Race Review - Elgin Cross Country

Last year's race report.

I keep forgetting to finish this report off. For so long now that I have forgotten chunks of what I was going to write. Here is a combination of the bits I did write at the time and then some filler around the edges.

In previous years I took my mountain bike and road from my parents house to and from the race course in Quarrelwood. Since I still haven't replaced my mountain bike I was left with the choice to drive round to the start line or jog from home. I decided to jog up to the start line. About half way there I had to stop and change from my warm-up trainers into my race shoes because even the path to the course was too wet. 

I jogged up to the start and did a short warm-up. I was managing to get round and chat to a lot more people than I have previously been able to. 

Before the race started I just hung around at the back again. Once the race started I tried to stay in a group for the first lap. I figured if I pushed along a little and tried to stay in a faster group I might do slightly better than getting stuck between groups like I did at Forres.  

The first half of the lap is generally downhill on nice tracks, but then it turns and start to head back through a section with a lot more tree routes and then a really muddy section. The mud was bordering on extreme in places, but I was coping as well with it as everyone else around me. At the end of the first lap I started to ease away from the group I was in. I was doing a better pace than I had planned so I was happy to drop the group. There were a few individuals ahead and I started working on trying to pick them off. I was making progress and keeping it fairly steady.

Coming into the last climb there were a couple of people ahead of me. I managed to get past one through the muddy section at the bottom. It took a fairly committed sprint finish to just pip the other guy, who it turns out I beat by nearly a minute at Keith and the other places around me were all similarly about a minute faster on comparative times.

In places I was 49th out of 65 finishers. Last year I said I should be competing with runners around the 40-place mark. I was still a couple of minutes off that, but I haven't really been running as well this year so it would have been greedy to think I could have improved that much. 

Against my own time from last year I was about 30 seconds quicker. But with the mud on the course this year the course should have been a good bit slower so I am still pleased with my overall time. Also I was much more consistent. Last year I started and finished with faster laps but slogged round the middle one, this year all three laps were pretty much even. 

So again I am pretty much happy enough with how I ran. 

Training Review - Week 47 - Nov 17 to 23

Monday was a normal swim day. Plenty of tumble turns, which are gradually improving.  

Tuesday I went to the gym just to tick over on the bike for an hour. I misjudged my fluid intake in the afternoon and had to stop early to pee. 

Wednesday I had a flexi day but I couldn't get motivated to go out and run so I just went for a swim at lunchtime instead. I planned to to do 2 x 1000m, but miscounted and did 950m for the first one, so I did 1050m for the second one. Pretty happy to clock 17mins and 19mins despite some stops for traffic.

Then I went for my massage. She was at least as evil as she has been before and the chinese cups have left me looking like a freakish domino again, but they do seem to have worked.  

Thursday was my first run this week. We went out in the dark for a loop around Kirkhill. Even with the big head lights on it was difficult picking out a route that avoided all the puddles and boggy sections. 

Friday I was too tired to fit in a run before going to the TPT AGM. I have managed to avoid getting a job on the committee again, but I had to work much harder to stay out of it this time. 

Saturday I was unable to motivate myself to go out and run in the rain in the morning. I am now drifting behind on my running again. So I missed two opportunities to run this week. I really need to sort that out but I am struggling a bit recently. The problem being that my swimming and cycling are going so well and I don't really want to mess those up. 

Then we went to see the third of the Hunger Games movies. I have planned to move movie comments to another blog but there is no way I am starting a new blog with that nonsense.

Sunday I decided against Inverurie Duathlon. I woke up in the morning with what felt like cramp in my right calf. I had a shower, ate my breakfast and tried to stretch it out. It wasn't getting any worse so I went to cycle with the Kintore Sunday group. I felt ok for about the first 10 miles but then we had a short stop while someone had a comfort break and just in those couple of minutes of getting cold my calf tightened up and trying to pedal on from there was getting really uncomfortable. I rolled on with the pack until I got to the next major junction but that was basically a choice to commit to about another 2 hours in the group or be sensible and head back. I chose to be sensible and so I only got half of the distance in. 

So this has turned out to be my worst week for a while. Especially given that I had a flexi day and should be looking at big totals. Instead I am at the end of the week, limping around the house having done hardly any running, scraping the lower target on the bike that was meant to include a race and absolutely none of the extra sessions. 

I am also now struggling to see how I can get to my planned totals for the year end. I really have to up my running to get anywhere close. And missing out on 26 bike miles means I am probably not able to make my target purely from outdoors and I am going to have to take the credit for sitting on the gym bike in order to get that total. 

Target totals - Swim > 1.2 miles. Bike > 55 or 40 miles. Run > 15 or 18 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Monday - Swim with TPT. 2,250m in 60 mins.

Tuesday - Gym bike 14.4 miles in 50 mins

Wednesday - Solo swim. 2,000m in 38 mins.
Massage.

Thursday - Run at Kirkhill 5.7 miles in 58mins

Friday - Rest Day
TPT AGM

Saturday - Rest Day
Hunger Games 5/10

Sunday - Ride 26.5 miles in 1hr 40 mins.

Actuals - Swim 2.6 miles (4,250m). Bike 40.9 miles. Run 5.7 miles.  short core,  short light weights and  short stretching sessions.  mins of yoga.

Training Plan - Week 48 - Nov 24 to 30

In order to get to my run targets for the year I am now going to have to do make sort of consistent change to my plans, and to stick to them. I could give up some swim miles and still get to my targets. I could give up a lot of bike miles since I already surpassed my target. 


Monday - Swim with TPT.
Stretching session.

Tuesday - Run.
Yoga session.

Wednesday - Gym bike.

Thursday - Offroad run
Core session.

Friday - Rest Day
Core session

Saturday - Run

Sunday - Long Ride, Kintore


Target totals - Swim > 1.2 miles. Bike > 55 miles. Run > 15 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 20 mins of yoga.

Training Review - Week 46 - Nov 9 to 16

The start of the week was basically just ticking along according to plan.

Thursday I felt a bit stiff and the weather wasn't great. So I decided to take an extra rest day before racing. I did do a stretching session. 

Friday I stayed with my plan to rest before racing. This week's trip to the cinema was to see The Imitation Game. An expertly constructed mix of documentary and story-telling. Another fantastic turn from Benedict Cumberbatch. I would have given it 9/10 as it is a pretty great movie but there a re a few little niggles that cost it a point. The voiceover at the start is too much like Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness. The frontline war scenes are silly animation, including one where there is a veritable swarm of submarines

Saturday I went through to Elgin for the next race in the North District Cross-Country League series. I misjudged the distance of my warm up and warm down so I come in slightly under my miles for the week.

Sunday's ride take me past my target for the year. I had planned to do 1820 miles on the bike this year and I am now at 1846. However 298 of those miles have come on the exercise bike. I am tempted to exclude those from the count. That would still leave me trying to collect another 270 miles or so before the end of the year. That is close to 50 per week, which I probably a reasonable target if I go out to Kintore every single Sunday for the rest of the year. 

Then went to Nightcrawler. An utterly terrible movie. So many things wrong with it that I don't even know where to start. I gave if 5/10 on IMDB and felt overly generous about that. 




Target totals - Swim > 1.2 miles. Bike > 55 miles. Run > 15 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Monday - Swim with TPT 2,000m

Tuesday - Run at Dyce 4.6 miles in 40 mins.

Wednesday - Gym bike 17.6 miles in 60 mins.

Thursday - Rest day 
Stretching session

Friday - Rest day
The Imitation Game - 8.5 / 10

Saturday - Yoga 15 mins.
NDXCL Elgin 6.0 miles in 46 mins
Warm-up/down 2 miles

Sunday - Kintore ride 50.3 miles in 3 hours 38 mins
Nightcrawler 5/10


Actuals - Swim 1.2 miles (2,000m). Bike 67.9 miles. Run 12.6 miles.  short core,  short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 15 mins of yoga.

Training Plan - Week 47 - Nov 17 to 23

This week is the first Xmas dinner of the year. That means a bit of a reshuffle for my week. It is also the AGM for my triathlon club which means a further reshuffle. I have a Flexi day on Wednesday so another shuffle for that.

Then to complicate things even more Inverurie Duathlon is on Sunday. I am not even sure if I am going to race it. It should quite suit me if the weather stays dry, but I don't like to take the TT bike out in bad weather so I will make a late decision about racing once I see the weather forecast. 

So for now I have written two separate plans for this weekend. Black is the non-race plan, Purple is the race plan.

Monday - Swim with TPT.
Stretching session.

Tuesday - Gym bike. 

Xmas dinner #1.
Yoga session.

Wednesday - Flexi day, Long run.

Massage.

Thursday - Gym bike

Or rest day.
Core session.

Friday - Easy run.

TPT AGM.

Saturday - Long run.

Or rest day.

Sunday - Long ride - Kintore

Or Inverurie Duathlon.


Target totals - Swim > 1.2 miles. Bike > 55 or 40 miles. Run > 15 or 18 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Race Review - Keith Cross Country

I seem to have taken forever to write this one. It is almost time for  the next race in the series.

According to my training diary I haven't raced at Keith since 2010.

In the morning I already felt stiff and had a bit of an ache behind my right knee. I decided to go anyway. I was only ever taking it as a hard training run, so it wasn't going to be a let down if I had to back off a bit further and take it as a slower training run. 

I had a bit of a warm up and chatted to some team mates and some other people I knew. One of the more serious contenders was in his first race back after several months off. There was a bit of chat from him around his plans to jog round at the back. I pointed out that I thought he was maybe underestimating how slow things would be at the back compared to what he was used to but he insisted he would struggle to keep up.

The race had one of the most unusual starts that I think I have ever witnessed. There were a few jokes about the front runner hanging out at the back with us. Even to the point of someone telling him we had much better chat and if he hung around a while we would tell him some fishing stories. Then while we were still giggling away about that a guy in the middle of the pack suddenly turned round and ran back towards us, having lost his shoe to the mud. The giggling rapidly turned to full out laughter and it was hard work for a few of us just to keep running without wetting ourselves.

About 5 minutes in the serious chap jogged past looking much too comfortable and I reminded him that 'I told you so' about how slow things were at the back. He wished me a good race and then disappeared up the field (to eventually finish 4 minutes ahead of me).

By about 8 minutes into the race, about half way round the first lap (of three) I was already in a big gap. No-one in front that I could see, and clear from anyone chasing. This was pretty much the story for the next half hour as I worked my way round the course at a decent pace in splendid isolation. 

The final half lap I was being caught slightly. I figured the gap was too big for him to cross and there was no way I was catching anyone ahead but I upped my pace anyway. Once I pushed on a little more I actually felt a bit more comfortable. I managed to reopen the gap behind me but couldnt see anyone ahead to catch. 

Finished 48th of 58, which wasn't great, but my average pace was 7:42 / mile for a slippery and hilly course which was better than I expected. 

Training Plan - Week 46 - Nov 10 to 16

This week is the next in the North District Cross Country League series, and this one being at Elgin means I am pretty much required to go. It is about 2 miles from my parents house. This is also a good one to do as I raced it last year so I will get a head to head comparison against how I was running at this time last year.  

The rest of the week is built around getting comfortably to race day, and then Sunday is another long ride to get the miles. I have tweaked the targets this week again. Partly because I don't have control of swim sessions at the minute and I keep missing that one by tiny margins, and partly because the long weekends (Saturday could be a 10-mile run day if I jog to the course and back) mean I can make the basic targets easily enough. 

Also during this week I should pass my original bike and swim targets set for the whole year. 



Monday - Swim with TPT.
Stretching session.

Tuesday - Easy run.
Yoga session.

Wednesday - Gym bike.

Thursday - Easy run.
Core session.

Friday - Rest Day.

Saturday - NDXCL - Elgin.

Sunday - Long ride - Kintore.


Target totals - Swim > 1.2 miles. Bike > 55 miles. Run > 15 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Training Review - Week 45 - Nov 3 to 9

Most of the week was fairly standard just ticking through sessions so I am going to just skip over the details and let the numbers speak for themselves. 

Wednesday evening we decided to go out to see the fireworks at Kemnay, because the Aberdeen ones were likely to be too busy to cope with. 

Interstellar was as good as I expected. Although in hindsight there is an awful lot of it that is 'borrowed' from 2001. Despite a fabulous performance from Matthew McConaughey the film is almost stolen from under him by the robot TARS. 

Saturday I took an early morning jog to my granny's house to collect the car that we left their on our way to the cinema the night before. 

Sunday I was given the job of leading one of the Kintore Sunday ride groups. That went well for the first 23 miles, then we missed a turn. It wasn't a huge problem as we would just take the next one and that would take us along and back to the original track. That plan went slightly less well when we found a pothole and had three punctures at once. Once we were back moving again things got quickly back on track. While the detour cost us a couple of miles the stop added a chunk of time from the punctures meant we were about right by the time we got back. 

Not a bad week, although I am getting very lazy about my extra sessions again. 




Target totals - Swim > 1.3 miles. Bike > 50 miles. Run > 12 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Monday - Swim with TPT 1.2 miles (2,000 m) in 60 mins.

Tuesday - Run at Kirkhill. 5.1 miles in 50mins.

Wednesday - Gym bike 14.5 miles in 48 mins.
Fireworks night at Kemnay.

Thursday - Run 3.2 miles in 31 mins.

Friday - Rest day.
Interstellar - 9/10

Saturday - Run 5.2 miles in 54mins.

Sunday - Kintore ride 45 miles in 3 hours 17 mins.


Actuals - Swim 1.2 miles (2,000m). Bike 59.5 miles. Run 13.4 miles.  short core,  short light weights and  short stretching sessions.  mins of yoga.

Training Review - Week 44 - October 27 to November 2

Monday I went for my normal swim session with TPT. It wasn't the best swim session, but it was solid enough. Slightly under my target for the week. I did manage to break my shower though. Didn't quite manage to set the house on fire but a decent amount of smoke and electrical burning.

Tuesday was the first headlight run of the year. A basic loop around Kirkhill in the dark. It gave me a chance to test my trail shoes with my smaller orthotics in them. They seem to work much better than the previous ones, and also seem to give me less localised pains than trying to wear my trail shoes without orthotics. I can't find my other set of trail shoes so it looks like my shoe choice for racing on Saturday is out of my hands. 

Wednesday I had to get up early so that I could use the shower at work. I decided to get up even earlier and to go in for a spin on the exercise bike first. I am not a morning person, especially as far as exercise goes. It took me nearly half an hour to even get warmed up. From there it wasn't too bad but it is not something I would choose to do again. 

Thursday was meant to be another offroad run but that didn't really fit in so we switched it for just a road run instead. A nice steady 5 miles around Dyce. Was a bit stiff to start with but eased off nicely towards the end. I hadn't slept well on wednesday and this coupled to the early Wednesday bike session meant I was exhausted. 

Friday I had to keep my rest day in order to be able to cope with racing and biking at the weekend. 

Saturday was Keith Cross Country which will get a report to itself. 

Sunday was the first of this year's official Kintore Sunday group rides. This week was a very flat route with a couple of stops in it for beginners to get some basic lessons on group riding. With about 5 miles to go it got a little bit out of hand and it was pretty much a time trial race back to the finish. 

A good week on the normal sessions front. Plenty of bike and running miles and the swim was only slightly short due to the build up of the session this week. Bit crap on the support sessions though. Doing none of them until late Sunday afternoon and then trying to cram in a couple when I was already tired isn't the best plan. 

Target totals - Swim > 1.3 miles. Bike > 50 miles. Run > 12 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Monday - Swim with TPT 1.2 miles (2,000 m) in 60 mins.

Tuesday - Run at Kirkhill. 5.1 miles in 50mins.

Wednesday - Gym bike 13.3 miles in 48 mins.

Thursday - Run 5.0 miles in 43 mins.

Friday - Rest day.

Saturday - Keith XC race 5.1 miles in 41mins.

Sunday - Kintore ride 45.1 miles in 2hrs 59 mins. 
Yoga - 20 mins
Core session


Actuals - Swim 1.2 miles (2,000m). Bike 58.4 miles. Run 15.2 miles. 1 short core,  short light weights and  short stretching sessions. 20 mins of yoga.

Training Plan - Week 45 - November 3 to 9

Friday should be a rest day as I am going to see Interstellar. I am a huge fan of Christopher Nolan, (apart from letting Zack Snyder loose on Superman) and Matthew McConaughey so I am hoping it will be great. 

The rest of the week is stacked up the same as normal. I may try and squeeze in a second swim somewhere but will see how it goes through the week. 



Monday - Swim with TPT.
Stretching session.

Tuesday - Gym bike.
Yoga session.

Wednesday - Long run.

Thursday - Easy run.
Core session.

Friday - Rest Day.
Interstellar.

Saturday - Easy run. 

Sunday - Long ride - Kintore.


Target totals - Swim > 1.3 miles. Bike > 50 miles. Run > 12 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.