Training Log Archive: Mark3

Waited for the storm to pass, then fairly relaxed loop.

Went the horrible pathless way down shining tor. As expected, horrible.

Extra hill at the end to get 1000m, because why not?

With one short hill sprint; 6th on segment. Think I can do better.
Feeling ok, but coughing a bit. Will wait until tomorrow before deciding if it's worthy of another Covid test...

Easy loop and not raining; nice evening actually

Relatively sedate group but good chat. Nice to get out since apparently it's going to be rather wet over the next four days.

Faffing about with car service meant had to do actual work during work time and hence no running :(

Leading A group. Good pace, no stopping, no nonsense. Felt pretty good. Conversation significantly less than B Group!

Damp, didn't have a coat as it wasn't raining when I left home; annoyed at outset but actually it was the right call.

Easy recovery loop. Feeling fine actually.

4th. Winner c.4:40, 2nd/3rd 4:50.

Happy with the result. Weather forecast had been really miserable (heavy rain and high winds) so was wearing coat under race vest (on the assumption it wouldn't be coming off), 3/4s and 3/4 wproofs.

Started a minute behind N (which he didn't realise apparently and thought I was ahead of him the whole time) and I think third from last. The guy who started a minute behind me overtook after about a mile so I knew I wouldn't be seeing him again (he won).

First couple of miles uninteresting but became better once got out onto the moors. Feeling too hot in all the clothes but not quite enough to remove any of them - actually more bothered about the excessive sweating meaning I drank more than expected and so had to stop more to refill. No problems to cp2 at malham and implemented my planned route choice alternative successfully. Then a glorious 5 miles or so of running across Arncliffe in between all the limestone pavement - mild undulations but mainly flat and so nice and fast. Very thankful of the xtalon choice, I knew N would be struggling in his trail shoes.

Dull few miles along the river to Litton before the one big climb (about 400m). Weather became grim, wind/rain/fog, finally justifying my clothing choice after 3 hours of it being overkill. So despite the conditions I was still warm, even hands, which I was pretty smug about.

The top of the downhill was slippery slabs but became muddy grass after a while which was much nicer. Little out and back to the CP showed me N was quite a long way ahead. Very dull 5 miles along the river in the rain (actually that's a bit mean, it was quite a nice river) with endless gates and stiles. Then one short climb and back up onto the moors to finish.

Route had some really nice bits which made up for the dull bits. I'd do it again.

2 cliff bars, 4 shot bloks, 1l - didn't stop at any of the CPs. One blister; but 5 hours of talons in the rain was always going to be a stretch.

Feeling pretty good. Windy. Gloves + tshirt optimal.

Mudfest. Probably wouldn't normally have come but fancied the new route on some paths seldom explored - one of them was really nice in fairness but the remainder of the route was saturated fields.
Definitely a route for summer.
Felt slow.

I'm not sure why these lunch runs have suddenly become tempos, but feeling very brisk today. No after effects from running faster for 3 days in a row now which is good news!
I think Wednesday will be slow, and maybe then there will some kind of vague taper. Or maybe not.

I took the decision to rename the group as the 'B+++++ Group' was getting a bit ridiculous.
Good training run; no stops like usual. Just the 4 of us. Very warm; gloves superfluous.

Been meaning to do this for a while and it came up in the car yesterday for some reason which prompted me.

It was dull. Listened to Huckleberry Finn because I decided I could never read the book as it's all written in dialect and I hate that.

Turns out it's not great anyway.

Felt like a tough run, but I guess yesterday was quite hilly.

Supposed to be Wales, but they hate the English more than normal at the moment. So BG+JN+Great Lakes fell race recce day!

Quite a fun warm up path up the W side of the river from Seathwaite to the tarn, then up The Band (reverse JN). Relatively straightforward to follow in the fog; things to remember are:
- it is literally straight off the back from the summit of Great End
- there's a scree section near the top, then the way down after this is just to the right of a big obvious rock slab. There's a tiny cairn marking it
- there's some vague zigzagging down a steep bit but it doesn't matter too much which line you take
- after the steep bit, stay on the ridge and don't be tempted off down to the right too early, it's a easy way down rather than a gully

Glad to get that done as it's been on my to do list since my JN attempt last year. Want another go now.

Standard to Mickledore. Got the entry to Lord's Rake wrong (it's the second descent on the right, not the first, after a short climb towards Broad Stand - but we just contoured around lower down) then it's a fairly obvious trod up the Rake. Scree, but much easier than I was expecting, easy to hold onto the sides. The West Wall Traverse starts just a few steps down from where the chock stone used to be and is an obvious gully once you're on it. There are maybe a few steps where you have to use your hands but not many. It's much faster than Foxes Tarn. I don't even think I would hesitate to go down it (cairn marks the top).

Up to Scafell, then down the first part of the BG way to Wasdale but off to the North just below Black Crag (steep but fine) and back up the tourist path to Mickledore. Tried to look for the Climbers' Traverse but consensus was it looked ridiculous; ie too technical to be faster. We decided that even if you knew what you were doing, it would still be slower than Lord's Rake. Unfortunately whilst we were descending Matt fell and landed on his thumb, which resulted in it ballooning to twice it's normal size and going a pretty fetching colour. He likes rocky descents less than I do anyway and so he was pretty slow and cautious from then on.

Up Foxes Yarn for Matt since he hasn't done it before, and to Scafell for the second time. Then South to Long Green (which I haven't done before) and down the black dotted line on the OS map to the bottom of How Beck (no evidence of this path on the ground whatsoever; very sleep and rocky grass; Matt was not impressed. I thought it was fine; but it wasn't fast).

Back up to the base of the Foxes Tarn Gully., and into the last thing I wanted to recce, a route from here to the Scafell path via Broadcrag Tarn rather than Mickledore. Genuinely didn't expect to find this! But if from the top you stay on the Mickledore path until the point at which you can first see Mickedore, theres a big cairn and it's the first time you see grass on your left. You can cut that grass SE, then there's a short scree section before you can go due S heading towards a very small tarn/puddle (not Broadcrag). Once you get halfway to this you can see Broadcrag on your left, when you reach the same altitude go right and then left down an easy gully. Way should be obvious from there to the base of Foxes. Who knows whether it's faster, but will defo try it on the Great Lakes fell race.

Back to Scafell Pike for the second time and then back to the car via Esk Hause. Plan was to go back down The Band but we decided to let Matt keep some sanity.

Really enjoyed it, and really useful. Really cold hands from Great End to Scafell Pike on the way out, but wproof mitts warmed them up a bit, and was fine from the first Scafell summit onwards.

4 x mountain fuel bars to finish the mountain fuel multibuy - back to Clif :)

First time for at least a month Garmin has told me my condition is anything other than 'fair', which is probably a good thing. Felt speedy.

Meant to be a longer road run but there were only old people scheduled to turn up so decided to do my own thing.
Fine all day and started raining just as I left the house...
Felt ok. I think this takes these shoes over 1000km. EDIT: nope, 200m short.

Fairly sedate with the fell group. Planning the weekend with N and M depending on whether we're allowed into Wales or not!

Steady in the drizzle.

Seems like ages since running from the leisure centre. Glad to have gloves but ls was overkill. Feeling good after rest day yday.

Race was cancelled but we had the hotel booked anyway and had arranged to see some friends in Bristol, so thought we'd go for a run.

Raining throughout and windy; some occasional views but mainly miserable. Em found it a bit challenging so we cut short the full route I'd planned but still out for a respectable 4 hours.

Sunshine once back at the car, obvs.

Easy loop. Not raining :)

Plus to/from Rainow, so quite a long one. Nice evening with a bit of drizzle, and found some new paths which were mainly grim.

This felt pretty hard after last night. Good to get out in the daylight, though.

Wet. So wet I very nearly didn't leave the house - but glad I did as this turned out to be good fun; splashing around. Three of us at three front were pushing each other such that this turned into an actual tempo training run rather than the casual jaunts with lots of stops that they usually are.
Felt good running. Had to turn torches off at the top, the fog was so thick. Great route with one long up and one long down. Looped back for Em at the end.

Disappointing mileage this week; first time I've gone under 50 for months. Must try harder.

Been wanting to try the little sister of Abraham's Tea Round for a while and this was the perfect opportunity. Started from Braithwaite so had the dull out and back to Keswick at the start, but from there it was really good. Had planned to run the route a/c and therefore the E route down Catbells, but then chose to do is the right around and so ended up ascending that way rather than the tourist path, which is probably a worse route. Then messed up coming off Catbells; didn't know that either of the two straight paths were there and so went down some zigzags. Other than that though no mistakes; the only new bit for me was Causey Pike to Barrow, which was a springy descent down a steep mossy heathery slope; quite nice actually.

Just managed to squeeze under Billy's "I reckon you could do 2:15" which was pleasing.

Mudclaws still gripping well after 500miles so maybe there's something in the graphene thing...will only know when the non graphene version also gets to the same distance.

Great day to be out, amazing weather following yesterday's torrential rain the entire day. Also beat Em at pool twice despite her having played for a team and everything.

I was a bit lucky.

Walked around Maryport getting rained on.

I prefer these temperatures; feeling good again.

With Emma. Last time here I remember my hands getting too hot, so I wore thin gloves this time.
My hands were too cold.

Meant to be via the co-op, but it was mysteriously closed...

Feeling pretty good, which is why this became a tempo. It was also a minute faster than this because if it's not 30 mins, Vitality doesn't count it as exercise.