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Orienteering

GoPro camera and my latest geekery

Feb 8th, 2012
by Andrew.
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I have been meaning to get a headcam for a while now, but watching the XGames a few weeks ago made me want one even more! They filmed some very cool footage there, mostly made even more cool by how steady the camera was which was always going to be a problem for a running based sport. Nevertheless I decided it was time to get one so I splurged on the new GoPro Hero2. Then I rocked around the ESOC Sprint O with it attached to my head (albeit at a really crappy angle, sorry!).GoPro Hero2

As the angle the camera needs to be at isn’t something I’ve perfected yet I decided not to upload any files that were too large, so the quality isn’t great. Thankfully attackpoint has a really great feature of being able to link your gps data to both a youtube video and a QuickRoute map which then gets overlaid onto Google Earth. You can see this for the ESOC Sprint O here: Prologue and Chase

The other thing I experimented with was the nifty bit of software Jarkko (of Routegadget fame) wrote to combine the video with a map overlay. I definitely didn’t get the config quite right but as it takes time to process I didn’t want to do it all again with such a rubbish quality video. It also makes use of a VirtualDub plugin called Deshaker to remove the shakiness of the video at the expense of adding a black border that wobbles about. I think it makes it much more viewable but it’ll be way more effective when I get a better camera angle.

I really just bought this as a toy and something to analyse my orienteering. I can think of a view other uses though.. I’d like to create some sort of promotional video (who for, I don’t know, ESOC?) with filming from the St Andrews weekend. I’m also keen to try out the WiFi addon for it that comes out later this year. Live streaming to the arena at O races, anyone?

In other news I set a new 5k PB at the Edinburgh parkrun last week, 18.59. Not super fast but definitely something to step forward from, especially as I now have a place in the Great North Run in September to look forward to!

January Challenge… Done!

Jan 31st, 2012
by Andrew.
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I did it, yay. It looked a bit ropey after EUOC’s Big Weekend as I came away from it with a calf niggle. Some gentle persuasion from Heather helped me over that particular hurdle.

This month has left me quite tired, but in a good way. I feel like my body is much happier to have done some training rather than trying to compete on very little. As you can see from the image above (or my actual log) the last 31 days I’ve run over 280km and trained for a total of nearly 35 hours. This is more than I’ve ever done in a month (well, ok, apart from July 2009 but that was mostly cycling to work and a one off adventure race) and it will have paved the way for a much more consistent year which was always the ultimate goal. I was a little worried I was going to end up doing too much but I think I’m ok with what I’ve done. Some of the big boys do a hell of a lot more but I’ll be happy if I can do a consistent set of decent training.

I don’t think it is worth trying to keep up running every day as forcing myself out at 10pm a couple of times after a long day of non-running isn’t really helpful, that time will be better used to rest. What I will do is stick to my routine, leaving my bag at work to go to intervals on a Tuesday night then jogging in on Wednesday morning has worked very well (even with a circuits session on Wed evening!) as has running home from work if I don’t have any other session on. The one thing I need to add is a hill rep session, sorely lacking at the moment and will help my speed in terrain tremendously.

My aims for the year, I hear you ask? I’d like to do well at the JK on home turf and the Scottish Champs (i.e. no break down this year) as well as trying to attend all the local-ish Urban races as they’re ace. I also want to do some road running, a decent half marathon time as well as consistent 5km time improvement at the Parkrun event.

January Challenge

Jan 15th, 2012
by Andrew.
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Hello! I just remembered I have this blog thingy, thought I’d type some stuff into it.

After a couple of years of crappy training caused by some little niggly injuries I’ve decided it’s time to do something about it. So I’ve started doing the whole new year resolution thing this year, the main one being to do more running (and more strength work in order to stay injury free). I went for a run with a few guys on the 1st and my mate Al was saying he was considering doing the ‘January Challenge’ of running every day in January, so I said I’d consider it. That evening I thought ‘why not?’ and decided to go for it. I have one rule, each run needs to be at least 25mins or 5km as a minimum whichever comes first. Nearly had a problem on the 3rd because of the horrible wind but by the time I was running home from work it had died down. Yesterday was tough because I didn’t have an easy journey I could replace with a run and Tara and I were busy all day, but I managed to get out at 10pm for 35mins! It’s been going really well though and I’m pleased to have reached half way.

My Attackpoint Log (which is a training logging site tailored towards orienteers) is where I log all my sporting activity. Only half way through the month I have almost done more training than any other month since 2009. I am obviously conscious about over training but am trying to stay well within my limits at the moment with an aim to step up the mileage a bit in February, especially as I’ll have got over the worst of my current niggles by then!

As well as doing well in a few of the big Orienteering events this year I have plans to run some PBs in 5k, 10k and half marathon, we’ll see how that goes…

Onwards and upwards :)

Erskine and SOL 2

Apr 3rd, 2011
by Andrew.
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This weekend saw the double header of the Erskine Urban race and SOL2, organised by FVO and held on Polmaise and Sauchie near Stirling.

Saturday at Erskine was great fun, lovely weather with some tricky navigation. I had a pretty decent run and finished 7th on Course 1.  I really enjoy urban races!  Felt pretty good despite a busy week at work and only had a few small wobbles.  The GPS trace isn’t very accurate, ‘cough’.

Nopesport Urban League race in Erskine, click for big image.

Sunday, today, wasn’t such a good outing for me.  Was wearing a shiny new pair of swoops and they were causing my feet to get rubbishy blisters.  Started hurting on the way to 12 and just after punching stopped for a minute or so to see if it was a rock in my shoe but alas it was not :(  Hobbled/walked/grumbled round the rest.

SOL2 @ Polmaise and Sauchie, click to get bigger image.

Not sure why I didn’t but was tempted to go straight from 17 to 23 (as Spongey did I think) but thought that was a bit of a wimp out so plodded the rest anyway, not especially enjoyable despite the nice(ish) forest and good planning.  Meh, I think I need to tape my feet for every run for a while yet… Results on fvo.org.uk Bit sad to be beaten by Mark by 3 secs (!) but he ran on the run in and I couldn’t really be bothered!

Northern Championships weekend

Mar 27th, 2011
by Andrew.
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We made the decision to make a weekend of the Northern Championships this weekend, turned out to be a pretty good one with a good sprint around Leazes Park and St James’ Park on Saturday and a nice long run around the open heathery moorland of Ray Demesne today!

Results for both are on the NATO website.

Yesterday I ran the Men’s course, it was a good test of navigation while being able to run fast, and a maze.  The maze was a bit annoying as we had been told not to cross anything that was taped, but one of the open bits on the map was taped! Bit of a controller/planner fail there, but otherwise enjoyable.  I came 24th, behind Andrew L again, going to have to do something about that!

Leazes Park Sprint (forgot GPS)

Today I ran the M21E course (prima donna!).  Had a good run with only an annoying route choice error at 7 and a few little wobbles elsewhere. On leaving the field I was not surprisingly last (4/4) but that was always going to be the case.

M21E plus route

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