Training Log Archive: Brooner

Cruise up to the white walled cemetery, standing stones and Carn Liath, then back down Dunbeath strath. Lovely tour of old haunts.

Beer collection run to try and loosen up the legs a little. Bit of a struggle.

Event: Lairig Ghru race
 

Lairig Ghru race

Really enjoyed ticking this route off the bucket list, a top race through a beautiful part of the country, though the misty conditions meant we didn't see it at its best.

Bit quick for the first km but used the next few on the road to pare things back and try to settle the HR and keep it down until we hit the off road climbs, ignoring the flood of people who flowed past. Once off the road kept things steady, through 12km in an hour and was constantly passing folk up to and after Derry Lodge.

Next 15km were uneventful, good pace and the boulderfields weren't so bad, though did lose the main track with a couple of others after the final one and had to do some heather hopping to get back on course.

After the final climb I upped the effort and pushed on the descent, passing a number of folk, and really enjoyed the fast flowing singletrack down through Rothiemurchus - probably a bit too much as quad cramp struck at 35km and I had to walk a couple of minutes. Tried wasabi and the cramp certainly seemed to pass quicker, and didn't come back, though I was on edge for the rest and my stomach wasn't the biggest fan!

After that episode I was right on the verge of the 4 hour mark, so was doing the maths and knew I had to run sub 5s all the way home, so had to work hard to keep the legs turning over, especially once we hit the road. Benefited greatly from a guy out running who pretty much paced me home, after cheering me on up to Aviemore he must have seen I was suffering so ran ahead of me, stopping traffic and hitting the road crossing buttons to get me to the line - hugely appreciated.

Really happy with this, paced it well and felt like I was actually racing the second half rather than surviving, as has been the case at other races of this distance in recent years. Snuck in under my target time of 4 hours and finished 29th or so. Given I've done little speed work this year it's no surprise the faster stuff was almost my downfall, but happy to get through reasonably unscathed. Really liked the Salomons for this, probably would have been fine with the trail talons but had much more confidence in the Sense pro on wet rock.

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Not much views, but thoroughly enjoyed racing through the #LairigGhru. ⛰️