Training Log Archive: Frostbite

Parkside and Weetwood. I don't seem to have recovered at all from Sunday. A struggle.

Clwydian Hills fell race. A couple of minutes slower than i was two years ago but I felt I ran pretty well. I lost time early on with a bad line, just following the crowd and adding both distance and climb. Then I lost a bit more time with a bad belly as we ran along the Offas Dyke path. After that and once the terrain got a bit more interesting I was a lot better. I think I got another bad line on one of the climbs, following the group through bilberry and heather when I am sure I found a path last time.

Nice sunny day, enjoyable race in nice scenery. Ali Thornton won in 76, 2nd (and 1st over 50) was Lloyd Taggart in 78 I think, then Peter Bray in 80. They had probably gone home by the time I finished. I did win a scarf as a spot prize.

Easy round Swinsty reservoir

Up into Meanwood to do 2 x 600m. It was a bit too dark to do any more. I was just seeing if I could actually run, which I could. 2:22, 2:23. So much better than Tuesday. This means I might actually do the fell race I have entered on Sunday.

After I got back from Meanwood, a few exercises on account of not having bothered last night.

C • What's all this conditioning? 6

Proper ill now, not helped by having a flu jab. Started off with a bit of bravado but soon settled for gentle jogging and wandered about until I got to 2 miles. Glen Road and Shire Oak Road.

Grass Wood and Conistone Dib, same as last week except this time I was with Tasha, and we took a different route out through the wood including the climb up to Fort Gregory. Pleasant and sunny but a cold northerly breeze.

Felt awful to start with but improved as the run went on. Very tired.

Arden, Hawnby Hill, Hawnby, Gower Dale and Dale Town Moor from the Drove Road. Started feeling like I might be getting a cold. Finished feeling like I definitely had a cold. Slow and steady to start, very slow at the end.

4 x 600m, Meanwood. 2:30, 2:25, 2:24, 2:30. Better than I was expecting.

Gledhow Park and Chapel Allerton with Evie. I wasn't feeling great and Evie appeared to be a bit out of sorts and also was messing about with her new HR strap so we didn't go very quickly. I was still knackered by the end.

Grass Wood and Conistone Dib. Feeling smug that Tasha couldn't persuade me to go Wombwell. This was a lovely run in beautiful scenery just beginning to turn autumnal, and it wasn't raining.

Journey into the unknown - Moortown and Sandmoor golf courses.

After 27 years in Leeds I still keep trying to find new places to go, and decided to head up the valley, through the soulless suburb of Alwoodley and then follow the public right of way across these two golf courses to reach Eccup Reservoir. From there it is the familiar path back down the valley.

Moortown looks a very boring golf course, and it doesn't like pedestrians. Most of the path across it is hemmed in by chain link fences, and where you do cross the fairway there are signs saying "for your safety, do not invonvenience golfers". Or words to that effect.

Sandmoor was much more pleasant with an open path weaving between tees and fairways then looping down the slope towards the reservoir. It looks a much more interesting course as well, hillier and more wooded - although that might just make it more interesting for orienteering rather than golf. Same signs though.

Still tired from Thursday night and just happy to get it done.

Fun fact : Moortown hosted the Ryder Cup in 1929. And don't they want you to know it.

NLFR intervals on the Long Causeway at Adel. 2 x 6 x 2 minutes with 1 min rest and 5 minutes between sets. This was difficult for me. I suffered on the 10th and just jogged in, but was OK for the last 2.

Improving

Weetwood and Lawnswood. Struggling.

Sneaton Forest, Blue course. This was Tasha's idea. I did about 4 hours of gardening yesterday and woke up stiff and sore from that. It rained constantly and the temperature at the forest was about 10C which felt pretty cold. I was happy to run the whole course with my cag on.

Sneaton is not very hilly but it is a very physical forest. Off the big tracks you are always crossing big ditches, ploughed furrows, fallen trees and areas of felling. At this time of year there is quite a lot of undergrowth - bracken, ferns and long grass - and underfoot there is always some give in the ground, and quite often a lot of give. It was hard work just to keep moving. Having said that there were some quite pleasant bits of forest, still with furrows but with not much on the ground and a bit firmer underfoot.

I plodded along finding all the controls without too much bother.

#2 I cut a corner I would have been better off not cutting and got caught in some fallen trees, 30 secs.

#11 I turned off the forest road too soon, distracted by the parked cars, and had to hack across to the intended path, 30 secs.

I left #11 slightly in the wrong direction and hit the forest road further right than intended, 30 secs.

#16 I just couldn't find anywhere to run and slogged through every furrow and patch of brashings. There must have been easier running somewhere because other people were much faster.

Still, no big mistakes and just about kept going so I took the win. yay.

I talked briefly to Paul Taylor and apparently the adjacent area being used for the JK is more interesting and in better condition.

There was an oddity on the map - deep entrenched ditches were marked with the new 'Trench' symbol - two parallel narrow black lines. With my eyesight this meant I couldn't tell the difference between ditches and rides. The ditches marked this way were easily jumpable but might have been hard to climb out of if you fell in.

C • JK 9

Dearncombe and Round Hill. There was a helicopter picking up bags of mown heather and dropping them by the road in the forest. Noisy.

It'll never last.

4 X 600m at Meanwood. 2:32, 2:27, 2:27, 2:28. Not quite on it tonight, not helped by the cold weather and it getting dark around about the 3rd effort.

Half hearted and weak.

Weetwood and Lawnswood. Drier.

Strava is stupid. It says moving time for this was a minute quicker than elapsed time. I didn't spend any time at all standing still - this run has a few minor road crossings but no big roads and I didn't get held up at any of them. I was moving at more or less constant speed the whole time. Strava is stupid.

I know I can say everything is a race and Strava will then show elapsed time but is there a way to just turn the "moving time" thing off?

C • Strava 9