Training Log Archive: graeme

Calling it running is a stretch. Ran home, then jogtrot back from Danderhall with bike for support, which made a surprising difference.

C • So 2

A bit wet, but again to roslin and back, puncturing in Danderhall. Battle between try to fix in the gathering gloom or walk home won by walk. And stopped raining, which was nice.

With Jane, to lasswade road and back.

Drs again today about guts. Wanted to ask about leg too, but NHS only allows one ailment at a time.

Down the hill in the rain. Rest day welcome

Far end of Roslin via Craigmillar/Danderhall, and back the samish way, round Newton to avoid double-cross the A7 - a new variant.
Further than I thought c/f Bush, so got quite dark before the end.

Ran in, got about halfway up the hill before failing. Ran home, OK downhill.

Control checking at the VHI Pentlands. Along the bottom, just the WYO + a coupe of technical controls near the wYO start. Really struggled with the
climb in the steep woods, definitely couldn't have cope with the main part. Bailed out by Scotia and Oleg.

Controlling the VHI
Thanks to Scott and Oleg who did all the hard miles everything got checked and I was confident they'd be in he right place. Which they were. Although in some places the map was so bad it wasn't possible to be clear on approach from every direction.
Richard did a superb job on the planning and setting out of flags, leaving me just some minimal input to the course designs - I think short blue is the only one I made serious improvements, and that was the difficult "shortest course going up the hill". We discussed at length having a very long leg even on green, but eventually figured that a 2km leg would be too dominant in determining their results, so went for a more routine low-level "find the flags" option.
Which leaves the question of what is the point of a controller, especially one who can't check the actual placements of the controls, now that all the "overall responsibility" has been passed over to the organiser?
Ali Masson won the Black in 71, a tad longer than the 67 target. Other courses now scale from there, so the VHI winning times are typically in the mid-40s - much shorter than they used to be and I feel too short for a "long" course, but them's the rules.

With Jane on a glorious afternoon in the borders. Cardrona- Yarrow Selkirk and back on the route 1, the first section if which was offload an a definite error. Punctured just before Selkirk.

This all felt much harder work than it should have :(

"Ran" in, but became clear I wasn't going any quicker than the students walking beside me on the hill. So gave up. Jogged home agian.

With Jane, Silverknowes loop