The all new all new training diary

[Bierzo Baggie]

June 6th: Montes Aquilianos; walked the short route with my dad.

June 21st: For the Travesera de Picos I didn’t even make the start line.

Family matters imposed and at the last moment there was a change of plan.
At exactly the same time as I should have been agonizing on one of those evil scree slopes I was making sandcastles on a beach in Galicia. Must admit my relief was tinged with ever so slight disappointment but it soon passed.

The danger of getting all worked up about one race is that if for some reason a more important priority emerges (like a sunny weekend on the beach) it becomes difficult to disentangle yourself from the scenario that you have meticulously plotted over the preceding weeks. For the Travesera de Picos 2009 I’d thought about what I did wrong in the 2008 race. I’d calculated times and hidden my camera. I’d bought a pair of springy walking poles and enough gels to fuel me from here to Katmandu and then… sod it, can’t go, oh well…

The beach was great though and any normal person would have strained to understand that a choice was involved.

Once back home I checked out the results. The Bald Saviour had won again which was no surprise. And in the ladies race the mighty Susana from Ponferrada won by a mere 5 minutes which in a mountain race with a 19 hour time limit is almost a dead heat.

Next target, to keep a training diary and not a race diary.