Training.... Hard!

This time last week I was muttering about upping the training more than I had planned by biking more and trying out some sprint work, and so I did. On that very Tuesday evening Colin and I went out on a bike ride, we went for 23 miles and  I was fairly chuffed to be keeping Colin in my sights if not quite keeping up with him! On Wednesday we ran Dumyat, and were pleasantly surprised to discover we were faster than this time last year, then on Thursday I cycled to Dunblane as well as going for a run. So by Fridays rest day I was feeling much happier with my progress and like I deserved the rest.
In this positive frame of mind we set off for a 14-15 mile training run on Saturday, the plan being to leave Croftamie, run along an old railway track to join the West Highland Way, follow the Way over Conic Hill and then return from Balmaha via Buchanan Castle. The run nearly went awry when we accidentally took a wrong turn coming off the old railway line at the start and didn't join the West Highland Way.... we should have known we were going wrong when we passed so many hikers going the other way!!! After this short detour (1-1.5 miles!!!!) we were nervous that we would struggle later on in the run but we had a great day.

 We kept a fairly even pace, keeping each other company until Conic Hill where Colin powered off ahead into the distance. I knew from our run on Wednesday that Colin was much faster on the uphills than me, but I was also aware that his downhill running has improved loads compared to last year, with this in mind I kept myself motivated to push as hard as I could up the hill so that he didn't get too far ahead. The West Highland Way doesn't go all the way to the top of Conic Hill though I did nearly go there by mistake as I took a path heading to the top rather than continuing on the West Highland Way, thankfully I realised my mistake before I'd ran more than around 20 metres too far up and headed on down as fast as I could to try and catch Colin.

 I caught him at the bottom but I suspect he slowed down a little to let me do so. It's a steep descent and it was a wonderful feeling to just let the legs flow as they found their footing along the narrow rocky path. It was a brilliantly exhilarating hill and I loved every minute of it, even the up, and Colin and I were really pleased with ourselves as we headed back along the road towards Buchanan Castle. The last few miles I finally started to pull away from Colin as my long distance stamina kicked in and he started to feel the pace, however by the time we stopped it was a 16 mile run because of the accidental extra bit, and we both felt we could have gone on, so we are really happy with where we are. Now we just need to keep this running level up and not get injured!

What with it being Jubilee weekend we had decided that it would be nice to climb on the Sunday and do the long bike ride on Jubilee Tuesday instead. The reasoning being it would give us extra time to rest from Saturdays exertions and give us a chance to enjoy ourselves whilst stretching out the muscles... only Sunday came and went in a blur of sleepiness and lethargy so we didn't get the stretch we probably needed yesterday. I was a bit cross with myself but I still went out for a good 6ish mile run today and we still plan to do a good long bike ride tomorrow so hopefully I manage to make up for it.
It is fair to say that the run today was hard... but then it would be, we trained hard last week and it makes sense it feels a bit tough. With under 3 weeks to go now training hard is the name of the game for just a wee while longer. After all it seems the competition within the team is hotting up!

A picture of the distinctive Conic Hill above Balamaha