Masochism

Living today in a nice ‘post-race’ high.

Yesterday did the Open 5 Adventure Racing race in Pately Bridge, N. Yorkshire, http://www.openadventure.com/open5/9_Pateley.htm. Very good day out, the storm held back, although it did get windy and rainy on and off during the 5 hour event. It was full of some seriously steep climbs and mud and challenging map reading skills. The race consists of 5 hours of running and mountain biking, visiting as many points as you can as long as you get at least one point in both disciplines.

Started out on the bike, as usual. I always think getting out on the bike is best, mainly becuase these events always tend to favour biking. All the big ticket points values are on the bike part of the race. e.g. the highest bike points was 45 at three different points, whereas the run only had 25 points as the highest you could get at 3 points. So, seeing that at the start, makes you realise it’s best to get the higher points on the bike before your legs give in after running.

So, the bike was tough. Some serious serious climbs, to the point on the last climb where my legs just cramped up and I had to push the bike up in that pathetic “hunched over the bike pushing for mercy” position. The last climb took me over 45 minutes to get to the top but the downhill bit only took 7 minutes. Go figure… Anyway ended up with a good number of points, lots of mud, horrible cramp and blood pouring from a skin scrape on my hand. Very “action man”…

The run wasn’t any easier, but after the bike, I would say the run was more like a hobbling shufty run instead of a confident 7:30 min/mile pace! The run really puts your map reading skills to the test as you find yourself in a wood, with no visible paths and a lot of boulders. Somehow, my luck held up and I found all the areas I wanted to. I got back to the finish line with 20 minutes to go. Looking back on it, I could have got another few points at the end, but my body was crying out for rest at that point.

All in all, great day, came 13th out of 55 in the male solo category, so a good outing. See the bike course on this page: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5134599 and the run on this page: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5134600.

Taper

And it’s taper week.

This weekend, well Sunday, is an Open Adventure 5 event in Pateley Bridge in North Yorkshire. Always fun event, if only because you can never really use the term ‘personal best’ as each event is completely different, and you simply do the best you can. Every event is a PB. It’s basically a 5 hour event of trail running and MTB with orienteering thrown in and the weather is looking not too bad. Should be a good day in the great outdoors.

In the meantime, my biking has been woefully ignored, to the point that my mountain bike hasn’y seen the light of day for going on 6 months. Seeing as Sunday’s event includes mountain biking, I will need to sort this out before the weekend so I can get hold of any bits (I’m thinking brake pads at the least).

Should be fun though. And it means I will do a bit less training as I taper through to the weekend. I tend to do this by running every other day, nice and easy, with a little splurge of ‘power training’ on Friday, while trying to eat a little bit sensibly.

And, after last Wednesday evening’s debauchery, swiftly followed by the agony on Thursday morning, no alcohol, thank you waiter.