Training Log Archive: Mark3

Shoes good. Quads not good.

Couple of largish mistakes; 14 didn't see the uncrossable until too late; no excuses for that.
22 noticed both the tunnel and steps but didn't make the obvious connection that that meant I could get from one level to the other as well as underneath; meant I did some extra distance. No excuses for that either.
25 started going to the correct side as per control description, saw the control in front of my which looked like it was on a building behind the fence, assumed I must have read "E side of fence" when it was actually "E side of building, went around to the other side, got to the control and realised that I was correct the first time, the fence the the building are just touching each other...and the building is unmapped.
I think that's quite a good excuse for that one.

In general though, just running slowly; probably unsurpising given yesterday; it's pretty amazing that I can run at all. Probably 5 mins down on where I would usually be, 90s of those mistakes so the rest I can blame on the fell race.
It was worth it.

https://www.aire.org.uk/results-archive/2018/2018-...

So that was pretty hard.

An offer of a lift to this turned up, and although I'd pre-entered the double sprint O I fancied doing something longer as prep for next weekend, Peak Skyline etc. And the weather forecast was perfect, bit cooler than Saunders but still with 80% chance cloud-free summits... I was sold.

Ominous sign at the start - "this race is not for novices".

Advice from Simon Harding was to not be tempted to run all the way up the first hill and save the legs for later in the race, so I took that advice at the start, but it quickly became apparent that I didn't have much choice in the matter anyway. I was very low down the field. Got past a few people once it flattened out though, and a few on the first downhill. Weather was lovely.

Going up Seatallan was okay until pretty much the very top... when the clag descended. Just when the three ahead were exactly out of view. It seemed we were in the 20% cloudy summits. So got the map out at this point, and didn't put it away until the end. Compass got me off the top and out of the mist a bit, and I could see the group ahead on a trod so I decided to go that way. Went fairly low and close to Scoat Tarn and had to climb a bit at the end, but not too much. On my own for the path around Little Scoat and climbed an unnecehill in the clag and had to get down again through the rocks; lost a bit of time there. But about 95% confident I was climbing Pillar and happy to see the control at the top. Apparently it's quite common for people to climb Red Pike by mistake.

Took a good line down from Pillar I think, and then the path contouring under Kirk Fell, which was less runnable than I'd hoped for. Climb up Great Gable was the hardest of the day although not too bad really, it felt like most of the major climbing was up Seatallan and then you were just going up and down no more than 200m at a time. So more like the Peaks! Some of the more gentle ascents were tough though. Ran out of water just after (dammit) Sprinkling Tarn (took 1L), luckily there was a handy stream at Calf Cove for an extra 1L; only drank another 500ml.

The climb up Scafell wasn't too bad since a couple of guys caught me up so we had a bit of a chat; was surprised when we got to the top so soon. Bit of a hairy moment coming of Scafell when I fell over on the rocks, luckily landed on my arm first before my head hit the ground, and my arm took away most of the speed of the fall, otherwise could've been nasty. Slowed down a bit after that point, but caught the two guys again going over to Lingmell. All together until Lingmell got steep, then I decided I cared more about surviving until next week than beating them and so I let them pull away down the hill to the end.

Interesting race, even looking at the map afterwards it seems like it should be much easier than it was. I think it's just once you get to Scoat it's so rocky that even the flatter bits aren't really that runnable, and you can't go fast on the downhills without having a deathwish/better technique than me.

Standard very high; I was 59th. I think although there were only 100 pre-entries, there were probably 200 there? I suspect a lot were timed out though; I got to Great Gable after 4 hours and the marshall said "Don't worry, there's still half an hour before the cut off" - what?! Is that all?! I don't usually have to worry about cut-offs! I don't imagine that the remaining c.160 people all slotted nicely into the next 30 mins; will be interesting to see how strict they were when the results come out.

I'd like to do the race again once I've got better at running on rocks.

With the proceeds from the ONs (I did not like those, so I eBayed them), went for gait analysis at the local running shop.
They filmed me on a treadmill and said I mildly overpronated just on one leg in their test shoes, so they gave me a very low support support shoe which corrected it - but then I tried a load of other neutral shoes as well and they said they were all basically fine.

Good to know that I've been buying the right shoes for the past few years!

Tried the Brooks Ghost 11 and the Ravenna 9, the Nike Pegasus 35 and some other Nike I didn't like. The Ravenna was lower drop and lighter than the Ghost, and similar to the Pegasus - given I had the Pegasus last time I thought I'd give the Brooks a go.
If they aren't great I'll probably get the Pegasus again next time. The 32s have lasted 1100km which is incredible. They don't even look particularly worn, although I guess the cushioning has probably gone a bit.

Exploring Bollington a bit with the new shoes. Liking them. Despite having the slight support and being pretty cushioned, they feel fast and light. Time will tell!

11th; worst position of the series! About 3:30 down.
https://www.staffsmoorlands-ac.co.uk/our-races/sum...
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Nice trail race, 2 laps, twisty paths through woodland, some steps, lots of tree routes and corners.
My series rival was 3 places ahead of me, the two between us were tiring fast and I caught 50m on them in last last couple of hundred - but it was too little too late.
I probably came 9th again.

Good fun, more interesting than last week's. One left next Thursday in the series.

https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=14374...

Good race. Steeper than the elevation implies because the first 2k and last 2k were on a flat canal path, so all the climb is in the middle bit.
Uphill is all runnable climb mostly on good surfaces. Down from the top has an awesome mixture of (dry) dirt trail, some open and some through trees, and then perfect-gradient gravel path that you can basically run as fast as you can without feeling out of control. Unfortunately it didn't last for long enough to be my fastest mile, but that's the location for a sub 5-min if I start a bit higher up the hill!
I guess I was 7th-ish; pretty small field as most people watching England. It was 1-0 when we started and 1-0 when we finished, so I don't think we missed much :)

Turns out it's not coming home though; never mind...

Recce of the closest race there has ever been to my house - start is within sight of the door pretty much. Unfortunately it was last weekend - but hopefully next year there won't be a clash!
Vast majority of the climb is right at the start so the first half is tough, and that's also the interesting half, the remainder is fields/canal/road. So racing it would be a case of going out really hard on the interesting bit and then trying to hold on.
Might do it as a tempo at some point.
A bit cooler this evening than recently, but still pretty warm.

35th (!!) / 247
http://www.hathersagefellrace.org.uk/2018/07/09/20...

Standard still never ceases to amaze me, it seems the further East you travel to get to a race (ie the closer to Sheffield, probably), the better the field gets.
Halfway up the first climb I was probably about 50th in a field of 250. Then held back a bit as we got to a fairly long single track section and lots of people ahead couldn't maintain their early pace. But once it opened out and levelled off a bit I was able to start passing people, and by the highest point I was level with 1st lady and managed to get past her on the descent. Top part of the descent was nice but a low of the lower bit into the finish was road. Got some thorn in the base of my toe which was basically agony for the descent, tried not to let it slow me but it was making me run weird. It felt like it was about an inch long; retrieved it afterwards and it was much less than a mm. Such is life.

No idea where I finished but probably about 20th, maybe. Nicer to be running on a slightly cooler evening although still sweating a lot at the finish. There was free post-race massage so I got my calves done; excellent decision! Good race; shame no other club attendance but people don't seem to like driving 45mins for evening races.