Training Log Archive: Bashman

Easy Terrain
Up to Kirkton of Maryculter again but with ad and Alfie this time. Did a loop in the green bit and then crossed the road into "Dead Man's Woods". Did a lot more exploring here and was amazed by the fantastic terrain in there. Lots of rhododendron and could imagine quite a complicated map. Underfoot was mostly really good and lots to map. Also quite a big area, comparable to Crathes but most of it is nicer, and with hardly any paths. Obviously hasn't been touched for quite a while. One spooky point where we came across a tent with god knows what inside... Then finished by running down a track surrounded by unusual trees. One final loop in the green bit and back. Next up, go there with a camera, take a few pictures of the amazing terrain, and hopefully advertise. A real contender for Aberdeen city's nicest forest.

WU/D
Good WU and even better WD. Couldn't get a lift out to Tarland Show Hill Race today but hopefully doing 2 next week will make up for it.
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Drills
Quick set.
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Solo Intervals - (Tempo, Hills, Sprints)

To make up for not racing I headed out for some solo work.

Tempo - 3km tempo, wasn't sure how far it was at the start but was hoping for about 10mins of tempo. Ran 10:33 feeling very comfortable indeed.

Hills - Again hadn't a clue at how long it would take to get up this hill (280m, 30m) so only had a goal of 8mins of reps in my head. Ran the first one pretty comfortably and then headed back down thinking about what I was going to do. Since the first one didn't feel like much of a rep, I decided to make things gradually harder by adding a new section on each rep. So 5 reps, and the final one had the full Up - Stride - Short Down - Stride - Short Up

Splits: (lapped at every "checkpoint" for comparative purposes)

1 - 1:18
2 - 1:19 - 21
3 - 1:20 - 22 - 17
4 - 1:19 - 22 - 16 - 28
5 - 1:17 - 22 - 17 - 27 - 17

Sprints - 6 final 10s hill sprints starting every minute. Found a very slippery cobble path going up quite a steep slope. This ended up being perfect as I had to focus on not slipping as well as pushing hard up the hill.

Good session and feeling fully recovered after Thursday.

Core
Regular stuff

Easy
Effortless loop with Alfie as he needed a run. Picked up the pace through a cow field but slow and riddled with stops otherwise. Guess this wasn't a bad thing.

Long

Had been planning this one for a while, and luckily I got lifts to and from the start and finish today, plus it was a perfect day. Initially planned to run the 43km Lairig Ghru race route from Braemar to Aviemore but decided to cut it short a bit and save that first marathon run for another day. Glad I did too as I'm not sure if I would have coped with eight/nine for kilometers...

So started off at Linn of Dee at 10:06 and headed up the track to Derry Lodge. Felt pretty comfortable so cruised it at a steady pace. Got to the river and decided to just head straight through instead of taking the map out and looking for the bridge. Wet shoes yes but this turned out not to matter anyway. Track got downgraded a little bit, and was very up/downy which sapped energy a fair amount. Next crossing below Carn a Mhaim, through the river again in the "new" plantation (still felt pretty wild though). Saw two Canadians/Americans who were crouched down thinking that they had heard something in the bushes.. Probably think there are bears in Scotland.

Quite a hill here to get back into the Dee Valley and onto the Ghru. Path worsened hugely here and it was really quite tricky to keept a good flow going. Irregular rocks everywhere, streams, mud.... Eventually made it over and passed a runner who was running it the other way. Would have been interesting to talk to him but he looked determined. Thought about popping into the Corrour Bothy but there wasn't much point and it was a bit of a detour. I was coming onto an hour here and had my first flapjack bar. Managed to eat it on the go without stopping.

Continued past the three Tailors Stones, picturing the Ghru during a blizzard in the night, would have been scary! Path was getting worse and worse until it pretty much became more rock than path. Smashed my toe on a stone so took a stop and ate another bar anyway. Gradient was increasing up to the high point and the Pools of Dee, path was still awful. Got to the boulder fields at the Pools and had to slow right down to a near walk. Stopped again at the pools for a few pictures and a gel. Found it really hard starting the run again after 3 and a half minutes (probably the hardest bits of the run were doing this). Past the pools and the boulder fields and over the high point. 19km.

Thought this next downhill 7km would be easy compared to the first 19 but the path made sure it still took a good amount of effort. Suddenly started seeing a lot of people with impressed looks so this helped me on. Managed to phone mum on the go too to find out that I was going to beat them there i.e this gave more time for me to go further! Path eventually got a lot better and soon I was out of the strong sunshine and into Rothiemurchus forest. Never been in this part of it and it was brilliant, really hope this map rumour is true and we'll be orienteering in there some time soon (although it would be incredibly physical). Seemed to take ages to get to the Cairngorm Club bridge and had a bit more food before I got there but soon I was on the final flat 7km.

Legs began to really hurt once I got to 30km. Also spent a good minute figuring out how to close a gate so I was probably getting quite tired. Had one more gel with about 5km to go. Through to Coylumbridge and onto the road there. Down the hill to the bridge over the Spey keeping a good pace and back up to Aviemore. One final push to the police station. Thought this would be a good place to end seeing as the race finishes there. 3 hours bang on.

Pretty destroyed after that but had a good amount of recovery foods and even managed to drive the whole way home. Legs obviously pretty wrecked but no negative side effects as yet. Beautiful route though and picked the perfect day. Can't wait to do the race some day soon.

Total number of stops (over 30s) - 5
Stoppage time - 10:57

C • Great run! 2

Easy
Short version of tomorrow's big challenge. Gradually up hill for first half, then gradually back down for the rest. Feeling very good on the hills but calves pretty tight from yesterday. Will stretch them out well tonight.

Core
20 mins easy stuff
6 mins stretching

JWOC all written up, can all be viewed here http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_5443/p... .
All the maps with routes are here - http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/index.ph...

In summary:
Best Result - Middle Final 17th
Best Run - Middle Qualifier (13th in Q1)
Happy with Middle Q and Long
Main problem with my orienteering at JWOC - poor starts (MF, MQ, L and R all had bad starts)
But there's a few years to fix that....

Long - Aiming for 90mins

Went for an explore south of Maryculter Bridge. Smashed me head on a branch heading across which dazed me for a while but calmed down a bit further on. Up to Kirkton of Maryculter by road, then onto some paths into the "Durris Forest" there. Through some quite nice birch forest then onto some overgrown moorland. Faught my way onto the path next to the valley (that eventually leads down to Storybook Glen) and headed back down to the road. Then headed up the road for a few kilometers along the forest. Eventually went in and had to terrain it for quite a few kms. Some really nice forest in there, even found some wild bilberry bushes. Probably would be worth mapping but I can't imagine we'd get permission. Onto the fields facing the Dee, and through another patch of forest to get onto a small road heading back to Maryculter Bridge. Back along the river but extended things a bit to bump it up to 90mins. Good stuff but got quite thirsty by the end in the heat.

C • Areas 2

WU
Mile loop, another lap of the track, drills and strides
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AAAC Intervals - 3 x 1000, 2 x 600, 1 every 5 mins.

I was feeling pretty good for the first two and I thought I should be able to hold the pace for the last 3 (was meant to be 5 x 1000). Pace wasn't as fast as it was a few weeks ago but that's probably expected for this post-JWOC time of year. Although the recoveries were shorter than usual...
Anyway 3rd rep went horribly and my stomach began playing up. So cut the last two down to 600s which weren't that great but I was still feeling poor. Blame it on having soup a few hours before this. Lesson learned.

3:11, 3:11, 3:13, 1:51, 1:48
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WD