Ochils Recce

Okay, this blog needs more life about it! So far only floaty pictures of the Pentlands.

Saturday we went on a recce for the Ochils 2000 race at the end of August with Judith Dobson of Kinross running fame. We started at Glen Sherup and ran as far as Ben Evers then taking the trail back down to Alva. That was 12 miles of the course so there's another 6 miles to go. We apparently did the easy part. After that allegedly the trails peter out and there are peat hags to run over and navigational choices to be made! I've managed to do 15 hill races so far without once employing navigation as one of my strategies!

I was having an off day or Judith was having an on day or both so I puffed along behind Judith and Peter barely able to raise my head to look at where we were. It was a grey day so the green landscape seemed a bit unremarkable and it didn't matter where we were we seemed to be on the same green hill looking down at Grangemouth billowing out god knows what into the white sky above. Testing out different kit I had worn my Nike Pegasus Trail shoes into the hills. These were fine on the stoney road on the way up but as soon as we were on grass I regretted the decision. If I'm coming downhill at any kind of an angle with them on then the bits behind the heel press into my achilles tendons and hurt them. This did not help my already woeful lack of speed. I was also trying out my inov8 22 litre race rucsack as an option for the race. It was pretty good but I couldn't get strapped into it quite tightly enough so the shoulder straps rubbed my neck. I discovered after I got home that there were more ways of adjusting the straps than I'd been aware of. I was too hassled trying to keep up with P and J to stop and have a tussle with my equipment. I guess I'll put it all down to experience.

I had a slightly twingy knee after all this and yesterday after a tempo session up at the meadows my knee is NOT RIGHT. Can't get more accurate than that. So, no running today and try not to panic. Isle of Mull hill race on Saturday which has a rather alarming route description (http://www.carnethy.com/ri_mullmonsterette.htm#July ).

Good luck Giant Parlin on Saturday at the VT100 race.