Training Log Archive: olsoran

Scolty, Hill of Goauch. Lovely up there. No one else.

To and from Loch of Leys

Field at Loch of Leys - great sun.
Fairly gentle first set of intervals for a long time 45/30

Having a rest

Helium
Through Glen O'Dee, Glassel, Craiglash and then central track down through Sluie to Maroc training.

Loop of the perimeter of Sluie at the end of training; then down to Potties; most of the way up to Shooting Greens; Blackhall to Banchory. Smashing weather. Nice to be on a bike again.

Up Morven from Groddie with SamR and MilesN - to be summit marshals for the race. Ran up or at least went up as I fast as I could. Couldn't keep up with Sam but I did have a heavy rucksack full of safety kit. Cloudy but clear and surprisingly chilly up high.

Shouting at a few folk as they turned the cairn.

Jogging back down again collecting tapes.

Putting out controls in Sluie for Maroc training. Nice morning.
Struggled up the hills a bit but nice that the bracken is on the way out. Always a good place up on the main hill but needing a little bit of a map update in other parts.

To and fro included.
Gym empty for most part.

Loch of Leys loop anti-clockwise. Dawdling along with not much energy to go any faster. Pleasant enough.

Need some motivation!

C • ideas? 3

Chilly breeze but pleasant in the sunshine. Loch of Leys loop. Some at a decent tempo to get the legs moving properly again.

Crathes late on with T.

Glas Maol and Creag Leacach.
Plans for being down south this weekend aborted.
Too early after last weekend to get my mind round a real long Cairngorm hill run to make the most of the great weather but opted for this instead.

From 2.5k south of Glenshee; up the ridge of Leacann Dubh; Meall Odhar;Glas Maol; along the ridge and the winding wall to Creag Leacach; then directly back down. Brilliant up top. Feeling ok.

A long time since I've been up here, if ever for Creag Leacach.

Very leisurely few days and S&C neglected for a good while anyway.

Wish the gym wasnt such a social occasion for the local 6th year in the middle of the afternoon. Would be ok if they were actually doing something.

C • gym slackers 1

Glen O'Dee
Feeling really good. No aches nor pains. Zilch. Result and a half.

C • hmm 2

Travelling.
...got on the wrong bus in Interlaken so ran from one end of the place to the other to make the train. That sorted the legs out.

Took the train from Wilderswil up to Schynige Platte at 2066m. Pottered up Daube, admired the view then wandered round the alpine garden until the clouds gave way to sun again.

Walked all the way back down to Wilderswil via Breitlaunen station and the coffee shop and viewpoint. More sun this weekend than I've seen all summer. Legs feeling very good, considering.

3 hours of walking I guess...almost all downhill.

Amazing and amazingly knackered.

Didn't quite know how to pace this.It's hardly a conventional race. Kind of a Hybrid. 25k ish of road and trail with quite a few very significant undulations (about 250m worth), including quite a reasonable hill just after 10k. Then 17k of very different trail, climbing a further 1600m. Last thing I wanted to do was completely fall apart. I'd read a lot of previous Jungfrau race blogs beforehand including SarahDs 2013 AP log.

Wall to wall sunshine the whole day was the forecast and that's how it turned out. What a waste it would have been to have cloud down or really bad weather.

Things didn't start out too well with an iffy tummy overnight and it still wasn't great on the start line. Not confidence inspiring but the plan was just to give it a go with a very conservative first half saving a lot preferably for the real effort later on.

An initial lap of Interlaken and then north east to the edge of the Brienzersee. Steal a glance left at the great views over the lake. Didn't feel good until I'd got some energy bar sustenance from one of the feed stations round 10k.Felt somewhat better after that. Was aiming for 10k in about 52 and was pretty much spot on but it seemed to feel way harder than it should have.

Stunningly steep sides to the valley at Lauterbrunnen up ahead - a portent of the climb to come. Not a cloud around and the mountains looking stunning. The Jungfrau very impressive.

Happy enough through 15 and 20, beating the train to the level crossing and avoiding a short interruption. The half in 1.55 pretty much spot on what I wanted then the last flattish section back to Lauterbrunnen at 25k and then the thought of some sort of relief of minimal asphalt for the remainder.

Zigzag path up to Wengen. Hands on quads time, power walking up, maintaining an ok pace but not feeling comfortable. A tight right hamstring fortunately came to nothing. Very slight cramp twinges at the top of my quads as 3 hours approached. Already casualties littering the sides of the path trying to ease their cramp. I was only running very gradual inclines or less, most was way too steep on this bit anyway. Pleased to reach the crowds, the brass bands and the cowbells in Wengen. A great Swiss atmosphere.

A very steep 450m in 4k or so out the way. 30k done and only 12 to go. Doesnt sound much. But what a 12k.

Mainly gravel trail for the first 7 or 8 with mountain views to die for all around. Trails of runners up ahead, way in the distance and threading their way much higher up. I was starting to toil around 34 - 35 but still managing to run bits. Making good use of the fabulous feed stations. Masseurs at each one working hard on plenty of pained patients.

38k and onto the single track. Feel to be really slowing now and trying to avoid initiating cramp by keeping gait as smooth as possible and trying to minimise stretching to gain footholds on the rough stuff. Happy with the time though, thinking I was heading for comfortably inside 5hours...which I would have been very pleased with at the start.

Then it all grinds to a halt. Even steeper single track and a queue of people in one anothers pockets pretty much. Very slow grind up to 40.5 with regular stops as there was no way to pass those in front without leaping off the track and winging it up the steep hillside.. and risking cramp too. Frustrating. See the 5 hour pacer a few folk ahead.

Finally reach the top and strike off left, running again thankfully, and a lot more space, round a wee valley, over a small rocky spur with stabilising hands to help on offer from Swiss volunteers then downhill with the picturesque lake and pretty much the finish in sight. Keep glancing at the watch and manage an ok pace for the last 1500m but I knew 5 hours was gone. Run past a girl flat on her back screaming in cramping agony as folk are doing their best to stretch muscles out for her.

46 seconds into hour 6 and it was done. Medal and other freebies collected including alcohol free beer of all things 10m past the finish line.

Well pleased to avoid the cramp, no lasting damage done hopefully and awestruck by the location. Sun, sun and sun, and the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. Fabulous.

Long packed train journey back down to Grindelwald and then Interlaken. Not fun standing for much of it.

Impeccable Swiss efficient organisation all round though. One to do.

Probably should have done some more longer flattish runs followed by big hills in preparation but have been having too much fun with long efforts in the hills generally so wasn't prepared to do that.

The figures:
(My own Garmin seemed to think it was 46.2k with 1849m of climbing and 346m descent. Fat lot of use it was).

42.2k, 1823m climb
Start Interlaken (568m). Finish Kleine Scheidegg (2061m)
5 hours 0 minutes 46 seconds
1057/ 3500
55th M55 out of 300+ (the first ran 3.35!)
Splits:
10k 51.37
15k. 1.18.37 (26.59)
21.1 1.55.39 (37.02)
25.6 2.19.55 (24.15)
30.2 3.04.57 (45.02)
37.9 4.12.46 (1.07.49)
42.2. 5.00.46 (48.00)

C • Good effort 6

Watching the colourful cosmopolitan world of a marathon go by with my feet up in a convenient Interlaken coffee shop. Weather forecast looking good for tomorrow, top, middle and bottom. Kleine Scheidegg, Wengen and Interlaken.

C • enjoy! 3

Pretty much a loop of the Ringweg round Rugen. Nice to be out and to get a small amount of hill climb in. Good Views of Lake Thun, Jungfrau and Interlaken. Kept it short and sweet.

C • Good luck 4

Travelling

Loch of Leys with c.
Took old 405 to see if HRM figures from Fenix are broadly speaking correct. Need to do some comparisons over a decent period to see properly but look to be a big disparity.

Lovely day at Loch Vaa.

Looked forward to this and it didn't disappoint.
Still very heavy legged after Thursday and wary of achilles niggle that came on later on on the uphills then. Perhaps not surprisingly no spring either.

Pretty clean through 11 although DW caught me 2 minutes by 7 and he was away by 9. Just couldn't keep with him. Bad banana at 12 and then big miss of 3-4 minutes at 13, then really scrappy 14 and 16 as tiredness hitting.

DW must have gone walkabout late on as he finished nearly 3mins later.

Running felt hard today but this place is the best. Thanks J&J, and BASOC.

Inverey to Altanour Lodge up Glen Ey with c for fairly impromptu hill day. Carrying bivvying stuff in case of "opportunities". Hard work.

Altanour Lodge; Carn Bhac; Beinn Iutharn Mhor; Carn an Righ; Glas Tulaichean; An Socach and back to Altanour.
With c.
Kept up a very decent pace throughout not seeing a soul from start to finish. Pretty windy and very chilly at times with intermittent cloud on the tops. Huge numbers of deer and quite a few hares about.
Carn Bhac: 1.08
Beinn Iutharn Mhor: 2.17
Carn an Righ: 3.15
Glas Tulaichean: 4.13
An Socach: 5.32
Decided against a bivvy in the end.

Didnt seem like as much downhill as it should have.

Glan O'Dee with c. Easy.
Yesterday in my legs.

Road loop in the rain. Crathes, out the north gate, Crathes bridge, South Deeside Rd, Bridge of Feugh, Mount Street. Steady.