mr b's comeback

[mr brightside]

Final run round the Bolton abbey 10m today, 9.5m/1650'. I set off at race pace hoping to get a feel for what it's going to be like at mile 2 on the twisty tourist path after the abbey; probably a good place to go deep and make it hard for people behind me. As I was summiting hammerthorn gate I was wondering why my legs felt so heavy and where my speed had gone. I remembered I had a 50m ride in my legs from the day before, this was probably affecting me a bit, a drop off in pace like that on race day would be terrible. Calves suffering again!

[mr brightside]

A steady 5.5m with horsforth harriers last night, the best thing i can do to prepare for the bolton abbey 10m now is to rest.

[mr brightside]

Bolton abbey 10m race today, and it was actually 10m not 9.5m like the course map showed. It was a fast and pretty attritional race.

My warm up plans were scuttled early, with the surprising discovery that the Duke of Devonshire cannot afford to bank any cash. Therefore, unfortunately, the pavillion cafe is totally unable to accept cash even if it's exact. I wish the estate the best of luck in these challenging times and pity the aristocracy for the severe hardships they appear to be suffering. Oh! The humanity.

The race organisers had opted to start the races in descending order of length at 3min intervals, meaning that I may be slowed by the arse end of the HM on the twisty tourist path. I'd have just let everyone go in order of pace on 30s waves. The organisers explained that the short fell loop on the top would be revised as an up and around not a down and around, as the down pastures were very boggy.

Nobody went to the front on our start so I did, I knew a quick pace would be needed to catch as many HM runners as possible and get a clean shot at the twisty path. I led for well over a mile, but there was a guy on my shoulder all the way who did me on the first hill. The twisty path was a joke, no amount of shouts of excuse me did anything, but it did allow me to catch the baildon guy up again.

The climb to hammerthorn gate was a bit of a drag and the baildon guy buggered off quite early, I had no idea who of those overtaking me were in my race, but as I swung left at the fork and everyone else went straight on, it turned out I was in 2nd place. The fell loop was hilarious, clearly not been flagged by anyone who knew how to flag open fell and I bet a lot got lost or just decided not to bother seeing as the turn wasn't marshalled.

I spotted the baildon guy once on the way to laund wood and reckoned I was in with a shout of catching him before the long descent off Coney Warren. I used the descents and my LK to take a bit more time out of him and I was closing on him through the first part of the wood. Unfortunately he left me on the climbs through the forest, and by the time we turned right along the wall to climb to Coney Warren he was a long way off.

I flew off Coney Warren blowing like a set of furnace bellows, but I still couldn't see the bugger on the other side as I crossed the aqueduct. The old ladies looked a bit horrified at the speed I generated on the final drop, and warned me persistently that it was slippery. To my surprise the organisers had put on 2 refreshment stations on the course, supplied with orange juice.

It's a long drag on the tourist path back to the pavillion, I was buoyed somewhat by the number of 10k runners I was picking off. The baildon guy was gone so it was just a matter of protecting 2nd place, but I hadn't seen any other 10m runners all race long.

The top three were, 1.16, 1.19, 1.28, so third was never a threat to me. Baildon said at the end as we shook hands that he was fifth last year in a faster time, so the field was a bit weaker this time. It would have been nice to have a bit of a tussle with others; to quote Craig revell horwood, it felt like a charleston by the numbers.

[Travs]

Nice one MrB, great performance in what was obviously a target race.

[mr brightside]

Basically the longest race I can comfortably manage, and at BM it plays right into my wheelhouse.

I forgot to mention that afterwards I ate the best full English breakfast I've ever had, from new buffers. It was top notch, proper sausages, big mushrooms, local eggs.

[mr brightside]

A fairly pointless 4m last night. Fields ankle deep in stodge so had to switch to the A65 and breathe in diesel fumes instead. Should have stayed at home.

[mr brightside]

21.02 at Bramley parkrun this morning, I'm not very sharp at all over short distances at the moment. I think it's crept in since I started to entertain the idea of slow runs being beneficial for me; for someone with weekly milage as low as mine all I'm doing is removing quality by swapping out hard rep sessions. Slow is bad, fast is good.

[mr brightside]

A dreach 50m up to the craven arms and back yesterday. Persistent rain from ilkley onwards; ilkley seems to be the dividing line for bad weather, if it's not raining in ilkley it probably won't be raining in appletreewick. As i stuffed my fizzog with fruit crumble and 3 pints of ale, i watched it pouring down outside, but thankfully it rained itself out and there was an improvement for the ride home. Got my gear dried by the fire.

[Llani Boy]

[QUOTE=mr brightside;685918]A dreach /QUOTE]

Have you been around to Grahams for a glass of Canadian Club Mr B?

Dreich

[mr brightside]

A steady 5.5m with horsforth harriers last night. It's amazing how long it can take to get across some conplicated junctions using the crossings, i'd just freestyle it, but i think h+s requires us to wait for the green man.