Today's Training

[Travs]

Club night and 8 x 1 minute efforts. With 45 seconds being hard, and the final 15 seconds being a further acceleration.

Made a good fist of that one, considering the shortness of the reps. 9.5 miles plus 3 very easy miles this morning.

I've been called up into the Warwickshire team for the inter-counties on sunday. So now got two races in 48hrs. This has made the weekend a much more daunting prospect, but for a runner of my level, making the county team is the highest level i'm going to manage, so its very pleasing.

[Llani Boy]

Last nights RATRun was from an old favourite, The Cock and Pullet in Sheldon. The planned route was going to have 2,000 feet of ascent and even though my hamstring felt OK'ish I was going to just have a gentle trot around the fields on my own. However there were only four of us, one of which has an iffy calf, so we all went on a compromise steady route.

With a strong, cold, north westerly wind blowing in icy drizzle we set off over firmer than expected fields to Magpie Mine. On to Once A Week quarry and down to Horse Lane. Along the very lightly used concessionary path to Ricklow Dale, down into Lathkill Dale and up Bagshaw Dale behind Monyash. More fields to Nursery Fields Farm and on to Johnson Lane Farm followed by half a mile of tarmac back to Sheldon.

Just over 6.5 miles, a measly 459 feet in 1hr.

Huge portions of delicious, reasonably priced cheesy chips, proper cheese because Clair likes us, were washed down with equally good Farmers Blonde 4% from Bradfield Brewery. The same beer as last week but 60p per pint cheaper than The Ashford Arms which is no more than a mile away, as the crow flies!

The hamstring felt OK after yesterdays ride and run but is very sore now as I have been to see Charlie Baker, of On The Back Foot fell running podcast fame, who has massaged it, and everything around it, with his razor fingers!

[Mossdog]

Sometimes, I feel the need to simply head up onto a fell, to sit and slurp a coffee from a flask, and munch some sandwiches, while leisurely taking in the vista. No beads of sweat, rolling down the forehead, or heaving chest, and certainly without a nagging desire to flatter the watch, and speed off again. Today was one of those days.

So...fellWALK, from the Grammar School in Kirkby Stephen, along the Yomp Route (slight detour to Bullgill) and then up onto Wildboar, to savour the views from the lee of the trig and shelter. Then return back to Kirkby, with a further detour to Nateby and Hartley. 17.78 miles.

Cool, stiff NNW wind and the occasional brief shower, but the gods smiled on me at the summit, serving an interlude of sunshine and stunning 360 degree views, to the coast to the west and the Lakes and Pennine ridge (Crossfell to the 3 Peaks). After Kirkby, not a soul spotted, other than half a dozen fellponies.

[Travs]

Club night.

Quite a decent atmosphere tonight in our group... couple of guys having had a good London Marathon... myself reporting back after a weekend of racing... the Uni guys back from easter break... and a couple looking forward to racing this weekend at the Cov Half Marathon and the BMC track meeting.

Tonight was 5 x 600 metres.

After the weekend's efforts i couldn't face the full session so i only did reps 1,3,5.... meaning a long rest between the reps.

1:55
1:53
1:50

Pretty pleased with that... 1:50 is down towards 73sec lap pace.... ok it was long rests, but getting close to my usual 400mtr pace.

Finished off with 5 x 60mtr sprints.

10 miles for the session, and 3 miles easy this morning.

I can't face a hill session yet, so the club session for the weekend is simply a parkrun. So assuming i feel ok i'll give that a bash... whether i'll be able to knock out a pb after last weekend, it might be a stretch too far... but i'm hopeful of having a decent run out.

[Mossdog]

Trip to the Lakes.

Bowscale to Bowscale tarn, then up the corrie wall and onto Bowscale Fell, and following the ridge to Bannerale Crags, dropping down to Glenduramekin beck, and up Southerfell and along, then down to just above Mungrisedale, crossing the beck again and through the boggy ground and the path up and over to Raven Crags, climbing up the ridge, edging the 'corrie' and down again to Bowscale. 7.55 miles, 3061 feet, 3 hrs 12 mins. 'Hot', but pleasant NE wind on the ridges. Glad I put some suncream on.

It's been a while since I last visited what used to be a regular running area for me, and I was surprised how busy it was even on a Thursday in early May. There seem to be several coach loads of kids studying Geomorphology (?) on the path up to the tarm, and another lot joined when I arrived back at the car.

A discrete dip in the Caldew river afterwards was much welcome.

[Travs]

I did an epic run in a similar area, probably 5 or 6 winters ago...

Starting in Mungrisedale, i think i took in Souther Fell, Mungrisedale Common, Bannerdale and Bowscale, Carrock Fell (basically the reserve of the descent of it in the Old Crown Round... never again!), High Pike, then a long trek round Lingy Hill and Little Calva, up on to Bakestall, then back to Keswick over Skiddaw.

Certainly one for the memory bank... was a cold day and it was absolutely torrid by the time i reached Skiddaw and light began to fade... was certainly good to get back to the warmth of Keswick.

A great area to be out in.

[Travs]

Llani there was an international masters road 10km in Birmingham today....

Was that the one you were possibly in with a shout of a Welsh vest.....?

[Llani Boy]

It was Travs. I got selected but unfortunately had to withdraw. Really pissed off.

I've had a hamstring niggle since Lads Leap that doesn't seem to be getting any better. The last thing it wanted was a road 10K! I've also been selected for the Manchester Half at the end of the month so I'll have to see how it goes

I've not run for nearly two weeks now. Just been doing a bit of walking and cycling, but, I'm determined to get on the Pendle Cloughs start line next weekend as that's my priority. It'll be death or glory!

[Travs]

Sorry to hear that. Fingers crossed for the next two opportunities.

Treadmill hill session this morning.
6 x 4 minutes @ 10% gradient (6 minutes "rests" which were flat but still a reasonable pace)

6 minutes sounds a bit excessive, but it soon went... 15 seconds to get the gradient down to flat, then wipe all the sweat off, grab some water, and another 15 seconds before the next rep to get the gradient back up... that just leaves a few minutes to concentrate on relaxing before the next rep.

Worked very hard... drank (and sweated back out) a full litre of water during the hour.

Due to the entire session taking an hour, and the length of the reps, i still had to keep the pace vaguely sensible... so although i was working incredibly hard, it wasn't like a track 400mtr session where i'm absolutely shot at the end of the later reps.... it was more an increasing feeling of heavier legs after each rep.

After the hour i struggled to bend down to wipe the treadmill down.

Along with a warmup and decent warm down, managed 10.5 miles in total. And 3 very slow miles this evening.

A slightly lower mileage this week, 58.5, mainly due to work missing a couple of days at the start of the week.

However next week should be a decent total... another longish day tomorrow as its a bank hol, track session tuesday, treadmill hill session thursday, and hill reps on the Mynd next weekend.

4 weeks from the next race which is the "short" course at Welsh 1000's (although still likely to be in the region of 2hrs - 2hrs10)

[Travs]

Two laps (exactly 9.5 miles) of Draycote Reservoir, which is in the Warwickshire countryside, about a third of the way between Cov and Northampton.

Its a popular running spot in the area.... and i think the scene of a regular 5km/10km event... across the two laps i must have passed 50 runners in either direction, and thats probably the quietest i've seen it.

The plan had been to run the first lap (4.75 miles) steady, then put in a harder effort of 3 miles/20mins, leaving a mile or two to warm down.

However i was going at a decent nick from the start... and although i did speed up on the 2nd lap (32mins compared to 34), i felt i was working hard enough that a defined "effort" was not necessary (especially after yesterday's session and tomorrow's impending track work).

Finished in 1hr06 which is bang on 21:40/5km pace.

Was distinctly warm when i finished, and i regretted my choice of t-shirt instead of vest... and a note made to take sunglasses next time due to the amount of flying things (to be expected in warm weather near water)

Gym tonight where another 4 or so easy miles will be undertaken.