Today's Training

[anthonykay]

They say that there is no gain without pain . . . so today's hill reps session should have gained me a fair amount of fitness. The timings were:
2:35, 2:37, 2:37, 2:45, 2:42, 2:48,
so I just missed my arbitrary benchmark that a mean of 2:40 is a really good session. But it was my first hill reps for several months; and those first three felt really laboured. On the fourth one, I finally felt that my body was coping much better . . . until I looked at my watch at the end of the rep, and realised why it had felt easier!

[Travs]

Club night and a tough one.

12 x 420mtr reps with 1 minute rests.

87, 85, 84, 84, 84, 84, 85, 84, 83, 84, 84, 84

Very pleased with that. Consistent and felt controlled and confident (although it was still a struggle to finish the last few off with quality).

Considering the the conditions... twisty lap, gravel with loads of standing water, heavy wind and rain, was pleased with the overall times as well.

10 miles for the session, 14 for the day.

Thats it now in terms of hard work... want to go into saturday's XC as fresh as possible.

[Llani Boy]

The rain had cleared but it was still very windy on last nights RATRun from The Bulls Head in Foolow. Seven of us set off across the fields to Wardlow Mires, via Silly Dale*, where we crossed the A623 and into the top of Cressbrook Dale. Even in the height of summer one is lucky not to get ones feet wet in the first 100yds but last night our knees got wet. Very quickly a narrow trod can be picked up to the left and this traverses the dale side 20 feet or so above the flooded river below until it joins the main path out of the dale to Wardlow, which we followed but continued along the edge and up to the TP at Wardlow Hay Cop, where we had difficulty standing up in the gusty wind.

We retraced our steps from WHC to the edge and then turned left along and down the path into Hay Dale. We crossed the road and up, on a new concessionary path, to the top of the Scratter, which is the road between Wardlow and Monsal Head. In the last few months a number of concessionary paths have opened, and all link PROW's which is fantastic as they cut out tarmac detours or a clandestine trespass!

Up onto and over Longstone Moor, a series of fields to Castlegate Farm, then Housley where we re-crossed the A623 and a short stretch of the black stuff to Foolow.

Once in The Bulls Head un-cheesy chips were accompanied by a gravy boat of, yes, steaming hot gravy. Now then, I love gravy on a roast dinner but it should not be allowed anywhere near chips. Of the seven present two of us had mayonnaise with our chips whilst the other five got really excited by the surprise boat of gravy. They were washed down with Daily Bread 3.8% and Moonshine 4.3% both great beers from Abbeydale Brewery.

A steady run of 7.3 miles, 1,200 feet, over 40 stiles in 1hr 12 mins. Apart from the water at the top of Cressbrook Dale, after all the rain we have had the ground was surprisingly firm under foot.

* Names like Silly Dale are one of the reasons that I never tire of perusing OS Maps, even if I've no intention of visiting the places I am looking at.

[Travs]

14.5 miles today (10.5 AM, 4 PM)

72.5 miles for the week. A solid start to the year with a weekly average of 77mpw after two weeks in!!

Next week.... despite no races, have a very busy weekend, so will get the quality in during the week and scrap together whatever i can from the weekend.

Next race the Midlands XC in a fortnight, but the main priority is Long Mynd Valleys in 4 weeks.

[anthonykay]

One of those days when my body denies all knowledge of how to run up hills, and I walked part of Beacon Hill. This was always intended to be a longer than usual run, and I then proceeded to Broombriggs, doing the circuit clockwise so that the steepest section was done uphill. Somehow the demons seemed to have been exorcised, and I ran all the way up that. The rest of the run, including the short steep ascent of Windmill Hill, was all rather slow; in particular, the descent of Windmill Hill was even slower than usual, which I blame on fear of the tree roots hidden under the carpet of leaves. 81 minutes altogether, so the longest run of the year so far.

[PeteS]

I wasn't sure whether to post this as training or mud but basically 12k of the Stourbridge Stagger route today which aside from about 3-4km on farm road or tarmac was pretty much a full on mudfest. A good test of the tendons and at least confirmation that I'm back to enough fitness to make a reasonable time for the race.

[Travs]

Club night on a bitterly cold night, but a big turnout... with the universities back we had a big group of around 20 doing the session. In fact with another endurance group of around 30 using part of the same loop, it was quite busy, a far cry from the last few weeks where there's only been half a dozen or so of us.

Mile loops. 5 in total, 1, 3 and 5 hard, 2 and 4 steady.

Managed 1 and 3 in 5:39 which are my fastest ever miles during a rep session (i have of course ran much faster during races)..... i put this down to being in a decent group, there were about 6 of us stride for stride.

Mile 5 was more of a struggle... most of my little group weren't doing the full session so i was on my own, and feeling the pain, i struggled to a 5:50.

Miles 2 and 4 were very steady, around 8 minutes.

11.5 miles for the session, with an easy 4 AM, a very solid day.

[Travs]

Another club night and another freezing, dark housing estate.

6 x 900mtrs with 2 minutes rests.

A tricky one to pace as the first 400mtrs are down a gentle slope and dead straight, and the temptation to burn it up is high. Then the final 500mtrs are up a noticeably steeper hill, finishing at a higher point than we started.

3:15
3:11
3:12
3:11
3:08
3:07

The first one was a little off, as due to a misunderstanding, we thought we were doing 8 reps. Was then able to ramp it up a bit on finding out it was only 6.

Very pleased to hit the final couple hard and push through the group.

9.5 miles, on top of a brisk 4 miles AM.

Enjoying the novel approach of spending some more time concentrating on training, as opposed to constantly preparing/recovering from races. Lets hope it shows in a pb when i get to Long Mynd Valleys in a few weeks.

[Llani Boy]

Last nights RATRun was from The Pack Horse Inn at Crowdecote. Just five of us on a cold and breezy evening with up to a couple of inches of snow on most of the route. After skating out of the car park we went alongside the River Dove towards Pilsbury Castle but prior to reaching it turned left into Open Access land and climbed steeply through tussocky grass up to the ridge and then turned left to the road. After crossing the road we climbed up to the TP on High Wheeldon where it was bitterly cold. Down the north side in deeper snow and along to Aldery Quarry.

Across the River Dove and up through fields, which were wet under the snow, to Longnor. Down into the Manifold Valley and along the river then up to Over Boothlow, along to Boothlow Hayes before up to Edgetop Farm. From here it was down the fields through deeper snow again, back across the Dove and up to the Packhorse.

Once inside and around the log burner, cheesy and non-cheesy chips were washed down with ESB 5% from Eyam Brewery.

Only 6 miles, it felt like more in the snow, 1'223 feet in 1hr 7 mins

[PeteS]

Back on hills after work - could have done with a head torch towards the end. First one in a long time but back up to 3 decent runs a week now. Onwards and upwards.