Training Log Archive: BrandNewMe

Borders xc league - Hawick

A light trail shoe would be ideal for todays xc race, not an out and out fell shoe, Ray said the details said. My running style just doesn’t work when I don’t have grip, so I chucked in a worn pair of x-talons just in case.

Turns out Ray had read the details for the wrong race, it was a bog-fest and I had no grip whatsoever. Inch long xcspikes or o shoes would have been the footwear of choice. It was totally pointless even trying, and I just got frustrated and upset. And also binned any chance in the overall standings. Ffs. A shite experience that just pissed me off. Cheered by a good trotter pub trip afterwards

C • Could 3

HBT was invited by friends the Westies to take part in a small scale Devils Burden replacement 4 paired legs relay race in theKilpatricks. All mixed teams - 4 men 4 women. Mixed pairs, we were told. So 1 msn and 1 woman each leg. Are you sure, I asked the captain. Seems a bit odd. Jill was certain though. Only to find out it wasn’t mixed pairs after all. Hey ho. HBT just stuck with the original arrangements tho, through cba to do anything different-ness

I was on last leg with a stranger called Charlie. He seemed to be a good road runner. This was his first fell race. He looked pretty easy up the first hill and I was dying. I executed the nav on leg 1 perfectly though and it wasn’t easy (misty, vague) so I felt like I did my job. Set off down the hill to the next one and Charlie was nowhere to be seen. Stopped and waited. Soon realised he had inadequate grip and also couldn’t run down hills to save his life.

Second top was again misty and vague. I thought we were heading to it but seemed to be going down hill. Quick check of the map (1:50, with writing over the vital part) and adjusted line. Probably dropped about 30 secs but again, felt I’d done well. Again, Charlie not good on the descent. Next hill was tough but we caught and overtook some Shettleston men and saw others tantalisingly close ahead.

But now a long descent, and a lot of waiting. Thankfully we hit some good path as the Shettleston guys were closing in, and managed to move away from them. We had just enough road at the end to put the boot in and overtake another women’s pair.

All in all a fun day out somewhere new, nice and muddy (I had 3 total wipeouts, caked in mud at the end!). But bad pairing. I am shite down a hill but this guy was something else! Shame as the final descent would have been fun to hammer.

Map on my strava

With ray and B in the dark

To the iPad-fixing shop. Felt terrible. Need to get a blood test.

I know nothing is perfect, but British orienteering really ought to bin the ranking scheme. It is just too hard to come up with a working algorithm.

Yesterday I did the cleanest run I have done for years. Dropped 30 secs in all. 26 mins for 3.1. Earned me 1230-ish points. Ray ran 5.5k in 54 mins and got 1240-ish. 10 points more. My mins / k on his course would have been 46 mins and 1290-ish points. We had a few common legs and even though he thought he ran them well and he had last start and I had first I hammered him on them.admittedly he said he was knackered from the day before and dropped 30 seconds at most controls and more than that in a good few others.

Is the ranking scheme sexist? Or ageist? It is just geared to expect poor performances on the shorter courses? Either way it’s discriminatory and should be binned.

C • I ran Brown, fairly clean b... 6

Walk run up AS from nursery to work. Tired legs today for the first time in ages.