Training Update to 15/03/2012

An interesting couple of weeks!

Started off the day after the Circular (Sunday 4th March) with a nice run around Little Stretton with Lucy. We ran over to Little Stretton along the woods path from her house, then up Ashes Hollow as far as the Valleys Descent. Then we climbed up the south side of the valley a hundred feet or so and took Andros' Trod round to Small Batch. We took a nice little traverse out to the Callow / Grindle col and then the path up to Barrister's Plain. Lucy wanted some descending practise so I led down the Valleys ramp fairly quickly - she made a good fit of that despite it being pretty cut up and wet, and then we sailed down Ashes via the ravine rather than the easy higher path and back to Lucy's for a well earned cup of tea and a warm up. 6.5 miles and 1,200' in 1:11.

Tuesday night's run was a trip through the woods to Little Stretton, then the climb up Ashes, but forking left near the top into one of my favourite side valleys to come out at Pole Cottage. We ran over Pole Bank and back via Boiling Well, the top of Synalds and Townbrook Hollow. 7.5 miles and 1,450' in 1:25.

On Wednesday 7th I made a bit of a training cock-up. Em's been experimenting with minimal foot ware, so I got my beach shoes out for a short run, heading up the bridleway from Affcot and then along the road to Upper Dinchope and back down to the ford, thence home. Unfortunately it was all going swimmingly in the woods and I went a bit too fast on the road to Dinchope (about 7:30/mile pace) and got a twinge in my left calf on the way down. It got worse, I stopped and stretched it and jogged the rest of the way, but the damage was done and it was very stiff and sore the following morning. 3.4 miles and 350' in 0:33.

So the rest of the week and the weekend were a write off in terms of running, I didn't even really get out on the bike, but the calf had settled down enough for a trial run on the evening of Monday 12th. I headed up to Dinchope and then down to Halford in my Peregrines (the kindest footwear I have for my lower legs and feet). On the way back I lost my way in the fields a bit and ended up on a 2 mile steeplechase, but not to bother too much. I passed a few bonfires near Strefford where the landowner was burning brash. Why don't the offer it to people as fuel / kindling rather than just torch it in the fields?? 4.9 miles and 400' in 0:44.

On the Tuesday night, we headed out to Pole Bank via New Pool Hollow, Synalds and Boiling Well. I climbed well up the Hollow, quite pleased with that. On the run out along the Portway we missed the Haddon turning altogether (how do 30 people miss an obvious junction?) and ended up doing a couple of bonus miles, returning to Stretton via Jonathan's Hollow (we missed the top of The Batch by about 50 yards), Cwmdale and Madeira Walk. 8.7 miles and 1,450' in 1:37.

I had a massage session with Dianne on Wednesday 14th, and managed a quick run around and then up Middletown Hill on the way over. Just jogged really, but felt quite pleased with my climbing. I got a bit disorientated on the way down and had to ask a guy at the quarry directions. Moral: take a map even when you go for a short run somewhere you don't know that well. 3.5 miles and 850' in 0:39.

Finally I managed to get to another Sy Tri track session on Thursday. This one was 3 sets of 3 minute, 2 minute and 1 minute intervals, with the 3 & 3 done at 5k pace (whatever that is for me - I did sort of 5:50 to 6:20/mile pace) and then the last one "flat out" (for me this was 5:05 to 5:20/mile on the first, 5:40 to 5:55 on the second - who did the first set too fast again? - and 5:00 to 5:20 on the third, pleasingly). Another excellent session, must try to get up more often, although this may not have been best prep for the race coming up on Saturday. Total of 6.6 miles in 0:51.

Running (yay) at Stretton - 21/05/2011

In the breeze at Battlestones, Caer Caradoc behind me

Finally... this was the longest run since Three Peaks (but only about 11 miles), and with no adverse reaction!

I started from Watling Street in Church Stretton at about 11:30, running up Cwms Lane to the Plantation and then along the bottom of the access land to the barn under Battlestones. From there I took the direct line to the top.

Battlestones, with the Lawley left and the Wrekin just above the stones

This first section was done with some pain in my left achilles (again), but this time I decided to do something about it and barefooted (well sockfooted) the next section along the grassy ridge to the big cairn on Hope Bowdler Hill overlooking the Gaerstone.

About to put my shoes back on!

I popped my x-Talons back on for the slightly rockier bit down to the stile beyond the stone, and then went down the spur towards Hope Bowdler, hooking back on myself to climb gently through the pastures to the layby at the top of Hazler Lane.

The next mile was on the road (I could have taken the track under Hazler Hill, but I did that last time out). I was starting to feel quite free by the time I got up onto Ragleth Hill and ran along the ridge into a stiff breeze fairly comfortably. I dropped down into Little Stretton from the post at the south summit and had a quick pitstop for a pint of squash and a bottle refill at the Ragleth Inn.

From there I headed steadily up Ashes Hollow, and decided to go all the way up Windy Batch - I've been part way up here on the LMV race, but never right up to the headwall at the top of the valley. This steepens at the end, just like the un-named valley between Yearlet and Ashlet parallel to it. The path comes out pretty much where the Yearlet climb gets steep at the top of the Townbrook Valley, and I headed on up towards Boiling Well from there.

View down Windy Batch from nearly the top.
Grindle is on the left, the col on the skyline is Barrister's Plain

I descended via the Skyline ascent into Lightspout Hollow and down to Carding Mill Valley for a welcome coffee and warm sausage roll (it wasn't quite cream tea weather). By comparison friends got blown away and hailed on in Wales and the Lakes on the same day (Al Tye at Carneddau, Helen and Adrian on the Old County Tops race, a 37 mile monster, Mel and JT presumably recce'ing for the Duddon Champs race, and Owen on another BG training run), so I got off pretty lightly with a stiff breeze.

Stats for the day (still not really counting weeks at the mo - will start this coming week) were 11 miles and 2,600' of ascent in a leisurely 2 hours 30 minutes (excluding the Ragleth Inn stop). Photos to follow!

Cross Training and Programme - 20/05/2011

I've been holding myself down from running still (mostly). I just want to let the heels and achilles have as much time as possible to settle down. I've also decided not to run at Ennerdale on 6th June - there just isn't enough time to prepare properly and I don't want to put myself through it if I'm not going to enjoy it!

On Wednesday I had to go to the mid-Wales coast for a meeting, and found myself in Borth with an hour or so to spare before the return train. Strangely I seemed to have a T shirt and a pair of shorts with me (fell shoes too to be truthful, but I didn't use them). I thought the best use of the time would be to work on my running form a bit, so I got out on the beach, barefoot, and ran very steadly for 20 minutes on the surf line. I was concentrating on some of the pointers in the Chi Running book, and really enjoyed it. I then had a quick swim and stood calf deep in the sea for five minutes to cool down before a very pleasant train journey back.

Yesterday night was gym night again, and I was well up for it! 5,000m in just over 20 minutes on the rowing machine at moderate to high resistance made for a good warm up, then I got on the bike pretty much straight away. I was aiming to get a really good CV conditioning session in with some intensity so I set the resistance to a medium level where I can hang in at around 75% of my MHR, and just turned over at a nice constant RPM for 20 minutes. I find it's better to spin fairly quickly (90 to 100 RPM) at a slightly lower resistance than turn a huge gear relatively slowlty (that hurts my knees after a while). I covered 10km in just over 20 minutes and then eased off to cool down for a couple of minutes. My final exercise again followed straight on - getting on the stepper with a tune with a good beat on repeat on the iPhone, and just monstering away on again a medium resistance. This gets me up into a higher HR zone when I work hard (like a race pace run or climb), and I can ease off a bit to recover, dropping back into the aerobic zone. I held the hard sessions for 4 minutes or so, easing off for a minute to recover. When I got off and finished (after a five minute cool down) I had that brilliant skin tingly sensation you get after a good session or a hard race.

Tonight I'm going to take a rest, and tomorrow I'm going to start getting back into the long runs - I think no more than 12 to 15 miles this week.

I've thought over the Caradoc race too, and in hindsight I'm more positive about it now. I shouldn't really have run, and if I'd done the Streak I probably wouldn't have, but I wanted to get a score down for the Summer Series (this gives me the option of missing one of the remaining four races). I did very well to the top and had a good descent except for hurting my feet again, and I know there's lots more potential there. I should be able to get up to about 80% score in at least one of these summer races - with the long run out Caradoc doesn't suit me as well as say Stiperstones or Pontesford, and the extra distance and steep second climb at Ragleth will help me too. I know now that I'm physically capable of pulling the odd really good run out (Clee, LMV) and Caradoc as far as the lane was of that kind of quality this year... In the end it's pretty daft beating myself up about a performance when I went nearly four minutes faster than last year (I took almost exactly 10% off my time). Caradoc was my best summer series race last year too. So I should be being chuffed.

Track of the week: "There's No Other Way", Blur. London goes to Madchester, Baggy heaven. And unbelievably good for getting you dancing on the stepper!