Catriona Morrison

The first duathlon of the year – always a shock to the system! This is the second time that I have raced the local duathlon which is part of the Murcia Regional series. Being carnival time, entrants are encouraged to dress up – maybe next year.

The men were off first with Gav leading the first group for the first 5k and young David positioned in the second pack. 3 minutes later, the women get to start chasing. This year one of the Spanish World Championship team members entered the race. This gave me a good battle for the first 2.5k lap and I kept up the pace into lap 2 coming into transition with about a 30s lead. The bike was a hard graft – lots if strength training pushing the Kaffenback! In the men’s race Gav was having a gritty ride chasing down the team breaks and David was sticking tight to his group. At one point I had a group of men drafting me until the draft busters caught them they were told that it wasn’t fair to draft a girl.

I built up a fair lead into T2 and tried to push the second run as much as possible. I’ve not seen the splits yet but I think that I was probably a little slower than I’d like. Gav pushed hard to finish in 4^th position in the men’s race with David winning the U23 category.

We were invited to a post race Spanish lunch with the local triathlon club. Gav, David and I were treated to our first ever Paella which came in the largest pan I have ever seen. It was like a guiness book of records meal! Me gusta paella.

After a decent 3 days it was time for a wee down day today. We went to the pool for our 750 Timetrial but it was closed as the staff were preparing for the Aguilas Duathlon which is tomorrow. So off to the market we went to do loads of window shopping. Home for brekky and a wee bike ride. Then I slept all afternoon. Saturday has just flown by. Should be rested for the duathlon tomorrow!

Back to the lighter nights, warmer days and bike miles. 12 days at home was enough for me to admit that to get some solid base training done, I need to be in a more equitable climate. However, being at home meant that I could get deom great swimming done with the young whippets of the West Lothian Performance Swim Squad and also pick up on my running miles. I feel like both disciplines have moved up a notch which is great. So, back to the apartment in Spain. This time with training mates Gav and David and some Irish triathletes….

I’m looking forward to doing some more miles on the steel strength machine that is the Kaffenabck winter training bike. Then I’ll move into some more defined running and swimming work. There may even be a couple of duathlons where can get an idea of my current shape. I’ve 4 weeks of work ahead and on Feb 18^th when I leave Spain, I’ll be getting ready to face the races of 2008.

Just back from a weekend in the Highlands where I accompanied Richard to the Strathpuffer 24hr MTB race. January, the Highlands, 24 hrs. These people are MAD and scarily enough, I knew quite a few of the competitors!

We travelled up to the race site on Friday evening. Arriving at 9pm, rumours were circulating that the race might not go ahead due to the weather. Strong winds were beating the race HQ marquees and large parts of the course were iced over. We camped in the emergency camp ground as the original site was inaccessible due to black ice on the approach road. Race briefing at 7am on Saturday announced that the 24 hr epic would start an hour later than scheduled and that the race site could now be accessed as the council had gritted the access road. I left Richard and his kit with team-mate Rik and toddled off down the road to Dingwall for a swim in the local pool. On my return I discovered that access to the race HQ area was via a tractor that would tow your vehicle into a very muddy field and leave you abandoned there for the duration of the race. Being a selfish sod, I did not want to risk being unable to leave the area all weekend (as I had training to do) so I parked the van up about a mile from all the action. Unfortunately, this meant that I spent most of the weekend away from all the goings on. Richard and Rik were very consistent in their lap times taking one lap about for most of the race and having a few breaks in the dead of the night. From my post a mile down the road in a very cold and lonely van, I texted good luck messages for the night stint and got a decent night’s shuteye – so much for support team Morrison! After another trip to the pool in Dingwall, I ventured back to the race site on Sunday morning. I accompanied Richard on his last lap around the six mile circuit. This turned out to be a whole lot of fun as we decided to race to see if the runner could beat the rider. By 23 hrs into the epic, the course was really quite churned up. Pools of mud, sheets of ice and sheer fatigue meant that I was able to score a hollow victory over my beloved. I am well impressed with all those that competed – I don’t think that I could have attempted half of the course in the middle of a heat wave never mind in the slopping wet / ice mix of January! The Richard/Rik team finished 3^rd in the pairs category – only 10s behind second place. Rumour has it that it could have been a last lap move into silver medal position had Richard not missed the baton changing moment by a few minutes. Apparently he was otherwise “engaged” in the nearest portaloo. I am sure this tale will be re-told in years to come. Still, both boys were happy with their performances and have sworn that they will not be entering again. Instead, they are contemplating a similar summer adventure somewhere……..

A few weeks after returning from the dizzy heights of the Himalaya, Angela’s triumph in the world’s highest marathon race is documented in the Time (and according to a friend in London – it was the UK version, not just the Scottish!). Cover girl and page three – the Sun had better watch out!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article3182271.ece

Cat in black, Ker in blue!

All the stars were out in style at the Great North XC on Sat. Holyrood park was painted white by a severe frost making for fast but ankle breaking running. I was representing Scotland East whilst Commonwealth Games teammate Kerry Lang was in the opposing corner for Scotland West. Kerry and I ran solid races to finish about middle of the field which saw some of Britain’s and the World’s top runners battling it out some minutes ahead. I had no idea what was happening at the top end of the women’s race, but I am lead to believe that reigning World XC Champion Gelete Burka won the race which was the final chance for many to get onto the course that will be used later this year for the World XC Championships.

Look on the events page for my tentative season plan. Updated versions will appear as confirm which races that I will be attending.

January 2008

Hola from Edinburgh. We have just arrived home from Spain. After recovering from the cold we managed a solid two weeks of training. I decided that with the weather being so favourable that I should get cracking on some base bike miles – we have covered at least 1500km and now I am beginning to feel like an athlete once again! It was an eventful two weeks of biking though – an entanglement on between Richard and I left my carbon road bike missing the left crank bolt. Luckily enough, fellow Scot Kerry Laing had left her bike in our apartment when she went home for Christmas so I was able to ride her steed for a few days. She returned to Spain with my winter training bike – the kaffenback. The steel beast and I have been toiling up all the hills and whizzing down the descents. I had a mishap on Sunday when I punctured on a narrow winding descent. The Kaffenback came off way better that I did and I will be nursing my whiplash and gravel rash for a while! I can’t imagine an better way to get stronger than riding the Kaffenback all winter so I will be returning to Aguilas with the steel monster so that I can get some more quality strength miles in my legs.

Now back in Broxburn with the inter-district XC to look forward to at the weekend – this should be interesting given the small amount of running that I have managed in the past 2 weeks. Still, it will give me an indication on where I need to be and will fit in well to my mini run block that I have planned for the next 12 days before returning to Spain.