Training Log Archive: Big Jon

2 hours sawing and splitting logs - sweating buckets in the protective gear.

Wee run at Hill of Banchory, pretty tired.

Tired and left knee not feeling very good.

Scottish Relays Handicap team with Andy T and Sarah. First leg and felt dead from the start, struggled round trying to stay in contact, can't remember the last time I was this tired at an O race. Beaten by Jennny Ricketts on the run-in..... (though she is a World Schools Champion). Need some serious recovery this week.

Scottish Champs M45L, Auchingarroch. 2nd to Charlie Adams (Bilbo faster still on M50L).
Good race for state I was in (v v tired). Caught Rob Lee early (3 mins) and had battle with hi m- helped me to keep effort level up, though beaten by Trevor on the run-in....
Pleased with performance after a fairly long tough week.

a bit of jogging.

rest day

Running the Highlands Day 5 Morvich to Skye, first part along road to Dornie - big climb up old road - great views. Taking this section easy as pacing Thalea. Second section also on road to west of villages - including a mile on the main road (not nice with traffic thundering past). Third part on tracks (and bog :-)) up into woodlands and to viewpoint above Balmacara. Cross road by old caravan site and then path through plantation and onto the BOG - great for me, but not so great for tired road runners! Ploitered along to Kyle then carried straight on to bridge and a bit of a wind up down from the top. Good day, but weather grey and drizzly for much of it. No swim in the sea at Tingle Creek after - too cold and wet!
Good group - fastest overall of the three trips I've made. Think they all enjoyed it and will spread the word.

Running the Highlands, Run Across Scotland Day 4
Glen Affric to Kintail.
The big day - no turning back, no back up. Great weather, cool a few light showers and little wind - some a tail wind! Group was great today, close together and all being sensible. Carried a lot of extra kit - duvet, spare fleece, spare thermal, spare gloves and LOT of chocolate, energy bars etc! None was needed as our enforced instructions meant all carried more kit/food and no emergencies.
Quickest time for a group - no slow ones at all. Sat in cold water for a few minutes at end to ease legs - worked a treat.
Great day to be running and impressed again by the scenery.

C • Route? 1

First bedroom big enough to stretch (and found time to do it).

Running the Highlands, Run Across Scotland Day 3.
Tomich to Glen Affric.
Easy day taking slow runner across the woods to Loch Beinn a Mheadoin. Slow pace till other caught up and then took another runner to the end, but pace very easy and pleasant. A couple of light showers at start and finish and a hail shower at mid point but mostly very nice and sun out at times. Pretty sheltered from wind.

Running the Highlands, Run Across Scotland Day 2
Drumnadrochit to Tomich. Weather forecast bad but morning was great - set off in sunshine and only a couple of light showers. During lunch rain became steadier and soon after we set off for afternoon the rain increased and the wind picked up. Leaving the woods above Corrimony the conditions rapidly deteriorated and became dreadful. Driving rain coming in horizontally and strong head wind meant running was slow and painful. Quickly put on waterproof trousers to save legs from the stinging of the rain. At turn of main track realised the 3 leaders had missed the signpost (they had run past with heads down in the rain and completely failed to spot it). I carried on with the 3 with me and we sheltered behind an old cottage/bothy (I stripped my top layers off and added a thermal to my t-shirt and waterproof jacket). All cold and soaked through by now so decided to carry on and get these 3 back to Tomich, then think of others. I hoped they would have sense to turn back at some point and perhaps meet Ben who was coming along later after dropping off the slowest runner/walker at Corrimony. We reached the woods and immediately got some shelter from the wind which brought great relief. The descent to Tomich was fine - windy but quick. On reaching hotel spoke to Neil and he set off for Corrimony in the bus while I loaded up with extra clothes and food and returned up hill. Not quite sure what to do when I reached the forest - whether to assume the runners would be on the correct track or to head north to meet the wrong track they had set off on. Anyway plan not needed as I met them near the top of the hill, Ben had met them as they ran back towards Corrimony (cold and underdressed). He spread his spare kit and food round and escorted them back to Tomich. Good outcome but lessons learned included - make sure guests know to stop regularly if they get ahead, insist guests carry enough kit (they were underdressed despite instructions), insist guests carry more food in case of emergencies.
Epic day - I haven't run in such bad conditions for a long, long time.

Runing the Highlands, Run Across Scotland
Inverness to Drumnadrochit. Showery and breezy all day, but pleasant enough. Good group and pace sensible. Fairly quick time due to steady pace rather than sprints and surges. Legs feeling OK - helped by dip in river at Tomich on arrival.

Looking for 2 controls in Dess, not there. Nice early morning trot - ca 0815.

School fair most of day - setting up, helping and tidying up after.

Digging in garden - ca 3 hours. Tried to take things relatively easy and not to get too tired or aching!

Sprint Race, Glen O'Dee. Poor to non existent warm up (walk to start with Ewan), so felt a bit sluggish early on, no biog errors, but a little sloppy here and there (struggling to read map, lenses seemed to be fuzzier than normal). Overall satisfied with run.

Surveying Tyrebagger 2 hours - finished first visit - but will probably need a further visit to tweak things.

Pace run with sarah in Counteswells Forest, 10-00 for 1st lap and then 8-40 for second. Legs feeling dreadfully stiff and knees aching.

Lovely warm sunny day, decent warm-up - a long time since I've been in Counteswells.

Hanging controls for Beaver's orienteering session at Bell Wood.

Surveying Tyrebagger - 5 hours, still not finished...

Control hanging at Glen Davan, lovely area and lovely afternoon - if a little windy.

Collecting a few controls.

Hanging controls in Dess Wood.

Collecting controls in Dess - pushing up hill and round the loop I was collecting.

Wee run round Hill of Banchory - woodland loop by building site. Nice and warm.

Good session, but very sleepy (late to bed previous night) and had to force myself to stay alert.

British Relays, M40 with Andrew Mc and Paul Mc. Ran 3rd leg and half way to start kite realised I'd left my compass behind.... Not a great area for no compass, had to be slow and cautious and visited one wrong control due to direction. Magnifier was also sorely missed - I could only read map standing still. Good thing was I didn't run too hard so felt a bit recovered and less wrecked than expected after race!

Legs feeling surprisingly good after previous day race, nothing too tight or sore (possibly because I didn't run hard enough!)

British Orienteering Championships, M45L, first. 46 secs ahead of Charlie and 2 mins to Quentin. A good start to my race - steady and careful, then missed on long leg (parallel error on track) and lost 2.5 mins. Got a bit ragged after this, tired and losing focus. Struggled physically from here on. Eventually took lead again at 2nd last control. Very pleased with result but should have been cleaner in forest.

C • Congratulations 3

Decent warm-up, jog to start and some more at start area, feeling better on warm-up than at any time over past 2 weeks!

Rest day - had planned we run but got involved in rebuilding hen house after next door's pig trashed it in search of hen food! Not feeling great - plenty of aches.

Feeling too tired to survey so day at home drawing map instead.

Deeside Activity Park relay - last leg for "Desstruction" Felt dire and ran 18-54, 64 seconds slower than 2 years ago.....so at this rate I'll be going backwards soon! One fall on the course - easy path, caught foot on tussock and down! Rolled and up again OK, but a bit jarred down right side from it after.

Decent amount of warm-up, but broken into little bits. Tired from survey

Surveying Tyrebagger 5 hours

Surveying Tyrebagger - 5 hours

Hill of Banchory, lovely mild morning.

Good session

2 hours surveying Tyrebagger (should have been more but Ewan feeling sick so picked him up early).

Gliding strip to Aboyne then through Coull to foot of Mortlich down to railway line and home. Legs feeling dreadful.

First sprint race, Bogendreip. Not sure how I would go with foot butwas OK for running. Legs felt tired on uphills. Poor line to 1 and generally sloppy compass work. Wasted time at 12 - toofar left and hesitated.

Surveying Tyrebagger 4 hours. Left foot very painful and stiff at start - I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk, but it eased off and was mostly OK during the work - area even trickier than yesterday, very, very slow progress.
No chance of running - don't want to risk any further damage.

Surveying Tyrebagger 4.5 hours, very technical and some pretty horrible brashings in places.

Collecting a few controls after training. tweaked left foot and had to hobble a bit till it recovered a bit. Shows I was tired and not focussed.

Geln Tanar intervals with Deeside Runners. really struggled to motivate myself so chose to do short, sharp session - 1 minute on, 1 recovery to the first bridge. Only Sam and Drew along with me, so I was off the back each time :-(. However I worked hard and felt it was a decent session. Jogged back with Kathy.

2 Bridges loop

Cycling to Banchory - mountain bike, mostly on road, flogging it, just in time for class!

Good class, but toes and knees cold from cycling!

Cycle home, through Scolty and new Deeside Way down to Potties and Kinker. Forest roads in Scolty are a disaster - had a rally through it recently and tracks are a mess of soft dust and loose stones. Deeside Way - why ohh why can't they get a cyclist to advise on design - barriers far to tight to cycle round, bends too sharp, slopes too steep. Nice idea, shame about the implementation.
Really tired by end - hungry and thirsty.

Cycling to and from Bellwood - had to get there for an early start. Nice day and nice route -about half mile on A93, rest on back roads/tracks.

Bellwood event, Early start (first off), lovely forest - saw 4 deer - but legs feeling pretty dreadful esp on uphills. A few wobbles early on (lack of warm-up and not focused). Generally pleased but need to be more focused and better compass & reading ahead.