Set off on a clockwise circuit of Glen Finlas parking at the bottom of the new road and set off up Shantron hill as the sun rose, cold with high broken cloud. Ground soft, wet and as your feet sink in almost every step toes soon like lumps of ice.
Conditions change as you go further up the glen. The wind picks up so you need to keep moving but the ground was frozen, much better as your feet don't sink in and finally get a chance to warm up.
Good views from the top of the Glen where the usual wind gusts down Glen Luss and into Glen Finlas.
Return route means a run through the dreaded peat hags, managed to avoid the worst with a couple of detours and soon on the steep descent past Mulea Plantation. 10 miles with 2900' of ascent in just under 2 3/4 hours. A few pics in the Galleria
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
Glen Loin Sun 18th Nov
Nice easy run up through Glen Loin and round into Corriegrogan, following the track to climb out at the Beallach a'Mhaim and a run back down the nice? new path to Succouth between Narnain and the Cobbler. Must go up the new path at the back of the Cobbler sometime.
Cloud level about 3000' with enough gaps to see the icing sugar coated peaks of Ben Lomond and the Arrochar Alps. The expected storms failed to materialise with great running conditions, cool and little wind, only windchill evident at the top of the Beallach and only for a few minutes.
Nice and quiet with only a few walkers out and then only on the last mile or so down to Succouth.
Cloud level about 3000' with enough gaps to see the icing sugar coated peaks of Ben Lomond and the Arrochar Alps. The expected storms failed to materialise with great running conditions, cool and little wind, only windchill evident at the top of the Beallach and only for a few minutes.
Nice and quiet with only a few walkers out and then only on the last mile or so down to Succouth.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Glasgow Uni 5 Miler Sat 17th Nov
Run in and around the Garscube Sports complex this popular end of season 5 mile road race is now a 2 lapper to avoid busy road crossings. Still got a few hills to test you out.
Another HR Race, target not to let HR go below 160, set lower limit at 159 so a beep meant speed up, upper limit 170. Again resisted the urge to go faster and also monitored the HR around the course to get a feel for the effect changes in effort/pace and hills have on HR.
Kept first 1/2 mile or so under 160 then pushed on and HR settled around 162-165. Only other time it dropped below was for a few seconds at the bottom of 2 of the hills on each lap. Also kept max HR under 170, topped out at 172 at the top of the last hill on lap 1.
Finished in 36:08, round about the target of sub 36 mins an ok run.
Another HR Race, target not to let HR go below 160, set lower limit at 159 so a beep meant speed up, upper limit 170. Again resisted the urge to go faster and also monitored the HR around the course to get a feel for the effect changes in effort/pace and hills have on HR.
Kept first 1/2 mile or so under 160 then pushed on and HR settled around 162-165. Only other time it dropped below was for a few seconds at the bottom of 2 of the hills on each lap. Also kept max HR under 170, topped out at 172 at the top of the last hill on lap 1.
Finished in 36:08, round about the target of sub 36 mins an ok run.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Stoneymollen Sun 11th Nov
Late night meant a late afternoon jog over Carman, Overton & Bromley moors coming down via Stoneymollen. Just under 1 1/2 hours with Bromley moor & Stoneymollen in the dark so about 10 mins longer than normal. About 8 miles and 1200' of ascent all in.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Eddies 1/2 Marathon Sun 4th Nov
Annual pilgrimage for this end of season 1/2 Marathon in Fort William. Only my third road race of the year and first 1/2 since last years race. Good running weather, cool, not windy and mostly dry.
No great expectations of a good time after the PW at the M10 handicap. Having lost my stopwatch ran using a Heart Rate Monitor and decided to try for 85% of theoretical max which is 153 bpm and should be a nice steady pace which I could hopefully maintain, set the max to 160.
Kept the first mile under 150 and then eased the pace up, next time I looked sitting on 153, HR went up to 156 and down to 151 with the slight hills on the course and gradually picked off a few runners in front to about half way. Each mile covered in just under 8 minutes picking up about a minute over the first 6 miles.
Using the HR helped to avoid the urge to go faster, had to work a bit harder from 8 to 12 miles but managed to keep the even pace going until the last 1/2 mile and then a slight increase, HR up to 162 BPM and kept ahead of runners closing behind. Finished in 1:44:28, 33 seconds under 8 min mile pace.
No great expectations of a good time after the PW at the M10 handicap. Having lost my stopwatch ran using a Heart Rate Monitor and decided to try for 85% of theoretical max which is 153 bpm and should be a nice steady pace which I could hopefully maintain, set the max to 160.
Kept the first mile under 150 and then eased the pace up, next time I looked sitting on 153, HR went up to 156 and down to 151 with the slight hills on the course and gradually picked off a few runners in front to about half way. Each mile covered in just under 8 minutes picking up about a minute over the first 6 miles.
Using the HR helped to avoid the urge to go faster, had to work a bit harder from 8 to 12 miles but managed to keep the even pace going until the last 1/2 mile and then a slight increase, HR up to 162 BPM and kept ahead of runners closing behind. Finished in 1:44:28, 33 seconds under 8 min mile pace.
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