Looking up

Three reasons why its been a good week;

1, Leg has not bothered me as much this week
2, Ran over 50 miles
3, put in over 15,000ft of ascent (most of it ran)

But, (there's always a but) the speed is going to take some finding.

My longest run was 22 miles, 4200ft, a run I did a good few times last year and which I could do comfortably. Not so this week, the last 4 miles I was really struggling, but I wanted to see how far away I am from attempting the 3 peaks fell race. I will run it again next Sunday and decide then if I can blag it round.

My shortest runs were running up Blencathra 5mile 2200ft from Scales, which I did on 2 occasions.

I also ran the Coledale Horseshoe 9 mile 300ft twice, once with Carl Bell who after we finished it he went on to run in the Grisedale Grind fell race and finished a very creditable 8th. I thought better of it and decided to take photos instead.

Race winner Martin Barron-Mikkelson

Carl Bell ( I was sat laughing at this point)

Runner up Phil Winskill

Club mate Robin G

So fingers crossed for another pain free week. This week I will take it easier till the weekend.

Good luck to all who are running the London Marathon next weekend.

Big Bad Stu......

Don't know what to do for the best. Leg still not right, but im still running (quite hard too).

Good Stu on my right shoulder is telling me to stop and get an x ray at least.

Bad Stu on my left shoulder is telling me to carry on, I've lost enough time already and you need to get some big miles in for the 3 peaks in less then 4 weeks time.

I'm listening to bad Stu at the moment because he sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

So on bad Stu's advice I returned to doing speed sessions on Monday night, ran up Blencathra twice on Wednesday night, ran 16 mile on the fells on Saturday and today did the Coledale Horseshoe again, oh and bad Stu said do 30 minutes hard on the turbo trainer on Tuesday and Thursday night too.

One thing that he is insistent on is NO ROADS.

Deep down I know it will end in tears but im having fun again.......just!

A step in the right direction

"Lakelander" Nick

Another week in and another week of steady improvement although im finding it all a lot harder then I did 7 weeks ago.
After last weekends run on the fells it took me 3 days to recover before I could run again, my thighs were like concrete and even walking was a struggle.
On Wednesday evening I parked at Roe head expecting  a slow run up to Arthur's Pike, little did I realise that Steve and Sam would be there too, so instead of a slow/steady 1500ft run I ended up running a very fast/tough 10 mile 2600ft battering instead. Steve and Sam have got stronger over the last few weeks and its going to be hard work to get anywhere near them for a while yet, if at all.

Saturday I again parked at Braithwaite and ran on the north western fells.
Grisedale again prooved to be tough but I was pleased to run it all up to the final scrambles. From Grisedale I ran continuesly for the next 2 hours taking in;
Hopegill Head    (twice)
Whiteside
Sand hill
Grasmoor
Eel Crag
Sail
Scar Crags
Causey Pike

looking back up Hopegill and Grisedale

Crummock Water

Sail and Eel Crag

From Causey Pike I ran down to the road at Stair, where fell runners were mingling and getting ready to run the Causey Pike fell race.

I didn't envy them at all, as they streamed past me for the climb of Rowling End.

Met up with Steve Angus (who was again taking some top quality photographs) and then went to the beck crossing to watch them come back down.

Rob Jebb and Pippa Maddams were the winners.

A run along the road back to Braithwaite completed a very enjoyable day.

Look closely for the ants on Causey Pike

follow the leader

Rob Jebb

Pippa Maddams

 a few more photos on my my flickr

Time to put the sock drawer away....at last.

Its been 6 weeks since injury stopped me from running, but I now feel im back on the road fell to recovery.

I stuck to my plan of not running at all for four weeks and over the last 2 weeks I have  been jogging very slowly on the local football pitches, not very far, between 3 and 4 miles at a time. Each time the leg was still sore but nothing like it was, I convinced myself it was just grumbling after being so inactive for a while and on Saturday I gave it its biggest test yet, the Coledale Horseshoe.

So Saturday at 6.30am at Braithwaite and with clear blue sky's I had the whole Horseshoe to myself. I did plan to walk it all and that was still my intention on the eye opening climb of Grisedale Pike. Once on the top though with views as far as the eye could see I couldn't help running..... and running, and running.

Hopegill, Eel Crag, Sail, Outerside and Barrow was all ticked off and if I was worried what the leg would feel like after it, or the next day there was no need to be as the the leg feels fine today (2 days later) apart from very, very stiff quads.
The rest of the week I will continue to run on the flat grass of the football pitches and venture out onto the fells again at the weekend.

It might be some time before I tackle the roads again though.

Not Quite the sock drawer

Needs no caption!

Had a walk up to Ashness Bridge this morning, really just to take this photo and to stretch my legs.
Its 2 weeks now without doing any running and its flippin frustrating, so in a bid to maintain a little bit of fitness a mate has lent me his turbo trainer, (cheers Sam) where im doing 2 x 20 mins reps each night - apart from last night where wine got in the way!

Last week I went out to watch the Buttermere Round road race. The 22 mile race was won easily by Ricky Lightfoot and it was good to see Howard Seal having a great race finishing strongly in 4th. Steve Angus was not too far behind, not bad considering its the furthest he has ran since April last year - tho I like to think I could of beaten him this year...............my chance gone now though!

Some photos are on my Flickr site

Ricky Lightfoot

Howard Seal

Steve Angus

Only kidding Steve!!

So two weeks in,  (one bedroom painted) leg still sore, hoping in another two weeks it wont be tender to touch and start a little bit of light jogging, but in the mean time the turbo trainer awaits and who knows I might be as good as this dude by the end of if it....

Cheers Nick.

Stressed

For the last 4/5 weeks I have been troubled by a pain in my left leg, on the outside above the ankle. It hasn't stopped me running but it has been very tender to touch.

After the Pennine relays it was very sore, so I took 5 days off running.

On Saturday I met Steve Bennett and had a good fell run, covering 18 miles and over 3300 ft of climb. I felt good and felt strong after it and could easily of carried on, my leg was hurting, but no more then the last few weeks.

Sunday I foolishly met Steve Angus for a 9 mile road run which included 2x12 minutes hard. This Hurt, a lot, and I struggled to keep up with Steve on the second rep, but then again I would of struggled even without a sore leg!

During the afternoon it was tender and sore even when I was sitting down and decided I would make an appointment with Ray Pescod, whom I got see today.

He confirmed my worst fears - Stress Fracture.

I cant say that I was surprised, as I have had a hairline stress fracture before on my other leg in exactly the same place , but what did surprise was that he thought it might be healing because he could feel a very small lump where he thought the bone was moulding again.

The last time I carried on running though until I could hardly walk before I got it seen to.
The last time I kept trying to run before it was fully healed.
The last time I was out of running for 10-12 weeks.

Ray told me no more running at all on the roads, but said that I could do 3-4 mile of very light jogging on grass twice a week, but I have decided to stop altogether until the pain/tenderness has disappeared altogether. I'm hoping if I do this I might be running again in 5-6 weeks. A real shame and I cant pretend that im not pissed off, I am, but I have got to be sensible.

It  means that I will miss Buttermere Round this Sunday and Haweswater Half next month, both events that I was hoping to set PBs in.
Hopefully I will be fit for the 3 peaks in April, fingers crossed.

It also means that I wont have owt to blog about so things might go a bit quite on here for a while.

A friend of mine who blogs was out of running for 8 weeks and continued blogging.
One day he blogged about his sock drawer!!!!!!!
I will try and resist such temptation!

Also Sue thinks she is getting the house decorated!!!

Happy running !

Pennine Bridleway Relays

First time Eden have entered this event, but im sure it wont be the last. No better event for uniting the club road runners and fell runners for a thoroughly enjoyable day.

We managed to field 2 teams of 10 and both teams did themselves proud, especially as most of us hadn't a clue what to expect.

The team I was in consisted mostly of fell runners and the first leg was ran superbly  by Anth Labram and Sam Ware who passed over to Kim Collison and Carl Bell in a fantastic 14th place. A fantastic start.
Kim and Carl did what we all hoped they would do and ran a solid leg, passing over to myself and Alex Davies in 12th position, a gain of 2 places.

Sam and Anth- leg 1

Carl and Kim- leg 2

At the finish

Because me and Alex didn't have a clue of the route we were hoping that they would come in with another team near them, so we could sit on their shoulders and follow them. They did.....Borrowdale!

So we set off with Borrowdale only seconds ahead. We had promised each other that we would work as a team and pull each other along if the other was struggling, I cant understand why some runners run so far ahead of their partner only to wait for them at the checkpoint!

We both had strong runs and we soon caught and passed Bowland with a Clayton team not far ahead.
Luckily for us tho Borrowdale missed a tight turn and carried on thus taking Clayton with them costing them both a good minute.
We had one big climb left and soon passed over to Andy Thompson and Jon Toombs in 9th place and very relieved.

Andy and Jon ran strong on leg 4 and held on to 9th place to pass the dibber on to Gary Johnson and Mark Bissell, who had the tough task to bring us in.

After a anxious wait they emerged through the school gate neck and neck with Bowland.
A sprint finish and a confused marshal saw us finish the day in 12th position out of 104 other teams.
Our other team had by all accounts a brilliant day and all are looking forward to it again next year.
Results

More blah blah blah

Another week of no racing but all four training sessions have felt like races.

From Blencathra

Monday I went along to the speed sessions with the tri club where we ran 5 x 1000m loops on the local industrial estate. What pleased me most about this session was that all four reps were in 5 seconds of each other, slowest was 3.07 and the fastest 3.02 (the last one), so at least im holding my pace better. I'm enjoying these sessions a lot, but I do find them very hard, especially with them being so soon after the weekend, where I have usually done some long runs.

At the club on Wednesday night we did mile reps which I know benefit me but still hate doing them.

On Thursday I ran 6.5 mile on the roads as fast as I could. This is something new for me as I normally just go out and run this distance, but on this occasion I ran hard right from the start. This im told helps you a lot.
I am also sure that all these speed sessions will cease when the light nights return and I can resume to plodding on the fells again, although plodding was the last thing on Carl Bells mind when along with Steve Bennett we did leg 1 of the Bob Graham on Saturday morning....

After parking the cars in Threlkeld, all 3 of us ran into Keswick along the railway path to Spoony Lane. On the climb of Skiddaw we soon caught a group of fellas recceing the leg. They were from Ripon (I think) and after a brief chat with them we were off again. Carl ran on ahead and was half way up Little man until me and Steve caught him up.

Future Bob Grahams in training

What a view

Carl and Steve showing his best side

On the climb to Gt Calva, Carl ran it all whilst me and Steve marched up. Surely the long slog up the back of Blencathra will slow him down.
Nope. Instead he ran away from us zigzagging it. Too much energy he has!
I had a Eccles cake!
The top was soon reached where we had a quick drink and took some photos before we descended via Doddick. Again I maintain this is the best way of Blencathra (for me anyway) and we all reached the cricket club car park in less the 23 minutes (road in 19). The going was icy in places  too.
We did the leg in 2.52 and I have no doubt at all that Carl could of done it at least 20 minutes quicker.

Nothing done today due to having a night out last night where the coca cola king (Steve B) must of spiked my drink........ Feeling very tender today!!!

1559 (answers on a postcard)

A good week running, but no races to report on.

Last year was all about one thing for me, getting around the Bob Graham Round, and as a result, every time I stepped out onto the fell the only thing on my mind was the BGR.
Looking back, the reccying and long days out were brilliant. One of my favourite long days out was the Ullswater round, which I did in some awful conditions, but it was so good to run into Pooley Bridge feeling very strong, after some 9 hours after I had left. My account for the day can be read here.

At the moment I am down to help out on 4 BGs this year, maybe 5. Looking forward to them all.

Also has a result of all my prep for the BGR  I missed a few fell races, I think I did 4 before it, one of them was the 3 peaks in Yorkshire. I have entered again to see if I can beat my time from last year, which was 3.39. To get near 3.30 would be fantastic, but I wont be too hard on myself if I don't. I very much doubt that we will get conditions as good as last year.
The last 3 years has all been about fell running for me, I cant think of anything better - I love it - even being on my own and running onto new tops, getting home and retracing my steps on a map. Brilliant. ( I need to get to the pub more, I think)

I have got a new route (for me) planned to run on the Ullswater Fells that I have been wanting to do for a while now. I thought I would maybe do it this weekend but the weather was too crap for a long day out on the hills so instead I parked my car In Pooley Bridge and ran up to Loadpot. The wind and rain was in my face all the way up and it took me 57 mins , about 10 minutes longer then normal, but as soon as I turned at the cairn ,I flew back down in 32 minutes.


Yesterday I met up with Steve Angus at Talkin tarn near Brampton for a very wet, very windy  very hilly 15 mile road run. The plan was to run the 15 miles at a steady pace , but with about 3 miles to go I realised Steve had dropped back a few meters, so wanting my revenge on him by beating me last week at the XC, I upped my pace slightly. He didn't react to my invitation to race and I got back to the cars some 3-4 minutes before him. Steve is a proper road runner who trains proper, eats proper and is too long in the tooth to react to my foolishness, unlike Stevie B, who takes no encouragement at all.

A fine example of this was on Wednesday night where, along with Sam, we opted out of the 400m reps and instead ran all the steep hills in Penrith. We all agreed at the start that we would take it easy, we all lied and some 8o mins later we were on our knees back the club house, even running on the flats we were trying to keep up with each other, good fun nonetheless though.

On Monday I again went to the local tri club, where we did some, yep, you guessed it, hill reps!

So not a bad week, admittedly there is more road miles then fell miles at the moment, but with the weather and dark nights I am trying to push on them as hard as I can. A bit of speed wont do anybody any harm.

Keswick XC

The 4th race in a series of 5 for the Cumbria cross country league was held in Keswick on Saturday. The course was the same as the one used for the county championships in December last year, so it would be a good test to see if any improvement had been made.

A much bigger and stronger field lined up at the start, which was again in handicap formation.
James Douglas won again beating some top fell runners (Steele, Winskill, Heppelthwaite and  Abdelnoor).

I found it a lot tougher then the county championship race and was pleased to record a time some 35 seconds faster and taking 10th place.
My faster time might be down to Steve Angus who was  racing. I was ahead of him until the 3rd lap where he eased passed me. I tried to keep the gap respectable and he beat me  by 15 seconds.
No shame there as he is beginning to recapture his form from last year and I don't think I can realisticly expect to stay on level terms with him any more, making the nine standards fell race even more memorable for me.

Its a shame that the final race is on the same day as the Buttermere Round 22 mile road race, as I think I will be entering that again, Its good training for the Yorkshire 3 Peaks.

The "faster" group get ready.

Over the festive season I have eaten far to much rubbish, especially toffees (which I still have a mountain left to eat ) so I am now on my second day of eating healthier again, ( all tho I have just been to the pub and had 2 pints, but alcohol doesn't count).
Even with just 2 days of better living im feeling a bit more energetic.
I plan to get some longer fells run in this month and up my mileage slowly.

Nine Standards Fell Race

When will I learn?
I should off known accepting a lift off Phil Winskill to Nine Standards fell race on New Years day would have its price to pay.
Normally before a race, my pre race warm up consists of keeping my jacket on  just before the off.
Not so with Phil though, who after registering insisted we have a look at the start of the race. Some miles later and im doubting we will get back in time for the start !

The route goes on road for about 2 miles and then continues on the fell for another 2 miles before turning at the cairn and running back the same way, all runnable and this year free off snow, which last year was over a foot deep.

Back at the start line and there's another good turnout from eden runners, who last year won the team prize.
Also wandering about is Steve A, who is running competitively for the first time since August after a stress fracture forced him out for 8 weeks. His account of his race can be read here.

The race sets off and after the initial mad rush I settle into about 8/9th place and try to concentrate on keeping my pace even.
Once on the fell the field is really stretched out and I notice a club mate 200 yards ahead off me, I try to keep him in sight.

A couple of runners go past me with still about half a mile to the top still to climb and I start to think that maybe im struggling and then to make matters worse there's a horrible noise in my left ear. I try to ignore it but it gets louder and louder, it has a horrible Scottish twang mixed with a bit of Geordie in it, the next insult confirms my worst fears....
..its Steve A having a storming run and wanting a bit of crack on the toughest part of the course, I tell him to f**k off but he just laughs and carries on yapping. He yapping away whilst I can hardly breath and eventually we reach the summit where Steve turns in 11th and me 12th.

In a bid to get give my ears a rest I throw myself down the fell and slowly Steve voice trails away.
I have a good descent passing 5 on the fell section alone.

Once on the road though I knew Steve would be gaining on me again so I put my head down and pretended I was doing a 10 mile road race where I had to push to get under the hour!
This seemed to work because I slowly began to catch my club mate . On arrival back to the village/town I was right behind him and settled in to finish in that position...... and then I got a rush of blood with about 300yards to go and sped up to get past him, to my amazement he didn't react and I crossed the line 60 minutes after the start and in 6th place out of 95 runners.

Phil Winskill won convincingly in 56 minutes and I deliberately hid away from him in case he wanted a "run down"!! (not making that mistake again)

I was delighted when Steve A crossed the line only 20 odd seconds behind me, the only thing missing was the absence of Steve b (whom I'm lead to believe is in training for something quite a bit longer).

As always the "meet up" in the club afterwards was as good as ever meeting new folk and catching up on others. Fell running is quite unique at this, I think.

Eden runners got the team prize and Eden's Julia King got fv50. 

Boxing Day Slog

Making the most of the holiday period with some good fell runs already in the bag..... and more to come, I hope.

Monday I went along to the local tri club and did some speed work and then had a steady run run around town afterwards.

Tuesday and Wednesday I had a did a few easy miles around town.

Thursday I ran up to Arthur's Pike, a run I had neglected for a while.

A gate.

Are my legs getting longer?

A misty Arthur s Pike.

Friday I parked at Threlkeld and ran along the railway line to Keswick, up the side of Latrigg and then followed the Cumbrian Way footpath for a bit till I cut of it to go directly up Lonscale Pike, a top that I have wanted to go up for a while now. I followed the fence line straight up and then after visiting the two cairns, ran along to the main Skiddaw path, where I then ran up to Skiddaw little man. Great views were had.
I returned to Threlkeld by running down to Latrigg and then back along the railway line.

View from Little Man

View from Lonscales.

Today, Sunday I again parked at Threlkeld but this time ran/slogged up Clough Head. Always a good work out!

Clough Head summit with Blencathra behind.

Needs no introducing....

Looking towards Keswick

On the descent I put on my Kahtoolas, something I purchased last winter, which made my descending easy, even running fast over sheets of ice!!

Nearly at the end of the year and nearly 2000 miles ran.....
A successful BGR.... a half decent time in the 3 peaks and Borrowdale...... a few top 10s in fell races..... some PBs in road running this autumn and most of all....... lots of fun!!!!!

Ten Days

Only 10 days since my last post, but a lot as happened in that time - A county championship XC race, some speed reps with a tri club, a 4 mile road race and pacing leg2 of a BG mid winter attempt.....oh and a couple of heavy nights out!!!
The XC was held at Keswick and I wasn't going to run this but with the langdale 10k cancelled due to the snow, I thought "what the heck".
A lot stronger field then the usual Cumbria xc league with it being the county championships, most notably  a strong contingent from Border Harriers.
It was 4 laps of a fairly fast course and I soon found myself in a race with Graham Millican of Border, and as the norm, he proved too strong for me and beat me by 19 seconds.
I was quite pleased though with my effort and I feel that the speed work I have put in over winter is starting to pay off.
James Douglas won it finishing ahead of Ricky Lightfoot, who after the race said that he was thinking of having a go at the winter Bob Graham record the following weekend.

The same night was the first heavy night out which resulted in having a very lazy Sunday.

On a Monday I normally run a few miles around town, but this week I took myself along to Aragons Tri club who hold weekly speed sessions. Really enjoyed these, even if was questioning my sanity after each one.
I will try and do more of these.

Tuesday morning resulted in my legs feeling a bit stiff so I ran a few miles around town delivering Christmas cards for Susan!!!

Wednesday was club night and the dreaded New Streets Race.  A tough 4 mile race taking 4 of the steepest hills Penrith has to offer.
Last year I set off too quick and paid for it later on where I really struggled up the last two hills.
About 30 of us set off, and again I set off too quick (I will never learn) and I soon found myself out in front, but this time I felt a lot more relaxed and held on to  finish first, mainly due to the fast lads not turning up and Steve b still feeling the effects of falling of his bike the day before!

On Thursday I had a call from Nick Ray who was organising Rickys BG. He thought it wasn't going to go ahead. I must admit of feeing slightly relieved as I hadn't done leg 2 in dark.

The feeling of relief didn't last long though because on Friday I got another call saying it was back on and if I could do leg 2. He Had Steve Birkinshaw for leg 1, setting off at 1 am.
As Well as I know leg 2, I didn't want the responsibility of taking Ricky alone so I phone some good fell running mates, Craig Smith and Sam Ware. Their were well up for it and as it turned out it was one the smartest things I have ever done.

4 o clock Saturday morning, me Craig and Sam are sat in my car at Threlkeld cricket club. Not a star to be seen, no sign of the moon, freezing cold and wanting to get going to get warmed up.
Eventually we see 2 sets of head torched coming of Doddick.
After a few falls on ice on Skiddaw, Ricky and Steve arrive in 3 hrs 28 mins. No road support for Ricky, Steve was going to run back to Keswick for his car, so I gave him my car to take to Keswick.
It was good to get running and Clough Head was reached in 45 minutes.
Gt Dodd was found and Sam took a bearing for us to Watson Dodd. The path to it could just be visible but we had to spread out to find the cairn. It was the same on Stybarrow where we wondered about for a few minutes looking for the top, once found Sam took a bearing to get us back on the path to Raise. It was snowing Heavy now and the wind made it even colder. The freshly laid snow was hiding ice and great care had to be taken.
Raise was found and I thought that the nav would be straight forward now but we got totally disorientated and the map and compass had to come out again. for 3 or 4 minutes we were lost, but Craig took a bearing which didn't seem right, but we trusted the compass and eventually we came to the path which had a few footprints in ( there were 3 other teams who had set off 4 hrs ahead of Ricky).
Going up Whiteside was tough with the wind and the snow getting blown in our faces and when we stopped to record the time at the summit noticed we all had icicles hanging from our faces! Our drinks had turned to slush puppies.
It wasn't till we were coming down from Dollywagon to the tarn that the dark started lifting, what a relief. Even so I slipped and slid about 30 yards on my back, trying to dig my heels in to stop.
Craig and Sam stayed at the col whilst I took Ricky up to Fairfield. With light coming through now, this big BG climb felt easy after the night we had been put through.
Once on top I took my spikes and gave them to Ricky so he could descend with confidence and reach Craig and Sam to go up Seat Sandal.
We all reached Dunmail  4hrs 10mins after we had set off. Ricky was still well under 21 hr schedule and myself Craig and Sam were relieved to of got him there in that time in some horrid conditions.

Climbing Gt Dodd

Ricky coming off Fairfield

Dunmail and support cars

Ricky pondering his next move.

It was decided at Dunmail that it wasn't safe to carry on, all the roads were blocked to Wasdale and Honister and Ricky probably made the right decision, with the only other team that had carried on after Dunmail retiring after finding Bowfell too Icy.
A top effort though.

As for me, the night made me realise no matter how well you think you know the fells, dark and extreme weather can make it a totally different monster. So much so that I today purchased a cheap GPS to throw in the packpack............ Just in case!

Later on that night I indulged in my 2nd heavy night!

Club Night Beacon Run

Club night at Eden runners thrown into chaos with the weather, but no such let off's as club coach Alan Marshall arranged a run up to Beacon Pike, followed by some road miles and then another short off road section thrown in.

First wave up.

Second wave appearing

Whats the joke? oh its Steve b!

Mark Nik coming down.

Getting ready to go off road again

Into the unknown

They were never seen again.

Beats the mile reps though !!!!