Training Log Archive: Big Jon

World schools model event, a bit of mooching round the forest checking things out. Nice forest but hills v steep!

Run from accommodation in Otepää, bits of track bits of wood and some road. Legs terrible at start but improved throughout run. Lovely sunny day with cool dry air, a few wee snow patches on northern parts of ski trails.

C • still 2

Wee jog round a park in Tallinn with Scottish team. Legs predictably stuffed!

Morven, long way up direct descent. Legs felt a bit heavy on climb, had to walk a few times. Warm till top then realised strong tail wind had helped me up hte hill, put on windproof and headed back, very misty and raining steadily (had to take specs off so a bit sketchy on rocky parts). Final descent worse than ever - loose stones and wet rock... Legs feeling a bit shaky by bottom of descent.
Saw a pair of ptarmigan on the plateau as I started the descent. Still white wings and bellies, ran ahead then flew away croaking loudly. Never seen ptarmigan on Morven before - made my day :-)

C • I don't suppose it made the... 6

Loch Kinord -warm water! No cold stress form 12 minutes in, could have stayed longer but arms/legs felt tired - wetsuit felt very tight... maybe need to lose some weight?

Hanging controls in Castle woods for after-school club. Legs OK but feeling pretty wiped out (had a snooze in afternoon).

5 hours surveying, warm and breezy in a lovely dry forest - very pleasant.
Tired on drive home.

Rest day, 1-30 surveying, felt great at start but seriously flagging after an hour.

Very half-hearted attempt at warm-up

JK relays, M120+ with DG & S. Flogged round, saw a few people, no idea if on my course. Broke 7mins/km! Doesn’t happen very often these days.
Very very tired now.

JK long race, 9.7km... not sure when I last raced this sort of distance... started steady and only missed 1x30secs, so pretty happy. Finished 5th on day and overall.
Pleased with holding it together but way off the pace. Not sure why.

long slow jogging

JK Middle race. Hot again and really struggled physically, not sure if it was the heat or lack of refuelling over past 2 days. Long time since I’ve felt such discomfort, not sure if I was going to puke or faint at times... struggled to run even on flat tracks and had to walk all uphills. Ended 5th but 5 mins down on CharlieA. Drank and ate lots after race but still horribly hot in finish arena despite sitting in shade for much of the time.

Lots of steady jogging and some strides and stretching

JK sprint. Decent course - a lot fairly straight forward but caught out badly late on - went right and planned option didn’t work but I missed a small track (sweat and stress) so ran lady - cost 30-40 secs. Was14th equal but could have been 7th. Pleased with rest and happy with pace though it felt hard work in the heat .

Easy lap of the woods and a few strides/sprints thrown in on the fields. Legs feeling a bit heavy from Tuesday but moving OK. Nothing too sore from fall - right ankle bone a bit tender.

1 hour surveying - warm and pleasant and flat :-)

A bit achy in places (right ankle, hip, shoulder, knee) so day off for more recovery.

2 hours surveying, pleasant, flat and easy.

Deeside Runners, Glen Tanar, 2 bridges loop 6x2+1. Really struggling for pace. Sking still in legs! But that was anticipated and why I did the session - to try to get some leg speed back.

Usual GT warm-up to bridge. Decked it 50m from and - just caught my right toe and BANG, done on dirt. Left had got a bit of skin missing now and right ankle bone swollen - must have hit it as I rolled in the fall. Various other bits a little tender but nothing broken.
Hey, ho JK is never the same without some drama before it...

Another rest day - feeling pretty washed out and want to rest properly before JK.

Rest day - bus driver for the SOL, shuttling to/from starts.
Good chance to chat to lots of people and speak to plenty of juniors about races.

Sprint at Falkland. A bit sketchy on first leg - didn't see route initially and chose to stop and check map properly rather than blunder on - spotted it easily then! Lots of short legs which I felt I was moving OK through another questionable route choice in walled garden area. More short legs then stuffed the long route choice - misread approach to control so ran right when should have gone left. Finally overshot second last - alley seemed smaller on sound than map and almost ran past last control - punter error ;-)
6 seconds down on Donald so fairly satisfied - sure he's moving much faster than me on pure running.

Decent amount of running around trying to stay warm!

Started in Dees Woods with S then peeled off to cow-shit alley and bull-evard. Thighs feeling heavy but rest of body going OK - albeit slowly.

Aboyne CC to Mortlich via Tarland Way, back via golf course. With SP, ME, S & K
Brisk start and struggling early on, got going a bit on hill but awful close to race pace on main section. Enjoyed downhill despite road shoes and no specs (E managed to break my new ones 10 days ago and still no proper replacement).

Rest day - up at 4-45am UK time and last week catching up. Feeling brain-fogged.

Finse up hill to north with S. Lovely sunny day again and bitterly cold down on lake. Steep up last section (skis off and walked). Lovely descent - mostly nice snow, almost no other tracks and gentle-ish gradient. Nice wee ski but legs tired by end. Probably best not to try more.

Kjeldebu to Finse. 25km, total time 7-15. Crystal clear morning and bitterly cold, put on skins within 400m ‘cos no grip at all. Struggled along to bottom of short cut then skins came into their own up a steep slope. Snow improved as we climbed - less icy crust. Amazing views across to the Hardangerjøkul and one of its ice-fall outflows. Passed between Helvetesnutan and Helveteshorga - what we called Hells Gate:-) superb geomorphological features! A great descent - even I liked the descent and didn’t fall over (at least there). Then a long slog out but mostly gently downhill. Even managed a wee bit of skating across Finse lake to finish at the bar of the DNT hut ;-)

What a trip... superb views, amazing experiences and great company.
Have to do something similar again.

Dyranut to Kjeldebu. 8.5km, total time 3-00?
Cloud and low temp = icy crusty snow. Bad fall on steepest descent, faceplant and knocked a lease out of glasses! Luckily MG spotted it lying on the snow. Lost confidence after this and walked down slopes from here.

Wee wander up to a cairn near hut. Nice not to have to worry about falling over :-)

C • how far ? 1

Sandhaug to Dyrenut, 23km. Start to finish 6-20. Flattest day so far and started on perfect snow at -5C. Whizzing along with a few food stops then snow got too warm and had to rewax. Final hill went on for ever in hot sun and soft porridge snow. Eventually reached final pass and saw hut only 1km way :-)
Lots more ptarmigan and fjäll ripa and Fox prints. Met another husky team - 11 gorgeous fluffy white dogs haring along. Also lots of stinky skidoo’s, plus a piste-beastie towing 3 huge trailers containing the means of making a new hytte- mini-digger, wooden beams and vast amounts of other kit!
Showers at the huts (apart from Hellevassbu) are an absolute dream after getting really sweaty and covered in sun cream.

Amazing trip so far and no injuries (apart from a few aches and blisters), only 1 broken pole (oops!). No major sense of humour failures from anyone and everyone has fallen over at least once;-).

PS times are fairly vague due to stops and regrouping regularly.

Litløs to Sandhaug, 24.5km. Time start to finish 6-30. Best weather so far at start, crystal clear and sunny. Long gradual uphill at start then superb rolling hills. Gradually clouded over and ended with long gradual descent in flat light and softish snow to the hut (could see it from 5km away and it took forever to reach). 4 husky dog teams near hut camped out for the night. Superb food and even a beer :-). Night spoiled by one dog team howling away endlessly right outside the building- eventually I found the owner in the bar with his mates and offered to release his dogs... They eventually went quiet. Loads of ptarmigan and mountain grouse (fjäll ripa).

Hellevassbu to Litløs, 18km. Start to finish 5-10. Easy uphill start then wonderful scenery all day in the sun:-) Finished with 5km along lake and a gradual wind-up of pace. Serviced hut so time for a kip then dinner and bed. Wonderful sunset with pinks and golds, then amazing stars - would have stayed out longer but getting too cold. Never seen such brilliant stars!
Amazing day...

Haukaliseter to Hellevassbu, 25km 8-40 start to finish. One of the toughest days ever... Steep start with skins on then birch stakes stopped so had to resort to map, compass and GPS in flat light and some cloud. Second big climb then fell over and managed to break a ski pole (first time ever). Had a spare pair but not a great start! Long tough downhill then birch stakes started again and a long, long way up a valley along lakes. Distance seemed to grow as we got “closer” to the hut then one final descent in full flat light on tired legs and a last km with no glide and balling up skis ( temp too high) to finally reach the hut. Huge relief that all made it in one piece. Then had to make dinner, melt snow, wash up... went to bed utterly exhausted. Highlight of day was seeing an Arctic Fox snuffling for scraps round the hut - got within 3m of it when brushing my teeth. Beautiful looking animal:-)

A wee pootle out on the touring skis at Haukaliseter to test everything equipment and body wise. All functioning and birch stakes out at start of route.

Travel to Bergen... the adventure begins!