A hilly lessons learned

This weekend I’ve learned so much about running that I thought I’d document it. On Friday my LAMM partner Stephen and Derren and Marc from my club headed north and knocked off a few munros: Ben Vorlich and Ben Vane. Derren and Marc have done a lot of this type of event and I learned a great deal just by watching them. It’s not just about being good at hill running. It’s about working as a team and being able to read the terrain and maps. It’s also about knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Photo taken by Derren of Stephen and I going up Ben Vorlich

Stephen and I, understandably have to work on this as it doesn’t just click overnight and we are going to make a lot mistakes which we can learn from.

What I learned from yesterday was:

•           Going uphill Stephen and I are about the same pace.
•           Going downhill, if technical (lots of loose rocks and steep) I was miles behind (Although that path going down Ben Vane is torture!).  I kind of knew this already. But if you saw the way the other 3 guys bounded down Ben Vane it really does highlight that this is not one of my strengths.
•           Even if the contours are far apart (which means it is less steep), doesn't necessarily mean it is easy terrain to run over. So even If we made a decision based on the map, the best route decision might actually be made when we can see for ourselves where the best route to take is.
•           Where to stop and eat – always best to find shelter from the wind. Also knowing when one and other needs to take breaks.

It does feel like Stephen and myself have gone through the toughest tests that we are likely to encounter come June. Both in terms of the Navigating side of things from Steven Fallon's course. And now today from Derren and Marc on route selection, difficult terrain and teamwork.

Today I went up to Alva to do some of the Ochil hills with Andy, Ash, Fraser and Tomasz from my work. We did 3 hills in Ben Ever, Ben Cleuch and The Law. It was a great day and we had some stunning views. When I looked at the map I thought I’d never go running in this area as the hills looks really steep. But the opposite happened today compared to point 3 above yesterday. The hills looked very run able as it was all really grassy paths. I say run able but there is always an exception which was coming down the Law. WOW, that is a beast of a descent. There is a hill race on there at the end of the year which has been going for 3 years. In that time it has run the full course once, a looped course another time and had to be cancelled the other. I can’t actually believe people can run down some of the sections. It took me more time to walk down, than it would take a mid packer to do the whole thing, never mind the front runners.

View looking to the fourth 

So another lesson is that I’m always going to recky hill race routes before deciding whether or not to do them. There is a few round this area which were in the 'No' category are now in the ‘Yes’ category. On the other hand, races like the Law and Arrochar Alps firmly in the ‘No’ category.

Now focus is firmly on Kintyre - a week from now - fingers crossed - I'll be finished or roundabout there.

National Road Relay Championships + decisions, decisions

Today was fun. It started off with a good laugh. I was driving in to the car park at Livingston's stadium to find myself in a queue which I thought was parking for the event. The thing is a bush obscured the queue and when I crept forward a bit, I realised it was the queue for the car wash which was taking up some of the parking spaces , d'oh, haha.

I walked round to the school where the race was being held and met up with the team captain. Only to find there had been loads of call offs and what not. So it ended up instead of having 3 mens teams, we just had one mens team. So I was in the A-team by default! Awesome. Understandably there were of course some grumbles of disappointment as if we had our best team out we could get top 10 easy I reckon. But you gotta play with the hand your dealt so we made the most of it.

Our young guns took the first 2 legs, Alistair coming in 24th. Then Luke ramped us up to 8th on the second leg.  Then of course no matter what order the 4 of us took; the person doing the next leg was going to be overtaken. So it was Jim then David, then I took the shorter 5th leg. I started with this guy from Lasswade who rocketed off and I didn't even try to keep up, just focusing on doing the best I could. I really went for it and was overtaken once (by people on the same leg) by a Cambuslang guy.  As I reached the join where the long leg and short leg came together. A Shettleston guy doing his final leg went flying by. Then approaching a bridge I could hear shouts, and sure enough a Central guy (2nd overall) overtook me. I really tried my best to make sure the 3rd place (overall) guy didn't over take me. And again at the right point, the team captain gave me a shout of encouragement. I handed over the 'baton' to James who finished things off for the A-team.

It was nice being in the A-team once. But I really hope for my club's sake that I'm not in it again (especially for shorter distances), we just have far too much talent right across the age spectrum.

Decisions


The last couple of months having been crazy and really I have ran how I have felt rather than sticking to a plan. I think I have pretty much decided not to do the Fling this year as it just doesn't feel right. The reason for this is because the Kintyre Way is the weekend after. You just have to read my report on it down the right to realise just how special that day was to me. So I have entered to do the full thing this year (well to Campbeltown anyway where the race finishes).

Whether I finish it or not I don't care. I just want to give it ago and enjoy the scenery and magic of this part of the world. I realise its 20 miles further than I have gone before. But at the end of the day, if I'm gonna do the WHW, that will be 30 miles on top of the length of Kintyre. I am going to stay entered to the fling in case I change my mind but for now my training is focused on Kintyre.