Training Log Archive: Frostbite

Tras de Figuero, Vila Nova, Alvorge. Started off in the dry, but the rain started again after twenty minutes and got heavier and heavier as we went on. Steady plod but it all got a bit much after nearly an hour of incessant rain. Mostly vehicle tracks but some nicer small paths at the far end and a few rocky bits, slippy in the wet.

Jogging around Brayton Barff.

Skipwith Common. Very nice. Just jogging around and conked out a bit towards the end. I also got lost for about 10 minutes which was entertaining.

Two bigger laps of The Hollies and Meanwood. 21:23, 20:33. First time round seemed easy enough, second time I was pushing quite hard. Early in the morning, busy day.

30 lengths in 24 minutes, followed by a more relaxed 10 lengths in 14 minutes. Very bad cramp in both calves when I tried to put my shoes on afterwards.

Slow jog home but with a couple of 1 minute flat out stretches along Weetwood Lane.

Adel Church, 8 x 3min/1min. Bit windy. Not bad.

Llechweddgain, Brown course. Enjoyable bit of rocky hill near Trawsfynydd. It was all very low key with about 30 competitors. I started about 30 seconds behind Evie who was doing Blue but the courses were very similar at the start so at my #3 I let Evie go and walked part of the way to #4. Visibility was quite low on the higher slopes which made it a bit more interesting but it was mostly fairly easy. My worst mistake was #24 where I was about 30m left of the control coming down to a crag. I could see where it was but there was 30m of gorse between me and the control. I opted to go through rather than back up and over the top, well spiky.

There was too much black on the map, scattered boulders mapped as masses of boulder groups. It was usually quite runnable but looked horrendous on the map and obscured all the contour detail. Also the black was blurred (not just my eyes Evie said the same) so crags, walls, paths were indistinguishable smudges.

Good fun though, nice to get out somewhere new. Seemed like a lot more than 255 m climb, more like 350.

Parkrun. Not really expecting much, tired and with a tickly throat. Also we were late so I dropped Evie off then had to find somewhere to park and by the time I got there everybody was already lined up and I just had to join at the back. It took me 20 seconds or so to cross the line and I couldn't see Evie anywhere but at least I missed most of the happy clappy bit before the start.

I was overtaking people for the first two laps and at the start of the third I spotted Evie about 30 seconds ahead of me, which is probably where she had been right from the start. That's about where I stopped overtaking and I slowed down a bit on the last climb. Evie pulled away out of sight again. I did about 24:09 but I fumbled my watch so it's a few seconds out. I would have been under 24 if I had started nearer the front. Evie did about 23:25, taking it easy she says.

Gledhow Park and Chapel Allerton with Evie. Steady.

HPH speed and strength session
1. Warm up including trying to play tig against Evie, who is too quick and too small to catch.
2. Short loop (200m ish) including a little slalom section, jumping over an imaginary barrier, avoiding the cracks in the pavement, some fairly deep loose gravel. All of which made it quite slow and with lots of people about even slower, so this was more like a warm up, 8 minutes.
3. Same loop but without the "obstacles" except the gravel was still there, 1 loop fast 1 loop slow for about 10 minutes
4. Steps, bunny hops 1 at a time
5. Steps, fast feet 1 at a time, hop down
6. Steps, lunge/walk up. 10 minutes for all the steps stuff
7. Some core stuff, plank, squats etc.
8. Warm down and stretch.

2 bigger laps of the Hollies and Meanwood, with a headtorch. Lacking confidence a bit, particularly downhill and in the Rocky bits. 22:44, 22:48, which is quicker than it seemed at the time.

Adel Church including 8 x 3min/1min. Felt quite good at the start, going fairly fast without straining. All changed on the last 3 where I was doing lots of straining and not getting much out of it. Ok not bad.

30 lengths in 26 minutes. I wasn't planning on swimming tonight but Evie wanted to go.

Wandering around above Arncliffe

3 bigger laps of the Hollies and Meanwood, 23:05, 22:47, 21:58. Only started trying the 3rd time around.

30 lengths at Scott Hall

Adel Church.

Hollies, 7 arches, up the lane into Adel then back along the road. Very slow, just not feeling it going out through the woods in the gloom. Slightly better on the road.

new shoes ********

Tempted into the woods by a gorgeous evening but it was really a bit too dark. My back is still sore and I was being a bit cautious so the first half was slow. Speeded up after crossing the beck when my back had loosened up a bit.

Knackered my back shifting furniture. Wallowed in pain all day. Eventually walked to the shops which made it feel a bit better so I went for a jog to 7 arches with Tasha. I took all the downhills very gingerly and generally felt a bit rubbish.

Formby, Short Brown course

Felt fairly sluggish to start with but I was going alright. I lost a little time in the circle at #1 (20 seconds maybe) then fine through to #9 where again I lost about 20 seconds in the circle. I didn't think the map was very helpful here and the re-entrant didn't re-enter as much as is shown on the map. Leaving #9 I didn't really check my direction and ended up in deep undergrowth to the left of the line. It took me a minute or so to extricate myself and get back on line - I didn't have any bother with the control itself. I was a bit hesitant on #11 and #13 but fine really. #14 I had a lot of trouble staying on line. I think I picked up an unmapped path to start with, then the first block of woods was bigger than I thought because I couldn't see it under the oob stripes, and I wasn't really certain of where I was until the path junction in the second block of woods. I had wandered about a bit to get to there. No problem with the control again. #15 I decided to play safe and come in off the path bend to the south. This turned out to be very high visibility woodland and the straight line would have been perfectly ok so my round about route cost me 30 seconds. My only mistake after that was leaving #17 carelessly and failing to hit the gate leading into the enclosed track through the oob - another 20 seconds.

At #9 , about 1/3 distance, I was in 4th place and only a minute down. I got slower after that and I guess more mistakes and hesitations crept in so at the end I was 10 minutes down in 12th place. I couldn't keep up the early pace and getting stuck in the undergrowth after #9 knocked me off my stride a bit. Navigation was fairly sound though, mostly. I would have been happy to be 2 mins quicker and get 5th.

30 lengths of Scott Hall

7 arches steady with Evie. Flagging towards the end. It'll be too dark next week. Still very dry.

7 arches. Scotland Wood 11:55.