Training Log Archive: AlistairH

Trying to get into mindset that a run usually takes an hour plus in advance of marathon no 2. Went looking for midpack Monday run but 2 minutes late. Did own thing but met them later in the run.

Race the Castles Brown Course @ Balmoral. Far out of practice at forest orienteering with lots of 2 min errors and some particularly poor terrain running on the rocks and in the veg. down to 11/12. Very enjoyable outing however and nice to run here (in between falling over...) HR only spent 45 mins over 145, mostly when there was a hill to run up, trying to run on tougher terrain is sometimes like trying to do a cardio workout by doing bench presses, not possible...

Easy evening run.

Martin's intervals. Felt fit but legs still quite apres-half-marathon and struggled to go fast, 10k speed rather than 5k perhaps. 4'52, 4'42, 4'46, 4'43, 4'42 = 3'48/k.

Fairly thorough warm up on a fabulous misty morning.

Great fun doing (in my case punter) elite sprint race @ Race the Castles, Stirling. 58/76 +41%. Mind-boggling start round Stirling Castle.

3 - lost about 20 seconds missing the best route but at least I got on with the route I took.
7 - lost a minute - couldn't work out which level it was on during the run out from 6. Stopped. Worked it out wrongly. Ran up some steps. Ran down again. Ran around. Stopped again. Got it right this time.
11 - lost 10 seconds executing route but suspect I lost some more on route choice, went left and into the control from the west, which was probably lazy thinking.
12 - 10 seconds or so going round to the right up the steps into the control. It looked fine on paper...
13 - 15 seconds - didn't spot there was a way into the control from the NE.
14 - Very interesting leg - will be interested to see if any option other than past 16 and 15 stacked up.
15 - 25-30 seconds - had unshakeable belief control was on the steps. Took too long to reprocess reality.

All good entertainment. Next time I hit something like 7 I should just stand still and get it right. It only takes a few seconds stationary versus a minute exploring the castle.

Event: Race the Castles
 

AAAAAAAAAAAAGH. Motored round Race the Castles Vet Men's Course, still sore from last Sunday but kept consistent effort up. Would have been 6th, +9%. But I ran past the 13th control. And my stated goal at the beginning was 'don't mispunch'. Checked all the controls I actually punched at carefully.

Not sure why I did this - thinking ahead but probably distracted by there suddenly being quite a lot of people around and the control was being punched by a young junior so part of my brain thought it was a white course/path junctiony type of control one runs past. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.

Run round RTC warm-up sprint at a fairly easy pace, left quad and right calf cramping up. Fun to run in a part of town I know quite well.