Training Log Archive: murraystraining

Yeah, that took a while!
Ambleside - Helvellyn: I found the pace really hard to judge at the start - it felt slow but I was at the front so I settled into a comfortable rhythm with a few other guys. I stopped for a pee half way up Dove Crag/Fairfield and Donnie Campbell and Gareth Hughes got a bit of a gap. They were still in sight on the very steep climb up the wall line from Grizedale Tarn to the main Helvellyn path - I was pleased to feel pretty strong when we hti this path and got going well again.

Helvellyn - Grizedale inc. Swirral Edge, Striding Edge and Eagle Crag scrambles. The plan here was just to take it as easily as I needed to on the technical bits, while protecting my legs on the descents. Swirral Edge was easier than I expected as the route dropped to the path after the initial scramble down the spur. Striding Edge was great fun initially, jumping from rock to rock along the crest, but got tricker nearer Helvellyn where the rock was stratified diagonally and was much harder to traverse at speed. Neil Talbott (won Wasdale recently) came past on the next descent, moving much more confidently than I was on the mildly technical downhill to Eagle Crag. The down-scramble here was added to the course fairly recently so no one had reccied it. It felt a fair bit easier than had been made out though - especially with a fixed rope in place to use as a handrail/brake. Good fun though!

Grizedale - Patterdale, inc steep ascent to St Sunday Crag, grade III scramble on Pinnacle Ridge and gentle off path descent. The crux of the race. There's no way of disguising it - the climb to Pinnacle ridge is brutal - pathless and >50% gradient (Strava says I climbed 540m in 1km inc Pinnacle ridge itself). The only good things to say about this climb are that I didn't seem to lose much time on the guys ahead of me (although its hard to tell) and that there were some really tasty blaeberries to supplement the artificial rubbish I was shoving in my gob - and the blaeberries were hard to resist when they were so close to your face, bent double and climbing on all fours!
Pinnacle ridge was a longer scramble than I expected but really good fun. I would have struggled on the crux - a 10m near vertical corner of the cliff - without the fixed rope but as it was I got up with only one hesitation to work out what I was meant to do next. The down climb off the pinnacle was alarming at first but there were enough holds to get down ok. Scrambling done! Race on!
If only. The steep climb followed by the scramble had gone straight to my hamstrings and quads and I was on the verge of cramping. So the descent back to the valley floor was a bit slower than I was hoping for. By the bottom the cramp risk was gone but my legs were still feeling a lot worse than I would have liked.

So that was 4 hours racing, longer than I've ever done in a solo race before. And that was only the first half!

Patterdale-High Street-Haweswater (insert standard joke about a saturday afternoon trip to the high street here). Fully replenished energy supplies from the Patterdale bag drop so distracted myself from the climb up Angle Tarn by eating potatoes (nice) and pork and chorizo sausage (not nice). Wishing I'd taken in more of this climb as it was the last enjoyable one of the race! Heading towards High Street I got sight of the two ahead of me and timed the gap at three minutes. It was clear Gareth was struggling as I watched Neil pass and drop him and sure enough he rapidly came back to me on the way up High Street. I can't say I enjoyed the descent down to Haweswater much - pretty rough and rocky and Neil was out of sight, continuing the theme of him descending much more confidently than me.

Haweswater-Thornthwaite Beacon-Stony Cove Pike-Kirkstone Pass. Small Water was lovely although the mountain bikers descending towards it making an absolute racket slightly spoiled the tranquility of an otherwise remote corner of the lakes. Unfortunately seeing them coincided with my own wheels falling off, not helped by seeing Alexander Beavan scampering past on the climb - back to 4th and off the podium for me. It was just a case of marching on for a while up the climb. I managed to get running once we topped out at the bealach on the Kentmere horseshoe and I managed a shuffle across the tops but nothing more than that. Fortunately there was no sign of anyone behind me so I was content just pottering along at my own pace.

Kirkstone Pass-Red Screes-Ambleside. Special Stages! So I thoguht 'what the hell, lets go for it' and charged into the climb. I then thought 'what the hell, what the hell, WHAT THE HELL are we doing on this crappy pathless scree slope rocky gully when there's a perfectly fine path heading the other way?' Somehow I got the second best men's time for the climb. I would also have got the second best women's time too...
I have to say the descent back to Ambleside was great fun though - the first time I felt able to really cruise down a hill as it was basically rock-free and a nice gradient. I felt like I was moving pretty well, all things considered, and while I wasn't surprised that Donny (won won in 7:30) gubbed me on the descent split, I got beaten by Sarah R again! Schooled!

So 4th place. Happy with most of the race. I'd underestimated the steepness of most of the climbs - while I knew St Sunday Crag was going to be brutal I'd not realised Helvellyn, Small Water, Stony Cove and Red Screes would all be similar. I ate pretty well for the first half (gel every half hour, cake bar every hour plus plenty nuun and torq). but felt a bit sick in the second and could only take gels. A caffeine nuun after Kirkstone perked me up a bit though for the finish. The scrambles were challenging but achievable and definitely added some spice to proceedings.

Was fun :)

C • Nuts 1

One day taper. That'll do.
Lakes Sky Ultra tomorrow - 33&1/3 miles for my 33&1/3 birthday, if you seriously have nothing better to do then you can follow my tadpole here from 7am until 2…3…4…o'clock: http://live.lakesskyultra.uk

C • Good luck! 5

Pottered along to Saugton to wish Corstorphine AAC a happy 30th birthday at their track marathon relay. The Trotter mid-pack-cack team were on the ropes after a pulled hamstring knocked them back to 5 runners so I got roped in to helping them across the line - probably 6 x 400 off 3-4 minutes. I wasn't looking at lap times but strava suggests I might have started out with a couple of 63s - a season away from the track and my pace judgement goes completely to pot! So much for the easy taper jog.

PW for ST2 mile. 10:00. Pretty unmotivated and legs a little tired - let a weedgie kid and renault away without much of a fight. Did manage a marginal negative split - 5:01/4:59. Bumped into Hoddy and Doug on my warm down so joined them for 4x200m, perfect ultra training! Taper time now :D

Seat with Doug, James and Hoddy. Found the Trainspotting film crew but no actors. Meadows picnic afterwards.

MASH with Doug

Round and round the car park.

SprintScotland3: Grangemouth (but it could have been any housing estate in scotland, really). I know Kris is flying just now, but I was not expecting him to catch me a minute on an easy sprint like this after 12 minutes running - and only one 5s banana on my part. Either I was more fatigued than I thought from yesterday or he's winning WOC in a couple of weeks.

Jogging with Jonny Schminty and Kris.