Training Log Archive: Mark3

Awesome day in the lakes again. Tries the Carl Side ascent of Skiddaw which is shorter than the standard BG and so I thought might be faster or at least similar - but it was about 10 mins slower. Probably because it has a load of flat at the start and then the rest is significantly steeper! There's a lot of scree near the top too so I don't think it would be faster going down either.

Then from Skiddaw we just did a loop of the Northern Fells: Little Calva, Knott, High Pike, Carrock, Bowscale before getting to Blencathra For N to have a look at blue screes ascent. Then back via Blease and Latrigg.

It looked fun to do Ullock Pike from Bassenthwaite, but otherwise I think I've experienced pretty much all the Northern bits now.

Gloriously sunny, mostly. Cold (puddles iced over; icicles etc) but not too bad.
Until: Mungrisdale Common we could see the weather coming in, we suddenly had strong icy winds and swirling snow...for about ten minutes, and then it stayed cold but we'd dropped off the top now and it was nice again. More or less perfect weather tbh - if we'd set off half an hour earlier it would've been entirely perfect, and hour later and it would've been grim for quite a while.

Felt good mostly, a bit of pain after 4.5 hours ish but disappeared soon after stopping.

Good fun to be out with Allen & N.

https://www.mdoc.org.uk/results-archive/2021/2021-...

Great fun but laughably bad performance. I always do badly at events with weird rules and this was no exception.

Wearing the wrong shoes for the surprise blizzard/inch of snow, but that was the least of my worries. The details had been very specific about remembering there were controls N of the (Northerly) start, so I thought I'd get that one first. However I was very confused by two things - the start not being at the start triangle, and the security lodge not being on the map. So faffed about massively with my first control only to remember that the first control was actually compulsory... So got that one, and decided the one I got first would have to be one of the ones of the three I could miss - so basically I was in the same position as everyone else at the start but already five minutes down :(

After that, the rest of the course went fine. Interesting to have it sort of linear with different start and finish locations which makes it different strategy from a loop.

Then the score - which was a loop, but a massive OOB section from one edge to the middle which isn't normally there made it very awkward. Decided to go for the max points control but took a terrible route to get there, totally inefficient. Navigating quite well though. Running ok too.

At the end saw I was going to be very slightly late and so deviated to get another 5 points, but that made me 1:02 late and so I needn't have bothered. Never mind!

I've missed orienteering.

Still feeling the after effects of the contrast medium.

MRI day. I haven't had one before so I will detail the procedure in case I have to have another one and want to remind myself.

Couldn't eat or drink for 4 hours beforehand, so with a 1:45 appt, had lunch immediately after breakfast. Always a good start to the day.

Upon arrival, had to drink 'as much as you can' of what I'll call magnet-juice. So your organs show up better on the scan. It was orange because the nurse had mixed it with orange cordial - I'm not sure what the percentages were but I'm guessing about 50/50 because it was like drinking syrup. Undiluted squash basically. I asked you her about what it was like without the orange and she said it really wasn't very nice. She didn't let me try any, though. Anyway I drank about half the 2L jug they provided. She said that some people drink the whole thing. This is not a competition I mind losing.

Had to change into a gown because I was wearing jeans - could avoid this without metal clothes - joggers next time. Then they got me lying down next to the big tube and put a cannula in (which would have terrified me in itself if I hadn't had one in for three days as part of foot-spike-gate; see a previous edition of this log). Luckily I have a massive vein (which they commented on) which makes cannulas easy for me. They flushed it with saline and then hooked it up to an dispenser so they could control it from another room. Then they made me lie on my stomach with my arms above my head, put headphones on me, and gave me a buzzer to press if I wanted it all to stop. This was probably the most nerve-inducing thing they could've done ('it's so bad that people need a buzzer?!').

But actually it was fine. They made me hold my breath for 10-15s at a time whilst they turned it on. Sometimes it clicked/hummed about once a second, and sometimes more like 4 times a second. Occasionally they would remotely (they were behind glass like in an interrogation room) adjust the bed slightly within the tube which was a bit of a surprise.
Then there was a 4 minute scan where I didn't have to hold my breath, but the machine made more constant noises and everything vibrated. They put the radio through the headphones for that which was a bit pointless as the machine was so loud.

Then they remotely injected the contrast dye (more magnet juice) which I assumed would be bright pink or something but actually just looked like water - cold when it went in but no other feelings. Then some more breath holding, and then a few minutes wait as they needed to do one more after sufficient time had passed since the dye.

That was it. All in all the whole process was fine, other than drinking the magnet juice which was vile. I really don't want to have another one just for that reason! Results next week, probably. I hope they find something to make it worth all the bother, but I'm pretty sure they are going to tell me that everything is fine.

Biting cold wind. Got Em some poles so I found some hills for us to have a bit of practice. My own poles promptly broke 30s from the car (c'est la vie) so I lost the chance to show off. However I was struggling to keep up on a couple of occasions - they really do make a difference.

I've never been up Sandy Heys before, only down, but I can now endorse Nic's description of it as one of the finest climbs in the peaks. It's 300m ascent that just keeps on giving. Jacob's Ladder and then South Head and Mount Famine on the way back.

At times I could feel my fingers. Mostly sunny, though! Good day.

Snowing all day but somehow pretty much all gone by this run. Chilly, but not as much as expected; two layers and gloves were adequate.

Quads still sore from Saturday.

Easy bank hol. Quads really tight from the lakes a couple of days ago! Sunny with a biting cold wind. Felt ok other than icy hands.

Having a go on some segments whilst Emma does my gardening #winningatlife

Got one of the downhills ones so very happy there. Also 6th/hundreds on an uphill which I'll take.

These shoes are nice now I've removed the superfluous piece of metal. Probably the only non-inov8s I've owned in the post-Swoop era that I'd trust on downhill mud.