Too tired.... and injured!

On Saturday we’d decided to go for a reasonable fell run with our mate Tom, for his birthday treat. We picked the reverse of a route P and I had run a few weeks back, from High Moss, up Walna Scar, Dow Crag, Old Man, Great Carrs, Grey Friar and back down via Seathwaite Tarn. As soon as we set off, I realised that I was feeling very tired, and slowed the lads up a fair amount heading up Walna Scar. I am normally perfectly able to trot up this at a nice pace, but today it was all going horribly wrong. It took a lot of effort just to walk up it, but I was determined that it would all be OK! That was probably a mistake.

After reaching the top of Walna Scar, we trotted along the ridge to Dow Crag and round to the Old Man of Coniston. I usually love running along this ridge but today it felt hard. Also my foot started bothering me again, so I was running with a slight limp. By the time we were on the final descent off Grey Friar, Tom and P were being very patient with me and waiting as I lurched my way down the hillside. It can’t have been a pretty sight! When we got back to the hut, it was all I could do to not crash out, feeling exhausted.

On the Sunday, the weather was not great, and we were wondering how to occupy ourselves, and then my back started hurting. Thinking about it, I was running so oddly due to my foot and as I was so tired, it’s no surprise that I’ve tweaked something! So P headed to the coast with some mates bouldering at St Bees, and I relaxed at home with a heat pad on my back!

Wallabarrow

Having spotted the end of the good weather, P and I took Friday off and headed over to the Duddon, where we were spending the weekend for a friend’s birthday, for our traditional early year visit to Wallabarrow crag. Despite having climbed almost every route there, many of them many times, I do love this crag. It was a sunny, warm day and we had a great time ticking off our old favourites. This was followed up by food and beer in the Newfield, and a good evening catching up.

Crag Fell Crawl

The third of the six race series from WCOC went from the car park on the southern side of Ennerdale Lake, up though the woods, to Grike summit, along the tops to Crag Fell and then back down to the car park. It was a lovely evening and as usual I set off fast and then suffered on the final stages of the main climb. I was leading Charlotte Watson until about ¾ of the way up, she then came past me and pulled ahead. I managed to reel her in to only a few metres as we crossed between the summits, and thought I’d finally passed her on the descent off Crag Fell, as we took very different lines, and we crossed the stile literally one after the other. However, the final part of the descent her orienteering skills on rough ground meant she pulled away again over the rough ground and I came home a few seconds behind her. I was frustrated to not get the better of her, but I wasn’t concentrating hard enough on the descent.

Worryingly as I tried to warm down, my old left foot injury was bothering me. It was really sore so I had a quick stretch and no run out, changed and headed home. 

3 times in 10 days

With P recovered from his dislocated knee, he was back into running training and fancied a trot up Middle Fell after work in the lovely spring sunshine. It was the third time in 10 days for me, each ascent being different. The first was a give it everything and see how far I could get running, the second was a race, and last night was a more interval affair, with P making me work hard with efforts both up and down. My quads were exhausted by the end!

Middle Fell Race 2011

Saturday was the Middle Fell race from Nether Wasdale. I’d recced it the weekend before so there were no surprises but it was much drier underfoot than last weekend. It was also a 'nearly' warm spring day with lovely sunshine. It isn’t a big race, and although a similar number of people turned up this year to last it seemed as though there where a lot of usual suspects missing. When we toed the line, no one seemed to want to be at the front!!

Even more telling was the fact that I was 8^th person to the fell, and although I dropped 5 places on the climb, I managed to make up 3 of them on the run in back across the valley to come 10^th overall and 1^st Lady. Even better was the fact that I’d knocked over 3 minutes off my time from last year. 

WCOC Warrior Series: Race 2

The race tonight was more like a trail race, fast running all the way over Hay and back. Kept a steady pace tracking the shoulder of another lass, but she managed to pull away on the second climb, while I developed stitch from eating too late before the race. A new route for me and it felt like a good run despite the stitch!

Weekend running

Spent the weekend at home, catching up with people and things. Got out for a couple of runs, including 7 miles speed work on Saturday and 7 miles reminding myself of the Middle Fell race route on Sunday.

WCOC Warrior Series: Race 1

Last night was the first in the local Spring Fell Race series organised by WCOC. This year's series opened with Leaps Lowp, which I ran last year as well. Had slight trouble with tight calf muscles on the climb up Low Pen which reduced me to an ungainly descending style to Knock Murton, but came home first lady, half a minute faster than last year. 

Skiddaw’s other summits

After the efforts of the weekend, including all that driving, I put my feet up on the Monday and then went for a gentle run on the Tuesday to loosen everything up. Wednesday was a day off work for me as I was seeing a Physio in the afternoon. As this was an appointment made a while ago, there was no choice in weather so it was a very breezy day with cloud on the tops and intermittent sleet and snow showers. Still I’d plotted a route to tick off the lower summits on the Skiddaw massive: Lonscale Fell, Skiddaw Low Man, Carl Side, Long Side, Ullock, and Dodd.

I ran all the way to Lonscale Fell and towards Low Man before the wind really got the better of me, and in the end reduced me to crawling on hands and knees over the summit! It was certainly the strongest wind I have been in on my own on the fells. Exhilarating to say the least! No incentive to get the camera out. Total distance about 15 miles.

English Fell Championships: Long Mynd

So Sunday was a completely different experience and one I was much more at home with. It was a good hour and half drive to Church Stretton, for the first counter in the English Championships. My legs didn’t feel too heavy warming up, but I knew they’d be tired and it was just a case of going out and keeping the pace up, bearing in mind 5 of the 7 climbs are in the second half of this race. I hadn’t been to the area since I was a child so it was really all new terrain. Luckily it was a fair day with high broken cloud, and a gentle breeze.

We set off at 11 and I kept it relatively steady for the first two climbs, keeping with a few known faces, before the long undulating run along the ridge which really hurt for me. I also suffered on the long descents as they we soo fast! But luckily all the BG training meant I kept a good pace going over the last few climbs when others seemed to be going backwards. Unfortunately, near the very end I lost a couple of positions on the final descent as my quads started to tie up, but finished 22^nd lady in 2 hours 17 minutes, earning myself 10 championship points. It was a fair run after the efforts of the day before!

Inter Counties XC

Somehow I had managed to get myself on the Cumbria Team for this year’s Inter-Counties XC Team, held in Cofton Park in Birmingham. I had agreed to run a couple of months before if needed and already knew that it was the day before the first English Championship fell race at Long Mynd. It seemed like such a great idea back then, but the nearer the weekend got, the more if sounded just a little too daunting! Still I’d get a county vest and see some good runners in action.

I travelled down to my parents in Warwick on the Friday night with Sam, who was also doing the same double as me. We made good use of M&S food on the journey down, reckoning that traditional fast food is not what true athletes eat! My parents took great care of us all weekend, feeding and watering us copiously which was far better than staying in any hotel or B&B!

Saturday morning we headed to Cofton Park, and it then hit me what a big event this is! We soon found the Cumbrian Tent and got settled. It felt like no time at all before it was time to warm up. Sam and I walked the course to familiarise ourselves and then went through some warm up drills. Not something I’m that practiced at doing! It was a bit worrying that we didn’t seem to have a full team there until we actually lined up in our pens, but we started with the bare minimum of 6 to count.

After a wee false start we were off, and although I tried to stay with Sam who starts steadily and keeps an even pace I was off too fast again. It was then a case of just hanging on. In the end I was the 5^th out of our 5 finishers, so we didn’t get a team position, unfortunately. I managed a reasonable time, obviously about 7 minutes off the winning time of Charlie Purdue – but hey I’m not a flat runner!!

It was a great experience and made me realise just how good our good runners are! 

Learning to go steady

Have been trying to get my head aroound what a steady run is and how to run it! Had a lovely run in the valley on Monday evening in the last rays of sun. Flushed another deer out of the trees - its getting to the point that I think I'm going to see one on every run! 5 miles in total with 3.5 of them at a 'steady' 7 minute mile.