Training Log Archive: BrandNewMe

Pentlands orienteering.

I followed most of the way, did pretty much no navigating, but that was the white with Laurence. Today was a bit of a logistical fail again. Ray did the Harrison park run. When I said he had plenty of time to run then cycle up to go around the while with Laurence he heard 'plenty of time to go home, have a shower, eat lunch, read the paper' etc. What I meant was plenty of time to cycle directly from HP to Dreg. So after helping on the string course, I left Lucy with my mum and took Laurence around the white. Laurence missed the last start, but they hadn't packed up yet so he ran. I'd picked up a brown map while passing the start, thinking it would make a good training exercise.

Took Laurence round, (it was great. we were pretending to do aeroplanes all the way down the hill - must try this mid-course more often). by the time we got back Ray had turned up, so I jogged to the (long since packed up) start and did the course. I hadn't looked at the course anyway, and it was going to be my only chance of the day to go training, and the kites were out, but by then I wasn't really mad for it...

Nice weather and I soon got into it. Too high on two. Too far left on 4, too high on 7, 14 was odd, 17 I was foolish, but on the whole good fun. Legs were good for once, but I was feeling tentative. It'll be a while before I can throw myself into terrain running again.

Meadows, canal to meggetland and up to firrhill school for the orienteering. New compression socks have arrived from Denmark. They seemed pretty good tho maybe they cramped my arches a bit. Have to use them a lot more over the next month before I decide how much I like them. I think I might found out how easy it would be to get more pairs (the physio got them off a sports dr friend) before I wear them in the forest.

7k course. 7.1miles ran. A good interesting urban course (I'm not often a massive fan of urban. It can get tiresome).

Ran the men's course so I could compare with ray.

Couldn't find the start - double-sided map!

Wrong coming out of 4, 12/21 area was v odd, bad route to 15 taking the wiggly path and overshooting, v confusing at 21. Overall ok, felt I was running pretty well but not sure Ray should have taken that much out of me. He consoled me by saying I am just building up my training, whereas he is pretty fit just now, and I had done a long uphill warm up - but all the same I had lost so had to take the bins out...

After I'd finished it was straight off to take Laurence to do the white course. This is a peculiar sort of pain that is only really known to orienteers with kids. You finish, you're cold and stiffening up, the kids have nicked all of your lunch and your drink, and you have to peg it to the start to take a kid around the white...

Got an infection and feeling pretty under the weather so no running today. Hopefully the antibiotics will start kicking in soon.

Morning headwind again. Boo..

Cold, miserable headwind going in, then someone came past me and I decided to try and tuck in behind all the way. He was quite a bit faster, so I was giving it everything, but this gave me a much needed boost of enthusiasim.

Fast home, stopping at the physio's to pick up some classy new compression socks. Busy evening = no fwtn.

Lunchtime run. Alas didn't factor in enough time for eating lunch after. A hungry afternoon awaits. Felt great, though calves a bit too crampy for my liking.

7:51, 7:49, 7:22, 7:35, 7:48, 7:27, 7:55, 7:33, 7:32, 6:51

Woke up with everything achey so didn't pack running kit for the lunchtime run I had planned. Shame, as I can't get out later and by the time I had started cycling I felt lots better. I've done lots of running recently though, so I day off with probably do me good. On reflection, probably achey as I spent half of the night on Lozza's floor...

Lucy cycled over some dog poo on the pavement this morning. Got some on my cycling gloves. It was too cold not to wear them though. Yuck!

To Ratho and back. Went out brisk-ish in 31, then decided I should go for a -ve split. At the end I going for it a bit as I thought I had to get under 61 for a -ve split, not realising 2 x 31 = 62. Shit for brains. So actual -ve split, 29:26. Felt steady, not all out, so pleased. Splits 8:10, 7:37, 7:36, 7:38, 7:33, 7:34, 7:23, 7:24. First split is long and last split is short as the garmin didn't pick up immediately.

Hmm. Cycle along the canal through wester hailes on guy Fawkes night or not. When I saw I had a bit of a slow puncture, I decided I'd take the main road. Tentative.

Laid in bed as long as possible, as I was up 3 times with L2 in the night. So got out of bed, dressed and straight out the house, starting running up the hill to the meadows, which is the worst possible scenario for achilles probs, but it was ok. Along the canal. Frosty and slippy in my sayanoras. Cut down sighthill industrial estate to get a grassy descent. Fine.

Had a bit of a energy outage at 2 miles, which was a bit of a disaster. Dithered a bit before deciding to keep going as far as poss. Walked back from the meadows. Felt a bit better after a while.