Training Log Archive: Frostbite

6 days day 3, Dundurn & Cnoc a Mhadaidh. Best area of the week, really enjoyable woodland with rock and contour detail and mixed runnability. It was all good until Dave P and his MI6 shadow came past me on the climb up to #12. They didn't seem to be going very fast but I still couldn't keep up and the last time I saw them was as they went into #14. I had maybe tried too hard to keep up and on #15 for the first time on the course I wasn't sure what I was doing. Some other runners (including Kirsty I think) led me into it, but only after I had nearly gone past and turned myself around. The result of that was leaving #15 90 degrees off line and missing the very short, very easy #16 by a minute. I'm not sure it adds up but somehow I am sure Marky is to blame.

22nd place. Charlie won in 32.

6 days day 2, Edinchip. Uninspiring moorland and mixed woodland area at Lochearnhead. Early start meant I was making the tracks, and this was after picking the ladies up from the airport and getting to bed at 1am the night before so I was never on the pace. The open moor was very easy and I could see Chappers pulling away from me from his 1 minute start. Last time I saw him was #5, the last control on the moor. I lost half a minute at #8, looking at the other boulders first before spotting the control hidden in the bracken. Went over the top of #11, another 30 seconds, then was pretty good from there to the finish. Looks like I got the right (legal) option on the "Route choice across the uncrossable stream" leg, over the northern bridge. At #15 and completely out of the blue I saw Chappers leaving as I was coming down to it. I realised he must have made some mistakes in the last part of the course and if I sprinted back up the hill to the finish I could beat him for the day. I hammered myself up the hill and along the run in and took a whole second out of him, but that meant I beat him by 20 seconds or so. At least I had beaten him until the great uncrossable stream debacle in which I lost 3 places and Chappers gained 5 and he overtook me. We both took perfectly legal routes but mine was better, so when the leg was removed he gained and I lost. Not fair.

I finished the day in 41st place, but then got demoted to 44th for having made the right route choice. The time given is for the course without the voided leg. Niklas Rönnbäck won in 53 minutes.

Scottish 6 days day 1, Auchengarich. 18th M50, Al Landels first in 55 mins. Felt slow and laboured, caught Chappers before #3 but then he ran away from me on the moor at 7,8,9. I lost the plot a bit on the long leg to 10 after I got dropped by Chappers but still found it ok. Lost a lot of time at #15, 3-4 mins maybe just floundering in the green. Couldn't make any of it make sense and couldn't read the map in the dark. Eventually just happened on the control. I also got lost on the way to #17, couldn't make any sense of the mapping once we crossed into the fields. Took a couple of minutes to work it out.

Caerketton from Swanston. Very slowly, only just quicker than walking.

Same as Tuesday but a bit more lively. 35C when I drove home, maybe s little cooler when running. Looking forward to 30C and showers in Scotland next week.

7 Arches. Not quite as hot as yesterday. A bit like hard work.

Pottering around the Hollies. Too hot, even at 8pm and with the sun beginning to set. It had been 30C when I got home.

Sedbergh, Arant Haw, Castley Knotts, Fell Head, Calf, Sedbergh. Not great after dropping Tasha and Evie at the airport at 6am, just felt knackered from the start. I just about ran every step though, just not very quickly. Big climbs.

Hunger Hills, steady. Raining.

Altitude training pays off.

Gribdale, Captain Cook's, Cliff Ridge, Roseberry Topping, Little Roseberry, Gribdale, with Evie. I thought I would struggle after yesterday but this was faster than the last time I did it and we were taking it quite easy at the end. I ran all the way up the side of Roseberry as well, although still behind Evie who walked a fair bit.

Semer Water, Drumaldrace. One of the handful of Yorkshire 2000' mountains that I had never climbed before. It barely qualifies. Nice run on the way out, not so good on the way back.

Arches. Heavy rain started just after I set off. Never really got going. The footpath by the old cricket ground has been closed off because it is collapsing into the beck, adding a considerable 200 metres to the route into the park.

Steady, forgot about my sore quad so it must have been ok.

Kirkstall Bridge, Bramley Fall, Kirkstall Bridge. With Evie. Started off ok then after about 2 miles my quad started getting sore again. By the end I was struggling to run. Very painful.

With Evie. My thigh is still sore from bashing it on Thursday and it got more painful as we went on. I was struggling, Evie just jogging.

More gentle walking, downhill from Rio Gere to Cortina, then up a cable car and down to Rio Gere again. Some nice views, a little bit of getting lost because no map. 8 miles of walking maybe.

Gentle walking lap of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. 6 miles in 4 hours. Many stops to look at stuff, take photos, drink coffee etc. Altitude 2300-2500 metres which was noticeable at first but I guess we got used to it.

Day 5, Padola Sant'Antonio. Mostly nice forest today and only one big climb right at the start. Wobbled a bit in the middle of the course with 1 min mistakes at 10 and 11 and hesitating into 12. Generally OK though and just about kept running. The last 1.5k was an easy track run followed by a couple of urban controls in the town, finishing in the main piazza. There was a bit of a steep climb on the track run where I got overtaken by a lady who must be about 7 months pregnant. I got her back in the town though. Well done me.

A bit feeble than previous days so 18th is a fair result. I'm glad there isn't a day 6.

Forgot to mention I dead legged myself on a sticking out branch. Finished ok but it is now very sore. I strapped my ankle so that was OK.

Day 4, Padola Valgrande. I had a late start which meant I got the rain, it started just when I did. Lost a minute at 2, couldn't decide which boulder was which and just hunted round a few. Lost another 45 seconds at 3 doing similar, except this time I worked out which was the right boulder before I saw the flag. I also twisted my ankle here which was painful for the rest of the course. After 2 mistakes in 3 controls, with a sore ankle and heavy rain I was feeling pretty low at this point, a feeling which persisted until #7 when I started to enjoy myself. There were a few longer legs requiring a bit of thought on the route to bring you out at the right level and I think I executed these pretty well. Then we had a few legs down a long spur with beautiful open forest and a fair bit of rock detail, before the trivial lap of the field to finish. 17th for the day. By my calculations I should be 12th or 13th overall.

Day 3, Misurina. Supposedly a middle distance but barely shorter than the previous day. The course went out and back along a big slope where it was all about accurate height judgment, then some more varied controls above the finish. I went well until the last control on the slope where I was too low and lost a minute, then a bad line on the next lost me another minute. I was wobbling at most of the controls by this stage, getting a bit tired, so was a bit cautious coming downhill to the second last and then hared off to the finish. Except it wasn't the second last and I missed out an easy control that was only just off my line. Should have been 13th for the day but now dq for the week.

Trying to be philosophical.

Previous events where I have missed a control : Welsh 6 days 2016 day 4, Scottish 6 days 2017 day 4. Some sort of pattern.

Italy 5 days, day 2, Misurina. Mostly good but never felt that I could get much speed up, because of the altitude I guess. A bit cautious but no real problems until the second last, which was in the wrong place. At least it was relative to everything on the other side of the road where everybody was approaching from. Lots of people wandering around confused by what should have been a very simple control. I wandered for maybe 1.5 minutes.

14th place, 17 minutes down on Thomas Asp. I'm reasonably happy with that. Also happy to have finished and got under cover before the thunder hailstorm that caught the later finishers. Things have now cooled down a lot, temperatures down to about 12C at Misurina after the storm.