Big days

I love the planning bit.  It's full of good intentions and dreams and makes the calendar for the next few months look very exciting.

Central to my calendar between now and December are the big days.  Those many-hour outings that set the foundations for a big round.  Between them is the running, biking, resting, stretching, eating etc that fill in the gaps, but the big days are the pillars between which everthing else is worked around.  I have become convinced that you could do a huge day taking in 10,000 feet of ascent and descent each week and no other training for 5-6 months and be strong enough to make it round in under 24 hours.  Put another way, if you did the same climbing and distance but didn't get out for more than 3 or 4 hours in one go, you'd struggle.  Yewbarrow after 15 hours would feel like Everest.

I am going to train most days and aim for 15,000 feet a week minimum.  Usually, i'll do more than that. 

This time, i want to try new routes and inject some variety in.  I know the route so well now that i'll not spend ages doing BGR recceing.  I'll be up in the Lakes plenty, but the days out will be goals in themselves.

One goal i'm going to try is to include the summits of all 214 Wainwright summits in my training.  This will hopefully be via 7 long days, each concentrating on an AW volume.  Those little handwritten books have been a major inspiration to me since i was a lad, and i completed the Wainwrights as a walker in my early 30s, taking about 15 years.  I've since started running, and so let's see if my second circuit can be done a little quicker.  One day, I might have a go at Joss's run and do them on consecutive days, but one dream at a time...

Big days (provisional!!):

24 July - Helping a BGR and am doing legs 1 and 4
30 July - AW Northern Fells - all summits
6/7 August - 8000' day in the Carneddau/Glyderau followed next day by Borrowdale race
13 August - AW Central Fells - all summits
20 August - Welsh 3000ers as a loop (fiddly, but possible)
27 August - Cumbrian Traverse
5 September - 'Sedbergh Summits' - every single Howgill top
11/12 September - Peris Horseshoe race, followed by a 6000' day from Ogwen
17 September - AW Northwestern Fells - all summits
24 September - Clive's BGR (2 or 3 legs)
1 October - AW Far Eastern Fells - all summits
7/8 October - Paddy Buckley Round - over 2 days
15 October - AW Western Fells - all summits
22 October - 'Rosthwaite loop' - takes in most of leg 3, all of 4 and a bit of 5
29/30 Ovtober - OMM, Dartmoor
5 November - AW Eastern Fells - all summits
12 November - AW Southern Fells - all summits
19 November - Joss Naylor Route (looks like a lovely route, even for a 37 year old....!)
26 November - Wasdale fell race route - fast
3 December - 2 stages of the Paddy Buckley

Phew, knackered just typing it!!

Mark