The transition phase has begun...

On Monday, I was surprised to be not sore at all from Pedal for Scotland. My legs were tired but that was it. I was half thinking that it might be one of those ones where Tuesday is where it kicked in but I was totally fine on Tuesday so went on an easy 10k. Then Wednesday I did an easy 4 mile run but all uphill to my parents.

Then Thursday, I know I said last week I would try and go with the Bs but as soon as I heard it was Telephone box loops I decided to go with the Cs as its 0.6 mile loops times 6. Our group was working well together tonight, starting off slow and getting faster. For the last rep, Colin and myself did go with the Bs and managed to stay with them which was encouraging. So maybe could have gone with them for starter afterall.

Friday was a day off as I was planning on 2 back to back races at the weekend. What did I end up doing? - no races! Luckily they were both free so, no money lost. Friday night I didn't get to sleep till 3 in the morning due to having a poker night so Park run was out of the question and then this morning I was wanting to do the 1500 metres for the club championships but couldn't get to sleep and legs were sore from Saturday. Its like I have moved time zone! As just feel jetlagged.

Since I didn't do the park run and it was a nice day I headed up to the Kilpatrick hills to do the Kilpatrick hill race route. This time though I ran straight up the road rather than cutting off up the hill and over the field. As I wanted to run as much of it as possible. I ran all the road up apart from about 10 metres just as it reached the top, so I was pleased with the effort. Once round the corner it continues to go up but very gradually before running down to the reservoir. When the road finishes, the race turns right along a fence and up a hill. But I was feeling good so went straight on and did an out and back up to a trig point. On the way back I turned up back on to the race route and followed it round to the next reservoir. The race route follows the reservoir but I wanted another hill so went up the hill and round instead. It was the toughest hill so far as it was steep so had to walk more. Then went down to the dam and up the slacks which again was run when I could, walk up the steep bits. Then down the other side where I got views right over Glasgow. I was just taking it easy today and felt good when I finished. So it was my longest hill run I've done at 9.4 miles in 1 hour 54 which is about 5mph pace.

So thats me now beginning the transition phase into hill running/ultras. My Highland Fling (first half of the WHW) entry is in, so that is my first 2011 race in the post.  All training from now is geared towards the Fling, with other random races thrown in to keep me going through the winter. The other 2 races which are almost definites for next year are LAMM which is the Lowe Alpine Mountain marathon in the second week of June. This is a 2 day race done in pairs over mountains, where location is only revealed a week before the race. This year its a north year so will be an hour max out of Inverness area. I am planning on doing it with Stephen from my club who I did the WHW with earlier this year. There are 4 classes of race from A to D with A being the hardest and we are just planning on doing D, since we've never done anything like that before. Then Clyde Stride again as I enjoyed it so much this year.

I was hoping to do a 50/60 miler later in 2011 but all those type of races in Scotland seem to be in April/May. There is the CCC 100k which is part of the Mount Blanc races in August but you need to have done something like the Highland Fling to qualify, so may just do River Ayr which took place this weekend. I could just do it as a long distance training run but would just need to find a route with lots of shops/drink points on route.

Needless to say I am getting excited about next year already!