Training Log Archive: graeme

Meadows. 1250 in 4:29, then about 800m before hamstring tightened right up. End of session, walk home. Bugger.

C • Will this do? 2

Monday run with various adds and cuts. Felt tired.

Longest run for a long time - out on the canal to Currie, the old Meggetland 7 route. Warm and light rain, really quite enjoyable.

ELO red course at Levenhall Links. Some slightly random cntrol hangin when they decided to use SI and fix units to nearest fence - I never found#10.

Nice runaround though. James did orange and white, that sort of lovely day.

Mortonhall, Frogstane Rd, Braids etc. steady

Hill reps on Blackford. On my own, meeting overran. Bit windy, but avoided the v.v.heavy showers we've been having

6 mins, 4,3,2,1,1

Felt OK

Hilly run with Jane: planned to go to Pentlands but she got delayed, so start from Braidburn Park W&E Craiglockhart Steils & Oxgangs

Meadows with Edel LSLSL 4:30 3:30 4:35 3:35 4:33 and a 300m copped out at the end - hadn't really planned to do a sixth.

steady flat run around ghost town

Hour of cricket nets with James, and a cheeky barefoot double lap of the pitch (3mins). and half an hour of boy cycling.

Flat run at a decent pace, AA - Morningside - Steils - Oxgangs Bburn and home.

Poxy road run around Loanhead, Lasswade and Bonnyrigg trying to find a footpath that didn't dead end in mud.

And still doing some stretching

Interlopers club run. slooow.

Craigmillar & ghost town. Slow.

Short meadows 5x1km 3:30 39 31 36 28

First interval session in a while, ran 1,3,5 with Edel (she did long runs for 2 & 4). Felt stiff, slow and fat - trying to concentrate on (what passes for) form rather than pace. James ran 5 too, head to head for 50m on #4.

Run home via Braids/blackford. still knackered.

Arthurs seat. Wondered if I'd still be uninjured and tired once I got some air in the lungs. answer = yes.

Last of the 6-days. Hamstring has survived all week, so now just try to win overall, which requires winning today. Finally got a decision about helping job at 9:40: remote start. So run up past the string of competitors to get there for first start at 10. Beepy clock isn't working, so fifteen minutes of manual "beep, beep, beeeeeping" which is amusing at first, but the novelty soon wears off. Luckily Ken found me a whistle. 2.5 hours at the start, back down to change back up again...

Area was pretty tough, made one route choice mistake where a "round" path route added 200m and 4 coutours which turn out to be the worst heather on the course. Otherwise clean, finishing 20sec clear of a bunch of nogs. Which is enough to win overall - WTF someone has to!

C • Champion 2

Day 5 at Barry Buddon. Early start not best, if I want to win again. Amazing first section of knolls in low-vis, only short legs but wobbling badly. Opens up after that to run through long grass on the dunes, most legs straightforward - run down the edge of the ridge and jump in from an attackpoint.

Unfortunately it tracks up, and end up third (passed on the run in). But not beaten by anyone in overall contention: Julian Birkinshaw started even earlier than me, so had little chance, and top-nog Arne made a couple of mistakes.

So now I just need to win tomorrow.

Much buoyed by running fast yesterday, there's some chance of actually winning the class. Bit embarrassing to be doing on short, but the opposition Julian Birkinshaw has won a lot more than I have, and there's a swarm of nogs too. I'll have to beat the top two every remaining day.

Today should be the most straightforward. Runnable sand dunes, late start. All goes well, build up a couple of minutes lead, but there is some tricky green at the end. So while I'm looking at safe routes there, I run into the wrong block of white forest, binning three minutes on one of the easiest controls! Push quite hard from there, and scrape home with 17sec to spare.

Hubris.

Hamstring still a bit tight by the end, but more a distraction than a problem

Easy sprint race at Scone. Trying to pick up the pace, felt like about 90% full speed, but I'm a bit lardy at the mo after a month off ... and blundering as a consequence. Wobbly bearing at 3, complete 90 sec miss at 8, then skip 12. No hamstring problems once stretched out, still 3 secs behind James&Jane on the run-in

6-day 3 Tullochroisk. Hamstring still stiff, but no twinge or pull. This despite it being wet and the odd slip/skid.

O-wise: Repeat of last year's effort at Tullochroisk, lost contact at #2 and couldn't work it out - shed 6 minutes. Then took a wide line on a long route choice to approach through whit ewoods. which turned out to be bracken-infested... Had to drop to the bottom and climb up, another 5mins gone.

6-day 2 Kinneill.

The physio said "resume gentle jogging next week", so jack down onto 45S and here goes.

Basically went fine, a bit tight all the way round, but not twinging. Running at a steady pace, without pushing hard or stretching out.

O-wise. Too much controlling! Grumping about the funny angle off the start and the hide ad seek at 2 wasn't a very smart way to get going. The map was a disappointment: far too busy to read even at 1:10. Once I'd decided to ignore all but the biggest paths, it made more sense. A real shame the 6-day didn't get a modern new map made of this super-accessible area.

Event: Scottish Six Days Tay 2009
 

Wake up controls for Dalrulzion.

The event went pretty much as expected. WRE and Senior courses loved it, but made some big errors. Junior courses were on the rough side, but generally OK. Shortest courses were unpleasantly rough. All sites OK, no issues on the day.

The whole controlling issue has been interesting. From the promising start last year, through the low points of the thinning in January and the protracted arguments about whether to move the area. On balance, it was probably the right decision to stick with Tullochroisk. Dumyat would have had its own problems, and the short technical courses probably wouldn't have been any better. Watching Scott's negotiating skills in action was impressive - the boy talks and does as well as he runs.

Planners did a great job, and Ewart's attention to detail complemented my shortage of time in the New Year. A well balanced team. My concerns that we were a bit too fixated on controls rather than legs weren't really an issue except, perhaps, some roughness could have been ameliorated.

There was a claim that an elite ran the long leg on the moor through the OOB . Impossible to substantiate, though many ran between the fence and the wall, which is just about legal from the map most places, and OK with the permissions "keep off the moor".

Some positive, and no adverse comments from competitors about the 1:10,000 map: more mixed reviews of the 1:7500. Once we'd stripped the extraction lanes off the 1:10 was probably OK. Astonishingly, no adverse comment about removing the extraction lanes from the map, though plenty of problems with brash and crossing them. Already, the grass has begun to take a hold.

It is disappointing that we aren't left with a fully resurveyed map. I really hope before the next event someone goes back in to redo the bits we didn't use. Combining the current map with some first-draft courses could produce a truly horrible event.

Dalrulzion, Checking controls. Only walking, so let Ewart do the lower slopes. Planners have done a great job, only moved a couple by a few metres.