Training Log Archive: Kris

Long run with Anwen. Legs tired.

Stomach started to feel bad in the car on the way home but just about made it through the door before I threw up. Start of a not very pleasant 24 hours.

Morning jog

Black Combe.

Happy to see the clag was down as I was not hugely confident about my shape on the hills. I decided to have my map out right from the start.

Positioned myself near the front on the run out of the field and followed Rhys on a more diagonal line up to the first checkpoint. I settled into the first group on the first part of the main climb but soon enough Ben Mounsey and Sam Tosh started to pull away. Rhys was the only person who was able to follow them and this left me in a group with Rope Hope, Rob Jebb and Simon Bailey. I started to struggle the further up the hill we got and as we neared the top I was very close to being dropped. Once we hit the top however I got a new lease of life, went straight to the front of the group and set out on hunting Rhys down.

On this section, I had the map out and checked the compass a couple of times but it seemed to be pretty straightforward. However, just as I'd almost got onto the back of Rhys, Ben Mounsey and Sam Tosh came in from the side having gone walkabout. When we turned onto white combe I followed Rhys and Ben onto the line Neil had described to me earlier. Down the track and pick up the trod; only when we peeled off there wasn't a trod. I think we had dropped a bit low, but it was a case of following the compass and hoping. I was getting a bit nervy at this point as it was just the three of us, but we eventually found the trod and followed it down to the checkpoint. The marshal told us that two people had gone through ahead of us.

We set off down the hill in chase mainly on compass again although I struggled a bit keeping on line and running flat out downhill. Luckily, Rhys was on hand and rightly corrected me when we started to drift off. It was another big relief to find the next checkpoint and at this point we were told that we were the leaders. Rhys led us down the next bit into the valley and briefly we were out of the clag.

I had a look around as we started the second climb and saw a Keswick vest starting the climb just behind us. There wasn't really much I could do tactics-wise for this climb. I just had to work as hard as I could. Ben started to pull away slowly but me and Rhys climbed together until near the top. It was going to take a mistake for either of us to catch Ben but at least no one had appeared from behind. When it flattened out a bit and I got back into running I managed to get a little gap on Rhys.

I threw myself off the top with just a quick glance to see I was going the right way. I tried to keep an eye on my compass but I was way out of my comfort zone. I eventually relocated on a small hill maybe 150m left of the path. I corrected but I knew it was a mistake. I came out of the cloud to see Rhys barrelling down the hill on the correct line. Annoyed with my error, I pushed again but struggled a bit with tired legs, falling a couple of times. Once we hit the path proper I was able to begin to close the gap and went past in the fields before the finish.

Was about as good as I could have hoped for and was great fun.

Soft Pedalling

Very easy tonight.

Busy couple of days so shattered tonight. Session was 8 x 800 (1min) but I called it after 5 (not particularly fast) reps. Legs and lungs felt fine, I just felt tired. Bit of extra rest for Saturday anyway.

2.31, 29, 26, 25, 24