But it is a classic route: steep climbs to utilise power, long flat sections for speed work and fabulous descents. My 10th time today.
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That's the thing about the shires, flat speed counts. In the lakes, it's useless.
Whilst I understand the point you're making... Look at the top Cumbrian runners, and those at the top of the English/British Champs...
They are all rapid on the roads as well, or county level (or good placings in the national) at cross-country.
It still counts.
As I see it, speed on the flat is a simple motor skill, whereas technical ability on the fells is a complex motor skill - like height and hair colour they are unrelated, and you are very lucky if you have both. And if you can only have one of them, and you want to run on the fells, technical ability is the one to have.
Some years ago, out of interest, I tried to work out the VO2 max of a small number of top fell runners by looking at their best times at various distances on the flat. I was surprised how modest some of them were - VO2 max's of around 60 - though there were one or two exceptions. I wish I had kept the details, as it took quite some time to find the relevant information.
I'm about as much use as a one-legged man in a arse kicking contest in the Lakes, and my training is very heavily focused on leg speed and being able to suffer badly for very long periods of time- i call this speed endurance. My results in the Pennines can be quite good at times, and i have never beaten his holiness Pope Fishwick in the Lakes. I've always considered it necessary to have powerful legs to do well in the lakes, what you lack in flat speed will never reveal itself because the place is too hilly with too few plateaus.
It is partly for this reason that i think we need a Cat B championship; most of the races will be in the Pennines, and you will need to be fast on the flat-ish bits which sometimes drag on for mile after mile. The lakeland climbers will probably see their advantage deminish, and find themselves exposed to better tasting fish and chips.
[QUOTE=Marco;675773]Whilst I can grasp what you are trying to say, I do object to the word 'lucky'. I had to do a lot of speed and proprioception drills and a lot of weightlifting. (I live in a flat area, with a lengthy drive to any fells worthy of the name.) There is a lot of training required to run towards the fast end of the field, whether it is road, track xcountry or fell.
"Lucky" in that to have the potential to run fast a person needs to have inherited the relevant genes - in other words they need to have chosen their parents very carefully - their mother in particular, as we get 100% of our mitochondria from our mothers, and mitochondria determine our VO2 max. Training - lots of it - is of course needed as well - mileage, speed sessions, weights, plyometrics. Running efficiency and the % of VO2max that can be reached/maintained are also important, and unlike VO2 max, which is more or less fixed (unless there is a significant amount of weight to be lost), can improve a lot with training.
So I agree, it is not just luck, but luck does come into it. The average chap with a VO2 max of 44 will never be fast, no matter what training he does.
Like a language, the earlier in life that descending technique is learnt the better, though it can be learnt, to varying degrees, at any age. Like a language it requires constant practice. It is interesting to see how much some people's descending has deteriorated when they are coming back after injury.
First thursday speed session for a long time now. The Podiatrist has hepled my quite a lot getting on top of this left ITB problem, i have to learn to run differently.
Tinshill Lane rep, 1x 0.7m/240'
Carr Bridge Drive reps, 5x 0.25m/110'
It was a strong session, if a bit short. I've gotten quite fit from all the racing in the 50@50 so i'm a bit like greased lightning. My back has been terrible recently, i think i over-arch into it when i'm descending really hard which compresses the discs on the outside. I've had to panic buy petrol to have enough to get to Curbar and back this weekend.
Curbar today, 9.8m/1400', not a good performance. I was in a line of runners all hitting 7m/ml pace through the woods under Curbar Edge, but it all went to pieces after the climb up Froggatt Edge. The headwind was strong and i don't have the leg power to drive through it, people were just sailing past me on what was a fairly flat track, this went on for about 4m and i had the same issues on the downhills. The climb up out of Baslow was torturous, old codgers were just jogging away from me. I took about 30s out of the guys in front of me down Bar Road and Yeld Wood and was on their backs, but lost it all and more on top, my legs were shot to pieces. My V40 rival in the 50@50 has got his skates on now too, he ran very well indeed, don't know how much longer i'll be leading the charge.