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
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