Lilleshall Trail Run - 13/04/2011

Rape seed coming into bloom from the summit of Lilleshall Hill

Looking at commitments for the rest of this week I felt I should run again tonight to try to keep some intensity in the training. I intended to do a few efforts tonight, along the lines of the 400m intervals I was doing before the injury at the end of March. It didn't quite work out like that, but never mind...

I started at the Memorial Hall in Lilleshall and ran gently up the hill. The hillside has been subjected to another brutal vegetation clearance, which looks like it's just going to leave brambles - they're the only thing growing so far.

I went down over the school field and across the field to the main road, down Willmoor Lane and turned right onto the former canal. From here I followed the canal up the incline and then ran up Old Farm Lane and on to Lilleshall Hall, arriving just as the Newport fell and trail mob (well posse, there weren't that many of them today) were gathering. I had a chat with Noel Hogan (recent winner of an LDWA in the Black Mountains) and Mark Deighton, and as they were going the same way as me, I ran along for a while.

We wend back the way I'd come to Willmoor Lane, then the pace picked up as we followed the next section of the canal and on through the old lime pits at the back of Barrack Lane. I parted company with the Newport guys at the end of the lime pits and headed back to the Red House along the A518, then up into the village. There's a nice grassy footpath that leaves Limekiln Lane just uphill of the bit with no pavement and heads through a couple of lovely rolling paddocks to come out at the end of Hillside East, where you can go straight across the turning area and up the last steep section to the top of the hill.

Mission accomplished, I jogged back to the Memorial Hall. I'd done a good mile at some pace with the Newport guys, so that'll have to do in lieu of the intervals session.

Tonight's stats: 5.5 miles, 720' of ascent, 59 minutes. Map and profile below:

This is how the map appears on my phone app while it's recording...

Profile - speed in red. Most of the run with Newport done at about 8:45 pace.