Training Log Archive: Arnold

Recovery. Better than expected.

Not mentally up for this and lots of bits aching (both achilles, lower back and shoulder among others), so this was tough, especially ‘the hill’.

Pleased that my pain threshold appears to be slowly increasing though. It’s nice not being quite such a wimp as previously, even if I have a way to go on Abi.

Recovery.

Geneva Airport to top of Mont Salève cable car (in France), via all the sights.

Made possible by a sneaky day trip to Geneva thanks to #airmiles, #consultinglife and #supportivewife, but certainly without any #flygskam.

Decided to do this on Thursday, and with the help of a decent map from Stanfords realised that I could run straight from the airport - which turned out even better than expected as a little footbridge over the motorway led me into a lovely quiet area of villas. Then managed to thread together a few parks including around the ILO (very open if a bit weird to run through), the UN (completely surrounded by a high fence) and the botanical gardens (free) to quickly end up on the lakeshore - wow, doesn’t it look nice in the sun, with the mountains in the background.

Followed the lake to the centre, ran through the nice old town (on an unexpected hill) and then out the other side towards France. It was all mostly on paths and feeling ok, although my gut was playing up and when I got to the bottom of the humongous rockface (c.750m height difference), I strongly considered taking the cable car up as well as down.

But I channeled my inner ultra runner and off up the steep path I went. It was runnable for a bit but I quickly had to walk though at least the views made up for it. Then the second half, broadly parallel to a road in the forest with no view, was just painful, but I clung in and made it pretty much bang on my expected time.

It did however give me plenty of time to consider why I went on, knowing I was tired, and having done a decent enough 15k workout already. Did I want to prove something to myself? To everyone else? But what? And why? I guess it all comes down to not giving up as a principle, which in this case was pointless but in general is probably (mostly) a good trait to have. And of course there’s no denying that I hope if you read this, you’ll be mildly impressed...

After a quick beer and crisps at the top, the cable car ride down was fun (and the operator chappy was quite impressed), followed by a shower at a local pool where it turned out my fresh underpants had been soaked through the bag - lucky they had powerful hairdryers as I was getting ready to commando it all the way back to London.

Then a bus into town, quick sightseeing (and some egg fried rice) and that was that. I really truly am lucky to be able to do shit like this.

C • good work 7

London City Race. 11th edition (and I haven’t missed one yet), and it was sunny for the 11th time.

Basically, it was boo hiss. I didn’t feel great so it was a real struggle to keep moving, which meant that I didn’t have enough brainspace to concentrate properly and some sloppy mistakes & general faffing crept in (particularly in the Barbican at the end.)

I was only about 5 minutes down in the end which is surprisingly good, although if only I’d been fit...

Still, an enjoyable outing with a good course and running through the centre of London remains an absolute delight.

Course 3 - Splits

London City Race sprint, Middlesex University

Fun race on a 1:2.000 map with lots of direction changes. Predictably, started off too fast (it’s a SPRINT race after all) and died a bit later, also because the cold was still stuck in the throat a bit.

However, all good clean smooth fun except 30’ on a multilevel control with (imho) a dodgy description. But hey.

Main race tomorrow should be fun in the heat. Must remember to start more slowly though.

Edit: Lost 13 seconds on the winner on the first 8:30, then 2:15 (excl mistake) on the next 10:00. Oops.

1 - Splits

Another easy Richmond Park run with Abi
Lovely morning and despite the ongoing sore throat, the legs weren't too bad. Would be nice to properly recover for the City Race on Saturday though.

Easy run with Abi

It was warm, and I have a sore throat, but the running felt alright.

“Baccys Boggy Bash”, from Applethwaite to Coniston in the Lake District, “over the tops”.

A wonderful run/walk in the Lake District in a group of 15 going over High Raise, Bowfell and the Old Man into Coniston.

Had no real idea of how this would go (having never gone this far before on the fells) but despite some serious boggy, then rocky passages it was all good. Took loads of food and ate most of it (the Babybel was particularly tasty), and there were 3 streams at very convenient locations. Worst of it was the 700m steep descent into Coniston at the end, so it was great when the Sun Inn pub finally appeared around the corner.

Good company including fell running legend Steve Birkinshaw, and absolutely fantastic views throughout on a great sunny day - couldn’t have been more lucky really.

Quads a bit sore next day but otherwise no major breakages. Must do it again sometime.

C • That's more like it 2