Training Log Archive: Ollie

Race the Castles - final event on Forvie NNR - a large area of dunes, mainly covered in heath. Very few paths. Really enjoyed running on this tricky area, with lots of contour detail but an excellent map. Made a couple of small mistakes near the end but nothing significant, so good to have a near clean run for a change. Generally, it made sense to run very straight, as the terrain was uniformly "slow run" and there were few useful paths. I ran 9.0km. Route: http://www.strava.com/activities/209836944

Slow cycle from Maryculter to Stonehaven, mainly via the unpleasant B979 but with a very nice detour partway along, onto NCR1. The original plan had been to push on to Montrose, but there was a strong headwind (I had anticipated a crosswind instead). Slowed right down after realising I would struggle to make a planned train (and was tired and overloaded anyway) and then had an hour to kill in Stonehaven Route: http://www.strava.com/activities/209836941

Race the Castles event at the Balmoral Estate in Royal Deeside. Finish line in view of Balmoral Castle.

This was my first (and possibly last) classic distance race - running Men's Elite, so I took three energy gels, and ran slowly and carefully - perhaps a bit too slowly and carefully as my time was a little slow even by my standards, and my peer group were generally 10-15 minutes faster. As it was a World Ranking Event, I ran without GPS.

Despite pacing it slowly I still made numerous mistakes. The terrain was pretty physical in places - some big areas of boulders and brashings, and there were some very technical sections too. 1:15000 map, brand new, but it was slightly vague in places, with simplified contour detail and many small boulders missed (fair enough - but then don't put controls behind the 1m boulders that are shown!)

A killer climb near the end, coming out of the specator control, followed by a technical section when we were tired - classic trick, and resulted in me making a six minute mistake on the third from last control.

Event: JOK Chasing Sprint
 

JOK Chasing Sprint - Prologue. Very nice area - physical and technical, and attractive to look at too. Made a number of dumb mistakes which meant I wasted at least 5-6 minutes. Finished pretty much last. Route: http://www.strava.com/activities/209837179

JOK Chasing Sprint - Chase. Decided to run it after all, after lining up most people at the chase start. Gave up fairly early on after fighting through brashing and other very physical terrain, only to end up nowhere near my second control. Jogged to the fourth one and then 8-9-10 and then to 12 and the finish, where the prizegiving had already happened. Oh well, saving my legs for tomorrow. Route: http://www.strava.com/activities/209837196

Dunottar Castle to Maryculter. Along the B979 (full of trucks), fading light, and very overloaded. Not a pleasant cycle at all. However - loads of Strava segments, yay! Route: http://www.strava.com/activities/209837057

Wussed out of Munroing as tired/dehydrated (and didn't get back home until nearly before 11pm). Shame, it was a nice day today. However, I have realised that I potentially have quite a few potential Munro days from Braemar - at least five - so this would make an excellent base for a Munroing trip soon.

My "ticklist" map is at http://oobrien.com/map/munroist.php - blue = still to do.

Slow cycle in on the estate road from Dalwhinnie along Loch Ericht, then climbing a little to Lock Pattack. Stopped just after the loch.

Three Munros, the middle one of which was Ben Alder. Climbed Ben Alder via the slightly scrambly Long Leachas, which is in a spectacular situation. High cloud and some sunshine, dry - lovely day for Munros.

The Lancet Edge of Geal Charn, which I passed beneath from Munro 1 to 2, looked amazing, and stags were bellowing throughout the glens, the whole day (and into the night).

Route: http://www.strava.com/activities/207592994

Back to Dalwhinnie from Loch Pattack, in twilight. Slow as had plenty of time to wait for train at other end, and it was cold. Also going carefully to avoid potholes and rocks. Last bit was pretty much in darkness.