Training Log Archive: ba-ba

Excellent Ham Hock recovery at the Broadfield last night
Wandered up win hill to watch the hope race, good field out, got damp. Chris Arthur on fire. Got in way of fellrunninbriefs on the descent.
Achilles a bit sore, always case after long run, esp in classic mudclaws. Rest of legs not too bad. Coccyx making me sound like an old man when getting out of car/rolling over in bed. Napping like a boss.

Few more days off entirely. Rest needs to be taken seriously. Intercounties will be a shit show but last chance to run for Derbyshire for a while so will turn out.

High Peak Marathon, 1st with team 'Long Distance Mud Afair' -myself, Adam Perry, Jim Mann and Shane Ohly (sub after Kim Collinson dropped out to focus on next week's ultra trial race).

My Dad was a Sheffield Student in the early 70's and had some small role in setting up the HPM, with mum and dad also marshalling before I was born. My interest was first piqued in ~2008 with a comment along the lines of 'it's won in 8+h, that's not even 8-min miling. We should get a team in and do this'. I think I had just got comfortable running 8min/miles on the road and flat. The folly of youth. HPM was lodged on my 'glad I'm not doing that' list of races until interest perked up again last October. Adam said he might be interested (if not totally enthusiastic) and mentioning it to Jim pre-OMM lit a spark under the project: "Jasmin never lets me in her team so I've always joked about getting a crack team to beat her at a race she wants to win".

Off at 23:28 (felt like about 6pm), with our main contenders Haggis on Tour and 8/10-time consecutive winner Flipper's Gang starting 5 and 6 min behind us. Running felt good and the pace was probably a bit hot but with plenty of teams acting as bait and good (if muddy) tracks underfoot we wanted to put time pressure on those behind us through the Cps. Jackets came off up Win Hill as it was very warm and the rain in the air had disappeared. Teams were streaming down Parkin Clough but we took the fence line which was slippery but good. Clambering over a fence near the bottom: "watch out guys very slip..." the rest lost as I flew down on my arse, accelerating rapidly, trying to grab at trees. Somewhow managed to arrest myself in darkness, head torch having to be retrieved but the only damage was a bruised coccyx. Steady Eddy down the rest before getting into our groove on the long uphill road section to High Neb. Food at Moscar and as we got to Cutthroat Bridge we were now the first team on the course.

Into the mist on Derwent Edge (told we were 17mins ahead) via Edward's Moonbase checkpoint, a bit of nav faff finding the Margery Hill path but bearings saw us OK to Cut Gate. Very careful on the compass across the Bog Monster to pick up the outer edge line, still in low vis clag. Dropping down we exited the clag and we could sort of see what was going on, dropping off the top of the hill by running towards the Holme Moss lights when you're not meant to, catching it and regaining the 'ridge'. This bit wasn't too boggy, although probably because we lost the path a bit again. The Rabbit Cairn popped up just as I was wondering where we were and Swain's Head CP was reached fairly OK, although we could now see lights behind us and tiredness was starting to set in after 4.5h or so.

I was very worried our buffer was rapidly decreasing. Into Far Back Clough, spotted our exit point and hit the bearing for Bleaklow stones. Found a cairn I've not seen in 5 recces up there, got the trod and bang into the CP. Now the tricky line across a wet, boggy and partly drifted snow Bleaklow hill, especially as I had fore-shortened the gap to lights behind to about 8mins. Shane had started to suffer on the climb to the Stones and I was anxious and a bit shouty, abhorring Adam for pissing about and not looking for Stakes when he was actually looking after Shane. A bit of a drift in line but reconnected quickly before hitting the new line recced on Wednesday well, as my head torch gave its death flash and intensity reduced to 20 lumens.

Safety first route onto the wet, chossy Pennine Way and a quick battery change. Shane was visibly suffering and managed to take a dive into a stream. It was like watching Bambi on ice. Jim was still plugging away, but we needed to get Shane into some warm gear. A slow walk-jog into Snake Summit for a food stop (and parental support). We got Shane over the road before he could retire! 4h05 from Cutthroat and 6h total to Snake.

Purgatory slog along the slabs to Mill Hill, but glad to not be bog-hopping. Looks back didn't show any lights close by but I was telling myself they could have turned them off to go covert. Onto Kinder Edge, headlights off, very slow going with the path, hard when tired at the best of times, covered in patches of snow. Got Shane and Jim through it but aware we could be bleeding time. Onto the Brown Knoll slabs - glad they were here! - and slowly onto Lord's Seat, round Mam Tor. One last joke from Jim as he tried to descend into Castleton (my sense of humour was well gone) before descending into the finish.

24min ahead of Flipper's Gang, who whilst not as strong as previously were still good and worrying me as we shuffled over Kinder. A Haggis on Tour member had popped his ankle before Lose Hill and their night was over within 30mins. Nicky's team set a new Women's record, very impressive given the underfoot conditions.

Fairly pleased with my Nav, a few lapses but caught fairly early and compass trusted. Physically, I was fine for ~8h, but really suffered the last 40-60 mins once over Brown Knoll - as expected.

Good support all around the course from the students, including a few ShUOCers. My colleague Claire was helping out at a few places and was very excitable. The starting pace was maybe a bit hot but psychologically we needed to harm our competitors by building an 'unassailable' gap there was no point in them chasing down, and holding on for grim death. Seemed to work as our gap stabilised over that last few hours.

Beautiful day to finish in. Cries of "never again" soon changed to "that record (7:51) is beatable given better prep and good conditions". Bollocks.

Fave moments:
- Adam re-appropriating a slice of malt loaf as a SI-carrying device.
- The lights of Manchester.
- Shane (a vegan) grabbing an entire buttered malt-loaf at Snake going "fuck the butter I'm eating it anyway"
- the Win Hill slip-n-slide (in hindsight at least).

GPS trace is from Cutthroat as I knew my watch wouldn't last the whole thing.

C • Nice 10

Another poor night's sleep. Busy day, then out for one last cram - spent so much thought and effort receding Bleaklow I forgot some of the bits I 'know' - so a walk (although Hr suggests different...) over the Win Hill options.

Both excited and terrified about tomorrow night. Bleaklow will be sapping and once past Snake I'll be well out of my comfort zone - I'll probably be out of it before even then! A balancing act of making up time on the good running without going too deep too early, it's going to be an eating tour of the upper Peak. Hopefully nav and line errors will be kept to a minimum, hopefully there'll be a sunrise to enjoy over Snake/Kinder.

then beers

C • Good luck! 4

Bleaklow with young Jimmy. Tried a new line which is good. Sticking on the 'path' to the AP, however, wasn't so good, really boggy and a good covering of snow up there.

Time to start eating!

C • I wish I could say the same 1

Eccy Woods, testing my new head torch.