Nice 7m trail

Lovely 7m trail run which provided a very welcom distraction from DIY, work and poorly children :)

Club Run

Perhaps the last headtorch club session for a while (at least at the start of a run)as the clocks go forward next wseekend. Ran with Chris and Andrew a hilly trail route up the Chevin of about 6m. Felt good tonight.

7m

Only managed one run last week as I was away with work for 3 days. Ran an urban 7miles in Nottingham. It was the first day of Spring and felt like it too. Warm sunny and very pleasant!

That's in stark contrast to tonight - ran a 7m trail run with the club. It felt really cold again, very windy and pretty wet and miserable. OK run though, and not too much knee pain thank goodness.

3 peaks

Travelled over to Horton today to the Yorkshire 3 peaks with Nick and his friend Tim. Tim is a fairly prolific walker, but not a runner. His previous best time for the 3 peaks route was 7hrs 36mins. He was intent on beating that record today and Nick was trying to help him do it. I said I'd go along to help, but also to get a recce of the 3 peaks route in and just to get 7hrs or so time on my feet going up steep hills.

It was a cracking day from start to finish. Quite warm in the valleys and cool on the tops, no rain and only a light breeze.

Tim got barked at by Nick and I all the way round (sorry Tim!) but he did manage to smash his previous record and finished in 6hrs 53 minutes. A big improvement - well done!

I was impressed with Tim's determination to get round and for a non-runner, I thought he did a great job.

For me, this was quite a slow trot round, but very valuable nonetheless. 23 miles of hills, bogs and fell can't do anybody any harm. Add to that great scenery, crackng weather and good company and you've got a great day out. Cheers Nick and Tim!

Me waiting for the others at the top of Whernside

Nick and Tim descending Whernside

At the bottom of Whernside

Nick at the top of Ingleborough

Tim at the top of Ingleborough

Final Sprint!

Victorious!

Late run

Parents evening tonight, so a late run up in the Chevin. A really good one too! Ran a 7mish loop listening to ridiculous electronic music.

The annoying news is (as predicted) my old headtorch turned up tonight. £60 down the drain :(

Club Run

Nice 7m North of the river run with the club. Had to give up on finding my old head torch (how do you lose a headtorch?!) and buy a new one. Gutted. Nice to have light while running night-trails though - it isn't always a full moon!

8m

Took a bit of a weekend off this weekend after tweaking my knee on Friday. I was only putting the bins out (isn't it always something like that?!) and had a bit of ligament pain in the left knee, so (rather sensibly I think you'll agree!) took the weekend off running.

Back into it tonight though with a good pacey 8m road run.

Club run

Nice 7m trail run North of the river. Cold again.

Short hill session

Ran a short but steep hill session. Couldn't find my pesky headtorch, but luckily the moon was shining. Chilly night.

Triangle!

Ran a 6m road session with the club tonight on a pretty miserable evening. Cold, wet and windy conditions kept most runners indoors tonight, but a few prized themselves out the front door for a trot.

I ran an old club favourite tonight. The Triangle - a 6m road route which before a few of us started running with headtorches was the staple Winter run.

Nice to run a route and notice how much I've improved as a runner since I used to struggle round this course a few years ago.

Kit test/long run

Loaded up my backpack today with the kit I'll be using to recce the TMB in July. I have thought really hard about weight and how I can keep it to an absolute minimum. My fully loaded pack was 3.8kg today. Think I may have another 4-500g on top of that.

I thought it would feel heavy and uncomfortable, but although definitely not ideal, I managed a good long hilly trail run of 20m without any problems. Used my trail poles on the uphills and on the technical downhills today too and I have to say that I love them. They make such a difference (despite the odd looks!)

Mr pack race weight for August will hopefully be much nearer the minimum allowable pack weight of 2kg, but I'm going to train with the heavier bag for my long runs.