Training Log Archive: SarahD

Early start control hanging at Tyrebagger for Bucksburn school

MapRun for AA girls fitness club

Another fine Yorkshire day. No time to run but not too worried. Boys and girls done good enough again despite a few under performances.

Hoped to get out for a trot late afternoon but never quite found the right time. Spent several hours standing in the pissing rain at JIRCs finish earlier in the day, but at least the team did good!

Lap of the woods. Feeling ok running and even felt a small amount of power going uphill. Otherwise feeling a bit washed out though. Not going to get opportunity to do much this w/e, so good to tick over with a short one today.

Busy

Glen Tanar 2 bridges. Last one for this year and ming it was too. Struggling to keep in touch with J being towed along by AS at a pace that was just a bit beyond me tonight. Felt better than yesterday though, which was a bit surprising as have felt pretty rubbish all day.

Easy round Gordon Castle estate and woods at Fochabers, reccying for schools stuff. Feeling tired and awkward - need to do a bit of stretching again.

Great PSR write-up from Katie:
https://heilancooblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/23/the...

C • That's a great write-up! Be... 2

Ballater - Gairnshiel - Crathie - S Deeside loop with E. First time I've ridden this. It was lovely, but I could have done with an extra gear or two. Time for N+1 me thinks.
Feeling stuffed up again this morning, but pretty sure it's hay-fever / allergy related rather than a recurrence of the cold.

Lots of fun playing cairn pin-bouldering at Balmoral with E. Felt really quite ok running for the first time since PSR - big step forward. Looking forward to a few more fun runs like this over the next wee while. Bakehouse after.

Had half planned to run today, but feeling pretty tired after yesterday, so decide a bit of a R+R potter would be more beneficial. Fab day for it.

Hanging controls for ASC. Enjoying these sessions - great bunch of kids.

Home from ASC via Coull. Felt much harder work than it should have. Breathing not great yet either. Beautiful evening but really humid and dripping with sweat by the time I got home.

Home to Redburn in the rain. Don't like road biking in the wet but had delayed from earlier with an expectation that it would clear up. Thought I was running late so pushed a bit harder than I would otherwise. Still go a bit of a sporadic ashtmaticy cough, but getting there. Enjoyed the ride.

Short one round the woods and fields. Breathing still poor and legs not feeling very lively either, but progress at least!
Happy that I made the correct decision about next weekend.

Time to get out. Felt like harder work than it should, but I think that's partly just because I haven't done anything for the last week. Breathing wasn't as bad as I anticipated. Down the DW to Potties, then round the Ballogie loop and back by DW again. Felt so much better afterwards... think I've been missing those endorphins. Don't seem to have crashed after, so fingers crossed I'm good to get going again.
Realised last week is the first time since I started ap in 2008 that I have recorded a week without any training. I guess it's appropriate that it followed the week with highest ever time and running distance (never mind the climb)!

Learning points from PSR experience...
1. 3 weeks in Dolomites was great prep and came back feeling confident, fit and strong
2. Racing the 6-days the week after was not so smart - crashed at the end of this and suspect it damaged the effectiveness of my "taper"
3. I focussed on time and climb over distance in training. That's all very well but you still have to cover some stupid kms in these races and quite a lot of it is on dirt roads - could have done with a few long Glen Tanar track runs to supplement the other.
4. Week leading up to PSR was crazy busy with work. Hard to avoid when you're heading away, but probably didn't set me up in the most relaxed / chilled state.
5. You should never ever push as hard on day 1 of a race like this. I let myself get sucked into racing - stupid.
6. Don't assume that your partner expects to run as a pair in the same way as you do. Make sure you've had that chat beforehand and are on the same wavelength
7. Night Nurse... seemed to be an effective solution that R found to the lack of sleep issue. Will need to try it next time round (did I just say next time? :-))) )
8. Try not to have such high expectations of yourself; it would make it an awful lot easier to enjoy the experience
9. Other things - food, feet, injuries... just try and look after yourself as best you can and try not to get hung up on any of it. There's bound to be some issues.
10. Smile. Lots. And let yourself cry just a little!
11. Oh and don't drink exclusively beer then stay up until 2am if you want to have any hope of avoiding that post race cold :-)

Leading Dess training. Thanks to J+E for control hanging / collecting.
Starting to feel a bit more normal and hoping I can ease back into some easy training this week. It's been easy enough not to do anything in the last week, but may get harder to hold back once I start to feel more with it. Interesting recovery experience.

Starting to feel a bit more alive and head clearing out, but have pulled myself out of VHI team for next weekend as no way am going to feel ready for racing properly.
Afternoon wander round Aboyne Loch - progress.

Still feeling rubbish. Cold heading towards my chest now.
Photo story of last week here:
https://flickr.com/photos/32677799@N02/sets/721577...

Cold. Inevitable!

Well that was some experience. A real emotional roller coaster but a fantastic feeling to have completed. The whole event was the best organised I think I’ve ever experienced. Every detail had been thought through and the huge team of volunteers was just amazing. Very tempted by their shorter 3 day Costa Brava race....

C • Costa Brava 3

PSR stage 7 Esterri to Salardú. Made it :-))
Finally managed to sleep last night and woke feeling rather more with it. Steady climb and enjoyed the second half of it once we got into the big bouldery ‘black’ section . Died on the last steep climb to the high point of the day and then discovered on the steep descent that I now had monster blisters under my big toes as well as on my heels. Hobbled down using my poles to take the weight, feeling very sorry for myself and dreading the 18km or so that was still to come. R was very patient and we moved very slowly for the next 4km down to the next feed station. Thankfully the path improved a bit after that before eventually turning into a dirt road with 10km to go. For the first time this week I was delighted with the surface and managed to shuffle back at 7’km pace.
Job done.

C • Great effort all of you! 1

PSR stage 6 Tavascan to Esterri d’Aneu. Determined I was going to enjoy today without putting myself through it too much, so set off at a really easy pace up the big 1500m climb. It was mostly fine, although my breathing seemed to go to pot, feeling quite asthmaticy and short of breath. Probably a combo of extreme tiredness ( lack of sleep has really caught up with me now), altitude and maybe taking ibuprofen too ( can trigger asthma attacks). Anyway, once up to the high point it was less of an issue and there was a lovely technical black descent off the other side. The scenery here was totally stunning with beautiful lakes nestling between ridges. We managed to catch back a good bit of time and the kms ticked by relatively quickly. Soon enough we hit bigger tracks again which were less enjoyable and rather more painful on the feet. Managed to hold it together today though and finished with a smile. More time to recover this afternoon to try and feel a bit better heading into the final stage. The finish is in sight now.

C • Nearly done :-) 1

PSR stage 5 Arinsal to Tavascan. Another long day with 2 big climbs. Took it steadier up the first one, then enjoyed a short section of ‘black’ technical descent leading in to a longer section of red down towards the valley. Then we hit bigger tracks / road again and the joy faded for me! After 25km there was another VK to be tackled before the start of a long descent. I just about got my head round this and kept up a steady plod to the col. By the time we were heading off the other side my legs had forgotten how to descend and blistered heels were pretty painful, so progress was slow but made the final feed station with 5km left still in quite good spirits. From here it was a traverse round a balcony path before a final steep descent into the finish. It started quite runnable but gradually got rockier and rougher and some time around here I realised I was totally out of energy and about to bonk. I shoved some sweets down but it was too late and turned into a slow and painful final 2.5km. Finished feeling pretty emotional again and disappointed at how much I’d held R back. Tried to pick myself up by remembering that I had enjoyed a lot of the day through some stunning mountain scenery, but it gets hard to stay positive the more tired you get.

PSR stage 4 Encamp to Arinsal. So this was meant to be the easy recovery stage, but with 1900m of climb it was never going to be a walk in the park. Decided to run as a foursome today, which of course just put a bit more pressure on me being the weakest link. First climb was just about ok, but the descent wasn’t enjoyable as my feet are starting to rub a lot. Then at the start of the second climb I had a real energy bonk. Took some blocks and felt a bit better, but still managed to burst into tears when I finally caught the others at the top of the col. K was great playing ACDC on her phone all the way down which was a good distraction. Nice to finish all together, but certainly didn’t feel like an easy day for me.

C • Hang in there! 1

PSR day 3 Puigcerdà to Encamp. Longest stage today, but from what others said it would be more enjoyable than yesterday. 5km out on the roads from the start. R pxxxxd off ahead with S again and I ended up having to have a strop so that she realised it was doing my head in. After that the day went really well. Scenery was beautiful and the route lovely which kept spirits up despite being a long way. The final traverse on nice technical single track went on just a bit too long, and together with the heat made for a tough finish. Pleased I managed to find the love again today though. Body just about holding up but feeling pretty exhausted and drained.

PSR stage 2 Queralbs to Puigcerdà.
Another tough day for me. Not as interesting as yesterday with a lot of big forest roads etc. Was a bit dischuffed with R when she ran off at the start with S, even though I knew I was going ok and K was just in front of me. Calf was also twinging early on which got me quite negative and put me in the wrong place mentally for a while. Picked up with some coke and food at the second feeding station, but was finding it hard to move at any speed on the forest roads. The final feeding station was at the top of a col before a long descent on more interesting grassy paths down through the forest. Thankfully more coke picked me up again and I was actually able to enjoy this section. Finished with a few km on the road and up to the town which wasn’t great but got my head round it ok. Still 2nd F to K and S and calf held up without cramping - fingers crossed.

PSR stage 1 Ribes de Freser to Queralbs. Tough day. Ros was cracking the whip. Didn’t feel great from the start but as usual it got better after 30’ . Surprisingly found ourselves ahead of K and S (and stayed that way until the 28km mark) and running the gentler bits of track felt good. Felt my calf starting to cramp from quite early on and was already having to go carefully before the top of Puig de Balandrau. Ros was pushing the pace all the way up here and I was probably working harder than I should have been. Calf eased off a bit on the descent and was able to relax on the more technical bit where R was slower. Discovered at the bottom of this section that we were leading ladies. I made a comment that I’d be really happy to finish 2nd after K and S passed us, but R didn’t seem to be thinking the same way! The next section ‘contouring’ round the side of the hill turned out to be full on technical with lots of steep ups and downs which we hadn’t anticipated. Really beautiful and a fab wee path, but it was clearly going to be slower than expected. We spotted K and S behind but they didn’t gain too quickly and we were still in front at the final feed station 7km from the finish. Soon after that I did have to stop with a full on bout of cramp and it was only a few mins later when they finally overhauled us. Again we were surprised at the technicality of the path which continued that way down the side of a beautiful valley all the way to the finish. I was really tired by this stage and it was a tough grind trying not to hold Ros up too much.
Feeling pretty broken but got straight under the small waterfall by the finish, soon followed by a fab leg massage, and felt a good bit better after. Definitely pushed harder than I would have on my own and think we might need to ease off a touch tomorrow if I’m going to make it through the week. Good news is that the 3rd ladies were a further 1h 20m behind us today.