Training Log Archive: rcro

Long run with John in the Forest. From Staunton layby around the back of the quarry, down to the railway bridge and up to Staunton Meend and Buck Stone.

From there into Staunton, along and down the crappy path to lower track and the Suck Stone. To river and along to Symonds Yat and up to the rock. Then followed Mailscot trail until around half way and then straight up track to top - then stuck to edge of forest and road to finish, briefly stopping off at the stone by the road just before the end.

Quite muddy and hard going, particularly the up in Bunjups and the down along the wall. Nice to have some company and chat away the hours. Weather was miserable on the way out but mostly good whilst we were running.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2934672400

Ticks off the last HM run for the year, and elevation should be in a good place so I don't need to do the Transfan next weekend.

Arrived just over an hour before race start to absolutely nothing going on. All races held back after a girl tripped and injured her head, and waiting for an ambulance to pick her up. They may have undersold the injury as the air ambulance came by and was parked for about 30 minutes - I hope it was more out of convenience than necessity.

The delay meant that races of the same distance were merged so we didn't know when our race was going to start. We were expecting a 10 minute warning to give us time to warm up as per previous delayed races but this was missed for ours so had no time at all to get legs going (it was far too cold and windy to speculatively undress and warm up...). I sympathise with the organisers a lot as they clearly had more important things on their mind, and it's to their credit that the last races actually went ahead at all.

Legs weren't ready, and I didn't need to race hard, so started pretty much at the back (only 2 behind me) and used the first couple of laps to get the legs turning. Downside to this is that I didn't know the course and how narrow it is, so was stuck in a traffic jam for first 4k.

Downhill was very slippery and really needed bigger spikes as couldn't take the corners faster than walking pace. The meadow was pretty much impossible - so sat back on lap 1 and loop, stuck to the middle "lumpy" bit of the path on other laps and was able to grip better. Woods were rooty so needed to see what I could trip over, and the up was narrow so lap 1's pace was determined by the speed of the man 10 in front of me.

Able to do some overtakes in the grassy car park at top of climb, but the slow guy sped up a lot too and was right with me. After this was a long gravel track section where spikes weren't a good idea at all, before a very slow going boggy field back to the start.

From lap 2 had a stitch, or something stomach related developing - which I think is combination of fighting the wind and not having a warm up. On all the laps I was knackered from mud at the bottom of the descent so just plodded back up, and the boggy field got at least 200m longer each time.

Lapped by the winner at the bottom of last lap climb, and by 2nd place at the finish line - so was fastest person lapped by 2 or more people. Was doing mental calcs with the watch and by the end of the first "short" lap worked out we were on for 10k rather than the advertised 9, think some of the less good runners in front of me struggled with that extra k. Pretty knackered from the effort despite not giving it totally everything, now see why people don't like this course!

Be interesting to see what it's like in the dry - should be many minutes faster!

https://www.strava.com/activities/2932466014

Thought I should try and do something to ease legs out but really not up for it. Definitely starting to go darker.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2932466194

Note - this is the first opportunity for the "wholly enclosed" rule to be applied - hence I haven't needed to run onto the road to join with where I've run before.

After some false hope earlier on, seems I've now lost this week's battle with my brain and feeling very delicate all morning. The route turned out to be crap - ODP and the two tracks basically unrunnable due to deep mud, water filled ruts and sharp cambers. Should have just stuck with the Mark and Alice route. Had to do a few stops to try and compose myself so that I would at least get back in one piece.

Did manage to do most of the surveying in Monmouth I needed to, but it didn't really help, and had got very cold by then as is usually the case. Spent a lot of hours sat in the car and then lay in bed and still not totally with it at 8.30. Hopefully tomorrow will give me a distraction.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2930128024

Mum had arranged for day off work so spent the morning with her rather than leaving early as I'd expected. Also meant I missed the morning dry window and was out in the rain. Surprised at how much water was on the roads (main road flooded a couple of hours later), and how wet and slippery Bringsty was once offroad.

Original plan was for some hill reps on the killer hill but the rain meant I didn't have the enthusiasm. Instead went for an easy run with my phone so I had some pictures now I'm playing around learning instagram (as a marketing/promotion tool, of course...). Turns out this was unwise as screen got so wet it ended up taking a long time to register my finger presses to unlock the screen...

Having set out to loop the common and Brockhampton quite quickly ended up down in Longlands so did Whitbourne and Gaines Lane instead. Given how wet the ground was opted out of the yukky footpath after Sapey Brook and took the woods and pheasant pens instead. Turns out they've laid trip wires across that route now. I was a bit more savvy the second time... Took a lot of clearing mud off my hands and buff.

Standard tour of graves, think I'm the only one that visits my granddad (who I never met) and uncle, and then pretty slow plod back lacking pace on the court drive and after Gaines Lane and the mud was just sapping. Finished up the killer hill (slowly - not an "effort"), which was fairly hard work and had to walk a section as had no traction. Looks like a prick has driven down it in something and churned up the ground. Uphill on a wet mud 1:2 gradient isn't really a run.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2928236934

Down to Ledbury after to check the map for February. Lots of updates to do. Found 2 polling stations approximately 10m apart from each other (swimming pool and community hall, which seems a bit close). No conservative posters or flags anywhere today so either Bill is feeling confident or everyone has realised who he really is. In fact just one political sign today - for the Greens, in Ledbury. Quite a difference to elections past, and also against Newport with it's labour banners all over the place.

Event: Winter Evening Maprun
 

No parking spaces near the start by the time I got there (6.35) so paid and then spent a long time trying to find parking that wasn't permit only or would bankrupt me. Ended up a long way out of town as the direction I went is restricted to 8pm whereas slightly further south was only restricted to 6. Very rushed and flustered and in the process forgot to put my torch on - only realised after half a mile and wasn't time to go back... More than a little pee-ed off.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2926910752

Fortunately organiser Ian kindly lent me his torch so I could run, and some way after starting mentally settled down and was able to think about navigating. Was actually quite a difficult one to plan with high density of checkpoints so went south to start with leaving all the complexity of town for later.

S-2-5-12-13-8-9-17-10-16-30-29-11-21-25-23-19-20-27-28-18-22-15-24-26-14-4-3-7-6-1-F. 600 points, a bit faster than Rhys.

Once on the go saw that efficiently getting the outside checkpoints would be hard so did half the town centre and then skirted the south. Added 8 early as still wasn't totally sure of enthusiasm or pace so got it early in case short of time as the end. When committed, hadn't appreciated I still needed 6 so would need to run nearby again later.

21 and 27 seemed a little bit awkward and clunky so picked what I thought to be the most ridiculous option of heading in completely the wrong direction, getting a load of controls, and then coming back for it from twice as far away, taking different roads in and out to try and hide the fact it became a KM each way dogleg. But it made the remainder of the course far more smooth as I'd done most of the distance.

Messy towards the end as after 26 was on the wrong side of town for what I had left.

Clearly not a good route as I ran through 13 and 15 twice. Quite happy with the run, but think could do better for doing 8 later and finishing 26-8-7-14-4-3-1.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2926912572

Cool evening, but dry. Was collecting my new torch from Mark Roderick so grateful of the lift from Rhys back to car so I didn't have to run with it and keys in hands.

Track session cancelled but wasn't going to drive over anyway. Went for a short hills session close to home as was wet and windy - timed return home from work to be after the worst of it so wasn't anywhere close to being as wet as Sunday.

Had eyed up Byron Road for reps the other day as it's not as severe as most hills around here - 25m ascent in 370m, steepest in the middle section. Downside was that it was head on into the wind - and the wind was strengthening through the last 3 reps.

Times weren't bad - 1:41, 1:39, 1:37, 1:36, 1:37. Helps my elevation target a bit. May try more hills on Thursday.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2924526832