Training Log Archive: bradc

OK, lazy day, tsk tsk.

C • This is allowed! 3

Event: SOL 3
 

SOL 3 at Devilla. Beccy had to drag me out of the house for this; being fed up with orienteering and given recent reports of the state of Devilla, I had very low expectations and an extremely negative mindset before starting. Surprising, then, to have actually quite enjoyed it. I was a bit fluffy early on, mucking up the control in the quarry, #2 (misled by a kite-coloured thing on the wrong side of it, whilst I was actually standing next to my control!) and overshooting #4, but then Colin E turned up and that focussed attention and efforts further. Despite often taking different routes - 16-17 the prime example - we usually ended up at the next control at roughly the same time, so we were running at the same speed and making the same number of mistakes! I at least proved that the path option to to 21 was about 15s faster.
The trick, I think, to my being satisfied with an O run is not to look at the results. I was second last in M35L, and 8/16 on course 12! D'oh. OK, so I was only 11 mins down on Ben and 8.5 on Jase, but even so... I made at least 4 mins errors but Jase had a 2-min one at 20. What does this tell me? I just don't run fast enough when I'm trying to navigate at the same time. But increase speed, run off the map. Competitive? Nowhere near!

C • Enjoyment 2

2.6km to the start and then 2.3km back, moving along at a reasonable pace so that Beccy would have enough time to jog the 2.6km to HER start time. Legs felt fine. As did my heel, surprisingly, given that when I took the show off I had a 50p-sized patch of raw skin. Yeuch.

Does this classify as a weight training session? I was carrying Jamie up his first Munro... Meall Glas, nr Crianlarich, and he's no lightweight! I used poles so it was a decent upper body workout as well... sadly we were too lazy getting out of the house in the morning to be able to do Sgiath Chuil as well. The plate-sized blister on my heel is probably grateful. Useless boots.

A gentle run around Beecraigs on the way home from work, just to tick the legs over and check that they're still working. They are. Just.

Some non-impact training required - a trip to the cross-trainers at the uni gym will do the trick.Oh no! They've got in loads of new equipment and the last two 'old-style' cross-trainers with the decent, varied cross-country programmes have gone, replaced with the newer, trendier - but ultimately much less effective at giving you a good workout - machines. Cr*p. Damn progress!

Row row row yer boat...

Twang!

Cort-ma Law bog & burn race.
Something of a new low point in hill running for me, sadly! I was OK on the climbs, but had absolutely nothing to give on the flatter sections; I simply couldn't make my legs move fast enough. The poor avg HR says it all. After 15 mins my race was effectively over. Jase ran past me en route to Cort-ma Law as if I was walking... which is roughly accurate :-). He was going for it, wish I could have gone with him. I was expecting JonX to do the same - there was a steady stream of people passing me - but he was suffering as badly as me, it seems! The lack of leg speed also played a part in my fairly poor final descent; M50 Don Reid breezed past me, so even my once-respectable downhill skills weren't there to save my blushes. Well - it's all I could expect, really, given that I've done nothing FAST in ages. But that's the game plan. Get enough strength and endurance this year to build a base upon which to start building some speed over the winter. Methinks getting whopped by Mr Inman on the hills as well as at O might be something of a regular occurrence for the rest of the year... he's on it.

FVO Soup run. And grand soup it was, courtesy of Susan, but we had to follow Will around the wilds of Alloa in order to earn it. Thankfully rumours of our likely demise at the hands of machete-wielding Alloan drug dealers were unfounded. They all live in Tullibody, it seems. Will led us on a merry trundle around Braehead golf course (fore!), along the river to Cambus, and then onto a map of his own creation at the back of Lornehill Academy. Thankfully I wasn't tasked with reading the map or we'd have ended up in Tullibody dodging machetes.
Left hamstring crocked and ankle buggered but we all knew that already.