Training Log Archive: Forest Demon

Along the old railway line to South Trinity Road and back, very exciting stuff. I'd kind of figured it'd need to be an out and back or I'd have just tried to find shortcuts.
Had intended on a run closer to 70/80 minutes, but a tight back, hunger and dehydration made me turn around sooner. Still, I guess it counts for something

C • Loop 1

Avec Rona and Craig, just messing around on Corstorphine, weaving all over the place. Feeling kinda pooped after 45 minutes, maybe didn't eat enough breakfast or something

Did some bouldering with Mark, Rona, and Nixon. Was fun :)

Meant to go to parkrun this morning, but I turned off my alarm and slept for another hour by accident.
In other news, sub 80kg for the first time in literally years.

C • Fatty 3

With Emily along the canal, then solo back to Gorgie and home.

Feeling pretty rubbishy at the start, and gradually perking up. Slightly chesty though, but I think it's from poor sleep.
Did a few little efforts to get the legs moving slightly

With Craig in Dogmuck Country Park, though it was actually really quite nice. Lots of fun tracks to run on, though I was bonking a bit. Tired!

I had no idea where we were or where we were going for the entire run, and 50 minutes in, neither did Craig. Luckily regained our bearings after clambering over some barbed wire and splashing our way through a cow field

With Emily in the Hermitage.
Felt rather broken at the start, tight back and shoulders, but eventually warmed up after half an hour and almost felt like a runner

Meall nan Tarmachan with Emily.

Run up Schiehallion with Emily.

Packed up the tent and drove from Glen Nevis to Braes of Foss in the morning, in the search of a slightly nicer forecast.
A pilgrimage to the origin of the contour line was in order, so we got into running kit and headed up after lunch. Emily was a bit tired, so I took her rucksack as well as my bumbag, which evened out the pace a bit.
Sadly the top was draped in the cloud, in which it also happened to be raining. Got wet through, so I was a bit cold and miserable at this point, and the endless false summits were pretty frustrating.
Didn't linger ontop, and once we were out the clouds I started to dry out, and feel much better. The path up and down was pretty excellent, so made for relatively quick progress home.
Made the mistake of looking back once down, and saw that the hill had cleared of cloud, which was mildly annoying. Still kind of fun though, but definitely type 2.

Aonach Beag and Aonach Mor with Emily.

Parked at the end of Glen Nevis again, though this time once we reached the meadow we kept going, till we reached the Steall ruins. At this point we started trudging up the spur towards Sgurr a'Bhuic, which seemed to take a long time to reach...
Eventually made it up there, and had some excellent cheese once we'd found somewhere out of the wind for lunch. Kept going along the ridge on a slight path, which then turned away from the direction of the summit, which I was not liking at all. After about 10 minutes of this, we cut up to the spur and got back in more the right direction.
In the clouds by now, we summited Aonach Beag then took a bearing off the top to find the way onward, though it turned out there was a nice path we could have used instead. Once on this though, we just followed it all the way to the top of Aonach Mor, before doubling back and cutting down to the col between Carn Mor Dearg.
Second lunch was had huddled behind a wall out the wind, then there was just a 4km bog slog back to the ruins. There was a path of sorts, but given how wet it had been in the days before, it was rather soggy. Got back onto firm ground after an age, before motoring back down to the car.

Ring of Steall with Emily.

Parked in the carpark at the far end of Glen Nevis, and made our way up the glen to the meadow at Steall. The rope bridge was dealt with without any drama, and we eventually managed to get over the river underneath the falls after some faff.
Maybe a bit of a slog up the switchbacks, but it was nice and sunny so I was having quite a lot of fun. Summited An Gearanach and kept going to Stob Coire a' Chairn for lunch.
Then some more great ridge walking to Am Bodach and Sgurr a' Mhaim, though the Devil's Ridge was much less exciting than I'd hoped it would be. Descent of Sgurr a' Mhaim was a grind, but 2nd lunch gave us a rest, and then it was just a wee bit back up the valley to the car.

All in all, a great day in the hills, with pretty fantastic views, weather and company throughout

Balancing my body, what a riot

So, the 6 days.
Probably went better than expected actually. Given I didn't manage to finish either the JK long or the British long, I can at least be semi pleased I've managed to find the ability to finish 6 races, 3 of which were 90+ minutes.

Having said that, fitness obviously isn't there yet, especially on the endurance side, nor on the ability to run up hills.
But there were one or two glimmers of some kind of form, so after a bit more training (perhaps less sporadic), I might actually be able to say I'm in shape again.

Stats which won't interest anyone:
% Behind Winner
Day 1 150%
Day 2 122%
Day 3 134%
Day 4 163%
Day 5 133%
Day 6 162%

Was pretty pleased with Day 2, even if I couldn't live up to that on the other days - it'd be nice to do that more often.


I did at least dominate the run-in, even with an abysmal performance on Day 5. So the top speed is there, I just need to extend it over a whole course ;)

Overall run-in leaderboard (for those in the top 100 on all 6 days):

1st Andrew Lindsay 02:18
2nd Heine Linga 02:27
3rd Sindre Loever Hovden 02:30
4th Finn Lydon 02:31
5th Alistair Thornton 02:33
6th Doug Flint 02:33
7th Freddie Carcas 02:34
8th Jack Leitch 02:35
9th Alex Carcas 02:36
10th Sam Landrigan 02:37
11th Jason Salathe 02:38
12th Matti Toivio 02:42
13th Mark Nixon 02:43

C • Run-in comp 2

To the start with myself

Hip was sore jogging to the start, for the first time in the week - not a good sign

Scottish 6 Days Day 5 - Glen Feardar West

Exhausted, mentally and physically. Plenty of mistakes, plenty of slow jogging. Hip sore early on, probably due to the heather.
Lots of potential trains came flying past, but sadly I had no coal to burn.

Gutted myself on the run-in, and redeemed myself a little at least.

To the start with Rona

Scottish 6 Days Day 5 - Glen Feardar East

Got given a sports bra at the start which was far too small, not the comfiest thing I've ever worn. Plus it means everyone can watch back my mediocre run, how embarrassing.
I was still tired, unsurprisingly. A bit of a scrappy run too, not the cleanest.

Rather confused to 1 when I nearly died on an unmarked fence in the bracken, which totally threw me off. Luckily Rona was there to keep me right.
Way too high to 4, saw the boulder up the hill and thought it was the cluster, so just ran up to it without thinking.
Slow to 8, confused by the complete lack of green on the slope
Missed 10, looking too high - which wasn't helped by the bollocks control description

Then worst of all, I didn't even win the run-in and had to settle for 9th=
Devastating.

To the start with myself

Scottish 6 Days Day 4 - Creag Choinnich

Worn out. Maybe I don't have the fitness for this many days in stuff this rough.

Had to walk up the hills, struggling on the downs and just about managed on the flat. Hmm. Hip felt pretty crappy too. No mistakes other than getting slightly lower than intended to 6, but it's hard to mess up when moving so slow.

Glad tomorrow is a middle distance to be honest.

To the start with myself

Scottish 6 Days Rest Day - Ballater

Logging this as "Race" is possibly stretching the definition of the word a bit much.
A very easy jog around the course, not really paying much attention to routes or anything, so one or two mistakes just from laziness. Just going through the motions.
Ran slightly faster twice, once for Jack to film me, and once on the run-in. Somehow still beat Richard though, hilariously.

Can feel a cold brewing, not good.

To the start with Mark and Kristian

Scottish 6 Days Day 3 - Birsemore Hill

Maybe yesterday took it out of me more than I thought, feeling a bit sluggish today.

Banana to 2, hesitation in the circle on 5, perhaps should have bashed through the green to 8 and a slight banana on 14. Not really that bad technically, just lacking the flow.
Really missing any oompfh on the hills though, and lacking the cojones for the downhill rocky bit too.

Never mind though, still in the mix for a coveted top 20 finish overall, and maintained the lead on the run-in competition by 1 second.