Week Eleven - Lots of training, zero fellrunning

2 miles to go in the Sandstone Trail A race.  VERY wet!

Didn't quite knock out 10,000 feet this week, but I can say with certainty that I am fitter at the end of this week than I was at the start.

The weather this week was awful, certainly towards the end of the week when I had a cat in hell's chance of getting any time on the fells.  If last year's autumn floods and general crap weather taught me anything, it taught me to adapt in order to get the right amount of traning in.  It would have been easy to get out in those winds and that rain again, had a fight with the hills and got about half of the work in that i wanted.  But, i wanted to work hard on my climbing.  So, after intervals and a fast 11 mile road run during the week during my exile in Nottingham away from the hills due to work, it was time to stay local and work hard on some smaller hills that are less at the mercy of the weather.

Enter the Tattenhall railway.  It's a 330' climb, a 1:1 gradient, wooded and sheltered from the rain, conveniently near home and, if you feel like a headbanging session, great for knocking out 4000 feet of climbing and descending in just over an hour and a half. 

On Thursday i did a quick 3 railways in the dark with a strong headtorch and a determination to not listen to the scary noises.  It was an opportune bit of training on the way home from Nottingham. 

Friday was foul.  So back i went and knocked out 12 of the buggers, one after the other, straight up and down.  God it was mind numbing.  All sorts of thoughts were in my head.  Inane drivel mainly.  Some awful tunes.  Work stuff.  Also some good stuff: impending baby stuff (thinking of going for green in the nursery).  BGR stuff - logistics, pacers, food etc.  That's 4000' at a 1:1 gradient.  A good workout, esp as many of the BGR climbs are actually of that sort of ilk.  Felt great afterwards too, a good sign.

Out of nowhere, a place came up for the Sandstone Trail A race on Sunday, a 17.1 mile, 2000' ascent fast paced race across Cheshire's sandstone ridge. Loads of Tattenhaller's were doing it.  I was heavy legged but thought i'd give it a go. I was going to go to Arenig Fawr and race there but as it turns out i'm very glad i didn't.  Running with no pressure and in good company is a nice experience, one i wouldn't have got at Arenig (good race i imagine, but not for me today).  I felt tired for a mile of two, but rallied and felt brilliant towards the end.  I didn;t look at the watch much and was amazed at a 2:20 time, 9 mins faster than i've ever done that race before - all the better for the factthat it rained torrentially throughout and the mud was pretty deep in places. 

So no fellrunning this week, but 8000 feet and about 50 miles of fast, hard running.  Not bad...