Training Log Archive: fluceluce

Diclofenac has resulted in full on gastritis, an assortment of stomach drugs allowed me to eat both breakfast and dinner today! And now I think I might actually be 'hungry' for the first time since last Tuesday.....

C • Good news 5

Ride out to watch Hallam Chase - if I'd known my legs would feel this good I would have taken my fell shoes too! Feeling strong, a couple of sore points in the legs need a bit of stretching though...

So, after getting back from Schilthorn, sleeping for 3hrs, and eating a bit we went to cheer in the last team to leave the top station before the 9:15pm cut off. Then rode down to Interlaken.

By this point I had been suffering the same stomach pain type thing as caused by diclofenac at the JK and during burbage skyline. This time it has not got any better but worse, making refueling rather difficult....

Early on the 29th Sleepmonsters made it back to the hostel.....minus Gary as just a few km short of the finish hypothermia had set in and helicopter rescue followed....video courtesy of Shelf to follow... At around 12pm Irish AR ran into camp to finish the course! several hours of hot tub followed.

By the evening of the 29th all were back together again for some good celebrations at Balmers tent village. Then we perfected our transition time by the movement of 6 bike bags, 6 kit bags and 5 rucksacks off a train, across a platform or 2 and onto a train.

6:44:00 [3] 14.0 km (28:51 / km) +2200m 16:10 / km

Then there were 2......Al decided not to trek, so me and Shelf set off together for the trek up Schilthorn.

The first bit was sooooooo steep! Think we covered less than 2km in 1.5hrs! Decided 24 was just climb for the sake of climb and as we were well, more than unranked by now, went straight for 25(only missed about 50-100m out so not much) .
We took it pretty steady, stopped on a bench for a picnic and a few pictures, beautiful weather. Got up to 26 just as the thunderstorm/hail hit. decided to sit in the doorway of the closed restaurant to see if it passed. 25mins later it had :-) Glad we stopped as were much warmer than the French team that joined us there after trekking through half the storm.

The last 300m climb was difficult - thin air and all that at 3000m...Beautiful weather again at the top, rainbow and stunning view of the Eiger!!

Was very surprised to find out we had the 10th fastest time for the climb, I know we missed 24, but that was not 45mins worth and that was how long we spent sat still on the route (which wouldn't have happened if we were racing...) - didn't feel all that hard...

And that was the end of the race for me. We slept at the restaurant on top until getting the cable car down and walking back to the campsite just after 1am.

Team sleepmonsters were also in the telecabin, as were Irish AR. At the bottom it was decided Shelf would carry on replacing Ian from Sleepmonsters and in the morning the rest of us would play at getting whichever checkpoints we felt like.... Irish AR went on as a 2!

Prologue to the XPD race - principal was, 4 stages, restarts every 90mins so your rest was whatever the difference between your time and the 90mins was. Distances very rough estimates......

Trotti biking - well, the team showed that this is not our best sport....erm around 7mins down on the scandis who rocketed off! I think they knew what a trotti bike was before they got there...

Run/Trek 1 - hot hot hot - think it reached 35 degrees on the airstrip, nice to get into the woods, JC on a mission to 'get us back in there' so was on tow, desperately trying not to need the tow as was thinking it was waaaay too early and may result in JC overdoing it too early. Bombed it round - not much lost to fastest teams here.

Run/Trek 2 - JC was happier after the last trek, slower pace but feeling the heat, slight nav error after navving from the back on a fast descent, lost 5mins after overtaking 2 teams. Was on 3 way tow into the finish as this meant back on the catching up time thingy....JC sprinted for the line and I thought I might hit the deck face first as my legs don't turn that fast!

C • 3 person tow. 4

Rafting - after the last trek I was utterly heat exhausted - not functioning at all well until the first wave hit me in the face! Fantastic fun from there on! Thanks to Ian from outdoor interlaken there is even a video of our trip out there somewhere! Overtook both boats ahead of us, good stuff and great fun!

6:20:00 [3] 37.0 km (10:16 / km)

Run from the airstrip over a small hill, collected a couple of controls on the shore of Thurnesee before transitioning into the sit on top kayaks (10km), across the lake to a marina (7.5km), right down to the end (9.5km) then back to the marina(9.5km) for next transition.

Al had a small faff at transition and Irish AR and Sleepmonsters overtook. This put JC back into catch up mode and we hammered it across to the marina - catching up successfully, a 2nd small faff and JC was off on one! Things felt a bit like they were falling apart at this point but got it together again from the far end back to the marina.

A couple of moments I thought I was slightly bonking on this, but the good news was the arm was not too bad post paddle! woop woop!

14:00:00 [3] 80.0 km (10:30 / km) +1400m 9:39 / km

Bike and trek - The start of the end.
Bike to Kandersteg for a short trek, then over the tops to Lauterbrunnen.

Was feeling good on the bike after a change of clothes and a bit of food. However, something was clearly wrong at the top of the first climb and 10km in JC had to stop in pain. His hamstring felt like there was a knife sticking in it and he was finding pedalling difficult - tear I thought..... Being JC this was not going to be the end, we travelled another slow 3.5km or so tentitively with Al towing but in Frutigen I found a dutch team (?) with a physio who persuaded JC it was time to stop.

We had a 2.5hr stop here whilst the van drove out to meet us and got JC sorted. Then continued on up up up....

By now it was about 4am - it was a long climb up to the trek at 1300m from about 700m. When we got there I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. It was apparent we had one of 3 options, 1) get the trek, head back on the full bike route and not make the first cut off of 14:00 Thurs at the next trek so be short coursed. 2) Miss the trek, do full bike and maybe make the cut off just about. 3) Bike back around the way we came, similar distance but missing some climb and almost definitely make the cut off for the proper trek.

We chose 3 and had 40mins kip in the tent before setting off.

We made it back to Interlaken by 10am so went to the tent village to see JC, spent anther 2.5hrs there getting him clothes and food etc to make sure he was kitted out for the next few days. Then got to Lauterbrunnen and the Jungfrau campsite at 13:30 giving me and Shelf 30mins to get ready to trek!

cycling around Interlaken between Sat and Tues - shopping, faffing, looking at views, faffing etc

Found my new recovery ride route - there is surprisingly more climb in it than it feels whilst riding! From Ladybower, up fairholmes to the end of the road and back. Legs feeling good, arm probably going to hurt for a lot of the MTB at APEX....

28:49, 7.47miles 194m climb on the way out
26:10, 7.48miles 110m climb on the way back

BOC relays leg 1:

I can split this race into 2 halves, the one where I was orienteering and the one where I was running round like a headless chicken...

smooth to 1,
lost time on 2 as had had close no1 and was nervous about running past everyone going to the further no1, should have gone for it.
smooth 3,4,5 then steady into 6 so as to not mess up on the Hugsets like area.
Fine to 7,
slight miss on 8, 30s-1min,
fine to 9,
wobble on 10, lost about 1min,
fine through 12,13
wobble on 14 losing about 40s.
clean to 15,16,17,18!

That is where the good running ended, 2:40 min lost but about 3.75km done in 34:11...(9:07/km)

Final loop:
lost 3:30 ish on 19 being silly and panicking a little. Thought I was last after that, nearly ran past 20 but caught myself.
Ran into a load of nettles en route to 21 and lost about 3:20 on that leg hacking around, should have reconsidered my route choice.
Fine to 22 and finish as a little pissed off with myself by then!

0.55km in 12:00 exactly....hmmm (21:49/km) And that was the easy nav part!!! Rubbish! Learnt to keep concentrating better after spectator controls but how I lost my head that much I really don't know!

I think I might have been waiting for me to make a devastating mistake and by the time the last few controls came and I hadn't I panicked and made 2 to make up for it....

We found the right woods! Eventually....

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/85164270

Hugset Woods - me and Laura did some training for the BOC relays - I learnt a lot about what not to do!

First train, 4,5,6,7..... not sure I visited 5 then got thoroughly disorientated on 6, then messed 7 up spectacularly after coming so close to getting it right....by the time I got to 7 Laura thought I was dead somewhere in the forest and had gone hunting....

Smooth to 8 and 9, then the biggest boo of the day, got to what I thought was 2, headed for 11 and.....ended up on the E side of the map instead of S.....absolutely no idea how, plus the track network was fairly similar so took me a fair bit of running up and down to work it out.... found 11 after about 15mins...

Then Laura found me back near where we started and was very happy to discover I wasn't dead after all....

I think I'll put this down to experience....

Distance run 4.4km...

C • Sounds to me 2

Found a better way back that involved no nettles...

Burbage skyline - not sure what was wrong, stomach all over the place, no power, felt very slow and was ready to cut straight back across the valley from Higger Tor, then someone shouted '2nd lady' so I had to carry on really.
Interestingly I must be fit at the moment as I think it might be a PB, but with no watch and results confusion at the end I will have to wait and see. Deffo no race head on tonight though, didn't care who overtook me!

15seconds off a PB, not bad all things considered..

I love finding out about my transfer report 5 wks after every1 else....I also need to invest in a freezer to keep an ice pack in at the NGH CRF

MTBO selection race Swynnerton camp - Having not raced yesterday I decided to race bikes on foot today! I learnt that it is almost always quicker to be on a bike if the straight line route is rough and brambly....although I did beat 2 people on the A final finishing 7th woman...

Was clean through to about 8, made a small mistake by trying to go straight over a massive wall...lost 30s...then came a big boo, couldn't go straight 11 to 12 so was a long track leg - ran it really really hard to 'keep up with bikes', then promptly messed up 13 and lost 2-3mins as in so much oxygen debt.
Rest was fine, running hard, navving well.

Without the mistake I would have been 4th or 5th tehe. Technical race! Lesson learnt, don't run so hard even if bikes will take time out of you on that leg!

Actual length 7.4km, 5:30 per/km :-)

Token spin, high gear slow cadance, a fair bit hands free...
aim to start getting used to holding the bars lightly. followed by strengthening exercises and ice

No biking this weekend, probably the most sensible I've ever been!

Well, seeing as Camilla Parker Bowles was opening the BRU and that would mean I had to be hidden in a corner and not to leave before all the digniteries had left (god knows when that would have been) I chose to head back to the Hallamshire early afternoon, finish off a bit of work then head to Edale to meet Al for some 'trek' training.

Another couple of the kinder dozen in the bag, 1.5hrs terrain running again. Much better than hiding at the Northern General!

Decided to go for a long run out to stanage pole, High Neb, Headstone, Rivelin and home, been meaning to do this route for a while! Aimed to keep a pace just above very comfortable going so I was constantly pushing it just a little rather than the one pace fits all pace I've got a bit stuck in recently! Decided to keep it going to High Neb then see what happened. Felt good and kept a pretty even pace all round apart from the terrain :-) Saw Clayton family on a ride around rivelin. Really nice day if not a bit windy...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/83045610

Across from High Neb to the next bit of track. Had to go steady accross the terrain as it hurt my ankle a bit, probably should have stuck to trails....

Rested ankle, walked around Ambleside loosening it off.