Sunday Mar 30 |
 | Strength and Conditioning 3:00:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Brooks GTS |
| Day 2: Go Ape, Aberfoyle. Initially I was terrified as the route to the course was across a rope slide to the other side of the valley and was incredibly high off the ground. Of course, it was absolutely awesome! Once into the routine of clipping in and out of the ropes it was fun, hard work at times and required a bit of nerve and concentration. The hardest part for me was hauling myself up off the rope net but not sure my technique was up to much. I bailed out of the big drop rope net (Abii's scream was chilling) although the alternative escape route was pretty scary. I'm obviously not cut out to be spider woman - yet! Fantastic fun day out was had by all. Janine's cake after the tea shop stop finished the weekend off beautifully - watch out Ann Summers! |
Saturday Mar 29 |
| Walk (Mountain) 4:40:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Hiking Boots |
| Beccy's hen weekend. Day 1 mission was to climb a Munro - Ben Vane. To make the day even more special it was a Munro with a posh picnic, including smoked salmon, brie, olives, home baking... complete with table cloths and plates - how civilised... at least until the wind got up and we were hit with horizontal hailstones. All twelve of us crammed into a Pifu (?) shelter but as we were sitting and kneeling this caused a bit of discomfort and cramp but didn't stop us from devouring most of the food. The weather continued to be unkind and we met a few experienced walkers on their return - they had not made the summit due to the strong winds and advised us that we would probably be unlikely to make it either. Undeterred, we carried on up the mountain. Three of our party made it to the cave and six to within half an hour of the summit before retreating, ice axes were in use in the snow sections but it was wise at this point to call it a day. However, a very determined Beccy, Hazel and a reluctant Janine made it to the top after a pretty scary scramble through deep snow and ledges on the top section. The decent was incredibly slippery and I lost count of the number of times I fell on my bottom into the sodden ground. We all arrived back thoroughly soaked, muddy and cold but altogether happy that we had made it back to continue the celebrations into the evening... |
Friday Mar 28 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| My body aches after hill rep's and my hacking cough is still with me so probably a good idea to have a rest today - just did some spring cleaning instead. |
Thursday Mar 27 |
| Run warm up/down 22:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Brooks GTS |
| Warm up from Fire station past castle to the hill. 10mins
Warm down through King's Park. 12mins |
| Run hills 38:00 [5] | |
| shoes: Brooks GTS |
| First proper hill interval training session with FVO - JonX, Gary and Trevor; my last hill session was with EBOR at York Uni in December 2006. Decided on 8 x 90 second rep's rather than 2mins for first outing and I'm glad I did, it also meant I had a longer recovery to set off with the guys. Was consistent in reaching roughly the same point each time and for the last two reps my arms were going like crazy to get me there! |
Wednesday Mar 26 |
| Pilates 1:00:00 [1] | |
| |
| A good idea after a full weekend of acivity. Lots of creaking bits... |
| Run (Terrain/road) 53:16 [3] | |
| shoes: Brooks GTS |
| FVO run all together, which was nice and chummy, and so I didn't feel left behind and even ran at the front for a while. Felt really tired after the weekend and didn't have much spring in my step. Excellent nosh and chat at Corrieri's afterwards, everyone was making up for lost calories - starters, main courses and puddings for some! |
Tuesday Mar 25 |
| Note | |
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| Claire and I entered the LAMM today. Am I insane? |
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| C • nope 2 |
Monday Mar 24 |
| Orienteering race 35:45 [4] **** 2.8 km (12:46 / km) +90m 11:00 / km | |
| shoes: VJ Integrater |
| JK Relay Leg 3. Women's short. Oh dear, what a mess! Team was 9th. Dropped three places, dreadful! |
Sunday Mar 23 |
| Orienteering race 1:16:31 [4] **** 7.2 km (10:38 / km) +305m 8:46 / km | |
| spiked:14/14c shoes: VJ Integrater |
| JK Day 2 Ashdown Forest. No problems finding the controls but I just wasn't quick enough! Disappointed that I didn't get a better place than 12th (both days and overall), but now I see why - I blew it on my route to #9 because I missed an easy track/path run right to the control. Instead I got stuck in the mud on the edge of the uncrossable marsh in the valley and dropped several places in the process - very bad route choice. You live and learn.
I hope the owner of the Tag Heur watch was delighted to be reunited with it. I found it in a marsh between #10 and #11, it was really heavy in my pocket... but perhaps not as irritating as my gloves - they made a bid for freedom from my underwear and ended up round my knees, thank goodness for the elastic on Silva O trousers! |
| Run warm up/down 10:00 [3] 0.8 km (12:30 / km) | |
| shoes: VJ Integrater |
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Saturday Mar 22 |
| Orienteering race 1:19:45 [4] **** 6.9 km (11:33 / km) +205m 10:04 / km | |
| shoes: VJ Integrater |
| JK Day 1 Leith Hill. Dumped my clothes with the sun shining and started in hailstones, it was a fffreezing and horrible start to the race. I went slowly and cautiously for the first three controls but probably a bit slow and dithery in retrospect. Once I was in full flow I gained speed and the rest of the controls I hit spot on having decided to take some safe routes. I met the hailstones head on in an open area towards the end, which was painful on my face but dug in and even had a bit left for the run in. Not sure I can forgive those responsible for taking the tent down by the time I got there... but thanks to SYO for letting me use their badly damaged tent to shelter and change in before having to salvage various parts for putting away before it took off in the wind! |
| Run warm up/down 20:00 [3] 1.7 km (11:46 / km) | |
| shoes: VJ Integrater |
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Friday Mar 21 |
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| Event: JK 2008
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| Orienteering race (Sprint) 26:31 [4] ** 2.2 km (12:03 / km) +50m 10:49 / km | |
| shoes: Brooks GTS |
| JK Start/stop/start sprint race in the grounds of The University of Surrey with a 1:3,000 scale map. Hardly picked up much speed between the controls as it was so tricky to navigate between the buildings and under passes! The first two were hard to get into but once I'd got the hang of the scale it was fine, did a few reverses having gone the wrong way but it all added to the fun. |
| Run warm up/down 5:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Brooks GTS |
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Wednesday Mar 19 |
| Pilates 1:00:00 [2] | |
| |
| Discovered that my hamstrings were mega tight today whilst doing a particular exercise, so bad in fact that the instructor decided to help stretch them out! |
| Run (Terrain/paths) 1:00:05 [4] | |
| shoes: Saucony Omni |
| Dusk and dark run around Sauchie crags. Set off at a lovely pace with Janine and the guys until they stepped up a gear and I was trailing at the rear. Headlights were on after five minutes. The paths weren't too bad at all after a full dry day for a while. The path along the top of the crags was ace - lots of up and down roller coaster bits with wee tricky downhill sections, which I was definitely mincing on (didn't want to injure any more bits before the weekend). Janine was probably well fed up of looping back to get me although she never complained once! The guys caught up on the last 100m, having done an extra bit along the crags, and we finished together in time for dinner. |
Sunday Mar 16 |
| Orienteering race 1:13:21 [3] *** 6 km (12:14 / km) +235m 10:13 / km | |
| spiked:15/16c (sick) shoes: Walsh |
| Felt pretty awful due to my cold, legs felt jellyish and I couldn't regulate my body temperature properly, had to take off my windproof jacket on the way to #2 - stupid faff that was. Missed #2 by a smidgen and did another wee faff around and about before finding it. Slogged uphill to #3 feeling like I wasn't going to make it around the course at all until there was a lovely downhill bit followed by a few interesting legs... then another slog uphill during which I was tempted to have a sit down... the rest of the course was uneventful, managed to use North Berwick Law to run towards on a bearing to find the control - it worked! |
| Run warm up/down 12:00 [2] 1.0 mi (11:59 / mi) +100m 5:41 / km | |
| shoes: Walsh |
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Saturday Mar 15 |
| Note | |
| (sick) |
| Sick but managed to do some shopping and a ceilidh. Must buy more tissues. |
Friday Mar 14 |
| Note | |
| (sick) |
| Stinking cold! |
Wednesday Mar 12 |
| Pilates 1:00:00 [2] | |
| |
| Stepped up a gear this week. |
| Run 35:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Walsh |
| Run around Doune but missed the beginning of the run as I got stuck in traffic so had to venture out into the unknown on me tod. Ran off my bad mood and met up with Lard for the last bit of the run near the river. Excellent banter and giggles in the pub afterwards with mega portions of food, maybe one meal between two next time? |
Sunday Mar 9 |
| Orienteering race 31:05 [2] 1.8 km (17:16 / km) | |
| shoes: VJ Integrater |
| Dalkeith Country Park SOSOL. White course in shadowing mode. Managed to sustain a "took my breath away" injury to the bony bit on the front of my ankle with a dislodged branch - couldn't do it again if I tried. Now icing an egg shaped swelling, which is really sore. I think I'll live... |
| Orienteering race 1:13:30 [4] *** 7.3 km (10:04 / km) +210m 8:48 / km | |
| shoes: VJ Integrater |
| Blue course: not very technically challenging but a pleasant run around the woods and through some lovely clumps of snowdrops (I might have stepped on a few), still chilly out there. Lost a fair amount of time detangling myself from some holly, trying to cling on to slippery slopes and faffing over fences, one of which had barbed wire and punctured my hand but thankfully I managed to free it in time... |
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| C • blue course eh 2 |
Friday Mar 7 |
| Run (Terrain Run) 1:14:11 [3] 11 km (6:45 / km) | |
| shoes: Walsh |
| Longish slow run around Beecraigs including Cockleroy. Felt really sluggish and wasn't really trying but note that I was six minutes quicker than when I did this run at the beginning of January! I am very chuffed! It's still pretty muddy and slippy up there and the wind was showing no signs of calming down but at least it stayed dry and the sun made a brief appearance when I was running around the loch. |
Wednesday Mar 5 |
| Night Orienteering race 48:00 [4] **** 3.2 km (15:00 / km) | |
| shoes: VJ Integrater |
| I'd been dreading this event at Achray for ages, and yet I overcame my fears and got round the short course in one piece but with slightly more bramble injuries to add to the design on my legs. Dave K put me off on the way to #3 and I totally screwed up due to a new path not on the map! The best bit of the course was a wee loop of the Scandanavian bit near the lodge - superb. Apologies to Fraser for dazzling him with my big torch and making him fall over a root stock, I won't repeat his expletives (he was going the wrong way round the loop at the time - oops). It was a good turnout for the last race and prizes all round for the overall winners at the pub afterwards. Looking forward to next season already... |
| |
| C • Dazzling Fraser 2 |
| Run warm up/down 10:00 [3] 1 km (10:00 / km) | |
| shoes: VJ Integrater |
| Warm up jog. |
Monday Mar 3 |
| Pilates 1:00:00 [1] | |
| |
| No, it's not Wednesday swapped days as on Wednesday we have to endure 3 hours of asbestos awareness training instead - oh joy! Good session today with more new stretches. |
| |
| C • Asbestos Training... 1 |
Sunday Mar 2 |
| |
| Event: Sol 1
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| Orienteering race 1:23:05 [4] *** 6.6 km (12:35 / km) | |
| shoes: VJ Integrater |
| Bramble heaven at SOL1, I've always wanted stripy and spotty legs that itch in the night - super lovely - not. Set off really well and it all went horribly wrong at #5 where I set off on a major detour and lost about 5-6 minutes. Rest was OK but still tending to dither a bit... must focus - this was a race after all... |