Wild Moor Easy Run - 22/04/2011

Geese on Wild Moor Pool

Posting on a Sunday morning is never a good sign - I should be out running but I've another niggle in my left leg and I'm trying hard to give it chance to heal. I took it really easy after Tuesday's run to try to let the soreness in my thigh heal, and felt a bit better by Friday, so I took advantage of the good weather and the Bank Holiday to give it a tryout...

I parked up at Womerton above Gogbatch to avoid the crowds in Church Stretton. After a good runthrough the "transition exercises" from "Chi Running" I headed up the side of Gogbatch, then crossed the road and went on up to Robin Hood's Butts and down the road to Wild Moor Pool, all the time forcing myself to take an easy pace and trying to remember to run with good form. The pool was restored a couple of years ago by the National Trust, and is looking very nice now.

Wild Moor Pool

Overexposed flower, Wild Moor Pool

From Wild Moor I walked and jogged up sheep trods following the shallow valley up to the top.

The wide, wet valley that leads up from Wild Moor Pool to Shooting Box

Just below a structure I take to be some kind of pheasant trap, there was a sheep stuck in a deep looking pool. She had two lambs close by. I didn't want to scare the lambs and for them to go in the pool too, and I couldn't see an easy was of getting the ewe out either, so reluctantly I had to leave her there.

I headed on up to Pole Bank from the Shooting Box, and then over the top of Long Synalds to the col at the head of Townbrook Valley. I climbed straight up Yearlet here, running probably nearly half of the steep ascent.

Self timer shot at the summit of Pole Bank. OS Trig columns have a use!

Summit of Yearlet with the Lawley (left) and Caer Caradoc (right)

My thigh was now pretty sore again, and stopped me running easily down the green path, so I had to take it slowly. I decided to stop at the NT cafe in Cardingmill Valley, and reported the stuck ewe to the Trust warden there. I had a lovely hot sausage roll and cream tea, and then started back towards the car. I'd stiffened up badly in my thigh and had to walk pretty much all of the way back, via the ridge climbed at the start of the LMV and that route's descent into the Batch, and then up the nicely graded path to Plush Hill, along the nice grassy alp below the road there and back onto the track that skirts the edge of Gogbatch to the car.

View down The Batch from the slopes of Haddon Hill

Towards Haddon Hill from the path leading out of The Batch to Plush Hill

Springtime in The Batch - two weeks ago the trees were bare

I had a proper warm down stretch, again based on the "Chi Running" book, and then drove home. The stats for today were 9.2 miles, 1,550' of ascent, and a very steady 2 hours 16 minutes moving (i.e. including the shorter stops but excluding major photo faffs and cream teas).
The thigh was pretty sore for the rest of the day. I spent yesterday (Saturday) gardening with only the occasional twinge and it doesn't seem too bad today, but I've got to be sensible and give myself the best chance of running at the Three Peaks next weekend. The plan is therefore to do most of my exercise this week on the bike, not overdo it, and probably only run on Tuesday (gently!)

So I'll be out shortly for twenty miles or so on the push bike...