Another poor one, with yet more problems, I'm afraid. I chose the route and then didn't manage to get round the whole run.
I thought we'd go round Caer Caradoc, running out along the path at the base of the west face, then up the ramp to the shoulder on the north ridge. From here we could drop down to Cwms Lane and go up onto the Bowdler Hills, drop down at Gaer Stone and see how the time was, with the option of going up Ragleth Hill to finish.
I warmed up carefully with some stretches, but it was fairly quick up Old Cardington Lane and onto the hill, coming out in lovely sunlight (a good reason for being over on the east side of the valley on these light evenings) and climbing to the kissing gate half way up to Three Fingers Rock. We contoured around the nice singletrack at the base of the fell quickly, and then climbed up to the saddle. I think my achilles started to complain a bit on the way up.
On the way down to Cwms Lane there's a rough section and the pain got a bit worse, so at Cwms Cottage I decided to be sensible and head back into Stretton. By the time I reached the A49 I could only walk, which rather justified the decision.
The others must have made good time over the Bowdler Hills - I hadn't been at the car park long before I saw first one, then a couple and finally all 17 hitting the Hike descent from the marker stone on Ragleth Hill. The sun was still on the hillside and they all looked great floating down the hillside. Bugger!
Anyway as usual I had a nice time, and Tom bailed me out in the pub as I'd left my wallet at work - thank you!
Obviously there's still lots of work to do on the legs - I think the glutes and hamstrings exercises must be working because the problem is much more localised now to the achilles area. I'll stretch gently and ice frequently, before starting to run on fairly flat ground in a week or so. I've physio next Monday and massage on Thursday, so I've a good chance to get sorted now. And I have an excuse for not killing myself on the Callow race on Sunday. I'll see if there's any need for marshalls, but if not I'll be out on the course somewhere with the camera watching everyone else suffer...
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