Lloyd Biddell

Decided to do another bike ride yesterday after missing the club run on the chase (again!). I went fairly hard again and did it in a new best of 49.27 on the usual 14.5 mile lap. Over the last couple of days I was thinking what sort of targets I should set myself for the year ahead. It's more difficult than it seems at first as no two orienteering races are the same. I've since settled for (in no particular order): 1) Sub 13 min run on the Mungo Bone. 2) Sub 36 mins for a 10k road race. 3) Cycle sub 48 mins on my 14.5 mile lap. 4) Improve upon my average cross-country position of 59 th . If I can get anywhere near these targets it will stand me in good stead when it comes to the orienteering. I'm in the process of buying a house in Tamworth and I am thinking about the logistics of cycling to/from work in Birmingham from May onwards - it would be 36 miles a day, 180 a week which would be superb training, plus the added bonus of it being free! Not sure whether I'm

Yesterday I intended to go to the WCH club training on the chase; unfortunately the hitch in the plan was that I couldn't be bothered and instead got out of bed at 10.20am. I eventually decided to go for a bike ride and managed to freeze my hands, feet and nuts in the process. Did my 'usual' lap which is about 14.5 miles on an undulating course with a nasty 90 metre climb towards the end. Went fairly hard and finished in 50.30. At the end of the day I decided to make a list of what I'm good at when it comes to orienteering : 1) Hills 2) Falling over. Lots. 3) Swearing. Even more. 4) Wiping my nose on my sleeve. Not as much as 2 or 3. 5) Smelling other orienteers from 50m away who haven't used enough deodorant . More than 4, but probably less than 2 or 3. I'm feeling quite optimistic at the moment after a good season of cross country and the Mungo Bone. I seem to recall telling Rob Little that I would give him a run for his money next year - perhaps I had too

Yesterday was the annual Walton Chasers Mungo Bone Handicap run which is a 4km blast through Cannock Chase. Last year my time was 14.39 so I put that as my estimated finish time for this year's race. Ray Collins completely ignored this and put me in for a finish of 14.10 (must have thought I was running a lot faster this year!). This only gave me a lead of 1.10 over Rob Little, 20 secs to chase down Gareth Little, and well over a minute to chase Ian Turner and Andy Yeates! After setting off the course has a fairly undulating first section with plenty of short ups and down, and you cant see more than 20 secs in front of you. I saw Gareth Little just ahead of me quite early on, so knew I was catching him at a reasonable pace (he had a 20 sec lead to begin). I then struggled to gain the remaining 7 secs as he seemed to get into more of a rythem. I finally managed to catch him a couple of minutes before the turn along the valley. I kept looking back a fair bit early on to see whether I

I took part in my first 10k race for over ten years at Telford yesterday which is supposedly the fastest course in the Midlands. The first decision was which starting block to go in - 36-39 mins or 40-44 mins . Since the last 10k I did was when I was 15 and managed to do 38:00, I thought that I would go into the quicker group even though I am nowhere near as fit as I was then. The course itself starts with a small undulating section that was quite muddy even though on tarmac paths, before heading out on a long flat straight path that used to be a railway line?, before going round a post and coming back on yourself. To be honest the lap was quite boring, especially so when having to go round the second time! The start was very narrow and there was lots of pushing for the first half mile or so. I was trying to keep a steady pace to begin with, but because of the narrow paths it was hard not to get swept along. The first mile I did in 5:50 which was reasonable, before slowing down to 6

On Saturday 9 th December it was the last cross country race of the North Staffs Cross Country League (see http://www.nsccl.co.uk/ ) which was held in Leek. For the last few years Walton Chasers have entered a team with varying levels of success. The course was extremely muddy and very churned up in places (see photo!) because of the previous races. It was quite a hilly course which when combined with the mud proved to be quite technical. Although I never like muddy and hilly courses I knew that I could be in for a good race as for some reason it doesn't affect me as much as others. On the first lap I just tried to run at no more than 90%, but seemed to be well placed. Towards the end of the lap I picked off a few individuals which is always a nice feeling. On the second lap it was just a case of finding a rhythm and again I managed to pick off a few more runners. I seemed to be slower than quite a few others in my group on the flat/descent and would often drop back by 15m or so

Hello and welcome to my blog! Until now I've resisted the urge to create a blog, but finally succumbed. Its all a bit new to me at the moment but hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon! So why create a blog - well I have a passion for sport, mostly orienteering where I am a member of Walton Chasers in Staffordshire , but also cross-country, cycling and Mountain Marathons. I thought I'd create this site so I can record my achievements (lack of!) and look back on the events I did in years to come. Enjoy!