Training Log: ColmM

Carnethy Handicaps are back baby!!
Lovely sun, lovely evening.
Knew on glancing that I was going to have boys hot on my heels but dayum. It was sooner than expected.
Smithy, Dash & Eoin were right on me on top of Wakey Wakey, all due to a quick climb from them.
Went out the back pretty quickly up over the knoll. Rodrigo soon came at the foot of the steepest bit, and I was able to hold on up that. But clearly I’d worked harder because I struggled to turn over when it flattened and he gapped me. Soon it was Totty & Toshy, which was a steam train as they set off in pursuit of the others. I got a great view watching that train really form, but slightly too far back to get to see all 6 descending.
Sasha got me just before the top, hang on a little and rolled back through on the descent, making back a little time on the boys I think, with Sash coming by again late on the traverse.

And what a sight to behold. Looking up the re-entrant to Allemuir in 2nd last place with hoardes of Carnethians in front. Got to watch a bit of the boys rolling, and Sasha running impressively. And also used the many to rally me on, hands in the heather stuff, but got through good numbers.
Hit the descent hard, wanted to get back some confidence post-cobbler. Went through lots of folk and moved well, though none of the boys around to grind an extra few racing seconds out of me.

All in all a great evening. Nice run back with Pippa, Dash, Felix, and then myself & Totty the rest of the way back, before dinner in Tuk Tuk with Cian & Totty. What we live for. No apathy here, no sir.

C • Apathy 2

Went out thinking of doing 3x 5mins. Ran with Sasha & Timbo for a bit warming up. Ankle very niggly though and legs were heavy, so felt very easy to call it off with the handicap tomorrow. Did some nice and easy jogging with Tim mostly round the seat. Watched a little of Hoops & Felix’s session before bumping into Thomas & Chopper before regaining Sasha and heading onto Committee meeting. And then onto Auld hoose pub quiz. Wow, what a socialite.

Nice little pentlands from Harlaw with Steve. Final day of this incredible Easter break.
Bell’s & Black, Black seeming a lot less long when not sandwiched by 15 other summits.
Lovely run & chat with Steve; from job rants to love to fear of friends moving. All heavily coated with running chat.

Easy jog to gym and then onto shop and car pickup

4x 8 Bulgarian split squat @ bw, 24, 24, 24kg db.
4x 8 kettlebell drops @ 16kg.
4x 5 back squats @ 40, 60, 70, 70kg.
2x 30 Calf raises
2x 10 box step-ups
Lots of bosu ball throwing with Tim.

Long pentland with the boys. Plan was reverse skyline, but we snubbed Caerketton early for some handicap recce, and then snubbed Hare hill for a straightline from Black across to West Kip.
I was feeling the ankle a little bit so didn't bother very much with the straightline in search of slightly less rough terrain.
Legs alright for most, but kept moving on the downs cos I figured I'd be a little slower on the ups. The legs did start to die on the Castlelaw climb, but the capitulation wasn't too bad.
Last section of the handicap looks nice.

Back from the car with Rodrigo - good week's work done. Probably need to remember that, should get me in the right direction of fitness. Do need to remember more gym work to keep working on the ankle.

car pickup shakeout

Cobbler hill race - 42nd!

Not my best race, but here we are.
Have felt a little funny the last couple of days and I had an overwhelming sense of apathy. It wasn't until the actual start line before I started to try and get myself a little hyped up.
We got going though and I tried to work into it through the incredibly boggy, heave forest ride. It was very steep and I was letting places drift a little but working alright. Eoin came by and in hindsight I feel like I should have dug in to try hold his wheel but I didn't have the fight for it today - maybe just wouldn't have been able anyway.
As soon as we topped out the first hill it suited me a little better and I tried to get moving, but the driving wind and hail restricted movement a bit. Suffered through to the top slowly gaining a few places back, but I was being a little defeatist with nobody around me that I had my sights set on.
Tried to rally for the descent, and wnet through lots of people on the steep bit, but was getting a bit held up and also just struggling to get any rhythm. When I got onto the open mountain I ran alright but lacked desire, and this trend continued until the end.

A bit silly to mentally break like that. I had actually climbed about 30sec quicker than last year, in much worse conditions. But I descended 3mins slower. Think it would have been hard to match last year's descent given the conditions, and considering I had accidentally brought my old iRocks with no grip instead of my fresh ones. But had I been 3mins quicker I would have beaten a few boys and at least felt much better about it.

Anyway, we won't dwell on it, but probably would be a good to have a good next one to ensure I don't start worrying about my hill shape.