Training Log Archive: rcro

Not feeling well - and been so all week, very tired at work and not sleeping. Plan for tonight was to go around Rogerstone but windy and took a huge amount to motivate me to get out at all. So kept it short and did the canal loop for a change.

A few little detours to get some more roads ticked off. Have now found the non-barbed wire short cut into Allt yr yn woods. Field now quite overgrown and lots of dead stuff, then once reached the "path" there was a snake on it! First grass snake I've ever seen (yet there are supposedly more common than adders...) - about 20cm long and finger sized girth so fairly young. It didn't hang around to get trodden on.

Started raining once at the canal and fighting the wind all the way back up despite hoping to be in hill shadow.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1104480861

Event: SBOC Local Event - Summer League 10
 

SBOC local on Merthyr Mawr. 4.2km green course.

One of the last (if not the last) to start - but had a lot of followers. Not a fantastic run overall but mostly clean and slow so that I wouldn't bugger up ankle in the rough. The sand was hard work, and fighting a very strong wind for the first half.

On wrong path to 1, but identified straight away and corrected. Fairly long winded route to 2 - but knew where I was - avoiding what appeared to be worse undergrowth. 6 - maybe would have been better taking a more northern route.

7 - feature didn't seem to look like map suggested so disregarded and went back away from path - then saw it in the bottom. Southern route to 8 through the sand - originally planned to follow fence line and not sure which would be faster.

11 - got to corner of vegetation but took a few moments to believe the feature was that much higher above me (could only see 2 contours on map as 3rd under circle - seemed about 5 or 6 2.5m contours higher)

Not the best route to 13 but worked and hit it perfectly.

OK run overall.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1102855484

MDC run from Torpantau pass - down to the waterfalls then right up to cairn on southern tip of Carn Pica. Not going too well on the hill - walking, along with everyone else.

Nice along the top and split into faster and slower groups - with faster taking a nice trod to the edge, then going over the rocky section and back on Beacons Way. Finished by descending along the trod that's the short cut on the Torpantau race - quite rough in places, but a lot more fun than the actual track.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1101301845

Easy recovery jog from home. Usualish loop with a couple of variations to tick off a few more roads. Going reasonably well but think it's right to keep short today.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1097255717

4th go at Waun Fach fell race - and to be honest another one that I had written off before starting as wasn't feeling too well and legs still tight from the mid-week. Start had moved forward slightly this year - and I didn't appreciate so started near the back and just never really got going. Raining pretty heaving for the first 2k, and for a lot of the descent.

Maybe this was a good tactic as pace remained pretty steady all the way up to the Col - and was able to run for most of the second section up to the top - and timing the gap to rickyp in front knew it was only about 2.5 mins.

Lost a lot of time on the new rocks coming off the top on the path and took a while to be moving at pace again. Better coming off the side at the last checkpoint, but all the other sharp descents along the Dragon's Back were very slow as I had no confidence at all on the wet rocks and wet mud.

Ended up in a sprint finish to the line as more had caught up. Managed to just about run all the way to the finish line so won this comfortably and got back another two places as a bonus - another few metres and would have passed 2 more.

PB by nearly 4 mins (and 6 mins better than in 2014) - despite feeling a bit crap, and weather being pretty bad. 19th place of about 60. 3rd NGOC but 2nd MDC - only 4 turned up this time.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1096053250/overv...

Slow back to the cars with rickyp and Paul Murrin. Nasty steep descent with lots of wet stiles and tedious track back along the bottom. The race has start and finish just right to get the best bits.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1096053223