TTC 2018 - What Rain?

Intervals in Leny Estate

After a week of poor weather forecasts for the TTC weekend, we were all delighted to find out that the Callander micro-climate had stuck its fingers up at the weather forecasters and decided to provide us with dry conditions for all three runs, saving the rain for the night (and the interval session on Saturday afternoon). Once again we had a full house for the weekend with 4 people in each of the 6 log cabins and our 3 friends from Sweden in the Orchard Cottage (and me at home). A further companion for the weekend would be the extremely tame pheasants living on the estate, one of whom accompanied me on the cabin inspection before everyone arrived, following me up the steps and poking its head through the front door of every cabin!

Local security pheasant

By 5pm on Friday evening everyone had arrived with one notable exception, Stuart Gibson, who was stuck in traffic. This would probably be the only time that Stuart would be holding us back over the weekend! However, having had to accept feeble excuses from our club president in years gone by for missing the Friday run, nowadays nobody gets away with missing the first run so we waited until a good 15 minutes after our scheduled start time when Stuart finally arrived, dressed to run we were pleased to see.

This year, the Friday evening run reverted to the old favourite clockwise route climbing up through Coilhallan Wood, providing great views along Loch Venachar and over Callander (once the 2km steady ascent had been negotiated). Pack membership is always a source of significant debate and the Friday night run allows us to test a few of those who are on the margins of packs. However, the pack leaders, Eddie, Frances, Russell and myself were in no doubt who should be where. Unfortunately, our two ATHelite Tri Club friends, Ellie Cunningham and Derek Boyd, had omitted to tell me that they had both completed the Tiree 35 mile ultra the previous weekend otherwise I would have made a more appropriate "recovery" pack selection for them!

Just checking......

The total distance of the run was a nice 13.5k, well within the capabilities of everyone and no problems were expected. I was therefore surprised to hear after the run that there were mutinous rumblings from within Eddie's pack at the bottom of the hill when the route left the forest trail. There were unfounded claims that Eddie was lost when the pack was directed to the left rather than the right and the dissent continued all the way to the ascent of Bochastle where the route turned back towards Kilmahog, with claims that this short Friday run was too long. Even more surprising that the ring leader was our marathon training guru and club president Kenny Leinster for whom miles should be his friend! Russell's pack had a slightly shorter run (just over 9km) and there were absolutely no complaints from them.

A well disciplined pack ascends Bochastle

With our late start and "long" short run, we were tight for time to get showered, changed and ready for the 7:30pm booking for dinner at the Lade Inn. However, miraculously, everyone made it and we we all packed into the very busy bar for pre-dinner drinks.

Once again, Frank Park and staff filled us to the brim with their selection of local dishes. Haggis Balls were a firm favourite I noticed, with my entire table of six opting for this starter! Eventually, the prospect of a morning run got the better of everyone and we headed back to Leny Estate.

The weather was stunning on Saturday morning with the mist hanging in the glens, blue skies and sunshine. The temperature was down into single figures but this would soon rise into the mid teens providing perfect conditions for the run. A highlight of the Saturday morning is the TTC-shirt reveal as the colour is a closely guarded secret.

Eddie's car boot giveaway of TTC-shirts!

Sky blue was the chosen colour this year, a nice pastel shade that surely could not offend anyone (except Stephen Phimister who's reason for not liking it was so convoluted that it was way over my head but needless to say, it seemed to be football related). The main problem was then finding a backdrop for the team photo without the blue sky in the background! Usually not a problem in the Trossachs where blue skies are a rarity.

TTC 2018 Group Photo - Matching shirts and sky!

The Saturday morning run was to be the flattest ever TTC run (not flat just flatter), an announcement that was met with some (justifiable) suspicion by many. A few pack adjustments were required after Friday night's trial (it had been a particularly trialling evening for Eddie but he was not allowed to change pack!).

Towards Bracklinn Falls

The route made a familiar start climbing through Callander Wood Walk and then further upwards on the Bracklinn Road before dropping down to the Bracklinn Falls. After the obligatory photo stop, all the packs made their way steeply downhill to Auchenlaich Farm where the packs split. Russell's pack turned right, back towards Callander on the old railway for a total distance of about 11km.

Eddie's pack at the Bracklinn Falls

The other three packs turned left through Keltie Bridge before joining the Drumloist road, which, naturally, is all up hill. Highlight for some was the McQueen's gin distillery located 2/3 of the way up the hill, a drinks station of a different kind. There was apparently some disappointment that the distillery was closed at that time on a Saturday morning. I hate to think what would have happened if it had been open.

Hydration stop....

From the distillery, the road climbed another few hundred metres to it's highest point, where we turned right, off the Tarmac, over a style and back onto forestry roads. The next few km were mainly downhill intercepting the railway a few km's out of Callander. Thereafter it was a straightforward run along the railway and back into Callander to Leny Estate. To control the pace which was gradually creeping up, I took my pack on a little detour through the golf course but as this route ran parallel to the railway, the distance was about the same, a total of 17km give or take.

Frances' pack stretched out

We all had plenty of time to stretch, shower and change before the first of our filling lunches arrived, courtesy of "Cafe Albert at the Gargunnock Inn". Not only that, we surprised Stuart with a birthday cake and an unusually in-tune rendition of Happy Birthday, much to his embarrassment.

The hardest I saw Stuart work all weekend.....

The Harriers' "spiritual" leader generates the calm before the storm of afternoon activities 

Plenty of activities were planned for after lunch but the forecast was showing a deterioration in the weather with heavy showers arriving later in the afternoon. Unfortunately the forecast was correct this time. First event of the afternoon was a session of running drills taken by me. I was pleased to see that everyone (well almost everyone) was performing the drills much better than in previous years.

The Harriers and Pheasant listen attentively to the running drill instructions

A star turn by Kay, taking the abs session

I was delighted that Kay was willing (and clearly able) to take a conditioning session after the drills. There can be no doubt that this core and abs session was the toughest such session we have done on the TTC and there were a lot of broken Harriers (including myself) as a result! This highlighted weaknesses that we can all work on. Contact Kay if you are tough enough to accept the challenge of Core with Kay :-).

A B&Q load of side planks.

The drizzle started towards the end of the core session but was not enough to prevent Eddie taking us all through a thorough stretching session and we had another 90 minutes of relaxation before the final session of the day.

Coaches ready for anything.....

By the time of the final session, the rain was quite heavy. With one eye on the forecast, I had decided that the final session should take place on Leny Estate's main drive, a gently ascending single track Tarmac road with a kick up at the end. Something that many of us are poor at is pace judgement, particularly at the start of races when the legs are fresh and a fast pace can seem easy. Unfortunately, it is rarely the case that a fast start will result in a fast time as the initial fast pace is more than lost in the final stages when the wheels fall off big time. Therefore, I decided we needed a pace judgement session. Furthermore, many (most) people are very capable of psyching themselves out of a session by either over thinking it or just being scared of what is to come and holding back until the last rep. So to avoid this, I did not reveal the total duration nor the mix or repetition distances or paces that would be run before the session started. The pace and distance of each rep was only announced at the start of each rep. I had wheel measured a 200m and 400m stretch of the drive. Each effort would be over either 200m or 400m at a pace equivalent to 5k, 10k or half marathon race pace. The recoveries would be a jog back to the start in all cases. With Eddie and Frances positioned at the 200m and 400m points respectively to shout out splits and with stopwatches and umbrellas at the ready the session progressed. In the end, we covered 3km of repetitions, covering all the paces over both 200m and 400m intervals. The bonus was that we were only 600m from the cabins at the end.

Session complete and smiles all round

Now we had plenty of time to prepare for the Lade Inn round 2. It is true to say that running is perhaps the best form of exercise for losing weight as the jiggling of the stomach does nothing for the appetite despite the huge calorie burn involved in a full programme of training. Therefore, it was something like the irrepressible force meeting the immovable object when the hungry Harriers were presented with the massive Lade Inn portions. I must admit that for the first time ever at the Lade Inn I was defeated by the three course option, as were many around me, and did not manage to finish the main course. I did manage the cheesecake no bother at all though! We were once again greatly surprised to find that Davie Herbertson (and Gavin) had phoned in all the way from Australia to order the first round of drinks. What a guy. Thanks both.

The Lade Inn. At least this group of Harriers brushes up very nicely.

Overnight the storm passed and all that remained on Sunday was the infamous Loop of Loch Venachar, a 25km route of gentle undulations for the first half and then a near vertical ascent at half way finishing with a roller coaster all the way to the finish. I hadn't fully briefed Russell's pack that they needed to be ready 15 minutes early to be driven out the start of their run which would take in the south side of the loch only, running in the opposite direction to the rest back to the start. So although we all should have started at 8am, Kenny and I were only just setting off with Russell's pack in our cars at that time. Fortunately, the pack leaders used their initiative and set off just before Kenny and I returned in our cars. This was fortunate for everyone except Kenny who had now given his pack (and my pack) a head start and was in chase mode from the off. The delay did mean that we all started and mainly finished in fine weather with only the slightest drizzle catching a few in the final stages. This was the only TTC run for my pack where the pace was a bit out of control and it was in danger of becoming a race rather than a low intensity, long easy run. I laid down the law at the half way point and recovered a measure of control to the finish but it was still the fastest of the three Loop of the Loch runs carried out from Leny Estate on the TTC and I hit the wall in the final km due to the too fast pace in the initial stages, which should never happen on an easy training run.

Half way!!!!

Russell's pack had a great run and were all full of smiles at the end (and when we passed them in the opposite direction en-route). Eddie's and Frances' packs came back with a sense of achievement and largely without incident (at least none we can talk about publicly). The main thing was that nobody got (especially) lost. We did have a few injuries though with Kirsty having a knee problem causing her to return to base early on and Ljot also having an issue but not serious enough to stop him. It was particularly impressive to see Mats finishing strong, having dropped to the short route last year and having been virtually stretchered back to Sweden two years ago after his first circuit of the Loch. This time he managed it "nae bother at all" and was walking unaided when I saw him at lunch. Well done Mats. Talking of lunch, Cafe Albert once again filled us to the gunnels with soup and sandwiches. Just what the doctor ordered.

A stunning venue - Leny Estate

And so it was over for another year. Many people and organisations make this possible, not least our club sponsor, EKGTA, who significantly subsidise the event and have allowed us to keep the cost to the participants at a reasonable level over the years. The coaches, Russell, Frances, Eddie and Kay who did considerable homework preparing for the event, recce-ing the routes, ordering T-shirts, buying breakfast supplies and planning sessions deserve our thanks. To all the club members and our friends from ATHelite Tri Club who grab the available places more or less as soon as the event is announced, if you didn't support it, we certainly couldn't justify the funding to continue. To our friends from Sweden, Mats, Ljot, Thore and the injured Johan, who now consider this a part of their calendar and the highlight of their running year. We are deeply humbled by the praise. There were many regulars who could not make the TTC this year and a load of first timers who gladly took the places. How are we going to accommodate you all next year! Watch this blog for an announcement on the date of next year's event.

Finally, thanks to our roving (should have been running) photographers whose photos appear in this blog (Martin and Eddie with a few from me too). There are many more photos in this album and many more still in various Facebook posts for those with access to that.

Alan