Training Log: ToddO

From the Blacksmith's Arms almost to the T-junction where you turn towards The Knott. John Brown was coming down the road so I ran back with him. He was saying that he thought he'd need a 1/2 mile lead at the top to be able to win! Not the most confident of descenders.

Caw Fell Race.
Led out along the flatter road. John Brown (former GB representative in Uphill mountain running) and Tom Gibbs went past as the gradient increased, as expected.
Kept in front of Mark Roberts over The Knott and on the long traverse towards the base of Caw.
Lost sight of Tom and John as they stuck a bit more L).
He went with a slightly wider line than me after the stream crossing. The extra runnability got him a lead of ~50m. Think he pulled away slightly on the steep climbing.
Saw two guys turning off the top before Mark.
Caught John towards the bottom of the steep part of Caw and went pretty hard across the slightly rough ground to make to most of his poor descending skills.
Twisted my L) ankle just before the stream crossing but it didn't really have much impact.
Ran fast up to the big marsh and was starting to lose hope of catching Mark whose gap was ~200m or more.
Kept up the pace around to The Knott but as I was heading up there I had a good gap on John so the only motivation left was to get a good time.
Cruised back down to the village and just let the hill do the work. Nasty little finish along the field-side track.
1st Tom Gibbs M40 Ambleside AC 49:38
2nd Mark Robert M50 Borrowdale AC 50:36
3rd me Ambleside AC 51:37
4th John Brown Ambleside AC 53:27
9th Mike McIver 56:**
1st Lady Lou Roberts 66:**
42 finishers.
So we won the team prize! Got a couple of bottles of ale for that and pick a box of chocolates for my 3rd place.
Ankle not feeling too clever.

C • breakdown 2

Jogged back from the cars to the finish with John and then grabbed Mike McIver (9th) and Tom for a warm-down. Just did a big loop of the field we'd parked in.

30x eccentric Achilles

T-shirt and shorts weather! Parked at the Tesco next to the motorway and ran to the other side. Turned down the Aglionby Grange sideroad to find that the lane to the public fotpath had a chained gate and an angry sign on it.
Back to Tesco and down the path alongside to head for the river. Last part of the path was a pond so I found the new path people had made along the edge of the field.
Followed the Eden downstream to the Stony Holme Golf Club. Along the dyke to Victoria Place, just past the Richard Rose Central Academy. Followed the main road back to Tesco.
Stretched out the calves, quads and hamstrings afterwards.

C • Public Footpath 2

30x eccentric Achilles

40s planks (last 20s with leg lifts) followed by the Myrtyl protocol.

Stretched out my calves and then realised I hadn't done the 2nd set of planks. Did them and then finished off the stretch-out.

30x eccentric Achilles

Start was close!

Cumbrian Galoppen, Leap's Beck (near Kirkland), Brown Course, 8.8km, 410m climb.
Still making a token effort to retain the Cumbrian Galoppen title so headed to this with sore legs.
Had been on this map for an evening event last year so I knew what I was in for: open fell with lots of climbing.
Got into my running well and was going nice and quickly to number 2. Power walked the long climbs to 3 and the beginning of leg 6.
On the way to 6 I headed straight up, into the cloud, with the idea of basically going over the top of the hill so I had a very solid AP. Hit the fence corner and realised that it was basically on the same contour as the control. Flew around the hill, safe in the knowledge that the fence would be my catching feature if I overshot. Realised there was more to the ground than the map suggested (spur/gully type stuff and some significant rock features omitted) but carried on with the plan.
No control on the crags I ran past, bounced back off the fence with a good idea of my location and then found a crag. No control. Derek Fryer came up the hill saying I was in the right place. Up a few contours to find the control!
Cautious to 7 due to the uncertain starting spot but the knoll was really obvious.
Long leg to 8 took me into sight of control 12 and I went well all the way around to there. Picked up a follower at 10 and ran away from him but just missed 12.
Ran away from him again on the way to 13. I was looking for over a minute before he came over the rise. Control was placed on a mini-crag on a spur more than 100m away from the feature (which was a crag, in a marsh, in an obvious re-entrant). 17+ minute leg...
One last little uphill effort to 14 before a blast to the finish.
Lots of fastest splits against the WCOC Vets. Dave Spencer would have been 3 mins behind me if a) he'd been to the control and b) you took my split from the Winsplits "times without mistakes" function.
Hopefully they can give times (that are slower than mine!) to the people who didn't puch the control at 13, it was an howler of an organisational mistake.

C • Time 5

Wasdale Head carpark to the fell-gate at the foot of Kirk Fell.

Straight up Kirk Fell. Past a couple of dog walkers who looked equally impressed and disgusted by my ascending. Same look you get during the London Marathon when you run past the people who've just been past halfway and you've done 22 miles in the same time. I don't think people like being overtaken whilst they think they're doing something impressive...
Became hard work to maintain after 20 minutes, especially on the scree!
Achey calves and glutes.
No views after 10-15 minutes because I was into the clouds. Could look across and see that Sty Head was below the clouds so hoped it might clear a bit by the time I got over there. The cloud had burnt off a bit during the orienteering earlier.

Down to Black Sail Pass following the warratahs through the cloud. Would've been nice to use the BG gully but I wasn't risking anything in this visability.
Did have sensible gear with me though: OMM jacket and trousers, hat, gloves, survival bag, whistle, waterproof map, compass and gel.

Wasdale line round the Ennerdale side of Kirk Fell. Much easier to run this now that I'm fitter! Last time I came around here was the actual Wasdale race 2011... Nice views down to the YHA Hut and over to the tops of Haystacks etc.

Walked up Great Gable from the first warratah. Overtook some walkers, two were reccying the BG and two who had an altimeter they were reading out loud when I passed at 790m.
This climb felt much easier than I remembered. Not as steep and long and the boulders were more easy to climb over. Hard work paying off.

Stuck close to the path due to the cloud. hard on the quads to pound down Gable to Sty Head. Was out of the cloud by the time I got to the scree causeway before the grassier slopes begin.
went just to the leg of the path and took the grassy options.
Took the path that gradually descends to Wasdale Head (that we had wanted to get when I came here with Marky Guns and Rich Watson). Pretty runnable after the first few hundred metres.
Quite confident in my footing throughout this run due to the dobs.
Tired quads when back to the car. Ate a whole rhubard pie and my 2nd tin of rice pudding for the day!

Neild had been working at West Cumberland Hospital when I gave him a bell. I was just about to pass so I nipped in.
Got him to spend 5 minutes massaging my L) lat dist hamstring. Bit sore during but felt pretty good for the rest of the day.

30x eccentric Achilles

Up to the steepening minus a walk on the road/track and across the field (no need to get tired!).

Went too far R) on my way into the cloud up Winder. Hit the path we would later use for the descent. Long hill this!

Went off to the left in search of the spur. It wasn't where I looked! Came out of the cloud to see the stream down below and realised I had to go right. Knew not to head out this way. No time to find the correct way...

Steady away to find myself in about 10th as we went up the track and onto the field. Must've been in 7th as we went through the fell-gate.
Cruised past Jonny Bradshaw as we went along the wall. Went past Carl Bell and Jen as we got onto the actual fell and quite easily went past Joe Forest and Jimmy Craig on the slight gradient.
Reeled in Paul Dugdale on the steep stuff and set my sights on new boy, Peter Harrison. Paul went L) a bit and I went a bit R) compared to the line Alistair Dunn was taking, with Peter in his wake.
As it got a little less steep I went past Peter and came back onto Al's line. So I was 3rd at the top behind Jebby and Dunn.
Ian Nixon was there getting times on people. Al was over 1:15 behind Rob Jebb and I was another 15s off.
Bad line down involved scree and hurdling some gorse. Joe and Jimmy got past on the actual race route (no-one had actially said there was a path the whole way down until I told Ian what I'd done afterwards)!
Had a battle on my hands all the way from the field but held off Peter, narrowly, for 5th.
Satisfying ascent. Annoying cloud. Might have caught Al for 2nd (and 1st BOFRA man) had I known where I was going.

Back to the car. Would've done more but...

Up Arant Haw from the race fell-gate, 27. Hard.
Over to Winder. Down the path THIS TIME! L) Walsh sole started coming off. Just the toe attached by the end, nice of my shoe to applaud my last few mins of running.

30x eccentric Achilles