Training Log Archive: Tim C

Ring of Steall. 26th +35min on Mr Jornet

Bucket list race with an insane field and conditions which suited me pretty damn well. Can't ask for too much more.

After a bit of a disaster at Livigno, I wanted to make very sure that I started off conservatively and could actually enjoy the race and feel strong throughout.

Hadn't got an elite entry and took my time getting into the start pen, so was standing rather far back, but just tried to tell myself it would be good for the plan of starting slow. Gun went off and I took 20secs to get across the start line.. okay, maybe not quite ideal...

Still tried to keep the pace easy, but knew I would have to pass a lot of people on the 1km road section before the single track if I didn't want to get completely stuck in the bottleneck.

Managed to get past a decent amount, but still had a big bottleneck as we hit the trail, having to do some bramble bashing to go around some queues.

After that initial 3/4min of chaos, it strung out a bit (probably sitting in about 100th at this stage) and I settled into a nice chilled pace behind some of the top women, gradually passing a few people and getting up to Laura and then Tove as we got to the start of the boggier section of ascent.

Stuck behind Tove for a little while before I decided it was probably time to move on. Carried on gradually passing people the rest of the way up the climb, getting to the checkpoint in 69th.

Onto some lekker ridgeline where it got a bit chilly, so got the gloves and buff on and was nice and toasty. Bit worried I was going to get stuck behind some plebs here, but luckily managed to get around a big group early on and then had some space to actually enjoy it.

Then came the 1st long descent with a super fun soft scree section first up before some more technical rocky/grassy (a bit like some of the smaller+steeper jonkershoek paths) that carried on for a long time and which most people around me seemed to be crawling down, so got past another 15 or so by the bottom, getting to the aid station in 49th.

Fairly flat+fast section coming out of the aid station and managed to pass a couple more here and catch up to a small group as we hit the road section, deciding that it would be nice to run with some others for that 2km section and save the legs a bit.

Bit of a pack still for the 1st few min back on the trail before people started dropping and was just a scott guy, Italian and myself. Some small back and forth over the next couple km's with them both a bit stronger on the climbs and then catching+passing them again on the descent to the river.

Let them both past again at the bottom of the 2nd big climb, wanting to make sure I could take it at my own pace and have the legs all the way up.

Still kept them in sight all the way and went past a few others (including one very pale looking pole who seemed to have run out of food and gladly accepted some of my haribos)

Got to the top of the 1st summit still feeling solid, and with a bit of descending and ridge running, managed to catch back the Italian and then a few others over the next two small summits (including a rather tired looking Andreu Blanes), getting to CP5 in 37th.

Some more super fun ridges after this and still really enjoying life, knowing that the hills were over and the legs still had a lot to give on the big descent.

Hit the descent knowing I could still catch a lot of people and that I wouldn't need much left in the legs after it, so tried to attack it fairly hard.

Absolutely loved it! Super boggy. So lots of sliding and a couple near face plants, but also meant it was really hard to push fully given the almost falling every few steps. Still managed to get past a bunch of people (including the scott guy who had got away on the 2nd climb), before hitting the more runnable lower section and letting the legs loose properly. Passed a few more people here and got into eyesight of 1 more, but ran out of descent and once I hit the flat road section to the finish, my legs finally realised they were tired and had nothing more than a plod left in them the rest of the way to the finish line.

Saw the clock on 3:39 at the finish and was super happy to think I was probably only 20ish min off the winners, only to find out a not so human guy had still beaten me my 35min..

Anyway. Super happy with how the race went. Don't think I could've paced it much better on the day. Only thing might've been starting slightly further forward, but that's max 1-2min difference.

Still a lot of work to do to get up there with those top guys. This was a near perfect race for me and although I rate the remnants of the cold/flu not having been there might've given me a few more minutes, that's still 25+ min down on a route that I'd like to think is very suited to me.

Major weakness is definitely still the climbing speed. Still somehow need to learn how to climb a bit faster (I guess the odd session or two could help..). Distance is also probably still a little bit longer than I'm completely comfortable racing, but hopefully with time and experience that will get better.

A good test before otter and hopefully signs of good things to come :)

C • Champion 9

Bit of supporting+ gimbal following at the end of Ben Nevis.

Jog around Kinlochleven with Sasha, Ali+Tim

Super nice hill tour of the seat with a bunch of the younger euoc boys.

Crags, Purko's, MFD, Crags, Steps.

Still not quite recovered from the cold, but didn't seem to affect the running too much :)

Really awesome time cycling around the fjords. Crazy amount of beautiful views and places and some good company!

Weather wasn't always ideal, and doing this is summer would definitely be a bit easier/more enjoyable (especially at night+with the number of super cool swimming places)

The tunnels definitely caught us off guard which was a bit irritating, but people were always great with stopping to give lifts, so ended up being fine. Would definitely want to do a bit more planning before though if I ever did something similar again. The last 2 days of cycling were super super nice (even with all the climb), so would definitely want to be doing more on those type of small roads and avoiding the bigger ones as much as possible.

Managed to pick up a bit of a cold (probably something to do with sleeping on the ground for 7nights :p), so gonna have to chill the next few days and hope it's sorted before Ring of Steall on Saturday :D

In Edinburgh

Chilled couple laps of the meadows.

Final day.

Had camped just past Flam, so just had a short ride up to the train station at Myrdal today.

It did have a fair amount of climb though, and we weren't sure what the weather was doing, so plan was to try get out fairly early (which is 9am for us :p).

Woke up to rain, so spent another couple hours chilling in the tent before it cleared and we could eventually get out.

Super nice single laned mountain pass road which turned to gravel/sand after a few km (still decent condition though) and was a very enjoyable + scenic ride up until about 1km to go where it rose to an average gradient of about 20% for the last bit up to the station. Fine for me in granny gear on the mtb, but not the greatest for Angus dragging 20ish kg of panniers on a road bike.. So a number of forced rests on the way up there.

Back at the Visters for the night.

Fodnes-Flam

Super fun+eventful day out!

We still had to get through 1 more uncycleable tunnel, so plan was to go back the couple km to the ferry and hitch a ride with someone coming off there.

We realised after the first load of cars that no-one was going to stop straight off the ferry, so we took the ferry back over to mannheller, stayed on and spoke to the next bunch of cars and managed to find a couple that would take us through to Laerdal.

Once in Laerdal we had a bit of refuelling at the kiwi before heading on to start the monster climb up and over to Aurland.

Road was super scenic, mostly 1 laned and had very little traffic, so the first 1000m of ascent were really enjoyable!

Stopped at a viewpoint just after that for a classic Norwegian lunch of Makrell+tomato on bread. Weather started to turn here and just after getting going again we started getting a really strong headwind, rain (sleet)? and probably below 0 temps with the wind chill.

Needless to say, the rest of the main climb (300m) and rolling hills (which carried on for ages) were not the most enjoyable, even if there were some really cool landscapes and lakes to look at.

We finally hit the descent, which was still freezing, but really fun to finally be moving at a half decent speed again! Got to the viewpoint about half way down and we were treated to some crazy views of the Aurland fjord!

Rest of the way down was really sqitchbacky, so no real speed, but the views were too good not to enjoy at a slower pace anyway.

Arrived in Aurland to find all the shops closed, so had to brace ourselves for an expensive visit to a hotel restaurant if we wanted to get the much needed warm drink we'd been craving since the top. Turned out the manager felt sorry for us cold +bedraggled souls and we got some bottomless (I think it ended up being about 7cups each) of coffee/tea for 30Krona.

Caffeinated up, we continued on out way, coming across a bakery where we once again got lucky and scored some free pizza bread along with our loaf.

Onwards to Flam, enjoying the fjord views+chowing some pizza bread at a picnic spot.

By this time it was nearing sunset, so the search for a camping spot had begun. All the decent places near town had "no camping" signs, so ended up heading quite far up the valley before finally finding a devent spot next a nice river :)

With Angus. Tried to head up the river a bit, but trail ended abruptly, so had to head back up to the road and do and out and back along there.