Training Log Archive: philm64

Indoor bouldering at TCA - 1hr 45 - with Liz & Nellie. I was the worst, as usual.

Very knackering - this is NOT a "rest day!"

Travel back from Geneva

Downhill skiing all day at St Gervais, opposite Mt Blanc. Some great views. Thighs survived, too. Fantastic.

Snow run at La Vattay x-c ski resort in the Jura mts. Helen did her own ski on Nordic skis. I gatecrashed the snow shoe trail and, like Jan 2013, it was hard going, all above 4000ft altitude, and tough underfoot. Tired; held it together OK but really pooped at the end! All good cross training fun at around 9mins mile. Wore O shoes.

My route: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/7069112...

Helen's: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/7064470...

Tired & achey from yesterday's race.

Off to Geneva for 3 nights - some skiing hopefully & maybe a run in O shoes in the snow on the Jura :)

Chiltern CHallenge, Level B, Brown Course - 10km, 135m, Penn Wood & Common wood.

Crap nights' sleep, Paul G drove, including loud dog Sennen, forecast for cold rain but hopefully after we finished, Not quite so.

Forgot my full orthotic inserts, so O shoes had half inserts in them - ie., no cushioning below ball & forefoot. Not good. Jog to start - freezing, and feet feeling every bump.

No 1 looked v hard. In fact I nailed it (unlike Clive on Black, who lost over 2 mins here) - compass & pacing. Whitey to no 2 - just useless, standing on a path, wondering which path it was etc. 45 seconds lost. no 4 also really crap - why? Slow & cold, not flowing. Kev Fielding (HH; M45 ranked higher than me) caught me at 4 and moved away - easily. Eh? ???? Caught him on path & overtook (typical: Murray = path runner), but again, he moved clear easily in terrain. I'm useless!

However, he foolishly missed out no 7, DQ-ing himself, and things improved for me as I got into it. Won the split right after the road crossing. Some boredom & lack of focus on some later long legs, which "crossed over" each other - a couple of 30-seconds errors, then by no 22 I'd had enough, feet sore so I ran south on compass & hoped. Nothing terrible happened; I finished OK. According to the splits I finally caught up Kevin F. right at the end, but I don't recall really seeing anyone?

4th, 3rd M50, but only a minute-ish down on David ROllins, the 1st. Jules Birkinshaw beat me in Goring Fields / Heath in 1978, and did so again today! 37 years on, nothing changes. Except today, if I'd had my shit together, I would have been in 2nd place & 1st M50.
Utterly frozen at end - couldn't feel left hand - struggled to change. Paul survived Black. We bolted for the M4 & home ! Hot bath; KNACKERED.

Result: http://www.tvoc.org.uk/application/documents/resul...
Garmin: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/7035533...

RouteGadget: http://www.tvoc.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#74

Steady run in rain around Victoria park & roads nearby. Some hills. Didn't try very hard. Felt tired from Sunday, Tues, and climb last nite.

Nothing ached tho.

RedPoint climbing - with Liz. A long one - stopped climbing at 9:40pm!

Quite tired, rested on a few routes but got up a 6b, 6a+'s and redpointed a tricky balancy 6a which is always good for the real thing! Fle tv light & bionic early on. Prob cos I weigh 3/5 stone less than in December 2013.

Tired. Will rest after tomorrow; rest always sees me back bouncing!! Overtraining - no. Rest is the way forward! :)

Straight to the bar when we finished, still in climbing gear, to numb the soreness with beer.

Meant to run with club but got sidetracked. Lovely day - spent it all inside sorting admin for house - barely dented it :(

Fast -ish dark run on roads / grass verges a lot of the time, in Karrimor trainers that I got "cheap" (£40 - 50% off) last autumn from Sports Direct. They're v comfy. I had my insoles in, natch....

Efforts on most of the hills - early on was Glyn Vale which is relentless. I was fine. From there on, put in effort on all inclines . Felt light & quite nimble. Thin.
800m slight uphill - effort - did it in 3:20 which is fine, not my fastest but not bothered. Able to accelerate.
http://www.mapometer.com/running/route_4020880.htm...

Pleasing. Fitness flooding back. Hurrah. Roll on Sunday (Chiltern Challenge)....

Rest Day - properly knackered - even went to bed late morning with a cuppa. (I was out til 12:30 am last nite as well as the O....).

Splendid, this "not working" malarkey....

Midlands Orienteering Champs, Haywood Warren, Cannock Chase, M50L, 9.8km 380m

very nervous before start but warmed up properly for a change and set off steady, making a point of only jogging hills, walking some, and ensuring the navigation - which was primarily easy / right up my street - was spot on.

saw Clive on the 6-7-8-9 loop, he'd started 8 minutes behind me so was now less than 4 behind - mortified & stressed out now. In fact he didn't close much over the next 13 controls as I held it together - just. Lost 20 seconds on no 12 thru losing concentration. minor. Lucky on 15, compass wasn't making sense.... also a close shave at 16 where Clive & Charlie had doubtful moments too. 19 was worrying but I got it right despite being close to exhaustion. Hungry too. (I think without Pauls' Lemon drizzle cake an hour before the start, I may have bonked slightly & lost 3rd place to Kenny. Thanks Paul!).

Last 3 controls really let rip. Clearly not lost much fitness due to that cough, and thigh was not troubling me. Storm in a teacup.

Winning when I doanloaded (M50L) (M45s were faster!) - 3 minutes later Clive arrived and I was demoted. Charlie 67. Very pleased. 5 M45s were faster than me tho - need to keep my skates on.

Routegadget http://www.walton.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#57
Results M50L http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/results/2015/midla...
Garmin https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/6987644...

C • M45's 5

Gym - stretching & treadmill, focussing on my R upper thigh. in warm up. Slow pace - up to 12.5km/hr. No thigh pain. had some "hills" in it. 15 mins then warmdown.
Then steam room / sauna - more stretching, but too hot.

Very apprehensive re. Midland champs tomorrow now, but it will be as it will be.

Rest day . Let Liz poke at my left upper thigh. She reckons I'm not flexible enough. possible small strain up there. Will run Sunday then take a step back & deal with this. Nip in bud?

Stretching. which I've woefully omitted to do the past 2 months :(

Ice later on sofa.

My nose started pouring blood off the tip while driving - not nostrils. Weird. I do not remember any incident to provoke this - maybe I scratched my face briefly? Felt nothing.

Bled constantly for 10 minutes & would not stop, including the old "cut myself shaving" trick - didn't work.

Tissues in car looked like someone had been an extra in the Texas chainsaw massacre. Had to pull over as couldn't drive with blood dripping off my nose.

Hmmm.

Proper run up to Knowle, back via Northern slopes, efforts on the 3 hills, plus a 20 second 100m in the park at the top.

BUT left thigh again started playing up after c.25 mins - this is getting close to being beyond a niggle now - it happens every run. Sore at top / on the "Tett" muscle - no idea why? Esp. when landing on downhill. Hurts on landing.

Still legged it quite hard near end eg on any inclines, plus the grassy flat stretches back near my house.

2 days off now. Will see Liz on Friday.

Indoor climbing - RedPoint - first climb for a month - was OK, felt reasonable, dogged a 6b, felt smooth on easier ground.

Bit sore later tho.

An hours' run on Haytor, rather "full" from a big lunch (in Plymouth), with map & compass, bit of a pea soup up there. Cold - gloves, hat.

Really good being out & about, no job etc. enjoyed a quick scramble at one point, overall took it reasonably "steady" & km times over 5 mins the whole way.

Got to Hay Tor itself then needed more distance so crossed the road into the Southern part of the map and did a quick loop there. Didn't amount to much so had to re-cross road to where I'd started.

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/69454531...

Rather tired after two runs on the w/e. Only four runs all year to date....

Hoping I'll recover soon & be back in action for next w/e now.

I wasn't really ready for this, but Paul from my club lives round the corner & is training for London, so:
58 mins long run on road & verges, felt awful, slow & unfit, rubbish, but lovely sunny day so on balance glad I went! Hope another stage in running off the past 6 weeks.
last 20 minutes - LEFT TIGH hurting quite a lot, especially on descents. Really painful!

Now to rest!

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/69253437...

BOK Sat league, Bathampton , Green, 5km 160m

Cold. Grim drive there. barely made it for registration....
Jog to start - freezing. No maps. Not good. Millie Stagg was at the start, she was the planner.
A stroke of luck though, as "actuary" appeared, having done Parkrun *and* an additional training run, and I heckled him, mentioning the lack of maps & demanding he give me his. (later, it would be clear that had he only had one, that would have been fine as the last 2 controls he had to go could easily have been done on map memory)

He had picked up 2 maps (thereby becoming "part of the problem"), and he stopped to give me his "spare" map, which would mean of course he had a cast iron excuse for me beating him on that leg ;)

Quite enjoyed the course , but I know the area too well now (having won the previous BOK sat league here), and so mistakes were minimal, but the course *could* have been harder....?

No real mistakes. Won. Just . Wore woolly hat for first 4 controls then took it off.
Eddie Narbett far too close on 3 recent BOK events - M16 - he's going to soon be burning me off PotterA/MaliphantB style - and I'll be able to do nothing about it. It sucks getting "aged". Mind you I can still keep the senior Potters & Maliphants at bay ;) (the parents)

Pleased with win. No, I would not have been up for the Southerns tomorrow,, another 30 mins on top of today would have killed me. Yes, I will enter Midlands - next w/e. I predict pain.

http://www.bristolorienteering.org.uk/sites/defaul...
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/69194503...

Gig at Cadbury House (posh do - the "Farmer's Ball")

Left house at 5pm
Soundcheck at 6:15.
Hun gin bar & watched rugby - had a buffet.

Didn't go on til after 10pm.

Second set didn't start til 11:35....

Home 1:30.

Light out 2:20 am.

Steady Victoria park run. a bit slippy in mud. May wear my fell shoes next time I'm in the park.

No issues except being unfit & inflexible.

Pace slow.

Right decision not to do Southerns this w/e. What about the midlands, tho.....??? Answers on a postcard.

C • yes 4

My first run of 2015. Slow easy run from new house (1st run from new house! damn should have taken Garmin). To southville & back, road.

Having lost 5.5 Kg in past 13 months (according to my Diabetic nurse - she's not diabetic, I am - well she might be! - but anyway, I am - and getting worse) so felt very light & skipped along slowly yet nimbly, legs feeling weird but thin & effective. Lungs not bad. Heart hammering tho.

Cut it nice & short - felt clearly desperately unfit, but will try 20 -25 mins on thurs then jog the BOK sat league on Saturday.

No coughing after. Illness box unticked. That'll be good news, then? Sadly I'm horribly unfit, the glory of CompassSport cup & my 18 second victory on the penultimate leg, mid December, a distant memory ..... :((

C • Great news Phil 1

After 5 days' prescription steroids & obviously more "rest" (if moving boxes of stuff & furniture around all day every day since Tues, & trying to unpack plus dispose of unwanted items that kindly arrived with the house can be classed as "rest"), I'm starting to think I can try a short jog, as my coughing has subsided a lot, though my asthma and lung soreness remains to a lessor extent,

How many weeks off? Five? Unbelievable. I have spoken to sooo many people who have said that this winter they, or people they know, have had coughs that have lasted "4 weeks". The GPs all saying this is "quite normal". Jesus. No way can I accept this as normal.

Ah well. Right decision to miss Southerns next w/e. Shame but there you go.

C • 4 weeks 2