Training Log Archive: Magic

IW. Light and sunny (but very cold, frost even), the only positive to the clocks going back. Bike was ill though, the bottom bracket giving up on life, resulting in very wobble cranks and many loud and painful sounding noises. Hope it gets me home.

HFW. Cold again, better gloves needed for tomorrow. Bike wobble and groaned all the way home, but make it, it did. Going to have to be the mountain bike for the rest of the week - fingers crossed it stays dry.

Event: 2017 Welsh League Event
 

Checking control sites at Castell Coch - it's nice to be able to run to the area that you're planning on from home. Legs surprisingly heavy and never really got going, although it was very stop/start having to tape the sites. New map nice to run on.

Good news when I weighed myself, having taken the battery out of my new scales and let it reset itself, that I'm now 7kg lighter than last week... Means that I'm lighter than expected, despite being greedy over the past few months (no incentive to stop that then!).

Event: Western Night League
 

Decent warm up waiting for it to get dark. Appears that most others didn't wait as everyone else was well gone by the time I got tot he start.

Western Night League, Trellech Common, 1 hour Score.
Hope the rest of the season doesn't go like this, a complete disaster! Started before I even started when I realised that I'd forgotten my head strap for my light. Tape and another headlight was the fix, but it was a very bad one. Light required constant adjustment and holding meaning that I coudldn't do more than one thing at a time.

Lots of stopping to read the map, couldn't plan ahead (as I couldn't look at my map without my light falling down), couldn't run on roads (as light was too loose and needed holding), couldn't run n the woods (as light moving too much), couldn't read the map (as light at the wrong angle). So a very frustrating experience which was made worse by my battery dying at about 50 minutes. On the back up to get to the finish (which I had to hold in my hand, so even more stopping) and had to skip as couple of controls as I couldn't see anything.

Nevertheless, it was a lovely evening to be running, considering all the issues my navigation wasn't too bad (#19 was my biggest problem, but the contours were wrong as the control was much higher than they indicated). Green was printed too light though and I only ever saw the undergrowth symbol once I was already stuck in brambles! Would have been easy to clear on a normal evening!

Nice easy ride on a lovely day from Merthyr with Nicky. Up to Pontsticll and across to Merthyr Common. Tracks were muddy and the open was very slippery, but fun. Nice to do something different and to be on the mountain bike.

IW. Very damp and wet without any actual rain. Very soggy and mucky by the time I got to work.

HFW. Late as had a seminar in the afternoon. Dark but still surprisingly busy on the trail. Thankfully drier than this morning but everything still covered in muck.

Quite a short session at Spot with Mark. Not feeling like I'd made any progress this week but good to be out again.

IW. Wetter than expecting. Super slushy. Dark. Moving slowly. New weighing scales don't like me.

HFW. Bit of a head wind, so tough going, especially as not feeling motivated.

Traditional end of summer MDC run around Merthyr Mawr in the dark. Few out tonight so only one group, so lots of stopping. Didn't mind, wasn't feeling very energetic. Nice and mild and sand was firm. Great pizza after.