Training Log Archive: philm64

Very chilled nice day at Tett's, watching the awesome XC on TV, Kris was incredible, he basically WON the team race for GB with his late effort, but also fab to see young Megan Keith really not far off it in U20 women.

Nap in the afternoon (like yesterday) - 2hrs? - I'm either old, ill, a wimp, or just plain sad.

Felt crap yesterday. All day.

Liz fell off TCA bouldering and had to be driven to hospital where she was x-rayed & has a likely torn MCL / ACL ligaments, or even an avulsion fracture . Went to hers last night to shop, clean up, fetch things from upstairs etc

Hmmm.

Go to Sheffield & not do SYO O event . I don't feel well enough :-(

However, had top evening (after a nap) at Lesley's party, where i was the "DJ".

All of us concerned about Chappers' suspected heart attack at Blacka today, of course.

Sober & drive back at 1am with T&C.

Still tired / a bit washed out & sinuses not 100% happy. Hmm.

Here's my review of 2019:

First year M55 / First year Supervet urban.

Possibly my best year, ever, and that includes the younger years when I twice went on British Junior Tours abroad. Almost no “injuries” (apart from ankle sprain), and very few illnesses (until November).

Highlights:

POM Night sprint – 3rd
JK Middle – 2nd
JK Relay – Gold (2nd back leg 1 ~10 secs behind Nigel)
British MxdSprintRelay: Gold / 1st back leg 1
British Relays – Silver (2nd back leg 1 ~10 secs behind Nigel)
Midland Champs – 3rd
BOK Blast Urban: 1st in all races: sprint & long, heats & finals.
OO Cup – 3rd; Stage win day 3
Swiss O Week – 4 podiums; 3rd overall; top Brit in the comp.
VHI – M55 Individual – 1st
Liverpool Euro City Urbans: 1st in both races
CompassSport Cup final – 2nd; 2nd M55 BOK runner back (!) & ahead of everyone else including all M50s.
Southern Champs M50L – 1st

Lowlights:

Ill, so missed Interland selection in March.
Twisting ankle at British “Long” at Kilnsey when lying 2nd & thence dropping to 4th.
Suffering an ME/cfs relapse after a 5 hour climb in Italy on a Via Ferrata to 3000m (I’ve now quit mountaineering for good - & should have years ago). Meant I travelled to Graz & could barely leave my tent for two days.
Making an inexplicable miss in the circle (still: WTAF??) near the end of British Middles and dropping from 2nd to 6th (got back to 5th).
Getting shockingly ill in Greece then getting even worse as journey home terribly arduous. Sick 4 weeks (November spawned a monster – was sacked from band of nearly 7 years as a result). Not fully recovered even now.

C • Shit 2

>>
Drill down if you can be arsed, or go & do something interesting instead! :-)

February: POM – day1 Middle – 5th; Night Sprint: 3rd; podium. My “Super Saturday” and a memory to always cherish.
Day 3 – DQ – terrible behaviour; racing too hard/out of control! The WRE race on the same day revved me up too much….
Day 4 – 4th, close to 2nd, a great result on a Long that really suited me.

Interland – dropped out of team with a heavy cold. Very disappointed. Has my ambition (to run for my country 35 years apart) been dashed?

Visiting Toulouse – won the local clubs race outright; Pete James did not even find all the controls!

JK: Sprint – 5th, poor – one error & that’s it!
Middle – 2nd – great result, despite an early slip;
Long – 4th; JK Overall – 4th – gutted, as so close to the podium. One 2 minute error, but was dying & had blisters.
Relay – came back a close 2nd; also in the mix with the top UK ladies; team M165+ 1st. (dream team Hallett & Saunders again!)

May – a lone 10km towpath, in 39:24, which was acceptable. A 5km in 18:49 around the same time, but I did not enjoy this. Also 19:14 parkrun.

British Yorkshire w/e: MSR: 1st back, 1st place, but a shock as I made an excruciating error post-spectator & whilst in the lead. Grabbed it back in a sprint with Bilbo.
Long: Kilnsey: Lying 2nd in this fell race, when I turned my ankle badly – slipped back to 4th; gutted.
Relay – Team silver, back second, ankle held out. Pleased.

Midland Champs (Brown Clee) – 3rd. Acceptable.

June: won the Dursley Urban outright (yes really!), and both days of the BOK Blast including both Sprint races. First Vet50 in Beacon Batch fell race by quite a way.

Dolomites 5-days: good runs on days 1,3 & 5, but spectacularly poor runs on days 2 & 4.
Dolomites 3-days – 4th in a prologue middle (winner N. Gemperle 10% ahead of me….), 2nd in Long Direct entry the next day, great run – tough, hilly, open.

Then tried to climb a 3000m mountain on via ferrata & subsequently fell very unwell….. so Graz (Euro City Race) was a write off. I was there but not functioning, very sick for 10 days with CFS/ME.

OO Cup – Slovenia – Day2 (jogging!), 2nd, day 3 – 1st; 3rd overall with some poor form on the last 2 days. But – a stage win!! And podium overall.

Swiss O Week – my finest hour to date ever? – 2nd on day 1, and day 5; 3rd on day 2 & 3, 3rd overall. Should have won the Sprint! Fantastic week for me. Top Brit in the entire competition. Felt so fit.

(then 2 weeks rock climbing in Germany as a rest/treat!)

September:
SHI’s (Gower) – inevitably missed controls in the complex dunes, 3rd. Had hoped for better, but….

British Sprints – forget it! I’m not a SprintO person! 9th?
British Middles – 5th after being 2nd at control 22. Could almost have won this. Was absolutely hammering it on the runnable section. Accept this area was my big chance, as it was so fast & easy post-escarpment.

VHI’s: Edinburgh: Relay – stuffed it up on 1 control (5 minutes!) whilst leading on leg 1 for ENG 1…. Am I the nearly-man?
Individual, Pentlands – Head down, no messing – win by 6 minutes. That’s better. No, I’m not.

Caddihoe Chase incorp. SW Long – 1st & 1st, despite an awful control 1 on day 1! (5 mins!!)

Liverpool Euro city race – Day 1 (Middle- park/urban) – 1st; Day 2 (Euro City race proper) – long urban – 1st, narrowly over Quentin. Yay! Felt extremely fit for this. Bundles of energy & zip.

(Cardiff XC race – 168th? – but v close to 2nd in age category, Gwent league).

CSC final – bad miss at no 2 (> 1minute), but came through for 2nd, ahead of all M50s & also Quentin again. Pleased.

Fell sick late October in Greece (viral cough/sinusitis), & was out for 4 weeks.

Southern Champs – FoD – ran up to M50L to avoid Clive (& Nigel, to be fair); very much slower than usual so plodded round focussing on no errors to take a predictable win.

V knackered from run yesterday. Eeeek. Needed to ease myself back into running, but overdid it.

Osteopath re. shoulder - yes impingement, but hopefully not too serious. Some exrcises to do. Hopefully it can be managed.

##### HUGE MISTAKE #####
Steady 9km in Frome valley / oldbury court. sunny, nice. Was supposed to be 3 for effort but I still feel rubbish - being ill for all of November hasn't been recouped yet by a longggg way. Maybe scale these runs down for a bit. Final 2km was quite painful & rather ugly.

Noticed some "pain" in LH achilles last Sunday in FoD, and again today tho it did ease off quickly. Need to be mindful of this (without allowing my brain to amplify it unnecessarily, of course!).

Note: Woken 1:40am by a clearly annoyed young bitch above me , walking around her bedroom a LOT & opening & closing drawers. Perhaps I should call the cops?

https://www.strava.com/activities/2910531369

Shoulder sore, I think it's bad, end to climbing for a while? Needs K-taping back (my RH shoulder, which has no support at the front due to my birth defect). Groan.

Cycled to town & back; felt rather knackered. Still sneezing. I'll run it off tomorrow.

Police came round again, having just spoken to the witch upstairs. Great....

But Rachel my lodger came out of her room & she stuck up for me & said *I* was the one who was vulnerable, as I had no control over what she upstairs could allege against me. She said that she had seen REAL harassment in her life, and this wasn't even on the same planet.

GOAL!

Plod looked quite taken aback (lol!) & started saying, oh we have to investigate blah blah. A discussion ensued, & eventually they said they were closing the case due to "lack of any evidence whatsoever".

No shit Sherlock.

So I got away with.... urm, what? sending an email in september to the managing agent saying that Rachel & I were kept awake at 1:30am by bitchface's selfish behaviour?

Oh - I was told to remove or rename the YouTube videos I had of the noises. I've made them private, so poor snowflake upstairs doesn't get upset by ...... the evidence of the noise HER stoner boyfriend used to make when jumping up & down on the carpet all day (like the total prick he is).

#snowflakebritain

Sore foot, calf, back, & shoulder still troubling - may see osteo about this.

Diabetic eye screening today which means I have to wear sunglasses for half the day. Horrible!