Training Log Archive: SarahD

VHI Individual Eyam Moor. Really enjoyed this race. Tough terrain - some monster heather and seriously vertical greasy slopes - don't know how many times I went down on my bum. Reasonable technical race. Wobbled at 5 - shape on the ground didn't seem well mapped and control was further down the bank than seemed to be shown. Hesitated on the way to 9 - map had me puzzled and the slope down to the control was suicidal (not sure what the W60s thought). Tried to push hard from 11-13 which may have been a mistake as I started to lose things at 16 - went off line crossing all the ridges and missed ~1min. Tried to get things back together but was really tired and took a stupid route to 18. Calves were cramping by this stage and tweaked my ankle on the way to 19, then got totally confused near the control ~ 1'+ Still pretty happy with my run. Finished 2nd, 2' down on Jen.
Not Scotland's day - luck just not on our side this weekend. Could all have been very different.

NB - looking at the splits now I see that I fell apart worse than I realised at the end losing 3.5 mins from no 16

Decent warm-up today. Walked back from the finish.

VHI relays at Longshaw. Well - what a fiasco. Was meant to be anchoring one of our top 2 teams with Ben, Donald and Chris, running the last short leg. Unfortunately Ben, meant to be on long 1st leg was issued with a short leg map and returned after 18' at which stage Donald was still warming up and plugged into his earphones. After a hasty change Donald, meant to be on the medium leg, disappeared on the long leg. Decided it was best for me to swap with Chris to run the missing medium leg 3rd, so had a hasty over-hyped warm-up before deciding I needed to focus more on calming down.
Once I got going I ran pretty clean with only a few little hesitations in some rather under-mapped terrain and came back to hand-over to Chris in a close 4th. Unfortunately Chris was up against some strong younger runners on last leg and did well to bring us back in 6th - I reckon pretty impressive considering we'd all run the wrong legs. Pretty sure I'd have had a chance to fight it out with Liz and Jen for the lead if we'd run the right legs.
The mess-up was the organiser's error and I'm afraid it did really spoil my day.

Rather less than satisfactory race prep.

Short technical session round Bell Wood. Not certain I found more than half the "controls" but flowing nicely. Ditches are a bit wide.

Didn't sleep well last night - felt over-stimulated. Maybe a bit dehydrated too. Legs don't feel too bad so far - fingers crossed.

Short technical training on Dess contour only.

Maroc circuits session. Seriously worried about writing myself off for the weekend, not having done circuits for a long time, so took this as gently as is possible. Still felt like a good workout - would definitely be a good supplement to weekly training. Fun.

Calves felt tight after circuits - gave them a good stretch on top of usual.

Couldn't be bothered to go out at lunchtime but managed to drag myself out for a short run in the late afternoon and felt much better for it. Legs felt fine.

Did 5 x 30" + 30" efforts in the middle of the run to get my legs moving quicker.

Feeling tired. Need to recover well for next weekend.
Knee a bit stiff - will be fine in a day or two