After the fling

Saturday was up bright and early at 4am. Liz v kindly made breakfast for Ian and I. I had porrage, sausage, beans, eggs and toast.
We arived at Milngavie at 6.25 and after registering moched around for a bit.
At the start I made a point of watching Jez Bragg starting just to see the pace he set off at. It looked about my 10K pace !!
I had determined to give it a real go and set off at what felt like quite a fast pace. I wasnt too interested in chatting, just geting my stride right. I did run with Ian and Davie B and hit Beech tree inn in exactly an hour (7.5m). Clearly this was a bit fast. So I pushed on of course. I ran through Drymen in 1.43 which was far too fast.
A couple of miles up the track Liz was waiting at Garabdhan car park. I stopped @ 8min and cahnged into trail shoes and had a coffee, choc milkshake, rice pud and a creme caramel.
Ian had joined me and we headed off together and ran together until just before Conic Hill.
The descent off Conic was horrible. Really greasy and I tiptoed down to reach Balmaha in 3 hrs.
I still felt good and had been amused by a group of 3 lads up from London who seemed to suffer from gate dyslexia. It didnt seem to matter what they did, they couldnt cope with horsey gates.
I found Liz at Sallochy(24m) and the 3 lads headed straight off in the wrong direction before I could say anything. They did eventually return. I had 1/2 a litre of chicken soup, and a creme caramel before heading off. Ian came in just as I was leaving.
It was now definitely warm and the sweat had been pouring off me for some time.
I made Rowardennan in 4.31 which was bang on schedule. Just after that I came across Kaz who was looking fine and seemed to be enjoying herself. We chatted for a bit and then I pushed on.
I decided to run as much of the hill that takes you away from the loch as I could and passed several people.
I hit Inversnaid at 5.52. Still feeling good. Gav was there clearly struggling. I didnt expect to see him at all. Ellen was also there and enjoying herself.
The next section is definitely not my cup of tea. It really does break the spirit. Its like horizontal mountaineering with all the crags and trees and progress is so slow. I ended up with 5 people behind me but I couldnt entice any of them past me.
It was bliss to get to the head of loch lomond and do some running.
I had a message that Liz couldnt park at Beinn Glas so was prepared to psh thro to Derrydarroch.
The 3m that separates the 2 is always surprisingly hilly. I was walking all the ups now and beginning to struggle. It was 20m since I had seen Liz and I needed some support. Alison and Colin were there and it is always nice to see familiar faces.
I had some ginger beer and swapped my ruc sac for bumbag. This wasnt smart as I had been fine and hadnt tried this before with bottles in the main bit of it. They jump out normally if they are in the bottle pockets. Anyway i set off with the bumbag bouncing up and down and annoying me.
I was glad to take the left turn up the hill at Crianlarich corner. It feels like the beginning of the end. I was being passed by a few now and just working away as best I could. I hadnt really eaten for ages and wasnt hungry.
About 3/4m before the A82 i stumbled on one of the many rocks on a steep downhill bit and flew headfirst downhill. I landed on my right knee and totally had the stufing knocked out of me. My calf immediately cramped and I must have been yelling out in pain because a few people gathered around to watch my suffering. My first thought was what have I done ? My knee was giving me alot of pain and I didnt move for a few mins. Eventually after some kind person dressed my knee I got up and started hobbling downhill. I walked to the road and then got up to a half jog when saw the girls. Liz was clearly concerned about the state of my running kit and how she was ever going to get it clean. Quite rightly she simply asked me if I could carry on and when I affirmed she told me to get on with it.
I crossed the road and had horrendous cramp when getting over a stile. How do I get out of this I thought. Then I saw Al and Ali and decided I had better make a show of running.After that it was a case of running then walking a bit when the pain got too much. I was able to run into the finish and it felt great.
Liz was there with real enthusiasm for what I had done.
10 hours 43min.
Not much more to say.
Ian did well to overcome alot of cramp and come in a respectable 11.24 and Kaz did v well to do 12.11.
I am as always indebted to Liz for her support.
Lessons learnt:
1 Dont go off too fast
2. Garadbhan is a good pit stop
3. Coke is good
4. Stick with the ruc sac

Pre Fling thoughts

Tomorrow its the Highland Fling. I start at 7am and Liz will be supporting me.
I have run 13m this week over mon and Tue so should be well rested come tomorrow.
My plan is to try and run under 11hrs. I think that is achieveable but will be tough. I ran 12.25 2 yrs ago but am much fitter this year.
There will be alot of people on the course including a cohort starting at 6am. This means I should be passing people towards the end which should help.
The forecast is good so now its all down to me. Head down and push hard for the whole day.

Good run

Today I did my old 10.6m run from Comrie
I have been eeking this down from 86min over the last few weeks
Today i fely good for the 1st time in a long time and did 75.35 which is my best for a long time on this run. It was also a lovely morning. Its been a great spell of weather recently. April is the new May !!
I did do this run in just under 70 min a few years ago but I think those days are gone for good.

Tapering

Things improved significantly after the last post
I did 6m the next morning then a TDS (20m) on Sun in 3h 3min which I was delighted with. I've never seen Auchingarroch so busy.
This week I have cut right down doing 14m over 2 runs. I did have a masage on Sun which helped and was advised to rest so I did.
I am starting to look forward to the fling now which means nervous tummy. Thats fine and I enjoy the anticipation of a challenge like this.
I need to decide how I am going to pace it. I want to get under 11hrs and I guess I need to be no slower then 3h 10m at Balmaha to do that so thats a start

NIght time run

I planned to set off at 9pm and do 24M. In th event I ran an hour out and back so about 14m.
I felt quite nervous about this for 2 reasons. One Liz is away so if anything went wrong I could be stranded miles from home in the middle of the night. Two I was aware of a hamstring strain.
I found myself feeling pretty miserable the whole way out. Music didnt help and I felt pretty vulnerable.
My ham was achey on and off and for a while my knee joined in. After an hour I decided to turn around and knew instantly I had made the right decision. The run back was OK but when it started to drizzle I just wanted home.
The last 3M or so my ham was quite tight so Im not sure how that is going to work out. I felt tired the whole run and was v glad to get home.
Lessons learnt. If I am going to do this again I need back up.
Either start in the light or finish in the light otherwise its too depressing.

Struggling on

The time since my operation has been a bit of a struggle to be honest.
I felt great initially but that soon wore off. I am having to wear my cycling glasses to run to keep wind and debris out my eye. I am also wearing my buff to keep sweat out. I must look pretty strange and I feel odd.
I did runs on sat and sun last weekend and felt a familiar discomfort in my outer knee. Not good !! Is it ITBS ?
Well i carried on after a severe rub of the area and to my delight it seems to have gone.
This week I have run every day so far but have had calf and now right hamstring niggles. I dare say its all the miles catching up. I seem to be coping but perhaps a massage is in order.
I have done 30m so far this week and am hoping for a big mileage this weekend. Lets see if the body holds up.

Eye operation

Yesterday I had occassion to experience life on the other side of the medical divide. I had an eye operation in Ninewells, Dundee.
I must say it all went very smoothly. I was impressed with the professionalism and care shown. The drugs were particularly enjoyable !!
The only downside is a sore eye and a couple of days off running. So thats not too bad.

WHW run and quarterly report

Last Sunday was the last single day organised training run this year. That feels strange with almost 3/12 to go but there is alot to come yet from other quarters.
On Sunday IB and I started from B.O.O. with a pack of wippets behind us starting from Tyndrum.
It was a superb day weatherwise with clear blue skies.
Much to my embarrasment we were caught by 3 just before Khouse. However everyone has their own goals and mine was to finish uninjured in @ 7.5 hrs.
I was feeling fine and took the devils staircase at a walk. The run down to KLL is tough with lots of broken paths and rocks to stub your toe on. Having got to Khouse in 2.05 we got to KLL in 4.05. After soup and coffe we walked up onto the larig mhor. This is another rough section and we picked the pace up i an effort to catch 2 in the distance. After awhile I gave up.
The last 5m were pretty tough and I was v happy to finish.We finished in 7.31.Debbie and Marco v kindly gave us a lift back to BOO and we had a v welcome supper in Tyndrum
70M for the week
Last night I ran with the harriers. I did a 3m warmup and then felt massively shakey and unwell. Half a pack of mints cured that and I did the pyramid session (1-4-1) and ran pretty well.

That takes me up to 247 for March and 647 for the year which is average of exactly 50M /week.