Training Log Archive: paw

Scottish Champs at Balmoral. Couldn't have asked much more of myself on this one, and scraped a very narrow M45 victory over Ben (with Quentin and Chas just ahead on M50). Very glad to spike 1 (tree in forest) thanks to super-careful compass. Enjoyed the first loop a lot, despite dropping ~45 sec through being imprecise dropping into 4. Felt there wasn't a great deal of thinking to do for the rest, at least compared with the amount of path running and climbing towards obvious features. Lost 20 sec or so hunting for 9 and a similar amount going too low at 12, but clean other than that.

Really pleasing to get the win in the only championship race I've entered this year, especially on a course and area a fair way out of my comfort zone (heather, hills and rocks aren't really my thing just now). Next stop: Jukola!

C • Well done. VHIs for you now. 4

Including jogging to the start with John E and a useful excursion on the warm up map.

Clyde event at Croy Hill, expertly planned by Ian D. A good deal tougher than the usual Thursday night fare - steep, rough and very wet - but really good fun. Had to consciously throttle back a couple of times so I didn't waste too much energy before Saturday. Fairly good nav aside from a wobble on 6, but then dropped three minutes on 11 due to a combination of a daft route choice, getting stuck in a load of unmapped gorse and having to backtrack, and having to take off my shoe off to remove a very painful (and large) splinter. Arnis overtook me during all this and I chased him in to the finish, gaining time with a couple of slicker routes. Finished happy, but utterly drenched.

Croy station to Auchinstarry and back.

Being sensible before Saturday, or just laziness? Time will tell...

Up to Cowlairs for the figure of eight loop, and back home again. OK once I got going, though confused by the bizarre phenomenon of water droplets falling from the sky.

Wiped out from work stuff, but legs pretty tired too - Sunday was hard!

Brown course at the SoSOL at Calder Wood. Bit of a last minute decision to do this, but very glad I did. Navigation felt a bit scrappy - largely due to the limitations of the map - but I managed to avoid any large scale mishaps. Went off hard until about 45 minutes when the legs started to die, which unfortunately coincided with the orange-standard loop around the E side. Pleased to be just over 5 min behind Oleg, though would have enjoyed being ahead of Will rather than just behind.

Lovely day for it, and some gorgeous stretches of bluebell-strewn wood. The area is much harder work than it looks, perhaps due to the steepness of the slopes, but it's an ideal candidate for a lidar remap.

C • Lidar 1