Training Log Archive: Jon X

Compass Sport Trophy at Devilla, even at my advanced age I still have to run the Brown Course.....a rough tough 9.9km today.

I like Devilla and haven't been there for ages so was looking forward to it - I did struggle today though! Started off running okay but made a terrible (several minutes) mess of #6 when I bashed through a load of head high bracken to the wrong place, took a while to realise, then had to bash through a load more to get back to where I should be.

Wasn't really aggressive enough in the terrain after that (need to get more flexible which would help....) and of course not aggressive = harder work in rough terrain = demotivating. Puntered along for a while wondering where Fraser had passed me, then eventually he caught me at the north end of the course. Couldn't keep with him in the terrain but wasn't losing any ground on the long track run - until I tried to cut the corner across the final block only to emerge 30m behind the guys I had just run well away from on the track.....

Very tired round the last loop feeling pretty bashed up and with blistered feet. I think it is clear that 35-40min runs on paths may not be sufficient on their own as training........

To the start and back from the finish. Was liking having a decent jog to the start. Was not liking having to jog that far back from the finish.

Perth Town Centre turned out to be a great venue for the PWT and the guys did a great job of staging both the race and the entire weekend.

After enjoying being a spectator, had the chance to run the course too and managed to put together a better race today although still with time loss, at least felt I was moving well until started to fade a bit at the very end.

Made a mistake at #6 where I turned left too soon and lost 15 secs, plus someone had opened the door to an unmapped close just before the close with #8 in it so I of course ran down there for 5 secs or so. IF I had read my descriptions I might have taken the left hand route to #15 as it was at the bottom of the stairs - and my cunning route back via #15 for 16-17 turned out not to be so cunning after all.....

Finished about 75 secs behind Ben and 50 secs behind Brad - was 4 secs up on Dixie at #23 but he was far too quick for me on the dead run from there to the finish - beat me by 7 secs!!

Really enjoyed it though, very intense race at that speed, and good to do in the town on a Saturday pm with people everywhere - not sure what they made of it!

Jogging and a few drills beforehand, went back out afterwards looking for Ken and jogged round a few of the controls before I remembered where I had seen him when I was on the course.

Run to start of PWT qualifier for one of the very last starts. Found I had that coffee-not-water-all-day-at-work dizzy feeling. Did some jogging. Still felt dizzy.

Found I had left my SI-card in the car. Well actually it had never occurred to me I needed it...

Ran to car. Found I hadn't put heart rate strap on properly and it fell off on the way. Ran back to start. Still not feeling good. Couldn't understand map in start lane and hadn't got start orientation clear in my mind, but a punching start and last starter so thought I should get on with it.....

.....Ran out of start. Still couldn't understand it. Found controller looking at me strangely: "Weren't you thinking of going to number one first?".

Found my way in the correct direction eventually and gradually got into it but made a few directional wobbles in some of the woodland, felt like I wasn't running quickly but any quicker and I would have been struggling to keep control. Got to the finish where it was indeed confirmed I hadn't been running very quickly...

Landed at Edinburgh airport and got the message that the Longhurst house guest was a bit disappointed at the lack of FVO Tuesday evening training.

So I headed up for a very pleasant trot round the environs of Dunblane with Mr Barrable, pretty dark by the end though. Very well fed by Nick's landlady afterwards including an amazing post-food cup of tea..

C • Lesbian 2

FVO evening event at Kinneil, 4.9km or something.

Felt okay running but still got a dodgy stomach after being ill last week and that slowed me down a bit. As did the novelty of second master maps where I got reacquainted with the problem of the pen not working on a sweaty map. Good fun though, nice fast forest and Jen did a good job of keeping us away from the undergrowth.

Collected in a couple of controls which was handy for a warm down jog.

Anti-clockwise round Leckie, this bit was just the warm up/down either side of....

....a set of 24 x 30/15s round the loop from Watson House to start of the The Beeches, ending with a run along The Beeches.

A few slow bits going through gates, round fallen trees etc. Not quite such wild weather as earlier but still wild enough to see a massive tree come crashing down not far from me at the start of the climb through the woods.......

Struggling to get legs moving quickly enough, never really got heart rate that high despite the short 15sec recoveries.

It's back! And some of it was rather harder than it should have been.....

2kg heavier than Grump, hmmm.

We were eased back into it this week so not too bad. Time includes warm up and stretching after.

Round the golf course with Dixie and Rog, felt like we were moving along quite nicely.