Bloody fantastic that Stolly:D
You give me hope for my two girls as they make their way to the teen years, how do you convince Kelly to keep at it?
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Bloody fantastic that Stolly:D
You give me hope for my two girls as they make their way to the teen years, how do you convince Kelly to keep at it?
Nice to see you back at it Stolly... :D recover well
Kelly has evolved into a runner and loves it now - 2 years ago though she wouldn't have run with me for love nor money. Its been a balancing act of kind of enthusing her without getting at all pushy. My younger daughter Lauren is the real natural runner in the family but, as yet, she can't be arsed to actually do much running :rolleyes:. She has however been selected for the Yorkshire under 14 girls rugby league squad to play (and pummle obviously) Lancashire in a couple of back to back matches in September.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Master
You haven't seen truly violent sport played properly until you've seen rugby league played by a bunch of 13 year old girls :D
2nd August 2008 - Ingleborough loop from Clapham - 9 miles and about 1850 ft of ascent
OS Explore Route
Well having run 3 times this week since getting back from the Lakes relatively successfully but increasingly slowly, yesterday I suddenly found myself feeling fitter and faster. This run from Clapham has a nice gradient to the top of Ingleborough, with maybe 50% of the run's distance being a gradual climb and 50% a fastish and at times hair raising descent, and I knew as soon as I started running that I was feeling less sluggish.
The run starts by taking the track off to the right before the church at the top of Clapham and running through a drippy cave like tunnel (aka 'the tunnel of doooom') reappearing after 100 yards from the darkness and heading almost towards Austwick before taking the left track (Long Lane) going now more directly towards Ingleborough, itself invisible yesterday in low cloud. Eventually this track stops at a gate with the option to follow the firmer trail to the right towards Sulber Nick or branch left following less used paths all sort of heading towards Simon's Fell on the horizon. I followed these lesser trails to the left which, after a while, left me at another gate into open fell with Simon Fell a mile before me on the horizon to the right and Ingleborough and the ridge to Little Ingleborough front and left. There was now no obvious path to follow but I ran running roughly paralell to the wall to my right heading towards Simon Fell - after maybe a third of a mile off piste a well used quad bike trail could then be followed which climbs all the way to the Horton to Ingleborough main drag, walkers track. The view from here looking back towards Clapham, which is beyond and below the woods in the far distance:
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4210/p8020083wu1.jpg
And Little Ingleborough and, under cloud, Ingleborough to the right:
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9497/p8020084ep7.jpg
Now on firmer footing, I could speed up and soon reached the plateau on top of clagged down Ingleborough after 61 minutes of running and the trig point at the far end a couple of minutes later. I then turned back on myself and found the trail that falls down onto the Little Ingleborough ridge. Quite rocky and steppy in one or two places but this track is now downhill all the way and I now could pick up speed, albeit with super strained 'I'm not going to twist my frigging knee again' concentration.
Then it was all about hacking towards Gaping Gill, down on a rocky path through a mini ravine, passing Ingleborough cave and, now on the level, zooming through the woods following the nature trail back into Clapham. A lovely run and at the finish I felt fighting fit too with a time of 1 hour and 51 minutes.
ah so you could have done B'dale and saved me from utter bonkage eh :mad:
Glad its getting better and only cursed your knee a couple of times up dalehead!:p
Cheers for the entry again!:D
3rd August 2008 - Pen y Ghent, Plover Hill and Foxup Moor from Horton - maybe 8.5 miles and circa 1800 ft of ascent
OS Explore Route
Back to back runs then :cool:. This one I also did last Sunday just after getting back from my camping trip and it took me 1:48 then with my knee feeling a little rough around the edges. This week my knee was in better nick but the ground was far more boggy and greasy and I guess I was feeling Ingleborough a bit from the day before. Its a glorious little route going up PyG via Brackenbottom, skooting along the boggy ridge to Plover Hill, dropping down into the valley beyond at Foxup Moor, tracking back along the foot of Pen y Ghent, past Hull Pot and back down the Pennine Way track to Horton.
I felt strong again and managed to finish in 1:44. I think I'll use this route as my fitness yardstick - one thing's for sure, I can still knock plenty more time off it.
9th August 2008 - Pen y Ghent, Plover Hill and Foxup Moor from Horton - maybe 8.5 miles and circa 1800 ft of ascent
OS Explore Route
Yep I did the same run again to gauge just how well stolly's recovery is going. So I ran this in 1:48 two weeks ago, 1:44 last week and this morning I ran...........................
1:33 :D :D
Mind you I'm still descending steep bits like a pussy footed mincer :rolleyes:
That mountain biking must have done you more good Stolly than you perhaps thought! I had 11weeks off after PPP and now after a month or so running again reckon I'm about back to my normal level of plodability!Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
DT I think the mountain biking, especially all the hill climbs, helped enormously. I went for a quick cycle ride up High Hill Lane on Friday evening and I only had to hit the first steep bit to get virtually instantaneous 'quad burn' - something that usually takes one or a series of humungous hills when running.Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
10th August 2008 - Embsay Crag, Embsay Moor and Rylstone Cross Circuit - 8 miles and maybe 1200 ft of ascent
OS Explore Route
And what a fantastically, awsomely wet and muddy run this turned out to be. I'd been meaning to run this route ever since the Wharfedale Fell Runners headbanger headtorch race up here in March but, rather than just run to Rylstone Cross and back as then, I went up via Embsay Crag, starting from the resevoir, and adding in a large loop over Embsay Moor before getting to the Cross and following the ridgeline back. I had a feeling conditions would be wet, given the amount of rain around these parts recently, and just as I pulled up in the car park a huge cloud bank was moving in........... which duly turned into a deluge 5 minutes into the run. Running up an increasingly wet track towards Embsay Crag in driving rain:
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/466/p8100097ga8.jpg
This track up the crag from the resevoir didn't seem that well used to me with my path becoming very junglely and overgrown with ferns in places. Nearing the top the path was almost a mudslide, with water teaming down the hillside. Anyway I made it to the top okay, although I was to be fair taking it pretty easy with my jippy knee aching a fair bit from yesterdays run. After going over the top of the crag, I followed this ridge for maybe half a mile (with Embsay and Eastby villages to my right in the valley below) before hacking on a track to my left. This track came along later than I was expecting so I suspect I may have missed a turning somewhere, especially as another track did merge from the left further along my route.
This part of the run was seriously waterlogged, with loads of standing water, the track becoming a stream in places aqnd me wading knee deep at times. After giving my walshes a superb wash my path finally hit the main track that took me towards the Rylstone ridge. A monument is clearly visable (in the right weather) here on the skyline but this isn't the cross I was aiming for - it isn't cross shaped for a start! You only really get to see the cross when you have hit the wall on the ridge line and run maybe 400 yards further up the ridge. Luckily by now the sun had come out:
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/7152/p8100100ds8.jpg
Having reached the cross all that was left was to follow the ridge line all the way back down to the resevoir. Well talk about boggy - it was incredible with pretty much all of what must be three miles absolutely mud-tastic. Added to that there were a couple of raging becks to cross and one stretch, beside a connifer wood with ferns up to my shoulders, was like running through a foetid, steaming jungle. In fact with the sun now occasionally breaking through there was a mist like steam rising from the connifer plantation. Looking back having finally climbed up and out of the 'jungle':
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/3350/p8100102kz9.jpg
With the end in sight I loped down the final descent with Embsay Crag and the resevoir now before me and, amazingly, the sun was out:
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/6458/p8100103wj5.jpg
To be honest I felt really knackered at the end and was plastered head to foot in mud; a few walkers were just going up the path as I came down and I must have looked like a survivor of an amazonian plane crash finally emerging from my jungle hell at the end there. A slow time of 1:35 but cracking fun.
Looks great Stolly, keep up the good work and the adventure, makes great reading and a fat lad jelous;)