Tuesday Night Run - 09/08/2011

Another good Tuesday night run, heading up through the wood and down the ramp into CMV, then up the direct ascent of Haddon Hill, and round to the top of Jonathan's Hollow, returning via the Long Mynd Valleys Route.

6 miles and 1,320' of ascent in 1 hour 10 mins (excluding stops). I was quite glad of a light one given the Wrecker effort the night before.

Runkeeper track courtesy of Em is here.

Wrekin Wrecker Recce - 08/08/2011

Ran round the Wrekin Wrecker course with Em. Took it mostly fairly gently - I climbed hard on the Goaty path, Em had a go on the final ascent to the top. Mostly felt pretty good.

Kept seeing JT from Newport who appeared to be on some kind of mentalist quest to run up the Wrekin as many times as possible before dissolving in his own sweat!

Track etc on Runkeeper here.

Callow Hill Intervals - 07/08/2011

View along Wenlock Edge from Flounder's Folly on Callow Hill. We ran our intervals up
the path along the edge of the woodland on the left of the photo.
© Copyright Jeremy Bolwell and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

 Every so often we have to do something a little less fun in life. Hill interval sessions is one of those times. It's good for you, but no-one likes doing it.

This time, though, it wasn't so bad, as Em had a go first and I had a target to aim at. I did five hard efforts each of 90 seconds on about a 1:8 to 1:10 graded forest path, jogging back down and resting so there were two minutes recovery between each interval. Each interval was about 250 yards of uphill, for an uphill pace (not sustainable!) of about 10:30 min/mile.

My second and fourth efforts were a little limp: I hid a little bit midway up. The first and third were ok and the fifth was pretty much full on. That said, the distance covered on each effot varied by less than 10%.

Need to try to do this more regularly now the legs are recovering, and my aerobic fitness is coming back.

Afterwards we went up to the top and were able to go up the Folly which has been restored by a local group (the Flounders Folly Trust) with Millennium Lottery money. They've rebuilt the top of the Folly which had collapsed, using a concrete ring to strengthen the structure, and put in a new staircase with a glass "lantern" at the top to provide light and keep the folly weatherproof. When the flag's flying the folly is manned and you can climb up inside. It was nice to see a local friend and fellow fell runner, Nick Kingston, manning the tower.

After a chat, and a look at the view (which included a pretty nasty squally shower), we headed off, running down the steep but direct path to Moorwood.

© Copyright Jeremy Bolwell and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

We ran down the steep path from the Folly

Tuesday Night Run - 02/08/2011

Another great run at Church Stretton tonight... We had warm weather, but enough breeze to make it pleasant on the tops, and 19 runners today.

Tom and Naomi had come up with a good route, so we headed out via the top path in the Rectory Wood and then the ramp into CMV. At the fork between Mott's Road and Lightspout Hollow we went vert, climbing the very steep face of Calf Ridge, then running a great trod following a descending contour into Lightspout Hollow, hitting the bottom right opposite the start of the side gully used on the Stretton Skyline. We followed this up to the road and then ran along the road to Pole Cottage, before heading off to Barrister's Plain. From here we took the LMV descent straight down into Ashes Hollow. This was the only part of the route I had trouble with, holding back a lot because of slower folk in front of me on the descent.

The group split at Windy Batch, 12 taking the re-ascent over Yearlet to get home, the rest of us going on down Ashes Hollow and back via the paths through the woods. The bit climbing back up to the Longmynd Hotel is a bugger, just steep enough to be hard work, yet gently sloping enough to be runnable throughout... We had a couple of kilometers more than the Yearlet group, but they had an extra 200m of climbing. They were back a minute or two before us.

8.1 miles (a record for a Tuesday night) by Leyton's Garmin, and about 1,650' of ascent for us in about 01:40:00. I felt ok to good most of the way round. The Peregrines were also ok but for suspect grip on wet rock (to be expected) and a bit less assured on the steep stuff than the fell shoes (also expected). I found the heels quite hard on the faster grassy descents again.

A new plan has hatched as I'm feeling a bit fitter now - given some encouragement from friends, I'll probably run the Sedbergh Hills champs race in a fortnight. I love the Howgills and the big sweeping climbs and descents...

Run to the PUB! - 01/08/2011

At Pole Bank, just off the most direct route to the pub!

I ran from Little Stretton to the official opening of the Bridges at Ratlinghope (used to be called the Horseshoes at Bridges) tonight.

I had a great run up Ashes Hollow (ran all the way up) then to Pole Bank and down to Coates Farm, with the last 3/4 mile on the road. Felt really strong all the way despite muggy heat and was strengthened more by three pints of the excellent Three Tuns "Solstice" light zesty ale on arrival...

Mmmm... quaffing ale.

5.6 miles and 1,050' of ascent in 1:05:30. Or looked at another way 3 pints, half a pork butty, some crisps a pork pie and some excellent banter in 2:30:00.

Long Run / LMH Recce - 31/07/2011

Hot work on the summit of Earl's Hill, despite the early hour...

Today's effort was a 13.5 miler taking in the Stiperstones, Habberley, Earl's Seat, Snailbeach and the Stiperstones (again). I was partly doing a recce for this section of the Long Mynd Hike.

Starting at 0830 was a good way to get things done... I parked up at the Stiperstones car park and took the lower path past Hollies Farm and then up to Shepherd's Rock.

It was misty first thing, looking up from the path near the Hollies to the Devil's Chair

Shepherd's Rock from the Hollies

I ran north east down the ridge through Blakemoorgate and then turned east to pass through Upper Vessons Farm, before picking up the road to Habberley. There's a path across the fields here which we used on the Pontesbury Potter: it's more direct and easier than the road I think. I ran on through Habberley and out on the lane past Lower Farm, staying just north of Habberley Brook. I had to negotiate a few cows and a gazillion flies at the field gate turning north to get to Earl's Hill. I started up to the south ridge just into the woods and should have gone 200m further north which would have avoided the need to climb one fence and roll under another in the woods as I got on the ridge. There's a very steep section just above the wood before the route flattens out a bit to climb gently through iron age fortifications to the summit of Earl's Hill.

Final 200m towards the summit of Earl's Hill.

From the top I cut across to the descent down the side of the wood used on the Pontesbury Fell Race, but continued down where the killer ascent starts on the race to come out at the Nills Farm drive across fields and a minor road at the bottom. Going through the buildings at Nills Farm, I had a premature attempt to climb to the ridge at Polesgate, taking an impassible route somewhere between the two footpaths. Error corrected I headed up through the quarries in Poles Coppice to reach Bank Farm, the next checkpoint on the Long Mynd Hike.

From Bank Farm I made the long steady climb through Eastridge Wood, mostly walking, and drank the last of my water. I didn't think I'd make it back to the Stiperstones along the ridge in comfort with no more fluid, so I dropped down into Snailbeach and filled up in the loos there.

To get back on the ridge I climbed the lovely valley of Crow's Nest Dingle (OK it's a mess at the bottom by the farm, but the top two thirds is good). I managed to run very steadily most of the way up... At the top I turned left and climbed to the main Stiperstones ridge path, raching this about half a mile north of Shepherd's Rock.

Just tovary the route on the way back to the car I went via the Devil's Chair and Manstone Rock. The path on this section is very rough and I find running almost impossible for any length of time. Good practice for the Lakes or Snowdonia, though.

Think this is the Devil's Chair (R) but stand to be corrected!

The run down to the car park isn't so bad though and I was soon doing some warm down stretches before heading back to Telford.

The Runkeeper thing had a complete wobbly after about mile 8, so the mileage and ascent are from the map: 13.5 miles and 2,650' in a very very steady 3 hours 25 minutes (this included a couple of biref stops and is just under the 4mph I'd like to maintain on the Hike).

I wore my new Saucony Peregrine trail shoes (yet to be convinced - they're ok but my right foot was slopping about a bit and I think the backs might irritate my poorly achilles tendons) and also new Inov8 coolmax socks (excellent).

WE WON! D&W Mini Mountain Marathon - 27/07/2011

Dibbing at the checkpoint by Carl Wark neolithic fort

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eighteen  months of serious but talentless fellrunning and I have won something! Mostly down to having a good partner who pushed me along with the running bits, and some luck in not making too many minor (or any serious) nav cock ups, Emily and I won the mixed pairs category at the Dark and White Mini Mountain Marathon at the Longshaw Estate near Hathersage in the Peak.

Map and route details and a fuller write up to follow...

Admiring the view down Hope Valley after the event