Training Log Archive: Forest Demon

Easy cycle with Señor Purko. Pretty good time was had, glad I decided to go out despite the weather

Out to Hillend then along the A702 (bit sketchy) till West Linton then hopped across to the A701 and down the B7509 which is a top piece of road (with lots of lil' lambs).
A72 till Peebles, then jumped onto the B7062 for a quieter time to Innerleithen, and up the B709 -> B7007, which was the grimmest part of the cycle - a solid hour of slight uphill into a massive headwind in the rain and cloud.
At this stage I was soaked through, and got pretty cold on the super long (and windy) downhill section along the B7007 -> A7 all the way till we turned along past Dalhousie Castle. Changed to my spare gloves and felt a lot better, especially as we were on the home straight through Bonnyrigg, Lasswade and then back into town and home.

7/10 would ride again, but maybe with less wind and rain. Still alright speed though, good stuff

C • You missed a crucial element 2

To the start, quite a long 1.5km

Messed up 1 (missed the start kite, headed off up the hill 90 degrees the wrong way following some tapes. Turns out the control they led to wasn't the start kite, but actually a kiddy control, oops)
Messed up 2 (control in the re-entrant before it, punched it then ran off before realising the wrong code)
Messed up 3 (Misread the code on it as 141, continued running past baffled that it wasn't my control)

Great start to the course, 10/10.
The rest of the course went more or less fine, but very slowly. Calves really very painful and tight on the hills, which in turn was pulling on my left knee a fair bit. No oompf up any slope, just crawling.

Did my ankle in just after 16, bit too much plantar flexion (I guess? Though maybe actually dorsi...) having stood on the edge of a hole. Had a 30s sit down, then hobbled off towards 17. Wasn't really paying attention to where I was though, and came to a confused halt just beyond the control unable to see it. Luckily Andrew caught me 13 minutes at this point, and found it instantly.
Shamelessly used him as a control finding device for the rest of the course, nice and open terrain made it easy to keep him in sight, even if he was getting away from me.

Not exactly my finest hour, and now my ankle hurts a fair bit. Just another excuse to cycle... Really do need to work on these calves too
Did win the run-in at least, but judging by the other times, I think everyone else walked it?

Back from the finish

Feeling super sluggish for the vast majority of this, and took a long while to actually get into the course, only really perked up a little once in the 1:4000 section
Poor routes to 8, 11, 13 and 16, some truly poor, some only a little. Bit slow on the longer running legs too.

On the plus side, after map turnover started getting some decent splits, just took some time to actually start orienteering!
Didn't totally hate the course, which is my usual reaction to urbans, so I'd probably rate it as a positive experience overall

Solo round the Gladhouse loop, nice headwind on the way out.

Traffic was pretty shite, maybe rush hour was a poor time for a cycle... Eventually once on the B-roads the cars all vanished and I only had the sheep for company, who were a definite improvement.

Pretty fun though, been too long since I was on the bike

Knee stiffened up after yesterday's run, still not 100% after Sunday, so I skipped on the gym

Planned for a cycle, but got up too late and then it rained all day, ah well

Run with Craig, feeling a bit knackered at first, but perked up when we got near the Pentlands. The plan was for further, but Craig couldn't hack it #doyouevenlift

Colinton Dell for a bit, up Poet's Glen and Ranges Road, skirted round Harbour Hill, down Scalextric, through Bonaly and back into the Dell