Training Log Archive: Frostbite

White Rose team race. Not really feeling up for it. Silly scrum at number 1 with 50 people trying to punch in one box. Slow, lost a minute at one control that I had found ok yesterday. Ended up in a sprint finish with Lesley Ross. As a team we were poor, Evie having started a loop the wrong way and losing 6 minutes.

White Rose Middle Distance, Pickering Forest. Felt stronger than yesterday and felt I was running pretty well, and my navigation was better - only one mistake. Unfortunately it was a big one - running underneath #6 and along the slope as far as our #9. I couldn't work out what I had done at first and wandered back along the slope until I eventually worked it out, 4 minutes lost. Pretty good apart from that. 3rd M45, a minute behind Peter Ward and just behind Andy. 2nd overall. Got beat by more women than in the classic race though.

White Rose Classic, Pickering Forest. Struggling along with mistakes at every other control. Andy Thorpe caught me about half way round and kept leaving me behind and reappearing again. I eventually beat him to the finish but he beat me by 4 minutes. Rough and unpleasant at times, very nice at others. Some odd controls. 2nd M45.

Jogging around in West Park Fields and Queenswood.

Plodding along. Much building going on in Kirkstall Valley.

Seven Arches, slow

Woodhouse Ridge, Sugarwell Hill, Stainbeck, Tunnel How Hill, Meanwood. Took a while to get going, moving ok. Torrential rain started with 5 minutes to go, soaked by the time I got home. It's been sunny all day.

Sourby - Dearncomb Beck - Beamsley Beacon - Round Hill - Sourby. Very warm, it was like sauna until I climbed onto the ridge at Beamsley Beacon where there was a bit more breeze. Tired at the end, struggling to keep the fairly gentle pace up.

Adel Crag, steady.

Oxley.

Welsh 3000s walk

I’ve had it in mind to do this for a few years but it’s taken until now for the opportunity to come up. Also I thought I would probably need to do some training for it but in the end I decided just to do it and hope for the best.

It’s very hard, particularly the long steep descents off Crib Goch and Tryfan. I was feeling pretty much done for when I reached the road at Llyn Ogwen but a sit down for twenty minutes and a nice bowl of chilli for tea perked me up. I was hoping to do 12 hours for the Snowdon – Foel Fras time but I was a bit behind schedule leaving Llyn Ogwen. The last ridge is really easy walking though, and I managed to make up the time to finish in 11:51.

I pretty much followed the route from this website www.welsh3000s.co.uk – I wouldn’t have had a clue which lines to take otherwise. The only significant difference is that I started the climb up Snowdon from Rhyd Ddu rather than Pen-y-pass. This added a bit of distance and a bit of climb to the overall walk but not that much, and since all my 5 previous ascents of Snowdon have started at Pen-y-pass I wanted to go somewhere different. Also it was quieter and made the whole walk a more satisfying shape.

It got dark as I was descending from Foel Fras to the car park above Abergwyngregyn. It’s about 4 miles from the last peak to the car park and it took ages, totally spent and just plodding along.

Total time for the whole thing was a couple of minutes under 15 hours. I make it 29 miles and 3900 metres of climb.
Snowdon – Foel Fras is 22 miles and 3000 metres of climb. ish.
Thanks to Tasha and Evie for providing the support.

Timings –

(Rhyd Ddu actual time 06:52)

Snowdon 0:00 (actual time 08:26) - easy ascent climbing into cloud at about 600 metres

Carnedd Ugain 0:17 - easy walk, still in cloud

Crib Goch 1:00 – nasty descent on wet rock with some bits of rock climbing, followed by traversing the ridge while holding on with both hands.

Nant Peris a 2:16 – awkward descent of Crib Goch along the north ridge then through scree to reach the grassy hillside by a stream. Cloud starting to clear which gave me some clues to get the right way down. Then walking down the road in hot sunshine.

Nant Peris d 2:26

Elidir Fawr 3:41 – long boggy plod, tops now clear, hot and sunny.

Y Garn 4:36 – easy walking

Glyder Fawr 5:25 – big down and up through scree, starting to flag here. Picked up a bit when walking turned to boulder hopping near the top.

Glyder Fach 5:50 – more boulder hopping. Many many people here.

Tryfan 6:40 – nasty descent beside Bristly Ridge. I was the only person going down and there were plenty coming up and I was having to take evasive lines, mainly because I was worried about sending rocks onto people’s heads. Found a reasonably easy line up Tryfan.

Llyn Ogwen a 7:30 – descended the west face of Tryfan from the col to the north of the summit. This wasn’t too bad, but was followed by a very steep descent on grass and scree direct to the road. I think I might have been better taking a more circuitous route.

Llyn Ogwen d 7:55 – mmmm chilli, and a pep talk from Evie. Basically she told me that they would only pick me up from the car park at the end after I said I might have to return to Ogwen if I was struggling.

Pen Yr Ole Wen 9:08 – climbed via the east ridge. A fairly easy climb with only a few bits where hands were needed, took it steady. Knackered.

Carnedd Dafydd 9:32 – very easy

Yr Elen 10:26 – very easy and accelerating with two Irish lads in my sights

Carnedd Llewellyn 10:50 – the last real climb, a little bit of a drag up but no problem

Foel Grach 11:16 – very easy, not really a proper summit. Beginning to get a bit chilly with the sun going down, and clouds forming around the tops.

Carnedd Uchaf 11:31 - ditto

Foel Fras 11:51 (actual time 20:17) – more of a summit than the previous two. Having overtaken the two Irish lads my legs gave up and they caught me again at the top. Would have been very easy if it wasn’t for the previous 14 summits.

(Car Park actual time 21:50) – descending in the gloom, completely dark by the finish. Bitten to death by midges within seconds of stopping.

C • Well done 5

Still feeling knackered from last week. Forced myself out but didn't really feel like it - sore and slow.

6-day reflections.

Knackering. Too much driving, or sitting in the car not going anywhere. Great orienteering for 4 days, not sure about day 2 and I was glad I missed day 5. I was unhappy with every run except possibly day 2, but not too unhappy. Well, apart from that massive mistake on day 6, which is going to haunt me.

Watching over athletes baggage at the WOC relay was surprisingly stressful.

C • With power 2

S6D day 6, Glen Affric north.

Tired but better for having had a rest day yesterday. Nearly got dragged down the hill by the elephant track on the way to #1. I didn't go all the way down but still had a bit of a climb into the control, and got there at the same time as Stefano Maddalena (1 minute man). He made a slight miss on #2 so I was only about 20 secs behind him there, but I didn't see him again.

Didn't find any easy running on the way to #4 and it seemed to take forever, but the time doesn't look too bad. Caught at #5 by John Duckworth and Fraser P. I could match (or even beat) them going downhill, but was left behind going up. We were all still more or less together at #11, but Fraser went off the front before making a big mistake at #12.

On #13 I parted ways with John. I had a reasonable line and crossed the big valley right below the control, but then my brain did something stupid and I started reading a different line into the control - somewhere I knew that I wasn't. This meant I ran across the slope below the control and a long way east before relocating on a boulder in a re-entrant 300 metres away. 5 minutes lost. A tired mistake.

After that I was surprised to see Fraser at #15, and he made another mistake at #16 so I beat him into the finish. Parkino overtook me on the run-in, having chased me down the hill.

38th place, but the position reflects the fact that a lot of people missed the last day. It was a great area, pity about the mistake. On the plus side, I got into a pack for the first time in all of o-ringen and S6D, and I managed to stick with it. For a while anyway. Until the pressure got to me.

C • Real times! 2

S6D - Day 6 Glen Affric - C37 - Splits

S6D day 5. I was feeling very run down when I finished day 4 and decided afterwards not to bother with day 5. The 10am start time may also have swayed my decision.

The terrain, map and course all came in for some significant criticism, and times were very long.

S6D day 4, Darnaway West.

Lovely forest. Started poorly, following the elephant track out of the start and losing track (well, never really gaining track) of where I was. I stopped within sight of my control but didn't think it looked like an earthbank. Stood still while Evie punched her control on the marsh 50 metres away and rejected the idea of asking her where I was. Eventually realised the control on the not-earthbank had my code on it. 1 minute lost.

Fine then until #7, went straight over the hill and didn't really find a good line, 30 seconds lost. After about #12 I started to flag a bit and it seemed to me that the terrain got rougher. Went for the track to attack #13 but came in too early and had a look at the wrong hill. A bit dithery for #14, couldn't decide which path to follow, then good to the finish.

Maybe 2.5 minutes lost overall, tired and a bit untidy. 46th.

S6D - Day 4 Darnaway - C37 - Splits

S6D day 3, Darnaway East.

Middle distance race, all clean apart from #4. I knew where I was and I was going in the right direction but I couldn't find a runnable line so I climbed out of the light green into the white then overshot and had to come back to it. I should have just persevered with my original line. 1.5 minutes lost, which would have been 10 or 15 places. bah.

54th.

S6D - Day 3 Darnaway - C37 - Splits

S6D day 2, Strathfarrar.

Queued for an hour to get into the car park but still made it to the start in time for my 2pm start time. Lost a bit of time at #3, first of all by climbing too much out of #2, then by going to a crag in the open a little above the one with the control on it. (which was in the forest, not in the open where it should have been). Most of the rest was just following the big elephant track until we got into the green forest at the end. A clean run from #14 to the finish gained me 7 places.

30th place, not bad, benefitting hugely from a late start time.

S6D - Day 2 Strathfarrar - C37 - Splits

S6D, day1, Achagour

Started off into the lovely white forest with 3 good controls, then let myself get distracted by Roger Goddard at #4 and lost a minute going round in circles. After that everything was a bit ragged until #8 where I lost another minute not turning into the re-entrant and going down to the next one with the path in it. After that everything improved, although winsplits claims I made a mistake at 16 when I was just slow running uphill through heather.

44th for the day, maybe 3 minutes of mistakes. Could have been better.

S6D - Day 1 Achagour - C37 - Splits