Training Log Archive: AC

Feeling quite tired after yesterday's race.

Day 6 of Scottish Six Days. No, no, no! Did it yet again! Got off to a good start and spiked teh first control in a decent time. Then was travelling well to the 2nd and then didn't quite finish off, veering off close to teh control and losing around 2 minutes there. It was proving tricky to navigate/relocate in this open moorland terrain and I was having trouble coming to grips with it. The terrain was tough to run through with knee high heather and swampy marshes. But that is no excuse. Then on the 3rd and 4th controls, just got completely lost, esp on the 4th. I really have no idea what went wrong or where I wound up, but it took me ages to find 4 (around 10 minutes for a leg the winner did in 1.45). After that, I ran really well and my splits were very respctable in the top 10 and not far off the winner. Then tired over the last part of the course and just jogged it in. Big downhill finish that would have been good if I was feeling fresh and happy with the run. But i was feeling fairly disgusted with the lost opportunity to post a good time that I just couldn't get too enthused. Disappointing as I should have done well here. Shoulda, coulda, woulda, ....

Jog to start

Too tired and despondent after the three days of racing to go out and do anything.

Day 3 of Scottish Six Days. Raining. Did it again! Made a major error on just one control that ruined the run. I was also a very late starter and, while there were lots of tracks, they had been turned to mud puddles by the rain and competitors. This made the running very heavy and absolutely sapped the legs. Had a very good opening leg and then managed to stuff up the second leg. Still don't know how because I crossed a big linear catching feature (a clearing) close to the control and though i was right on target. The contours near the control really confused me (vague hillside) and eventually relocated on a major cliff. Lost about 4 minutes. It was straightforward from there, with good navigation but hard running. Then the last half of teh course was on open moorland and I really didn't seem to get any pace up on that terrain. Was consistently well behind on legs on which I made no errors. This is down to pure leg strength and experience in this terrain. It is noteworthy that the Scots have done really well on Days 1 and 3 here - they run in this stuff all the time.

Day 2 of Scottish Six Days. Much better race in terrain very much like the south of England. No major errors, but a few cases of mucking around near the control circle and one very poor route choice. Wound up about 4 minutes adrift of the winner in 6th place and that is largely down to pure speed. Still, much more pleasing than yesterday.

Had trouble around 9/10 where i was running uphill very slowly and had to walk a few times. then got really fatigued on way to 16 and missed a little track junction and ended up running the long way around a road - lost about a minute there.

Event: Scottish Six Days Tay 2009
 

Day 1 of Scottish 6 Days. Good race except for 2 controls where I lost a total of around 8-10 minutes. Very disappointing to have the race spoilt by those two legs. Very tough country and difficult to run. Had a lot of trouble interpreting the map and it really would have helped to have had experience in this kind of terrain and map before. This really showed up in the results with teh local runners doing very well (as well as the Norwegians). I was surprised at how fast these guys are over rough terrain. The last half of the race went quite well for me, but i was behind on every leg, sometimes by quite a distance, and this was just purely down to speed and strength.

Easy jog to the start.

Training jog/walk around Craig-A-Barns. A real eye opener wrt Scottish terrain. Tough as anything and steep and wet and soft and hell to run in. Light drizzle just added to the atmosphere. Should be a tough couple of races!