Training Log Archive: jyells

Screel Hill Race, 28:42

Got a good warm up in pre race - about 20 mins easy jogging on the first part of the race route, a few strides, lunges, leg swings, high knees.
Felt fresh going into this. Off hard right from the start, jostling for position for the whole climb. A short section of very fast running on forest road before hitting the single track where the real climbing started. Then some techy/ rocky terrain before getting onto a plateau to the main summit. Hit the summit in 5th with Robert Simpson, Doug Tullie and Richard MacLeod breathing down my neck.
A rough descent off the summit before you’re hit with a sting in the tail - a short scrambly reascent. Robert Simpson got past me here and opened up a small gap before the real descent started. Full beans attack from here. Shoulder to shoulder with Doug and Richard for most of this before creating a very small gap once back on the forest road. With Robert in sight I dug deep and reeled him back in only to lose out by 2 seconds in a sprint finish! Great fun and pleased with 6th amongst some very strong runners.

Approx 20 mins easy jogging post race.

Easy morning run along the canal before driving south to Dumfries. Stuck to the grass verge as much possible feeling very comfortable. 6x strideouts towards end.

Managed to walk the course for tomorrow late afternoon. Cracking route and very dry underfoot. Should be ideal for some fast running!

With the longer evenings and dry sunny weather there was at last an opportunity to get on the road bike for some very easy spinning after work. An out and back from the house up Glen Loy. A nice change from the Watt bike!

Sports massage - just focusing on the legs. Worked into a couple of knots on the inside of both shins and also in the quads.

20’ easy + Fartlek: 6x30” strides + 5’ easy + 6x2’ hard/ 2.30 easy + 20’ easy

Out and back along the canal path keeping it as flat as possible. Strideouts feeling nice and controlled (2’ min easy jogging between each). 2’ hard all done by perception without looking at watch; looking back at the timings afterwards the pace seemed to generally increase as I progressed through the set of 6 with the final one being the fastest of the lot.
Feeing good and looking forward to a couple of easy days before Screel.

60’ easy + hill sprints

Easy trail run in the evening sun. Stuck to the lower trails of Glen Nevis including a bit on the bottom section of the Ben path - all fairly undulating. (resisted the temptation to head up the Ben itself! There would have been some cracking views off the top tonight).
6 x hill sprints on a good hard packed section of trail approx halfway through run. Left quad feeling a lot better than yesterday. No other issues.

Easy 45’ + strides
The weather can’t seem to make its mind up. Felt like a return to summer this evening.
Easy out and back along the canal from the front door. A bit of tightness in left quad, which loosened up somewhat during the run. Some tiredness still in the legs but 6 x strides close to the end gave them a good wake up.

1hr 40 easy
A decent nights sleep but legs were feeling a bit fatigued from yesterday’s hill reps so kept it very easy. A bit on the trail but most of the run was done on some fairly rough hill terrain. Really enjoyable run. Ended up with quite a bit of climbing in there but ensured any hills were climbed at a very easy effort level.