Beinn Dubbh Hill Race

I thought with 10 days to go to Anglo Celtic Plate 100km race a little last bit of quad bashing at Bein Dubh Hill race would be a great last hard training run. This race has great sentimental value for me as last year it was my 1st race back after my brain haemorrhage. Last years was amazing, to be out running in the hills so soon after what had gone on made it a special night. It was a hard shift to get up the hill though and at that stage I still had no idea whether I would be able to get back to running at the same level. So a year later to be doing it as preperation for running for Scotland seems a bit surreal.

Luss isn't the easiest place to get to for 7pm after work.  Myself and Joe Symonds had formed a convoluted transport plan which concluded with getting a train to Old Kilpatrick where he had left his car...something to do with avoiding city centre rush hour traffic. I'm not sure...it made sense at the time. Inevitably Joe missed his train, so the drive up to Luss was a bit frantic, but at least I have got the 2015 near death experience out the way thanks to Joe's driving. In a rare turn of events Elsie had got there in good time so picked up numbers for us and waited for us at the start.  We rolled into Luss about two minutes before the start at 7 o'clock. Joe was still in his work gear, I suggested he could probably give everyone a five minute start, do the race in his shirt and tie and still win.  This would probably be considered taking the piss, but if I had his speed this is the kind of stupid thing I would do. The race ended up starting 5 minutes late so in the end we were there in plenty of time.

There was a good turn out from Bella including a rare turn out from the hill hating Greig Glendinning who was also insisting the dog driving tractor on to motorway incident earlier was nothing to do with any of his. Al Euen and Bob were there too.  They set a good early pace and I tucked in behind them. I reached the summit just behind Greig, who waved me past early on the downhill insisting he descends "like a bag of crisps". I made chase to Bob but couldn't catch him despite him finding the only bit of bog for miles and faceplanting in it. I reached the finish in about 41 minutes. About 6minutes faster than last year.  A decent reasonably hard effort, the fast runnable descent meant the quads felt nice and jelly like at the end, which was the main purpose of the evening really. They don't feel as sore today as I expected so maybe the quads are in better shape than I thought. We'll see in 9 days time. Although ACP is on a flat loop it is still usually the quads which are the 1st thing to go. After multiple bouts of flu and fatigue over the last few weeks I finally seem to be coming together just in time. Maybe a few weeks of lower mileage won't have done much harm. I have always said I would rather be undertrained and fresh than well trained and tired. I am going to get to test that theory in a big way in 9 days. Can't wait.


Kit courtesy of  TeamNathan
Hydration vest: NathanVapourAir
Shorts: Pearl Izumi Fly short
Socks: Feetures merino
Fueling and Hydration:  Osmo & Honey Stinger

Training update

I had good intentions of writing weekly updates of the training during the build up to the Anglo Celtic Plate hopefully with lots of big miles and lots of quality sessions. Training started really well but then my troublesome IT band started to niggle a bit. A visit to physio Jon Trevena gave me some interesting news as he diagnosed me with having tibial varum in my right leg- basically I am a bit bow legged- too much horse riding as a child? He thinks this is has been causing me ITB issues and has given me lots of exercises to do to get me on the mend. It is a longerterm project though and told me I would just have to manage the IT band as best as I can in the few remaining weeks in the build up to ACP. This has meant lots of treadmill miles as this seems to irritate it less if I add a little bit of incline. This culminated in an epic good friday 50km treadmill session, very sweaty- around 6 changes of t-shirt and about 3 litres of fluid consumed (Osmo hydration seemed to work really well) I think the staff at Virgin Active were considering having me sectioned. Unfortunately training has been a bit stop start due to me picking up a few flu type bugs which have been leaving me feeling pretty wiped out on a number of occasions. This weekend was all set to be the peak training weekend with a couple of back to back long sessions planned, however most of today and yesterday were spent in bed with me feeling completely zonked. I am hoping todays rest will nip it in the bud and I can get out for a good long run tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Reading fellow Team Nathan runner Antonia's travails in the build up to the World 24hour champs has left me feeling positive. She has a great attitude. Things don't always go to plan, but you just have to get on with it. The plus side of getting ill is that the lower mileage has probably helped the IT band mend faster than it otherwise would have.

Stevie G has given all us Team Nathan guys some lovely new shoes Courtesy of Pearl Izumi. The Pearl Izumi EM Road n1 and the trail version too.  I haven't given the trail ones a proper workout as I have been spending too much time on treadmills. But the Road N1s are fantabulous. I know I would say that as I have been given them for free but I do mean it, if he took them off me I would be running barefoot to go and buy a pair.  Why? They are the shoes I have most enjoyed running in since my beloved Brooks Green Silence were phased out. They just feel fast, they encourage you to run with a light, quick cadence like a good racing flat would but they feel more cushioned than a racing flat, I will be happy doing a road 100k in these. I really like these shoes. And they look pretty nice too...