Training Log Archive: Jon X

Scottish Relays Mens Open, Drummond Castle, leg one.

Was expecting a fast runnable forest and some parkland so this race was a bit of a surprise. Good area and tough courses - definitely tougher and more physical than expected though!

Race went okay apart from i) stupidly staying in the pack through all the green on the early common leg (3-4 for me) - the green was a lot worse than the map implied and would have been well worth going round, and ii) going up the wrong spur at #13 and almost off the map just after Ben S caught me up, lost 1-2mins.

Never felt like I was going very fast but could see all the people round me that I would expect (Ben, Fraser, Jon Musgrave, Colin, Dave R, Kyle and Will ahead, etc) so presumed it was going okay.

Usual story with the Scottish Relays though - area quite physical which means a wide spread of times, and the classes/courses don't offer enough options for all members of the club. In particular there are no non TD5 courses (not sure what is intended for juniors without a junior relay team) and no short enough courses to cater for older/less fit/less able/beginners (shortest course designed for 35min winning time for Gareth Bryan-Jones or other top M65). Need to pass on some feedback and try and get a few tweaks made to what is offered as this is a problem every year.

Good work by FVO people to win one handicap race (also dq out of first in another), plus silver for the Women Open and bronze for the juniors.

Pre mass start jog and stretches (luckily had time once the start was delayed), post race shuffle with Fraser.

C • Feedback 9

Event: Scottish Championships
 

Scottish Champs 2011, Auchingarrich and Mill of Fortune. Finished down among the dead men somewhere (although I guess at least I did finish!).

Not really up for a tough race (bed at 2am not really the ideal preparation either....) and just looking to run round steadily, however wasn't really planning on the large time loss I managed through #1(oops it is not 1:15,000), #2 (hilarious inability to go in the intended direction at any point) and #3 (distance judgement still more like it was 1:15,000).

Ben (4mins) and Jase (8mins) both long past me by #2 although I did see Jase ahead of me at #5 and #7. Continued trogging round although pretty slow in the rough stuff on Mill of Fortune. Looked at my watch at #18 and horrified to see how long I had been out for......promptly forgot all about navigation and climbed to the wrong ridge at #19 and then far too early at #20.

I guess the best that could be said is that I was looking for a long run today and that there was no need to do any extra afterwards to get the extra time in.....

C • Tough day at the office? 1

To the bus and then to the start. Met Tullster ('it is brutal'), Rosco (cut M21S short) and then Doug ('Cath hated it'). Encouraging feedback!

Never quite got round to the planned easy run. The weather was not making it very tempting!

Nice easy Leckie and Knock o'Ronald loop, extension at end to get distance up a bit more.

Short warm up jog with Ross, arrived a bit late (shock horror) to do any more.

Evening event at Plean, meant to be tempo-ish effort but managed to sabotage that a bit by standing around for a while before finding #3, then thinking I was at #4 and heading off diagonally up the hill in search of #5, where I faffed for quite a while longer whilst relocating a surprising distance from #5. It was only at the finish that I understood the problem to be that I had never visited #4.....

C • Twice in a couple of weeks.... 1

Control collection. Realised why during the course I thought I was at #4 when actually at #3.....the circle for #3 was pretty much totally washed off my map!
Time to stop using biro for these events and buy some new waterproof pens - or else for the events to start using pre-marked maps....

From the uni with Ross and Fi, good loop through Hermitage and Mine Woods (stopped for a chat with Brian and Heike who were climbing in the quarry), then along to the Darn Path and back through BoA to the uni. Moving along fairly easily although with some clambering over and round fallen trees and branches and some slithering through mud.

Ross and Fi were only doing approx an hour so stopped at the uni - I added on a further loop round the outside of the campus to get the time up over 100 mins. Still going okay at the end.

And so it begins....18 weeks of preparation for Berlin starts here.

Thanks to being ill in early May I am not starting from quite where I had hoped (low mileage few weeks with as many days off in May already as in March and April combined), but I think I am still in okay shape to start from and I am at least going into the training well rested!

Learning from last time, I have booked a few preventative physio/massage trips to get hip flexors/ITBs/lower back etc loosened off (plus deal with anything else that may be wrong with me by then!).

I do have a few other niggles but nothing too bad, just need to keep looking after my calves and left plantar fascia in particular.

Weight (currently 78.5kg) needs to come down a bit by September....

Accommodation for our Berlin posse is all booked.

So now I just need to run the miles and sessions needed to give myself a good chance of breaking 3 hours......I am looking forward to it, I think!

Given the wild day then more than happy for Rosco to talk me into a run from his house rather than my original plan of a loop up via Sheriffmuir Inn.

Did a good loop Riverside-Cambuskenneth-Uni-BoA-Cornton-Causewayhead-home, quite a bit of slaloming through the fallen branches to be done in places, plus I haven't needed to run in a jacket for a while!

Moving at a decent pace (when there wasn't windblow in the way), well rewarded as Fi had cooked up a feast for our return :)