Training Log Archive: ColmM

Some orienteering at Ravenscraig with Fiona.
2 short courses, about 3km.
Still feeling pretty awful so mainly just jogged round, flow etc was decent on the first one and navigation solid, but kind of hard to feel that constructive when just jogging as it was quite easy.
2nd loop started feeling a bit more tired, I was still clean but getting a bit more lazy and cut out the last loop. Also think I had one bad route at the start - classic case of left looking shorter, but given you have to come back to the right of the line halfway, right probably was in the end.

Ran myself into the ground a bit this week and woke up pretty ill.
Skipping a big weekend of hills.

Pushed the boat out too far.
Went to reps despite football earlier and despite the race last night.
Got involved in the paarlauf but legs were dead before starting. Lots of DOMS, but also severe lack of energy. Aoife was cruising past me on all the climbs on the 2nd loop. Anyway, stomached a half-pint at pub to keep the streak alive and then crawled home to wake up ill.

Easy morning one, 2mins too late for the Tim-Alex-Peds train, but caught them shortly after dragon's back.

Home from work. Considered getting the bus to save the legs, but it was just going to be more time-efficient so ran easy.

Gypsy Glen - 6th

Lots of fun betting markets in advance of this and a lovely Carnethy field meant this was guaranteed to be an exciting one.
With Totty, Dashy, JT & Tim all in there it felt like a shame I was going to race because really I just wanted to watch their race unfold - as it turned out I got pretty much front row seats.

Around the field I started tucked in at the back of the Carnethy formation, but as we went through the field I could tell the pace was just slightly too hot for me, so I let them go and settled in leading the next pack.
I kept leading mine, and they slowly pulled away up the road.

As we started climbing, I knew I clearly had some company just behind, and wanted to work reasonably hard so we could at least summit together and I'd back myself then. We went round some bends and as it opened up on the climb I could see the pack ahead had been broken up.

Tim & JT had fallen off Dash & Totty, and I started to feel like I could gain on them. This was perfectly timed motivation, because I was still feeling okay and could see there wasn't too much climb remaining. So, I got into a decent rhythm and started trying to make up ground.
Made sure I did work hard the whole way to the top, and the gap had closed a good bit, I knew Tim would have JT as motivation for the descent so I was going to have to work hard, so went for it pretty much immediately.
I could tell I'd gained a bit early on, and got by JT on the flatter section of the loop, but as the decent really got going I was struggling to make ground on Tim.

After the river crossing, I made ground on the mini ramp in the forest, and could tell I was reeling Tim in in the forest, and caught up just as we hit the road.
It felt like Tim ramped it up, because I'd closed the gap surprisingly quickly, but all of a sudden down the road it was getting very hard to hold on as the pace heated up. It eased off just before the ramp on the road, and I went by on the grass here and worked hard up the ramp. Off the top I tried hard to get the legs turning again and make a gap stick. Running scared from here through the field, but dug deep, and snuck a glance as I got closer to the line and had to keep working but could tell I had got him - good times.

Good run out, very happy with the run. Didn't expect to get any of the 4 boys so that was a lovely added bonus, but also pretty happy with how I ran it, sitting off and working through, There was no way I would have handled the starting pace they went out at.
Quads were really quite heavy before from Lomond (and the lack of rest), so I was happy they were still able to work well the whole way through.
Positive run and positive result, all trending up.

Down through the meadows with Sash and then on towards the seat. Bumping into lots of people - Ben & Alex B near the saddle. Accompanied Bash round the back of the seat then he headed for the sea and I came back home over Whinnie.
Meadows buzzing, good vibes.

A run round Thomas' neck of the woods with Thomas & Ali for the bank holiday. Longer than anticipated, with entertaining trails and lack thereof along the river.
Legs really pretty tired, for all of us, but maybe me the most.
Still plenty of punchy attacks on climbs, and full sends on descents though which made for further entertainment.
A good day out.