Training Log Archive: Mark3

6th/11
http://www.noc-uk.org/gadget/rg2/index.php#186&...

Decided on this rather than the PFO event as it was longer and I thought it would be easier (more paths) and I wanted a run more than a navigational fight. This was successful - it was straightforward - I only ran off the map once...

Other than that it was quite a good run. Lost time mainly through being slow - have recovered more feeling in the bottom of my foot now such that whenever I stand on a rock/tree root/pretty much anything, it sends a shooting pain up my foot, a bit like when you hit your elbow on something and you can feel it up your arm. Not exactly really painful but definitely something you want to avoid, so had to look where I was going a lot which led to slower running.

Got stuck in brambles a few times; they were largely mapped very well early in the course which led me to trust the map, and then not mapped at all well 15-16-17 which was disappointing. Good to have a jaunt back to NOC-land, though.

Wrote about Madeira :)

Disappointing pace but not bad for first race back.
Storm Deirdre in full force so rain and wind throughout; quite muddy, one degree. Wore Baselayer, hat and gloves. Hat was too much (just).

Foot still uncomfortable but bits of my toe are now numb rather than totally dead, so I'm optimistic it's going to come back. It's the three weeks off that have killed any modicum of pace I might've had (and possibly the marathon distance and 3k of ascent 2 days ago).

104th I think.

I'm not counting the 5 minute pre breakfast swim...

Travel day back to the cold.

Jack had planned a route which was the first loop of the skyrace - we had worked out beforehand that we should be okay to finish before nightfall if we maintained a 12mins/km average (Monday's pace) and we thought the terrain would be a bit easier as the descent profile looked shallower.

Up to the first peak everything was going well - then the route dropped a few hundred metres before getting back up to the highest point on the island before coming back up again - and we were off the tourist path now, so the terrain was much more technical and involved holding onto cables and (in my case) bashing my head on things and screaming "like a girl"...
In my defence retrospectively realised it was bleeding...

From the top the first part of the descent was easy again, but then we turned off the tourist path and again, it became much more technical and rocky and I couldn't maintain much pace. Jack was getting annoyed with me ("I'm sorry; it's really painful, I can't go any faster" "Evidently" - he did apologise for that at the end though.
After a while we got into the forest and had some lovely running along some levadas (mini-canals designed for irrigation) where I was able to go a bit faster, and some more nice single-track downhill through the forest where I could more-or-less keep up. But then it wasn't long after that before it became the distance that was the problem rather than the injury, and my hips started to ache. But not to the extent that I couldn't run, and I managed to keep going up the brutal ascent from the shoreline back to the hotel.

Really nice route although I don't think I'll be entering the race - too technical/dangerous for me I think, along with being too hot. Probably going to un-enter Transvulcania on heat-grounds unfortunately - if I can't handle Madeira in December then La Palma in May is probably going to be too much.

Great day in the mountains with some amazing views - and great holiday overall - I don't think the injury affected my results too much - maybe not even at all - and I was still able to run in the mountains as planned even if not as fast as hoped for. Looking forward to getting back to full fitness again; hopefully not too long now I'm back running again.

For the last time - nice along the coast of Porto Moniz.

Went to a volcano museum in the morning which included a trip into a cave, which was interesting-ish.

I have never done an urban with this much ascent. Treated the training as a get-all-the-controls-as-fast-as-possible and Jack and I agreed to go opposite ways round.
We took very similar routes; he was nearly 20 mins faster than me which I think is about 10 mins speed and 10 mins my mistakes. Did the more 'urban' bits quite well but lots of it was on narrow paths through vertiginous vineyards and turns out I'm not very good at those (although I was by the end). Climbed lots of unnecessary steps (FML the steps so many steps) but it was really good fun; probably the most fun I've had on a training event.

Very hot again.

Sticking with this.

Went to an art gallery in the morning which had modern art that you looked at with 3D glasses - odd. There was some good stuff too though.
Then drove up the mountain to the forest training day.
We did this as an all-control score with 2-hour limit - I missed 7 of them but found all the ones I went for (bits of ribbon) which was pleasing navigationally.
Really struggled with my foot over anything rocky and anything steep. Fell over near the beginning and bloodied both hands which was annoying more than painful...although still painful.
Map quality was extremely high; everything looked just like I expected it too. One of the first times that's ever happened!

Very hilly and hot.

Went to another art gallery afterwards - highlight was the building it was in - also a diving suit on a bed of foam with the face plugged into an extractor fan. I think it was called something to do with Darwin. I didn't get it. There were some explanatory notes, but they were all in Portuguese.

First mountain day - had breakfast early and drove to Valley of the Nuns (Curral des Friars, or something, cba to look it up) and ran up to the highest point on the island via another peak, then down and up again to a spherical thing - then we were going to go back down to the car, but I hadn't seen the path on the way up and wasn't mentally prepared to go down a bit and not be able to find it and then go all the way back up again, so we went a speculative way back down to a road, ran down to a tunnel and then hitchhiked back with some nice Portuguese family who happened to be driving past where we parked our car. Phew!

I was getting worried that we weren't going to get back in daylight and didn't have torches. Jack was annoyed I wasn't running faster (sorry Jack). Jack is both significantly fitter and more risk-seeking than me. I think him and Owain would make an awesome MM team.

Physically I felt fine (albeit slow) other than on the rocky bits which were really painful. I'm too scared to do the dangerous descents quickly. And wasn't mentally prepared for a day this long. I resolved to do better on Thursday.