Training Log Archive: bradc

Event: INT CompassPoint Scottish O League 1
 

SOL1, Gullane Dunes - M45 (short brown) 8.5km +190m. 8th/32.
A mixed bag. On the plus side, I was moving well - I actually felt up for racing rather than plodding, and the splits stack up pretty well in retrospect, so - barring fellow M45 initiate Patrick's classy winning time of 59, putting him in a league of one with a 5 minute margin to 2nd - I can be reasonably happy with my pace. On the negative side, I made two silly errors due to not concentrating on control descriptions, and one distracted route choice, thus throwing away 7 very soft minutes.
#4 - passed within 3m of the control by the thicket at the base of the cliff, but the centre of the circle was off, so I wasn't even looking for it. Had I read the "cliff/thicket" description I'd have been OK; as it was, I went for a 3 minute wander.
#12-#13 - distracted by the crowds at the control, I dithered and lost confidence, opting therefore for the bitty path route rather than retracing my steps to the dunes and going straight. All the junctions slowed me down and I was also hesitant going into the control. 90s gone.
#24 - penultimate control, hammering it, ran right past it (again, within 3m), because I thought I was looking for a spur, not the reentrant as so clearly described on my control descriptions. Idiot. 3 minutes lost, almost within sight of the finish! Concentrate!!!
Ah well. Despite the frustrations I really enjoyed it, and liked the new westward extension of the area - perhaps a little easy but very nice running, and control #10 (the narrow beach canyon) was easily the best control site I've been to in ages. Top fun. I'll have to work hard to eliminate the mistakes if I want to do well in M45 this year, although, with Patrick running so well again (which is great to see!) I daresay the even with a clean run the rest of us will be scrabbling around for points some way down the results... TRIMP 197.5.

C • thicket 4

Easy X-T session at the uni gym, "Rolling Hills" programme. Hoping that this would get some mobility back into my lower back, which it seemed to do, although that could be the co-codamol and ibuprofen talking. The RHS of L5/S1 was not in a good way first thing. Fingers crossed. Busy at the gym, lots of fit young things... and sweaty old has-beens like me. TRIMP 72.9

5 mins easy rowing on the Concept 2. First one I tried was set up in Chinese - gave up trying to change the language back to English! A bit of LBP to start, again, not liking the seated position but eased off. TRIMP 6.4.

A few core exercises, and machines for upper back, bis and tris.

RHS of lower back in spasm and significant discomfort this morning. Too much slipping/sliding and actually trying to run a bit last night. Unfortunately I have to sit in a car for 7 hours today and 6 hours tomorrow, with zero opportunity to exercise. Out with the painkillers.

Event: FVO Night #9 - Touch
 

Jog to the start of the night-O. TRIMP 18.5.

FVO Night O, Touch - 6.3km. Lots of fun, despite being a somewhat calamitous evening otherwise. Somehow I managed to blow a front tyre on the road up to the event, probably on a pothole, and noticed this just before heading up to the start. Blast. I have to drive to Wolverhampton at 8am tomorrow.

Cussing on the way up to the start and fully expecting to not concentrate on the O as a result, but - apart from a bit of hesitation to #2 (distracted by one of my head torch tapes snapping and leaving it the battery dangling precariously for the rest of the course), I was actually OK. Steady through the butterflies, feeling pretty good actually, and enjoying the snow - particularly loving running downhill in the slidy stuff. This sort of descent is what I used to adore in my hill running days, and it's amazing how much more energy you have when you're buzzing. I even started feeling a bit like a runner again.

I wasn't buzzing going through the deeper snow up the hills onto the moor, though, by which point I was trailing Frazer. Decided to conserve energy and not to try to catch him, so pootled steadily in the same tracks that he was following. Thanks, fast guys. A bit more hesitant across the top to #16, getting snagged in a couple of heavy drifts, at which point the two lights behind caught me up - very surprised to see that they were Claire and Ben; I'd thought that they must have been way ahead. At this point it all became even more fun. I got a bit of energy back, got in the lead at #18, piled off down the hill to #19 and was having such a ball that I promptly forgot to navigate, dragging Ben on a 75s wander and letting Claire and Frazer get away. Still feeling good, though, so - despite falling over a wall - reeled in Frazer by #21 and hared off down the lovely slippery descent to try to catch Claire, only to slide into a heap and drop my torch. Recovered and caught Frazer and Ben at #22, and had a slapstick charge to the finish, which I got to first by elbowing Frazer out of the way. Comedy.

Back to reality in the car park. Started taking off the wheel, loosened the nuts, went to get the space saver spare and jack, and whilst I was busy faffing with that and busting the zip on my jacket (argh) Frazer and Will pitched up and I barely got a look in after that. Thanks, chaps! Sadly the tyre - only 3 months old with 2800 miles on it - is a bust, so it was an expensive night out, but it was such a gorgeous night to be up on the moor and the O was such a giggle that I couldn't possibly be grumpy about it. TRIMP 159.5.

FVO Pilates. Left hamstring occasionally felt as if it wanted to cramp. Hm.

Back to 40/10, 20/5 for a change. Pushed it a bit harder on the short, sharp, second set; still cautious of giving it full buns, but slow improvements are being made. TRIMP 30.