Training Log Archive: philm64

VHI individual, Pentlands, 5.7km/28m, Blue. 48:54, 1st place in VHI

Basically I *had* to run well today, it was binary.

A little worried as Donald Petrie started 2 mins after me in a very open area. An open, rather tough area. Clive started on Short Brown the same time as me, he went off like a rocket, I was barely able to stay with it, and I was flat out. Have I lost it?

Good start in control pick area, small slip at no 5 when i saw the short blue control, 20 secs? then the LONG LEG. I planned this sensibly, IMO, but had a massive boost when I gained a view of the huge valley en route - for there were my 12, 8 & 6 minute men all toiling up the hill opposite. And no way were they that far ahead. Descended as hard as I could & jogged up the hill, John Embrey not able to run on that gradient by his own admission, Ian Maxwell was quite high, Mark S went left. I took a good line across the slope, & by the time i was above the control, they were at it / leaving it etc so I was gifted the flag. Mark overshot no 7 and so I pulled John back on to it, then it was a question of running down Ian - which took another 6 minutes!!!! Another piece of good luck was getting into the Dave Godfree / Marcus Pinker train - leading me to the circle on no 9 but I did need to stop & find it as they had another control further on.

No 10 was potentially a cock-uppable leg and I identified a gate as AP. (Nigel lost time here). Even jogging / walking in from there, I missed by 20secs, and it was worrying for a while; Ian, Dave & Marcus were also in there with me - I found it 1st. Then eyeballs out with the "youngsters" to the end.

Won by 6 minutes (M55 class) ; Kim nearly 4 mins down - certainly my best run for a while, and justifying my "selection". England won! Long afternoon chilling at SOL event and then late flight back from Edinburgh via Rob Lee's. Very satisfying weekend - but it could have been disastrous had i messed up today. But I delivered. nb. someone called Mark Nixon M35 was 7 minutes faster - bugger. Not a win then! ;-)

England again emerged victorious, from Scotland, (153 to 136), and everyone went home happy. And - NO ONE DQed!!!! :-) (not even Clive)

https://www.strava.com/activities/2730600675

Result: https://www.esoc.org.uk/results-files/2019/0922-pe...

RG: https://www.esoc.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#79&cou...

C • Great result. 4

England top on: VHI relays, Binning wood, leg 1, MWM team, ENGland 1.

Set off fast & surprised how fast Al Powell was going; he & John Embrey had different no 1's, so I had to peel off to get to mine to find the whole pack literally on my heels having gone on the faster track/road.

Ran hard but a Scot with white hair who was at least 60 had cut ahead. OK, this will be a race, then! 2nd at no 3 and put the boot in on fast track to no 4, passing Al & taking the lead. But Al got a better line to no 5 & again was ahead by a couple of secs. Accelerated to him again, past again, with (noting) John E & Ian Maxwell (Scotland) scampering hard to stay with the leaders (me / Al).

This is easy - turn right after fence. Accelerate,. Feel gap growing. into woods, Ian now right on me, plus an Irish chap. And that was the end of our races - I'd GONE IN A FENCE EARLY (due to hot headedness). john E. & Al had a vastly easier control on the left. We lost between 5 & 7 minutes each, as we could not locate the control in the circle, despite all of us going in from various attack points & continuosly finding another control.

5 minutes lost; Ian missed the control twice by less than 5m (we walked back later as could not believe this had happened); finished 6th, 5 mins down on a surprised Al. I felt terrible shame.

Team was 4th, could have won. Very down about this. My first England selection and I blew it when I could have been 1st. Luckily, the others did brilliantly and we got 5 out of the top 6 places in the relays!

https://www.strava.com/activities/2730596257

RG: https://www.elo.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#80&cour...

Leg result - Mark S. was sensible! the rest of us were disastrous. I mean, this is terrible.
http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...

Team results:
https://www.esoc.org.uk/results-files/2019/0921-vh...

Eden rock Edinburgh - indoor bouldering with Kim & Duncan Archer. https://www.edenrockclimbing.com/edinburgh/

Brilliant session, took my mind of my earlier woes from the awful relay cockup.

Did masses of problems up to Font 5+/6a, then TEA & CAKE (essential). Then the competition problems - got to no 12 but failed on a few earlier; delighted to find I really nailed no 12, as I hit my form.

Neither Kim nor Duncan (or I ) suffered for this the next day, & all had very good runs in the Individual....... interesting. Noted!

In Edinburgh. Curry last night. Loading up for the weekend ;-)

Last steady run pre-Edinburgh.

All fine. Lovely & sunny again. Climate change?

https://www.strava.com/activities/2721745782

Stunning sunny day - so trad climbing in Avon Gorge, with Dom G., and possibly my hardest route / moves on trad gear in Avon in 25 years .

HVS 5a/b, "Lay in Wait", then a two star VS 4c, 4c which I led & was well in control on :-)

A great day, but the other route we did was a bag-o-shite, and there will be no running today.

Must book a Greek holiday - climbing - me, a holiday?

Indoor bouldering at Bloc

Felt awesome again. Absolutely flying up everything.

Love this. need to go climbing outside. Sunny.

Note: Diabetes results back - big improvement - HBa1C down from 67 (bad) 6 months ago to 55. They think I may even recover (I don't). Being medically underweight really helps here. But that doesn't mean i want to get even thinner. This will do..... they also said try to stop/cut down on drinking beer.

Sorry guys. No.

Steady sunny stoke park jaunt. Map in hand .... as you do.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2716806721

Not particularly tired.

Cycled to town & back.