Training Log Archive: murraystraining

Yep, legs pretty battered today. Not 100% ruined though so got out for a spin down to Cramond. Tess had taken all the bike pumps up north so I had to use the only bike with any air in the tyres, my old hybrid, which isn't great for anything more than 10mins through town. Nice ride though.

Three Peaks Race. First of the "races I've always fancied but I've not been able to fit into an O season" races. Coombs and Doug had a similar thoughts so we had a reasonably strong team down.
Recent training = poor. But March was pretty good, so I thought if I could run a sensible race I'd be able to rely on that base work to get me through.
We set of steadily up PyG with the three of us running as a pack. Coombs pulled away on the final section of climb and set off to catch Jethro and the second bunch - even this early the three Salomon runners had gapped the rest of the field (SwissCheese, Ricky Lightfoot and Tom Owens). Doug passed me on the descent - I was consciously trying to look after my legs (as well as being a bit mince in the deeper bits of snow).
I relaxed into the long transition to the Ribblehead cp but after a mile or so realised I ought to extract my digit and put some effort in, so I ran a bit harder to catch Doug. Having caught him I realised the next guy was Andy Fallas, a few hundred metres ahead so we pushed on to get him. We were running about 3:45/km pace here which I thought was maybe a little fast but not excessively so.

The climb up Greater Whernside was pretty tough as there was about 6in of snow on top of boggy ground but I kept going well, and especially enjoyed a Banoffee Pie flavoured energy gel that I'd picked up at Ribblehead.

Legs were burning after the steep climb to the summit but they eased off quickly on the descent and I was able to push on - by the time I was back to the valley floor I felt great and was flying along - so much so that at the next checkpoint I was so focussed on passing Adam Osborne that I forgot to look for the bottle pickup - no energy drink or gels for the final hour of the race! Disaster?

I grabbed a few jelly babies from a kind marshal and stuffed them in my pocket. Having dropped Adam I set my sights on the next targets - Mr Red and Mr Blue. Both were completely popped though and I passed them like they were standing still. Got a good rhythm up the steep final climb - really chuffed to still be moving well after 30km of racing. On the out and back to the summit I first saw Jack Wood, then Jethro, then Coombs. Right, those are my three targets for the 7km descent back to the finish.
The first half of my descent was strong and I managed to catch Jethro and Coombs quite easily, however not long after I passed them things started to sieze up - tight quads and a loss of agility of the rougher linestone terrain. I managed to get Jack in my sights but couldn't quite reel him in - he finished 30s ahead of me.

All in all a pretty enjoyable run around a new part of the world for me. I don't think I could have run much better but I definitely want to go back in better shape and at least try for a sub-3 or maybe better. I was 16th at the top of PyG and 7th at the finish - moving through is definitely the more satisfying way to run a race.
Coombs got 8th, Doug ran well for 11th and we were backed up by Colin Doig to get the team prize, nice to win something with the Trotters for a change!

RR. Lots of aches (achilles, knees, hammy). Good shape for a long race.

Pre-work lap of Hyde and Green Parks.

Full day working/getting to know new team in London. Did an Escape the Room challenge. It was fun.

Three laps of Meadows with Coombs.

BBA. Hey, if it's good enough for that guy…

BBA. P2

Flat Arthur with Doug.