Training Log Archive: Jon X

To assembly then to the start. Big climb to the start but had to run it all as I was late. Obviously. Got there with a full 10secs to spare.....

Northern Champs and UKOL, Castle Carr, M45L 6th place.
No cagoule no go indicates the weather and terrain.

A race of two parts.....
First part - tussocky heathery moorland with good lines of sight. Ran fairly steadily if not always the very best lines, my bright bright jacket nice and visible to Chappers apparently as he closed from 4mins behind to 2mins behind round this section.
Second part - much more happening on the map, plethora of walls and crags and paths and crossing points, and all very steep and slippery. Found it all quite difficult to read and after a big miss at #12 which let Mark past, I pretty much lost all momentum (and motivation for slithering up/down/along the slopes) plus binned more time at #13 and #15 through lack of map attention.

First part was about 75% of the course - I lost 3mins to Charlie and 2 to Mark on that part. On the second short part I lost another 7-8mins to them both!

Bit of jogging with Claire and then eventually jog back up the hill to the car.

Halifax UKOL urban race.
5th M45, but only 17secs from the win.....
9th on the course with the first three places taken by two M50s then Jase about 35secs ahead of me.

Patchy performance, all pretty straightforward but not really well enough warmed up at the start (ten mins jog after a more than four hour drive.....), then iffy flow throughout and minor time losses in quite a few places
- 20s at #3 when I could not see the flag hidden in the hedge, showed discipline by stopping and checking map/description....however description didn't specify which side of path so that didn't help!
- 20/30s at #6 when I tried to pick up the pace and failed to spot my route had a dead end, had to do extra distance
- 10s at underpass/road crossing where I got a bit confused by the fact the road was in bounds and the underpass not mentioned on the descriptions, had assumed that the underpass in the final details was a compulsory one.
- 10s leaving #16, correctly went eastern route but overshot the turn to the south early in the leg.
- 5/10s almost reversing my route into the last control to get to the finish, spotted just in time that there was an earlier left turn that I had just run past.....

So not so great. Could probably have got away with all those mistakes on running speed if I hadn't put 4kg back on post-marathon.....

Home to work. On the main road as a bit late.....

Home to Coustick Cinemas via Doune and Hillside of Row.

FVO WEE at Abbey Craig, fun Norwegian style course from Gareth.

Left hamstring/glute still not good so running pretty steady.....which didn't stop me making a right mess of the first one and the last one - in pretty much the same part of the area and with pretty much the same error.

Proper Scottish BBQ at Dave's afterwards - winter jacket and midge repellent very much needed!

FVO spin around Loch Katrine from Aberfoyle (me, Fraser, Rosco, Will, Janine, Adam, Dave). Very scenic.

Set the tempo up the Dukes Pass at the end but was convincingly dropped once the final surge for the top kicked off!

Sunny FVO outdoor circuits at Laighills!

Mix of pilates, circuits and short reps of various sorts. On the pitches so did it barefoot.

Something in my left groin/glute/hamstring/top-of-leg-somewhere was not too keen on doing any exercise after yesterdays' sitting around and today's sitting at work. Seemed to ease off gradually....