Training Log Archive: BrandNewMe

Glorious morning for a run. Still and cool and clear. Continuing the 7hills theme, I went from home to work via the 7 hills anticlockwise route, finishing down the controversial johnson terrace route.

Stopped twice, once to chat to a fellow runner on the top of Arthur's seat, and again after I tripped on Calton Hill. Really quite bloody knees, and I thought I was going to vom.

Lovely though. Big smiles!

C • controversial johnston terrace 1

Blackford, Frandy's, Myreside Rd, HP and canal back. My knees felt good.

Run home from work in an oh-shit-I-am-so-late-and-stressed and then launched myself into a full evening of complicated and finely-tuned logistics. Stress levels off the scale.

WOC team to not scraping the VHI team in under a year:

http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/soa/page/scot...

Is that some sort of talent-implosion record??? Hats off to Janine for a great year.

C • ;-) 1

Lunchtime run.

Work, roseburn cycle path, Ravelston dykes, corstorphine hill, then tried to do the 7 hills route to the canal, but rather embarassingly failed (lots of new builds recently) and ended up coming back through Murrrayfield. Felt good and going hard in the first half, then stomach cramps all the way home.

With Ray, who runs on grass around the meadows uncomfortably fast for a lunchtime jaunt.

Busy day. Went to a gig with Lucy all afternoon. Needed to get Graeme to drag me out running in the morning.

Consumed by the news media and the athletics. Politics in this country is getting madder by the day. Contemplating paying £3 to join the Labour Party to vote for anyone but Jeremy Corbyn.

C • Labour party 4

C • Next week then? 2

John Muir country park - Green

This was fun. The area meant that it was never going to be any more than TD3, and the challenge was finding the handiest non-marked little path through the crap, which I failed to find to 5 and 10. Going straight in the forest was really quite unpleasant (and cost me considerable time) but my bearings were ok and it made the course more challenging. Stopped to help Laurence and James on the way to 12. Ouch - my nettled legs.

Lots of play parking, barbequeing, and footie afterwards, so the kids loved it.

Token warm up. Jogging after Laurence and James (our neighbour, who's family are keen on orienteering). Unfortunately James is very much like Norman Watson on sweets when he goes orienteering. They see the kite, race to punch, then James is off like a rocket. Have you looked at your map I ask? No. Not a clue. Pegs it off into oblivion at every control, pulling Laurence with him. They had fun though!

Run to work from school. This is not at all training, just logging so I know how far it is / how long it takes. Resting my achey Achilles.

What a fun first week at work. Full time, but feels much less stressful than part time as I don't have to get out of bed so early to commute. Big smiles.

Had to run home to get something, so decided to take in blackford hill, which made it a bit further than I wanted, so I was going faster than I planned.

Feeling good. Maybe not later. L Achilles tight...

Home from work. Along the canal to craiglockhart, then the 7 hills route home, via the polling station.

Nice outing.

My new garmin has a vibrate alert as opposed to an alarm. This is great for those like with hearing loss that never stood a chance of hearing the alarms before. Can we have vibrating punching technology now please?

Blackford, craiglockhart canal and work. Nice. Pinkie was really sore so I woke before 5. Knackered now though.

Ray's up to two miles now, so this was a lunchtime jaunt with him. One and a half laps of the meadows.

Cycled to work, (but not far enough to warrant writing about) then jog to run and become, bought a new garmin, and headed through princes street gardens, up and failed to get in the esplanade as it was locked, out at the mound instead, down the royal mile and home by the bog. Felt good.

New work is interesting, and the shower / changing room is v much plusher than the last place, and I have a colleague that's a keen runner that goes on 90min lunchtime runs and says there is a few of them. All is looking good.

Note: Itchy palms, swollen pinkie with painful, inflamed joints.

Ill, ill, ill! Tedious!

Fever. Joint aches. Headache. Sore throat.

Cycle to the orienteering. Out via the canal and water of leith, back via Frandy's for a nice cuppa in the sun.

'Race' might be exaggerating a bit.

Bonaly local event. Green. Fun. Bonaly needs a remap. I felt sorry for the kids as some of the paths make little sense, and everything on the NW-most hill just feels wrong. The hangover kicked in up the hills, which coupled with the lack of fitness reduced the fun-factor, but good to be out in terrain again. Calf survived with no aches, but that might have just been lucky.

I took the lead when the uphill was over, and the downhill started. #ballast

http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...

Last time ever!!!! (Or until I decide that I don't like my new job and come back to this one). Very wet I the way home, but I was filled with exuberance anyway. Delighted to report that after many years of commuting along the canal towpath, I did not once fall in. This is apparently quite rare.

I have been at HSBC Securities Services nearly 10 years now and it was a tough decision to leave. Nice colleagues, flexible boss, unpaid leave for excessive orienteering holidays, extra long lunches for training, being able to work from home when I want to; but investment fund tax is the same thing day in day out, and now that orienteering is less of a priority, a change is required so I am off to another investment company to do tax there.

I am looking forward to going for morning runs instead of morning cycles, if I ever get rid of my plantar fasciitis. It is always horrendous first thing. It was so bad this morning I think I need to source a set of crutches from somewhere.

C • Which one? 2

Trotter training.

There wasn't really a session, more jog to a hilly off-road loop and do a 15min tempo run round it and jog to the pub (or home in my case). My calf was not sore, or stiff, just very unresponsive. I felt flat, and not mad for it in the slightest, and had trainers on so was not confident getting grip, and my calf wasn't liking the hills, so it was a bit of a jog and gossip rather than a session, but that's fine.

It's national blood donation week, so I was just googling "can I give blood" and I got as far as "can I gi" and google makes the helpful suggestion "can I give my dog Tums" (antacid tablets). That cheered me up no end. How many people must google that for it to be suggested? Brilliant. And the answers were No, I can't give blood, cause I got a 3 unit transfusion when I broke my pelvis, and as a result I might have mad cow disease. Feel free to go out and donate on my behalf. And just as importantly - yes, you can give your dog Tums!

Nice and wet.

Felt good for once. Yay. Foot hits ground, ground doesn't wobble. V misty in the haar on the higher ground.

I could have squeezed a run in somewhere, but it would have added stress to an already busy day, so nah. I start full time next week. I have been getting Monday and Friday afternoons off, giving me a precious 3 hours 15 mins to myself every week to do what I and with (cycling home from work, shopping, doing jobs, drs appointements, etc). No more guaranteed down time. Boo.

C • Are you getting an Au Pair? 2

Detchmont 10k trail race.

Last night I was trying to find something to watch on the telly. I'd seen all of the available episodes of midsomer murders and antiques roadshow, so was at a bit of a loss. I eventually hit on a most excellent episode of Storyville, which was a film-documentary called 'The Queen of Versaille'. Totally compelling viewing. A normal American girl does an engineering degree to get a job at her only local employer IBM, then decides having a career is dull so gives it all up to become a beauty queen and marry a billionaire 30 years her senior. The film starts 20 years later when she is living in a mansion with 8 kids and 19 domestic staff, spending a ridiculous amount on tanning, and hair and Botox, then as the documentary continues the credit crunch happens, they lose a whole load of money and she is forced to budget to survive, and look after her own kids when the domestic staff are cut etc. Anyway, this was the reason why I was whacked today - stayed up too late watching it.

Got to she start of this race, on a drizzly scottish summer day, and there was someone on the start line looking every inch the beauty queen. Perfect nails, deep tan, long bleach blonde hair, crop top and running pants. This was running barbie. Totally out of place in the mid Scotland running fraternity. She was looking v serious, and caned it off at the start. I started less energetically - my first race of the year maybe - and it was all horribly painful. I didn't look at the route map properly beforehand. There was 3k, 5k, 7k and 9k markers. I got to the 5, which said '5 miles' underneath, and thought that that sounded about right. I must have done 5 miles by then surely. It had felt like ages. But sadly not, as I hit the 7k a bit further. Surely some mistake. I was dying. Then we came up the hill out of the woods towards the fields and the finish. Phew! Tfft. Must have been a mistake, but no. No such luck. We head off into the woods for a second time. If I am going backwards barbie is too, and I can see her in the distance, uncatchable but not that far off. I gratefully stagger over the line in 44:38. The gloriously unbarbie-like Edel Mooney first in 40:08. My aim was not to be more than 5 mins behind her.

That was painful. It is horrible running when not in the shape you have been in the past. It didn't help that I had vertigo from 3k onwards. I usually like running races in retrospect, if not at the time, but I am still waiting for the 'like' to arrive today. I'm not sure I can be bothered to get fit again and stress about training all the time, but does this mean I can no longer enjoy races? I don't think the vertigo is helping my enjoyment. My calf was fine though, and it was v much a trail race, so I have that to be pleased with.

Token effort. Not feeling brilliant.

Home with Lucy all weekend. Frandy are away, as are mum and dad. No childcare = no running for me. We went into town and spent loads of money instead.

Ok today. Still whacked.

Ran home from work. Along the cycle path that is along the team tracks to haymarket, then back the normal way. Nicer than Corstorphine road.

I have been suffering from vertigo recently (like when you have been on a ferry, and you come off, and you feel like you are still at sea), and was concerned that this run would be another one feeling crap so I am pleased that it was ok.

With Ray (we were both working from home). His first jaunt since pre-Easter as he has been ill. Through pollock then a bit on the grass. He survived, as did I. I felt ok so might head to Haddington later.

Wipedout

Still taking it easy.

Oh dear god - one of those weddings yesterday where no one is getting up and doing exercise the morning after. I slept over 10 hours which is unheard of for me. Definately out of sorts (and that's not just the hangover...).

Staying at the slightly surreal but totally amazing Portavadie hotel (and spa!) for Ray's cousin's wedding. Cowal peninsula. It is an odd place. A small coastal hamlet that someone has spent many millions changing into a marina / hotel / spa. Is this the poshest yachtie stopover in Scotland? I've never seen anything like it before. This was a quick jaunt out along the Cowal Way and back in time to get my nails done (hahaha!). It was scorchio and as Ray proved on our wedding day, the best way to ensure you stop sweating copiously on a hot day is to take a dip in Scottish waters, so home via the sea.

The run felt not good. Due to go back to the drs next week to discuss options.

Laurence was running the scottish schools in Dalkeith Park. I saw him into the start box, then went for a jog. He had 2.4k, so I had at least 20mins I thought. I ran along the Esk, crossed over and back on the undulating riverside path, under the bridge, and up to the house, thinking I'd have time to jog back to the van, get my camera and jog back for a pic. No such luck. I saw him finishing above me as I was running up to the house. Boo! 2.4k in 16:16, 8th out of 82 on the boys P5/6, and he is still a p4. The boy done good. Celebratory ice creams after. Much fun had - big smiles!

C • Nice one 2

Plantar fasciitis excruciating today. Need to use the splint more often. Not many more cycle commutes left - 2 weeks to go. Can't say I'll miss it. I am hoping to be able to enjoy morning jaunts on arthurs seat instead.

An altercation with a pedestrian on the aqueduct on the way home. She was blocking my way as I was cycling and she thought I should be walking. I had stopped for her (as I do for all pedestrians) and got pretty much entirely out of her way, which you can only properly do if you are sat on your saddle. Anyway, she was giving me crap about how I had to walk, I couldn't ride etc, and I said the signs were only advisory, as proven by a recent court case blah blah blah. At which point she called me a fucking stupid cow and moved off. I was smiling and pleasant throughout, which I think wound her up even more. There were at least 10 other cyclists cycling on the aqueduct at the same time, not all of which were prepared to stop for pedestrians, and some of them were going full pace, so why pick on me? Maybe it's cause I don't look aggressive enough. I need to work on adopting my grumpy 'race face' for cycling too.

Trotter training. First time in at least 18months.

It's the middle of the trotter summer Grand Prix, and with a lot of trots running both the caac 5 last night and Black Rock tomorrow, it was supposed to be an 'easy' session. Castro. 4 x 90secs, 4 x 60 and 4 x 30.

Killer. My legs felt lactate every step of the way. I am not such a hill reps fan. I prefer to do reps on the flat - a much better cardio workout. My body is definately a bit knackered just now. I am seriously suffering from lack of sleep / insomnia. Great fun tho. I managed to avoid heading to the blazer and just jogged around the meadows and home after.

Calf really v tight. Mashed it with my foam roller stick thing after.

Plantar fasciitis getting worse, so slept with my splint on for the first time in ages. Much better for it this morning. My hip is pretty sore today though. It'll be the judo.

I think 'race' might be an exaggeration. We live ludicrously close to Pollock, so couldn't really miss this. Nice sunny evening, grabbed the kids and their friends, and a picnic and headed up. Ray met me there and took care of the kids. I did a course around dumbiedykes then a shorter one round pollock. It was fun but I don't know if I was more shit at orienteering than I was unfit, or vice versa. Not v successful either way, but fun. My bad calf was like a block of wood the whole way. It's not even really tight, it just doesn't seem to have any working muscle in it. It didn't go at any stage though, so that's good news.

Good to see lots if kids having a great time on a sunny evening too.

I did 10:05 for the Pollcok course. 1st year W14 and clubmate Rachel Brown did 10:08. TFFT! A bit too close for comfort.

Warm down. I had to do one as I was so stiff.