Training Log Archive: rcro

Run Ystradfellte, Sarn Helen road, Fan Llia, around Fan Fawr, then Mynydd y Garn with Marcus and Mark P. Fair to say that I was slowest by some margin.

Down to the river, detour to look at caves then along it to join up with my past waterfalls runs. Had a little trouble from here trying to find right footpath.

Sarn Helen road was quite long and unexciting, but seems to have given me an unexpected KOM. Poor ascent up Fan Llia - against the wind and struggling.

Pretty much struggling rest of way from here. Contouring around Fan Fawr felt hard - maybe would have preferred over the top. Then the tussocks had a good go at left ankle twice in 100 yards so had to really slow down.

Mynydd y Garn was lovely.

Shame run didn't finish at 27k, from the trig onwards was pretty rough - my ankles couldn't do it so was down to walk for a lot.

Good run and nice weather. Suitable MM training and generally moving at a bit faster pace than I normally do for long runs. Thanks to Marcus for leading us.

https://www.strava.com/activities/787166077

Blisters noticeable during run but damage is far less than last week - improvement.

33rd FoD parkrun - fairly good conditions (despite the Swansea tourist [who won] saying he thought it was "muddy").

Not really pushing hard - as shown by HR. Started steadily and managed to overtake many (10+) by the end.

Plenty of cake after as quite a lot of centuries today.

https://www.strava.com/activities/785759606

Closing a gap between Monmouth and Kingswood. Started quite promptly - so cake still quite fresh. Pace very slow. Far more road than I really would have liked, but to be honest, wasn't doing great on hill either (not unexpected).

Paths better than the last Monmouthshire gap-fill run - they did exist today, stiles mostly not in the right place, and not signed until I'd almost got to Kingswood. First stile looked like it was going into very ropy area so backtracked and followed the OS map.

Offa's Dyke Path has been upgraded, stony yet soft underfoot. Very nice.

https://www.strava.com/activities/785853230

Followed this by heading over to watch Blorenge race.

Need to start planning the next joins on my map - close to getting many of the bigger blocks into one now.

Adhoc MDC hills session with Marcus and Mark. From HQ to beyond Gwaelod and then 3 efforts in the fields. Roughly 450m with roughly 55m climb (unevenly distributed).

Certainly felt like this was second hill session in as many days and was quite tough. Steady-ish on first and kept heart rate at only 176 - max seemed to increase by 3 each effort - trying pretty hard on last.

Times: 2:34, 2:34, 2:33 - which is pretty good considering.

Finished with some (at times steep) undulations for extended warm down around fields and then top of the woods. Pretty glad it was just 3 efforts!

Thanks to Marcus for arranging. Definitely need to make this a more regular thing.

https://www.strava.com/activities/784656889/overvi...

Rainbow laces made it onto my "work" trainers and not going to ruin them in actual running shoes.

For Marcus's benefit, my map is here https://citystrides.com/users/2892/map

For Marcus and Mark2 - processed lidar data still here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/35b4opjle7ui9zn/AAATtc5...

C • Tyn y coed 2

Beechwood hills session - hard. 3 sets, 1/3 distance, then 2/3 distance, then full hill - 500m with about 60m climb, so a proper "hill".

Not really trying for consistency but instead looking at watch to try and get heart rate above 180. Achieved this on the longer efforts. Held up on the first long one so dropped back long way before second long and pushed hard on last third to catch and overtake. Came at the cost of wanting to be sick for all jogging (but not effort) after that...

Trying less hard for last set but HR says still very reasonable.

Good session.

https://www.strava.com/activities/783726045

Weight dropped below 73kg for first time in some months - and quite a long time since it last happened other than when I've been "off" eating. Can only be good thing...

MDC run from Taffs Well. Pentyrch, Creigiau, Tyn y Coed, Garth.

Not many in faster group tonight so less time spent regrouping. Running surprisingly strongly and rarely at the back except for shoe lace stop.

Very wet and muddy through the fields, and ups and downs in Tyn y Coed woods pretty slippery - needed hands to get up some slopes.

Bit disoriented for most of the run, thought we were still heading south-ish until sign for Tyn y Coed - 180 degrees out!

Good food afterwards as always.

https://www.strava.com/activities/782809634

Note - trains appear to still be buggered up today. Wise decision to work from home :-)