12th finishes, last year I was in the 14th to 23rd domain. From that range though,the 14th was out of a mere 167, whereas a 15th was out of 290!
The HW Handy Cross race being the toughest is usually the lowest attendance. In Feb 09, being not only the hardest race, but right at the end of the series, only 166 did it, and I managed a 7th! But bearing in mind I'm a lot faster this year, and only came 12th at Wycombe, sometimes tricky to compare.
how'd it go folks?
I got to bed at 2am, and was up at 6am! 18miler in 2hr 15...went surprisingly well for 4hours sleep!
100th!
A smaller field today (Sandhurst must have doubled the attendance).
The good food and wine last night took their toll today, especially on the hills, but a great result for my final race in the season.
The later xcs can sometimes see a few drop out with bigger road races coming up as main focuses, but good work anyway.
That's your future benchmark now...top 99 next time!
34th Place - 40.28 - Avg. 7.12min/miles
Didn't bloody score! 4th, 5th and 6th were 30th/31st/32nd!
Had a really good race though, bastard hard course. Around 320m Ascent
And hello Chris - Good to meet another forumite!
Hopefully we should have cemented 3rd place overall.
I'm well doen for this series...but i've heard it's a 3 lapper, and a 6mile job, so a long one.
Last year i did a xc the week before Wokingham, and found it let me fly on the big day. This year doing a 14miler ending with 3miles at 6.19 and 3miles at <6 instead
you'll stll get a bunch of the top guys, but to do 8 xc races ina row with more important road stuff coming up is a big big ask!
Well the Metros course is actually pretty good - three laps that I made 5.63 miles with 120m of ascent. There's a couple of hills on each lap but without being crazy steep, some nice downhills and weaves through the trees, and tracks wide enough to allow overtaking. Bit busy for the first climb as there's only maybe 150 yards or so to get people spread out before you hit it, but certainly not a major problem. It would be a lot different after a good downpour mind - there were a lot of sections that would obviously be pretty muddy if it was wet. And whilst the start/finish area was open to the wind, the course itself was almost completely sheltered, which given the wind today was a bonus.
After struggling at parkrun yesterday however it was another struggle today - terrible up the hills and just couldn't really get going at all, with my average HR at the end being way below what I'd expect. After the main hill on the third lap I really put my foot down and passed a few people in the last mile or so, but it was too little too late as it had really been a struggle up 'til then. I ended up 54th with a 7:30 average pace when I would really have expected to be at least 20 places ahead of that. I think I'm basically just too tired after the marathon training I've been doing, and I think Wokingham next week and Bramley the week after are going to be a real struggle.
Demanding couple of days for you BOTF. Good luck at Wokingham! Will be there...
How'd you do Sprint?
Then I suppose that's the end of a pretty good thread for this year!
Screamed around in 7.04 min/miles to come in 21st - 3rd man for the team, and one of the best personal races I've ever, ever run.
Managed to keep a decent pace on the hills, but leave enough in the tank to run off the tops of them
Loved the long downhills through the trees, some good tactical racing lines going on there - Getting as close to the trees as sensebility would allow! Also could bring some decent air into the lungs down them.
Will be interesting to see how this translates into road miles at Wokingham, but I've loved the XC season and these races and 10kms have cemented themselves as my favourite distance.
nice run Sprint, what a great feeling to have had the progression you've had across the series. I think you might find that your performance here translates in to some real strength on the road.
BOTF - read your comment re club commitment on another thread. It's tough to get committed to to it when nobody else in the club seems particularly bothered. May I ask how many you have run this season, for instance? The Dashers are so heavily focussed on London that this series will always take a VERY back seat for most. I'd love to be a part of a lively / competitive / committed team but we'd have to go a long way to change the club ethos / attitude to XC before we get there.
Enjoyed the series (the few I ran) and the banter on this thread, cheers.
See you all at Wokingham. Blimey, I hope it's less windy by then! Whatever the weather, it's PB or bust for me there. If you find a Dasher lying on the road around 8 miles.....that's me!
Blimey, attendance at this one was small wasn't it...164?! But that's the problem at the end of the series.
My lot only fielded 5!
Nice work though Sprint..21st is 21st...and a good 15 higher than your last one? Last year I took a strong xc series into a good result at Wokingham. Sounds like you're likely to do the same...what's your pb at the mo?
Did a 3miler today!
But yesterday did 14miles, ending with 3miles at MP and 3miles at HMP. A tough session if you ever want one! ACtually did the MP miles too fast,...coming out average of 6.07 instead of the 6.19 required!
Doing average of 5.55 for lat 3miles into some wind gives hope that could be my pace sunday!
See you all then