Week Five - Rotten cold 1:0 Mark

Ten thousand feet a week is proving rather difficult and it's very frustrating.  Last week's cold, which started before the Kinder Dozen, knocked me sideways and i didn't train for a week, and when I did I was truly awful.

After a good strong run out on the KD, i went downhill fast and almost passed out the next day.  The cold was stinking.  I persisted with the long work days (hard to take time off when you're self employed) and got worse and so didn't run at all until Thursday evening, when 15 mins and one railway was enough to floor me.  I tried again on Friday, my supposed big day, when all i could manage was a 3 hour run on moel famau which clocked up about 14 miles and 3500' of climbing when i was supposed to do double that.  I just had to turn back after bagging Fennli and Moel Famau twice via a bracken fest of a route as i ran out of energy and felt sick.  Being able to knock off a mid-winter BGR seemed like a world away and far beyond me.

The next day i was booked in to do Race the Train at Tywyn (middle of bloody nowhere), a 14 mile muddy trail race which has about 1200' climbing in it.  21 runners from Tattenhall were organised, along with new, customised club gazebo (!) for what i knew was going to a good laugh.  I felt a bit better and decided to go and do it as a training run, just get round...  I should have respected it a bit more, esp as it was pouring down.  We all got soaked and i ran harder than i thought i would.  I felt 'fuzzy' all the way round and clocked 1:48 which given the terrain and distance and horrible head was quite a decent run.  I couldn't just run, i raced and pushed hard.  Kill or cure just about landed on the 'cure' side but it was a gamble.

Next day i felt very stiff, the race was persisting.  I decided to go and do six railways with sore legs, good practice for those later legs on the round.  I imagined each climb was the last 300' of Fairfield and just kept moving.  In truth i know Fairfield on leg 4 will feel much tougher going a/c!

In all I managed about 7,400' ascent and descent that week, which was reasonable given how i felt, but the simple fact is that it is not enough.

Wet Tattenhallers after a soggy Race the Train

The same, yet different.

I'm going anti-clockwise.

I'm going at sometime between 5 and 6am from Keswick and I won't be running through any ginnels and into any car parks for many hours after that!

Why?  Loads of little reasons really that have kind of added up. 

- I'm a bit fed up of the route, beleive it or not.  Loads of enjoyable supports have taken away the exciting newness well and truly, but supporting my first a/c round this year was really good fun and lent the fells and the BGR a surprising new feel.  I'm looking forward to re-learning split times and schedules and seeing it all a different way!

- Sleep.  I've never suffered from feeling sleepy tired on rounds but i do think that being awake all day and evening before you set off is a disadvantage and i've discovered that you need all the help you can get in winter!

- Festitvities at Tattenhall!  It's the christmas meal the Friday before and if I am going to get help from my friends and BGR support experts, I don't want to deprive them of their night out!  I'll be putting those guys on the last three legs and so they will be able to have a decent sleep and come up and help if they can/want to (I'm not assuming anything!). 

- The road section is out of the way! the black ice may be there again, but the agony of tackling it at the end of a winter round is too much to consider doing again.  It was verging on the traumatic last time - never again!

I'll be going on a 23 hour schedule.  Can't wait!!!!!

Week Four - Kinder Dozen and whole lotta snot

Snifff

Feeling a bit rough, got a full on man cold and am being typically rubbish.  I blame Kinder Scout, Derbyshire's highest mountain, and its widest and boggiest.

I decided this week that after a good outing at Borrowdale, I would keep running hard and not take much rest.  I have to get used to running tired all over again.  It's tempting to run when you've fully recovered, but my head needs to know my body can perform when it's a bit sore and tight.

Monday was a trial, a 5 mile trail trial to be precise.  I ran hard on an off-road hilly course, but it wasn't so fast.  I ended up hanging on in there despite a slow speed.  It wasn't satisfying like a good hard fast run - one to log under 'head training'.

I ran my 9.5 mile hilly trail run in 1:13 on Tuesday, a decent effort with still weary legs and some stiff hills, as well as some curious and scary cows edging me towards the edge of a field.  Weds was another fast run, 7.4 miles and 54 mins on another very hilly and off road course.  I felt good, with a spring in my step.  It proved that you can recover from long runs whilst still running ones.  Not sure how that works, but it does.

I had a break on Thursday before the Kinder experience.  The kinder dozen is apparently a route for the mentally deranged according to the LDWA, a somewhat horrible description in every sense for what is actually a fantastic day out.  Why do people use such phrases with such abandon?


It was wet. Very wet indeed.  My map became sodden but it was fantastic nav practice!  I plunged through waist deep bracken, flicked off the ticks, fought the heather and pounded the peat for six and a half entertaining hours.  It worked out at about 20 miles and 9,300' ascent, not as much as advertised but given the ground and the weather, a meaty day out by anyone's standards.  I loved it and it was a joy to train somewhere new.  Exploring the northern aspects of Kinder was great and I hardly saw a soul.  The photos say it all.

Sandy Hayes trig

Crowden Tower

Fairbrook Naize

Jacobs Ladder

Ringing Roger

Sandy Hayes trigs old and new

Week Three - Borrowdale Bites Back

Now and again, the fells you feel you know so well teach you a lesson and bring you down a peg or two.  My 7th Borrowdale race arrived yesterday, and the difference between my first Borrowdale race and this one was fully in my mind.  Borrowdale 2004 was my second long A-class fell race and I was respectfully scared of it.  This year, with two BGRs, dozens of A races including such beasts as Jura, the fabled Skyline of 2007, Long Mynds, Sedberghs, Duddons and OMMs a plenty, as well as all the in-between Borrowdales on my CV, i felt confident.  Not quite cocky, but not far off. 

The mist and rain that shrouded the fells that morning barely got a thought. I know the way. 

Now, the lesson here is that unless you know every boulder, micro-line to take for the whole 17 miles, you do not know the way.  I got lost after the first control, going down towards Langstrath!  I had to climb 300' to get back on line - not happy after getting up Bessyboot in record time.  I then did a weird and improbable circuit of Broad Crag on some of England's roughest, and therefore slowest ground, missing one of the Lake District's most obvious paths to Scafell Pike.  I later decided to have a look at the Ennerdale flank of Green Gable for some reason instead of hotfooting towards Brandreth.  I kept passing, and re-passing the same group all day.  One girl accused me jokingly of stalking her as i passed her for the umpteenth time between Gable and Honister. 

In short, I was too busy running hard to race well, and so, I raced poorly.  I might have raced poorly, but I bloody ran well.  I felt brilliant all the way round until finally bonking on the outskirts of Rosthwaite, minutes from the line.  I set a new Borrowdale pb of 4:16 despite adding about a mile and 400' of extra climbing at least.  Running down the Corridor was just great, and climbing Gable was a scorching climb, my best ever.

I know i'm capable of a sub-four Borrowdale, but that's for another day.  Right now, I know i'm fitter than last year, when I ran just under 4:30 in faster, clearer conditions.  That's good to know going into the training for the winter BGR. 

I tried some new things for this race.  For a start, I didn't taper and just trained every day.  I ran up Moel Famau on Friday, banged out some sharp railways on Thursday, did 12 short, flat out hill reps on Wednesday, did 10 fast trail miles on Tuesday and did a 4 mile trail run on Monday after last Sunday's Cheviot outing.  I would have normally rested a couple of days and fretted.  This worked.  I also decided to wear my Skins compression tights under my jeans all day Friday after my Moel Famau run, just to help recovery.  Someone recently mentioned that this was a good way to use these things so i tried it.  It seems to work, as i felt great on Saturday.

This time last year, Borrowdale marked the start of a return to fitness and training.  It's good to know that this year, i'm already seeing the results of stepping it up a bit.  I'm ahead of where I was and I take comfort from that.  If only the race time reflected the fitness I felt... That'll teach me for being lazy on the navigation.

Week summary:

Monday - Easy trail, 4M, 200' ascent
Tuesday - Quicker trail, 10M, 550' ascent
Weds - Short hill reps * 12, 6M, 500' ascent
Thurs - 4 Railway reps + Raw Head, 5M, 1,500 ascent
Fri - Steady short Moel Famau (car parks loop) - 4M, 1,000' ascent
Sat - Borrowdale fell race, 17M, 7000' ascent, 4:16
Sun - Rest

Totals, 46M, 10,750' ascent and descent, inc one race

Week Two - Everything but the big day...

Bloody hell i'm two weeks in and i'm not sticking to the plan already. 

The idea is that i do between 10,000 and 15,000 feet of ascent each week, including one big day out.  Life is getting in the way and this week i managed just 7,000 feet.  The good thing is that all 7,000 feet of that was run.  There were two tough little races in there, one fantastically random and the other amazingly opportune, so there's been some good effort - but i'm craving the the big outing...

After the big day out on Richard's BGR, i rested on Monday.  On tuesday I ran 10 miles and about 600' ascent on a trail route in Nottingham around Arnold, Woodborough and Lambley - really pretty and good ground.  Ran at a reasonable pace too. 

Wednesday was hilarious.  I decided to drive home and do the green green grass of home fell race on the clywdian hills.  It's a local race which i love and working away means i would miss it for the first time since it was staged 6 years ago.  So i headed back and felt a bit tired on the start line, surrounded by friends.

Well, i started ok (photo thanks to Ali Tye) and began to feel stronger after about half an hour.  Just as i decided to pick up the pace, i found that noone was around me, and the trusty tapes guiding us around had gone.  I had obviously strayed off course.  I picked my way up the hill and saw a marshall waving at me from below.  I raced down to him and he said i was leading the race.  Well, that aint right!!!  Turns out the leaders had gone even wronger and took a huge short cut.  I sort of did an inbetween route and the runners behind me did the proper route, benefitting from the fact that the race organiser was having a run out and was telling people where to go!  So a trip back from Nottingham to Wales and a DQ!!  Still, it was such a laugh and i won a prize for winning my own personal race - well a win is a win (well, not really).  Hats off to all competitors for enjoying the chaos and creating a really fun prizegiving rather than kicking off...

The next day was even more random.  I was driving home from Nottingham for the weekend and decided to go via peak district because i'm sick of the A50 and Stoke.  The sun was out and the sky was blue (no, really) and as i passed from one village to the next i realised how long it had been since i'd enjoyed a drive.  Out of nowhere in a villiage i couldn't name, a sign appeared by the side of the road pointing to a field full of cars.  It read "fell race".  I couldn't beleive it.  I pulled in without thinking and saw loads of runners limbering up.  I checked the boot and sure enough, my 'keep emergency kit in the boot policy' finally paid out, well sort of.  I dug out some old fell shoes and a pair of shorts that were almost threadbare but that was it.  So i entered the race, donned a cotton T-shirt which would have looked more at home in a trendy bar and the black xmas gift pringle socks that i wore for work thay day along with the worn out shoes and shorts.  I looked like an arse, but was good to go.  I approached the start line and had no idea where i was, how far the race was and how much climbing there was in it.  Then I Daz H from Pennine who i've seen a few times this summer at the various BGRs we've both supported.  I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him a) where i was and b) how far the race was.  He looked surprised, probably at my stupid t-shirt with a tiger on it.  Stoney Middleton apparently!  Well the race was great!  5.5 miles and about 700' feet of climbing, and all runnable.  Just loved the randomness and unexpected nature of it and enjoyed every knackered step. 

On Friday I was planning a big day in Snowdonia and was hoping to have a day out with Pete, good mate and fellow Tattenhaller.  I got home to find an email which said there was a chance of extending my contract at Nottingham until December and I needed to get my CV sent to the Director in charge asap.  I knew that my CV needed a lot of work and so I had to sacrifice my day out.  Was most peeved, as I'm sure Pete was too esp as all this happened on Thursday evening.  The good news is that I got the gig and have good, well paying work leading up to the time at which the baby is due.  This means i can probably take a month or so off, maybe two, early next year and do the dad stuff.

So i sacrifced the big day out but still managed to sneak an hour of so in on Moel Famau. I ran in the pouring rain and felt tired from 2 races in 2 days.  I realised that part of the training has to include running when tired.  The last three legs of the BGR are done whilst tired and so you have to get used to running on jaded legs. 

Most generally, it's important to train harder for this thing.  I am realising that the usual caution that that prevented me from being injured for four years (bar the odd niggle) has also led to my plateauing performance.  So I have to train hard, run everyday and run hard for much of that.  It's no good just knocking out the 10,000 feet per week.  I need to do long days, hard runs, even harder efforts and some tough mental workouts. 

Saturday was lost to the in-laws in Newcastle but i did manage to haul myself out of bed and get to the nearby Cheviots on the Sunday.  I couldn't run all day but managed a lovely three hour circuit from Alwinton (Dalewinton as i called it), taking in Yardspaeth Law, Bloodybush Edge, Cushat Law and Wether Cairn.  It was 16 miles and 3,400 feet ascent and I ran it all, feeling quite strong.   Not a big day, but a good run out and there were signs there that i'm getting stronger. 

Time to up the ante nect week.  Borrowdale looms and I'm not going to taper for it.  Let's see how strong I am mentally by racing the mighty Borrowdale with tired, non-rested legs??

Week summary:

Mon - Rest
Tues - 10 miles on the trials in Nottm, 600 feet ascent
Weds - 5 miles, 1600' ascent - Green Green Grass of Home, sort of
Thurs - 5 miles, 700' ascent - Stoney Middleton, apprently
Fri - 7 miles, 1300' ascent - easy run on Moel Famau
Sat - Rest
Sun - 16 miles, 3300' ascent - Dalewinton circular

43 miles, 7,500' ascent - must do better...