Frustration

Last week was going so well. I road to work and back on Tuesday and Wednesday and felt so strong. I felt really positive that all was on track and going well, and then I got another cold. Not a bad one but enough to totally halt all exercise and make me feel a wee bit miserable. Work has been stupidly stressful this week which really hasn't helped. I did very little at the weekend except potter in the garden and clean and fettle my bikes. It wasn't until yesterday that I felt OK to get back on the bike and so rode to work yesterday and today in glorious weather. Managed a short session on the local boulders too although my skin was ragged so quickly! 

And that's another frustration - a week of glorious weather and too much work on and meetings to take a day off! But I guess you look on the bright side. Riding the last couple of days has been lovely and the legs came out today too - rode home in shorts. I felt strong in a kinda tired way, as being stressed always makes me feel tired. Toyed with the idea of a day off tomorrow (as I have no meetings!!) but figured that I'm off a fair bit in the next couple of weeks.

We're off on a long weekend to Scotland this weekend and then off to Font next week for the whole week. Really looking forward to that - lots of beautiful bouldering, pleasant road riding and I'm planning a few forest runs too. Hopefully the weather will be spring like! (but not april showers!).

a hard hardknott

I had a rest day yesterday, more out of needing to get on top of lots of jobs that have been building up, but also to give my legs a rest. I felt raring to go to be honest but have learnt the hard way in the past about not resting! And this morning for the first time in many weeks I just couldn't face getting on my bike to go to work. It would have been a block headwind and I just couldn't face that, so I made a pact with myself to ensure that I'd get out this evening for a run - which is what I did.

After several long steady runs I figured I needed a bit of speed, but flat speed is going to get me nowhere on the BG, so it was back up to Hardknott for some lovely hill reps - this time in the light (or should that be gloaming!!) Knocked the reps off quickly, feeling neither tired nor fantastic (mmm...) and headed home.

Stats: 4 x 30 secs with 60 secs recovery uphill and jog back down in between x 3.

(OR: 4.12 miles, 1500' ascent)

Leg 3 recce in 2 parts!

Had a great couple of days out going over Leg 3. Took yesterday off work and meet up with a few people from the FRA forums to recce the first part of Leg 3 from Dunmail Raise. I had a slow journey over to Langdale and arrived last which always flusters me! But it was great to meet everyone and soon we where packed into 2 cars and heading over to Dunmail. I wasn't surprised to see there was more snow over on the eastern side of the fells and it looked like we were going to get a good day of it! 

We made good time up from Dunmail Raise to Steel Fell, and then it was all going well until we tried to find Calf Crag in the mist. I've only been there once before from this side and that was in clear warm weather!! From my GPS trace I can see we just didn't go far enough before we started dithering in the mist thinking we should have found it! After a bit more dithering we decided just to keep heading on and then we found it! So moral is its always further than you think!!

It felt good to at least have ticked that top even if it was in bad style! We had no problems with the rest of the route to the top of Rossett Gill, over Seargant Man, High Raise, Thunacar Knott, Harrison Stickle and Pike O'Stickle, although this could have been due to the cloud lifting off for a bit!! 

4 of the group had to head off down to the cars at the ODG, but 3 of us pushed on over Rossett Pike and up onto Bowfell. I must admit I was unsure about tackling Bowfell because of the snow but it was soft and not too deep, so we decided to give it a go. It was good to have to work this all out for myself, as again I've only been up this with others who know it and in warm sunny weather! The summit of Bowfell was not a place to hang around as the mist was down and the wind was blowing, so we pushed on down to Three Tarns and down the Band. The snow coming off the summit was amazing, deep and just that lovely consistency which means you can bomb down it! Really great fun!

Today I headed back up to Bowfell from the foot of Hard Knott Pass to go over the rest of the leg. The conditions where not so great! I felt good after yesterday, and trotted up the upper Eskdale valley to Ling Cove Bridge and then up Upper Mosedale and up to Three Tarns again!! The snow was much softer and mushy, and the rain arrived just as I got to the tarns, along with the wind! I could see the remains of our foot prints in the snow from yesterday, and followed up to the summit.

The trog down and up over Esk Pike was hard going in the wind and rain. It was thick mist and I trusted to the compass and previous footprints! after Esk Pike I nearly bailed but thought I'd just head over to Great End and then see. The going up Great End wasn't much fun either but even worse was the trot out towards Ill Crag - straight into the teeth of the wind! I wasn't moving very fast, and wasn't paying any real attention to splits between summits. I was just glad to be out (?!) and going over the terrain. I skipped the Ill Crag & Broad Crag summits and headed along the main path to the summit of the Pike. I can recce that after work one day in better conditions!

Once on the Pike I just took a bearing and headed straight fro Mickledore. At this point I had vaguely decided that I wasn't going to head up onto Scafell, and when I got to the foot of Foxes Gully it was pouring with water, so that decided that! I'm going to head up Broad Stand on my attempt so going up Foxes Gully, which I've done before anyway is not exactly much use. It looked really unpleasant too!

So I trotted off down from there to Great Moss (More like Great Lakes today!) and ran back to the car at Brotherilkeld. I felt strong running back even through the bogs and small lakes. It was amazing wet up there! 

Need to work out the stats still but 2 13-ish milers back to back with a fair amount of ascent and I feel like I could easily do the same again tomorrow!

Final Stats:

Friday: Total Mileage: 12.44, Total Ascent ~ 8000'

Saturday: Total Mileage: 13, Total Ascent 4900'

Snowy Whinlatter and a pb!

Last night we went out night riding at Whinlatter - just a short blast around the north loop in the wind and rain. It was raining heavily at the cars when we left, but as we climbed up the hillside this turned to snow - big damp wet flakes of snow but snow none the less! It was really picturesque, even in the dark! It was also very slippy, and I managed to stack and take a roll down the hillside at one point when I lost concentration. Luckily no major damage done but I do have a good purple bruise on my right knee. there's always a perverse pleasure being out in the bad weather when you know most haven't gone out! We didn't see anyone else.

Stats: Total Mileage 5.77 (said it was short!), Total Ascent: 1550'

Tonight I made an effort to head straight out from home after getting back from work with the aim of getting a whole fell run in without a torch! Bingo! I ran over to Miterdale and up through the forest to Irton Fell and up onto Whin Rigg and back. The snow was down to about level with the trees in places and was mostly soft and soggy but it was also icy and hard in places too! 

I managed a PB to the top of Whin Rigg from the house 42:01 minutes!! (over a minute quicker than previously) despite not making a huge effort. I rewarded myself with a rest at the top - I normally head straight back down again, but the views tonight were spectacular, with a wonderful alpenglow on the fells and some impressive shower clouds around. It may be that running this in the light for a change meant I was faster, but the conditions under foot were soooo wet and boggy that must have slowed me down a bit. I reckon I'm getting fitter!

Stats: Total Mileage: 6.15, Total Ascent: 2600'

catch up!

Well the knee seems to have recovered! I rested Wednesday and then rode into work and back on Thursday, and followed that with half (!) a long course night orienteering event in the valley. It was pretty tough conditions up on the fell (the kind of mist where your torch beam just comes straight back at you!) and after spending a fair while with others trying to find the sixth checkpoint in the cloud and rain, I decided I wanted my dinner!! I have to say that others much more experienced than me all packed it in as well, and P was waiting diligently for me to come back before he had his tea! But as I ran over to the start and back and did about half the course it was a reasonable test of my knee and it seemed to hold up!

Stats for the 'orienteering': Total Mileage: 5.65, Total Ascent: 1800'

Rode to work and back again on Friday and decided to give the knee another days rest and went climbing indoors on Saturday. Had a reasonably good session. I stuck to 5 - 6a routes, but was pretty pleased with how easy the 6a's felt, considering I'm doing the least climbing I've done in a while while not being injured! 

So to Sunday when I kept up the recce fever and drove over to Honsiter Pass to look at the fell part of leg 5! When I parked up at the boulders just down from the pass it was peeing it down, but it stopped and apart from a couple of hail showers it remained dry almost to the minute I got back to the car! Even the tops were clear as I passed over them. Had a good day out and the knee held up again, although I was conscious of it occasionally. The climb up Dalehead was fun - I know it well now, and I enjoyed the ridge running along to Hindscarth and Robinson. I managed to find the BG descent off Robinson, mainly by following my nose! I then ran out to Little Town, before doubling back on myself to Dalehead pass and round and back to Honsiter.

Times were fine despite making a conscious effort to walk on the climbs! It wasn't a long day out - I still need to do a few of them, but it felt easy, and most importantly I'm not hobbling around afterwards! Rode to work and back again today just to keep the legs moving, and despite a bit of tiredness I felt really strong on the hills! 

Sunday stats: Total Mileage: 12.0 Total Ascent: 4850'