Training Log Archive: BrandNewMe

Oo cup day 5

We had the late starts so had to shadow Lucy, Ted and Olly before running (there seems to be no rule against this, which is good). Set Olly off, then set off with Lucy and Ted two mins later then realised Olly had gone the wrong way from the start, so I set Lucy and Ted off the right way while I went to look for Olly. Lucy and Ted are really pretty clueless still, so when Olly and I got to number one and they weren't there I was a bit worried. We caught them up on the way to two though so all was ok, but it was a mightily tricky m10 so I spent the whole time worried about Laurence, but he did ok with only one big mistake.

Finished, hot and sweaty, to go back and get sorted for my run. A bit tired and not really up for it. I got round ok if not especially swiftly, but no big mistakes. The middle bit of number 9 made no sense to me, and I haven't been orienteering enough recently to have any confidence in my navigation . I was really hesitant, thinking I was running off into oblivion, but the control was at the end of the leg so I can't complain.

i took the victory winning some soap. Useful as I have only had one shower since the start of the comp. hint taken.

My legs haven't even felt slightly stiff which is odd as the terrain is brutal. Plantar fasciitis is bad as usual. Apparently fit flop products might help.

Oo cup day 4

A really cool start at the top of a ridge. Amazing views. It was a thoroughly brutal semi open alpine area. So so rough. I spent so little of the time on my feet. No big misses and a 4 min lead today to make up for yesterday's atrocity. I take a 1:17 lead into the last day. Whopped Nick ;-)

Calf still good, pf still excruciating first thing but eases off, which is a relief cause it was so sore I thought I had torn it this morning. Can you tear a pf?

Swimming from the island on lake bled to shore with jen and pete as Ray crewed the rowing boat with four skippers.

Oo day 3

Nice forest to start with - the same boulder maze as yesterday. 6 mins dropped at number 2 - a very short leg. Oops. Then the last 2/3rds of the course were in a pretty bland and featureless wood, which when the only thing on the map is a few paths, and on the ultimate courses they have been taken off, and you miss your small gully, you are sort of stuffed. 10mins lost here too. Oops!

FFS! 9:30 start on a holiday event! What is that all about? Shuttle bus faff too so a 6:45 alarm, to get the kids and us up and dressed etc and to the car park for 7:50. FFS! We only just made it. No breakfast eaten at all, panic, stress. Get to the start, deep breath, relax.

It was boulder-tastic today. I preferred it - it was not as vague and there was always something (lots) to navigate by. Probably made about 3/4 30second misses, but apart from that fine.

Me 43, Sarah 43 and a bit more, Rona 51, random German 53, Nick 56. I carry a very slim overall lead into day 3.

Oo cup day 1. W21 ultimate (no paths / roads / rides on the map). Same course as m50 ultimate.

Nick Lightfoot is a lovely chap with virtually no ego at all, so I thought I'd make his day by letting him trounce me. I knew he wouldn't be gloating at all, so I made 2 x4 min mistakes, and 3/4 2 min mistakes, just to make his day. It wasn't me being crap at all...

Rona 62, me 66, sarah Jones was winning but did a glorious mistake at the end to do 68 (respect!) nick 63(!) and some German lassie (Christina Trosse?) 56. Bummer. I got exceptionally wet on the last few when the storm broke - absolutely soaked to the skin. Fun.

Felt hot, sweaty, unfit and fat, and the lumber section of my back was excruciating throughout the course and the rest of the day. Pf was bad, calf good :-)

C • Gloat Gloat Gloat 1

Insomnia. Great time to go running. Up the valley to the car park we started our walk from yesterday. If I could have started from the turn it would have been an epic run. A run on a trail along a gorge was great anyway. Back, packed, and off to Salzburg for the day with the Murphy's. Ginger kids rule.

Pf was pf bad this morning. Lucy needed a wee so I walked her to the loo block. It hurt so much, and I as hobbling so badly, that by the time I got there she was coming out already.

We dragged the kids on an alpine walk today. They did 8 miles and at least 500m climb. They moaned all the way up, and it cost us a whole packet of haribo but it was worth it as the views from above the tree line were spectacular, and they thoroughly enjoyed the descent. I wore my xtalons which didn't help my plantar fasciitis at all, and my feet were too sore for running after, which was a shame as I could have done an epic run back to the campsite.

My feet don't like hills it terrain at all, which should make for a fun few weeks coming up. Calf felt ok though, which is the main thing.

C • Haribos 1

I also did hours and hours and hours of swimming, but that was with the kids so doesn't count.

Woke up in Germany, had breakfast, got dragged to the pool with the kids for an hour. We then cycled into town to get some lunch stuff, then I spent 3 hours in the pool with the kids in the afternoon, while Ray went for a 2 hour bike ride into the hills. He got home, it was bier and schnitzel for dinner, then we had promised the kids the pool again. I couldn't face it so decided to go running. Full of schnitzel, and 1 x 500ml bier, but that's the sort of thing being a member of the trotters trains you for perfectly.

Set off up an epic hill to an alpine hut (which was sadly closed) then decided to meander back over some cool looking paths. It was going well until I met a farm Alsatian in my way so I took a bit of a diversion along a different route, and the run ended up much further than I had planned. Lots of running in dark woods. Just stunning though. Felt fresh, calf behaved more than it has of late, going well up the hills. Big smiles!

We set off from Rotterdam at 9 and drove about 550miles to the alps. Exhausting. I forgot quite how big Germany is.

"Rest day" - hahaha! Get up early, pack the whole van, get the towbar fixed, buy and fit new bike rack, put bikes on, while entertaining two over-excited and thus winding each other up kids. All while Ray has a lie in, plays on strava, watches kids tv, eats his breakfast before finally turning to packing. He has a major packing phobia. The fear of forgetting a vital piece of equipment. It drives me nuts. Exhausted, I make him drive all the way to Hull as my revenge.

To work. Would have liked to be longer but blah blah blah.

Have I moaned about my campervan woes yet??? Back to the garage, got the van (phew) but have to take it back to finish it off when we get home.

Running down princes street and down leith walk at 5pm is pf annoying. Glaikit tourist-tastic.

My calf is not good. At all. Just as well I entered ultimate at OO. I think I'll get "value for money".

To work. It was going to be longer, but it was curtailed alas.

We leave for Hull and the ferry to Europe on Friday morning. We put the van in to the garage for a touch up two weeks and two days ago. They said it would be a three day job. We still haven't got it back. I ran down after work to assess the situation / hopefully pick it up. It is in quite a few peices. Apparently we are just waiting for it to dry fully before putting it back together. This is taking time. Hmm. Hopefully get it back tomorrow. Faff-tastic.

I felt sorry for the man though, who had been ill, so though I am really quite stressed about it, he was so nice it was fun.

This wasn't really a cycle commute. I do mainly cycle commute, but as it is only 10mins each way it's not really worth writing home about. Excellent competitive cycle commute today though. Ray and I left the house (well garage, on east mayfield) at the same time, and we go to the same place these days. He thought weaving through grange was a quicker route due to the lack of traffic lights. I disagreed. The race was on. I wellied it up the minto street bus lane, down Blackwood crescent, past dick vet and through the meadows to tollcross on the cycle path past the tennis courts. Waited ages at the lights at tollcross, but I knew I had ray beaten. Past the fire station, and stuck at lights at Evans. Waited ages again, and when I moved off from stationary, Ray triumphantly came speeding past - bastard. Much fun!

Anyway, ill again so no running, but had to cycle Laurence down to cycle training and then went on a ride through sunny gilmerton / liberton / craigmillar. 90% of the time I was on roads I had never ventured down before. Nice.

Trotting about town. Down to the bottom of Leith walk to a garage to see when they will have fixed the van. They have had it 2weeks (they said it would take three days). They have stopped answering my calls, and said they would be open but were not today. Lucy was on he bike with me on the way down, the boys caught us up, a trip to a great portugese bakery on Leith walk, then running home by myself over the seat. Nice. I felt fresh and perky, but Ray asked why I was limping. Apparently I was dragging my right leg along. I can't decide if this is a consequence or the cause of my calf problems.

I stayed a bit later at work as I was having such fun. Solving logical excel problems all day. It's like being paid to do sudoku all day long.

Feeling vaugely better so I thought I'd try running. Through the meadows, through st Leonard's, to the seat and the col then left onto the crags path. Just after the rocky bit 10m in, I wiped out on the gravelly hill, managing to graze and cut pretty much everywhere. I managed to rip off the scabs from a few weeks ago that were finally healing :-(. I hobbled home from there as I was pretty winded and there was blood.

My sadness was short-lived though as I got home in time to watch TdF highlights without accidentally finding out what happened beforehand. Then I looked at the JWOC results. Yay! Megan is amazing!

Still ill. Nearly skipped work. It was a work charity day. Spent quite a pleasant day picking berries for Almond Valley Heritage something or other. This was probably more managable than sitting at a computer trying to think.

New work - sniper training says

1. Run
2. Hide
3. Fight back

It beats following someone in high viz into a communal room. Maybe the banking industry needs to improve its image at the same time as issuing sniper training.

Usual - fever, aches, headaches, tiredness... Blah, blah, blah

Still crocked. Fun family day anyway. EICA Ratho do a 'get the family started in climbing' session, so the 4 of us did 2 hours with our own instructor, all gear hired, at the climbing arena. There was some lectures on safety, how to do the harness and ropes, how to belay etc. i got up and down one of the really high walls. It was pretty scarey though. Cycled out and back with the kids, and we had a late lunch in the bridge inn beforehand. As bearable non-running days go, this was as good as it gets.

I've sewn myself back into my cloak of respectability again. I am a grown adult that acts responsibility at all times. I can hold mother / son debates of whether the word 'dick' is ruder than the word 'cock' (we were walking past where Hoddy's flat is at the time. This is the sort of question Hoddy would love to answer, and would do a much finer job of it than I did) and whether is was true that c*** was rude as he thought it meant going on a car hunt, like when you were looking to buy a car, which he imagines must be even worse than curtain shopping, so he can appreciate the frustration and anger associated with the word. It doesn't mean car hunt Laurence, and is probably best not mentioned again. At all. Ever. I thought I was doing quite well with my explanations, considering my fragile state, but I sort of gave up when he found a tampon later and wanted to know what it was for. It's a make-up thing Laurence...

It was the HBT handicap today. I wasn't going to run it, cause the beer drinking clearly doesn't fit in with the new me, but Calum wanted to run it, so Laurence did too, and I ran with him cause he doesn't like the dogs. We managed the first loop, just over 2miles (St Margaret's Loch up Castro and back via the bog and round haggis knowe), which is ok for him. Lemonade downed by the kids, not beer, which is much trickier. I skipped the AGM and took the kids to the rival AGM at Don's, where all the mummies with kids were hanging out. Orienteers are infiltrating the brown movement. Sarah o'n is the new trotter captain, and Peter FG is subservient sex captain. Running around while the kids were cycling added to the mileage. Calf very not happy:-(

C • Dick vs cock 3

Really quite damaged calf. Was it cause I was talking to Tessa about doing reps for the first time in years?

We have been kid free since last Friday, and have adopted a somewhat less mature lifestyle all week. We have had no food in the house all week. We have slept in until 7:30 every morning. We have gone to bed later than 10 most nights, and I have easily drunk more in the last week than I have done in the previous year put together. the kids were delivered back tonight. Ray was sorting that out as I went for some drinks with work colleagues after work. And managed to double my alcohol toll for the week with tonight's effort. Scary stuff! I haven't had a memory blank like that for ages. Giving it all up from here, and back to being a proper person!

Run to work. Or shuffle. I wore my f-lites last night which are nice, really lightweight shoes. The only problem is that they totally fuck your feet up. 26 bones in each foot, all of which are broken. ;-)

10 mins after getting up my foot fractures have healed, and I can jog to work.

Jog from work to cse to meet Tessa then over Arthur's seat. Fun. My calf is an increasing problem again. Boo

Saw the queen! Driving past! Well I did but Tessa was looking the wrong way:-)

From work to Pat Squire's and back.

Sprintelope. Fun. I fell for some dead ends, and did 9-11-10-11-12 and felt v ropey. Calf didn't go, but was getting tighter and tighter. Hmm. Still hopeful of surviving the summer.

Then back to work for a shower and to pick up the scooter, and off to catch then end of the meadows 5k, then off to cloisters and out for dinner with some trots, then drunken scooting home, which was v dangerous indeed. Still a bit wiped out :-(

Ridiculously wiped out all day. I hope it wasn't from running in the rain yesterday. Don's for dinner, then shivering under multiple blankets, tucked up on the sofa watching cycling.

I lent my bike to don's elderly mother, and decided to try scooter commuting. Fun, if a little dangerous. Lozza's scooter has tiny wheels. On the lovely meadows path you can get to 8 min miling easily, then you hit a slight bump and go flying.

So tired. Drive the van to a garage in leith for its pre-summer pimping, run back. I had forgotten that I had a sore foot. I remembered quickly enough.

Home via craiglockhart and blackford hills, which were slippery in the driech weather.

I seem to have inflamed the tendon on the top of my big toe. Otherwise ok, but hard to walk. We had a lovely drive home with Ivor and WHB. Lots of stopping off for gentle wanders and refreshment, to help us all get over our fragilities.

As ever, we come back saying next year we'll manage a heb3:

http://www.srac.org.uk/heb3.htm

Harris half. I was going ok early on with steady 7 min miling pace, but then my right calf started to cease up, and my left Achilles started to tighten too on the hill that started 5 miles in (and went on for the next few miles) so I started to hobble a bit. I was pretty nauseous too which didn't help. Just stunning though. Great weekend of fun with friends old and new!

Salisbury crags then radical road. Nice.