Training to 10/04/2012

The track leading down from Flounders Folly on the Hills and Dales Hike

A couple of fairly easy sessions to recover after the big day out in Snowdonia.

First a nice very gentle recovery run with Em on Wednesday night. It was pretty cold and raining on and off and I really couldn't be bothered, but Em got home from work and came out the bath with her running kit on so I felt obligated really. And I'm really glad I went out. We had a really steady run to Halford and then back across the fields and through the woods. I concentrated on good running form - short strides and up on my toes, trying to do it easy like Caballo Blanco used to say: "Easy, Light, Smooth, Fast". Caballo may be gone but as Em reminded me his inspiration lives on. We cruised round for a very gentle 4.7 miles and 550' in almost exactly an hour.

I meant to get out and run all day on Friday but didn't manage to leave the house until half past five. I grabbed Em's Shropshire Hills Visitor Centre leaflet on the Hills and Dales Trail which was supposed to be about 6 miles. I thought I'd cut up onto the route at Lower Dinchope and then run the end (into Craven Arms) first, then the remainder of the route, finishing from the bottom of Callow Hill via the bridleway back to the house. The run to CA was pleasant, only disturbed by a few brambles in Berrymill Wood.

Ireland Cottage from the edge of Berrymill Wood

I went right to the visitor centre in the hope of a drink but it was shut so I set of back up to Halford Wood. This was pretty hard work after the Corvedale Road: two fields had been freshly ploughed and cultivated right to the hedge (so no path at all), and it's a steep climb too. There's a nice view from the top, particularly of Lower Dinchope nestled in the valley. It's a very quick jog down to the village, and then a pretty stiff climb up to Flounders Folly at the top of Callow Hill.

Lower Dinchope, with Caer Caradoc behind and to the left

Flounders Folly at the top of Callow Hill (locally known as The Tower) 

View across Hopedale from Callow Hill. The Wrekin is just visible centre right.

I came back down easy but fairly quickly via Moorwood Farm and through Strefford Wood. A lovely evening run: 8.2 miles and 1,250' in 01:24.

On Saturday morning (07/04/2012) I headed over to Ironbridge to meet Em, John and James for a bit of WOW (Wenlock Olympian Walk) Reccie. The section for today was the first and last few miles of the second 50 mile loop, so it's part of the hundred, but not the fifty.

In wetting drizzle, we ran from Ironbridge over into Coalbrookdale then up the Rope Walk to join the Tinsel Trail route to Little Wenlock. On over to the Wrekin and a slog to the top. This is going to be tough, long climb (it's continuously uphill from Coalbrookdale to the top of the Wrekin), especially 90+ miles in. We ran down through Garmston and Leighton then via fields to Cressage. There's a pretty long road section from here to Sheinton. At Sheinton, Em and I both had aches and pains and decided disgression was the better part of valour, so we cut the route short and left James and JT to head up towards Much Wenlock.

Em and I ran down to Buildwas (walking a lot of the road sections) and returned to the car via the footpaths on the north bank of the Severn and then up the Wharfage past the Tontine. The rain finally stopped about five minutes before we got back to the cars. 17.3 miles and 1,800' in 03:28.

Over the Easter weekend I didn't run but had a couple of nice short walks, around home on Easter Sunday and at the head of Lake Vyrnwy on Easter Monday (rain again). I went to the point to point meeting at Upton on Tuesday and left a bit late to get back for the whole Tuesday run. However Tom came to the rescue, texting me the rough route, so I knew I could intercept the group at Little Stretton.

As I pulled up the first runners came down through the campsite, so by the time I'd thrown a fleece and some jog pants in my running pack and put a shirt and a pair of shorts on, it was time to play catch up. Luckily for me the guys had given themselves a good working over coming across Ashlet, so I didn't have to go too silly to catch them. We went on up Ragleth Hill, then along and via the lane to Gaer Stone. I climbed pretty well and descended nice and easy, but fairly quickly down to Cwms Cottage. From there we cruised on down to Stretton via the Hike field. 5 miles and 1,100' of climbing in 00:58.

Big Climbing Snowdonia Day - 02/04/2012

Me and Andros on the way up Glyder Fawr

Had a really good big day out with Andros and Em, trying to get some appropriate training in for the CCC (Courmayer-Champex-Chamonix) race later in the summer.

We set out from Pen y Pass, climbing Glyder Fach and then dropping down via the Devil's Kitchen to Ogwen Cottage for a cup of tea.

Andros on the summit rocks of Glyder Fawr

Looking down from the north west face of Glyder Fawr to the Devil's Kitchen

Em and Andros at the tricky stream crossing under Idwal Slabs

The second leg took us back over the Glyders via Cwm Tryfan and the Miners' Track to the Pen y Gwryd  Hotel. Unfortunately I left my camera several hundred feet up the hill and only realised just short of the hotel, so I had to run back for it.

After a quick cuppa (slower for Em and Andros, they weren't collecting their scattered equipment), we headed down the pretty path along Nantgwynant, past the lake. The sting in the tail was the massive (ok, massive for England and Wales) ascent of the Watkin path. I was flagging at the bottom and we stopped for a final feed, before I trudged the whole thing in one big slow heave. Em and Andros stopped to gear up half way but beat me to the top by a few minutes. For some reason I was just in grind mode.

Running along above Llyn Gwynant

I snapped out of it at the top of Snowdon and descended well, mostly using the remnants of the old (i.e. prior to the most recent improvements) path - this is much more runnable than the hideous slippery stone of the new track. At the bottom by Llyn Llydaw Andros shot off, and I jogged back with Em who was by now feeling a bit sore in the calves after her half marathon the previous day...

First view of Llyn Llydaw on the way down from Snowdon

22.9 miles, 7,750' in 7:34. A fairly good result for a day off!

Training to 31/03/2012

After the Edale Skyline, I ran with the group on Tuesday night, feeling strangely very strong. I've noticed this has happened once or twice after big recess, but I don't know why. Anyway we did a recce of the Mynd Mac race, adding on a run through the Rectory Wood in each direction. I climbed very strongly and did the final descent down the gully to the bungalow strongly too. 6.7 miles and 1,950' in 1:20.

I felt a bit tired the rest of the week and was very busy with work, so it was Saturday 31st before I ran again. The plan was to go out with Zoe and do 24 miles on the roads around Corvedale and Apedale. I started quite well and we maintained our target pace of middle 8 minute miles for the first seven miles until I started to feel a bit sore in my psoas area again. I kept at it and felt better dropping down into and climbing out of Beambridge. Another mile and a half though and I knew I was struggling. Zoe and I decided to cut the route a little shorter, and to slow down, so we jogged up the bridleway to the head of Hopedale at Wetmore Farm. I managed to jog down the road to Middlehope, and then we walk / jogged to Westhope. We walked the last two and three quarter miles home. 18.8 miles, 1,500' in 3:14.

Edale Skyline Fell Race - 25/03/2012

To follow...

Training to 23/03/2012

Working away up the scree gully on the Wrekin

So, after the excitement of Lad's Leap I headed off to stay with Zoe in Upton. She's doing the London marathon on April 22nd so she has been building her mileage with long weekend runs at just slower than marathon pace. We aimed to do 20 miles at 8:53/mile, but I got the pace wrong so we ran at 8:13. This pretty much did for me - after the previous day's race I was feeling tired by about mile 9 and just about managed to keep going to a HM PR of 1:49:41 (but it was pretty damn hilly!) Anyway I ducked out at her brother's house after 15.2 miles and 400' of climbing (total time 2:10). Zoe had a really good one, powering on to her 20 miles still at 8:13s.

That took a little out of me, but I turned out on Tuesday night, where Dr Tim volunteered to lead the run on a route of his devising. This seemed to take us over/round the Bowdler Hills and into the area I would technically term "out back". I wasn't quite sure where we were, I know we crossed the Wenlock Road a couple of times, but it was a nice steady run, cruising along chatting most of the time. I'd do the route again in delight just to work it out! Thanks Tim for a good 7.2 miles and 1,200' in 1:26.

Tim's route - the numbers are quarter miles so 24 is 6 miles in.

On Wednesday I managed to get away early enough to reccie the Wrekin Fell Race route with Em. We had a lovely steady run, just cruising around and messing about. Em was trying her new Merrell Pace Gloves (a very minimalist shoe) out. We ran over the Ercall, not quite getting the route spot on as we descended, but noting where we should have gone for the return (it's an out-and-back race). Then a steady churn up the scree gully and then the main drag to the top...

At the summit with Needle's Eye Rocks behind

Em doing the palm tree yoga pose on the view indicator

Erm, yes, we're not brave enough to try this on the trig column!

A nice steady run down an a bit of a blast of the top of the Ercall led us to this amazing tree, lit by evening sunlight. We both had a bit of a climb around...

x-Talons are excellent tree climbing footwear

... then ran down to the Wickets for a cooling pint of lime and lemonade. 5.1 miles and 1,500' in 1:09.

Deadlines were pressing at work all week, so it was good to knock off at had five on Friday and head back to Stretton, getting a quick run in on the way home. I went up Townbrook and then down the first mile or so of Ashes, before doubling back up the side valley to Pole Cottage. From there it was over the top and out past Shooter's Knoll to the summit of Calf Ridge and on down to Mott's Road and CMV. 7.7 miles and 1,500' in 1:20. I felt just about prepared for what was to come after this...

Lad's Leap English Champs Fell Race - 17/03/2012

Climbing up the first ascent (photo: Ian Oates)

Crumbs, mid March and this was my first fell race of the year! I went up with Colin Williamson, who might be having another crack at the MV65 champs. There was a great Mercia turnout, and we watched our four ladies start before warming up by running round the bottom loop. As I was coming down from the warmup the ladies were finishing so I gave Mel a good shout up as she came in.

We got ready to start, and we could see Susan and Kim finish for the ladies just before we were off. I probably lined up a bit too far back, and David M and I were both held up a fair bit on the first ascent. Tis was pretty steep but one of those half and half running and walking slopes, although today it was pretty much all walking :-(

Long train of "runners" heading for the skyline - I'm in there somewhere,
stuck in traffic (photo: Ian Oates)

Once on top it looked like there was going to be some good quick running on a peaty single track. This was quite firm in places but quickly degenerated into ten yards of running followed by one stride into a deep hole of black peaty water and a desperate thrutch out to try to maintain a bit of momentum. After a mile or so we descended slightly to Lad's Leap, where the path crosses a stream at a gritstone notch. There was a very short climb out of this and then I found myself 50 yards behind one group and 30 yards ahead of another for another mile across the rough wet trail.

At the end of this a marshall directed us down a short steep descent, where I finally got myself moving a bit and caught the group in front (I could see David at the head of this). After a nice technical half mile of running under a rocky edge, we headed up a wide forest track. This was a really tough ascent, maybe around 1:6 and so rather runnable. I finally ran out of steam a couple of hundred yards from the top and had to let the group I'd caught up go while I walked a short section.

Running along under the edge
(Photo: "Shaun")

At the top we joined the outward route for half a mile and then launched down the final descent. This was really good, and I ran it pretty quickly under pressure from another runner. Shame someone walked across my line right in front of me at the stile and straw bales, I had to wait and yer' man ran right past. Anyway I was happy enough with the result of a not-quite full on effort: 1:05:58 for the 6.1 miles and 1,650' of climbing which put me in 237th out of 309 men.

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.