10,000ft per week.

[Tahr]

I have to be honest I did nothing like 10,000ft per week in my training; in my biggest month the last one the for example before the taper I was 27,000ft. I made the weekends the cornerstone of my training, usually a day in the lakes or running my local hills which are 2,500ft in height for the most part. In the midweek I did as much as I could, a lot on the road some of it with a weight vest.

I did one 9 hour, two 10 hour days and one 11 hour day, plus a few 6 hour days. I guess one size does not fit all. On my last big climb, Great Cable I pulled back 3 minutes, descending was a issue but only because of extreme shin splints, amazingly I had no problems with my quads, not even any DMOS after the BG.

I would say as a guide once you can do leg 3 and 4 back to back as an support runner carrying all the kit for a contender at sub 23 hour pace you are fit enough to have a good chance of completing with fair weather and good nav’.

ATB

Tahr

[Stolly]

Your shin splints sounded a nightmare Tahr (and didn't you lose vision or something on the last leg too?) but they may well of been brought on directly because of your lack of ascent and/or mileage in preparing for the BG. All the same you got round and that's the main thing

[Tahr]

Yep I ended up in A+E with shin splints, and I think you are right more prep’ and I might have got round without injury, just like most it was the coming down which was the problem not the climbing, and normally I am better at coming down than going up. The loss of vision might also been avoided if I had been fitter, I know that since then I have spoken to another BGer who had the same problem.

Perhaps I did do it on the bear minimum of training, that was never the plan but just injuries stopped me doing the training I had planned when I first started.

I guess some get round just by being very fit, some by being very dedicated, and others by bloody mindedness.

ATB

Tahr

[Derby Tup]

....I guess some get round just by being very fit, some by being very dedicated, and others by bloody mindedness

A combination of all three is needed unless you're very talented...

[andy k]

It's not easy for me to go out and get in a 5,000 + ascent in a run. I live near the Peak District but can't always get to the hills. I have to look at other options to steel up me legs!

To achieve 10,000 a week will take some effort for me. I think it's a good goal to have and can only be of benefit to me, regardless of how I achieve it.

Training for and succeeding at the BG will take some effort Mick. You need to find the time to do these big days, people committing to the BG get up to the Lakes or travel to nearer options to get the work done..
Regarding ascent - you can accumulate 10,000 feet in a week bit by bit, just like you can accumulate 65 miles in a week bit by bit, but it won't really prepare you for 65 miles and 28,000 feet in 24 hours.
Big days are needed and you need to build up to being able to cover 20 - 25 miles with 10,000 feet in a dya's outing - That is still only a third of the BG.
As other's have said 10,000 isn't gospel, doesn't need to be week in week out but its the kind of thing you need to be aiming for and capable of if you are to succeed on the BG. And the descent is as important as the ascent - descending is what does the damage.

[Stolly]

... descending is what does the damage.

So so true.

Summarising my 'enjoyment' factor of the major descents (going clockwise), they might look something like this:

Skiddaw: Brilliant, if a bit slick at the top and mud sucking at the bottom

Great Calva: Okay but too rocky and/or heathery and too narrow in places to be fun

Blencathra via Doddick: Fantastic fun, albeit a bit dodgy in places

The Dodds and Helvellyn ridgeline: Easy going

Dollywaggon: And it begins.... Quad bashing with knobs on

Fairfield: The path has been improved nowadays but it can be really tricky and has the 'wrong kind of' scree

Seat Sandel: I've done this in daylight in warm weather and it was fantastic; on my round though it was dark, foggy, raining, super slippy, rocky, ferny and completely crap

Pike o'Stickle to Stake Pass: Starts a bit crap but gets better (and wetter)

Scafell via the scree: I flipping love this descent, brilliant

Yewbarrow: Nice and easy

Pillar: Annoyingly runnable

Kirk Fell: Good to begin with but too rocky near the end

Great Gable: Even the 'fast' line is rocky as fook

Green Gable: I made the mistake of taking things too easy!

Grey Knotts: It was here that my legs really couldn't be arsed with all this running down hill millarky!

Dalehead: Okay but not in any way fast

Hindscarth: Okay but not in any way fast

Robinson via High Snab Bank: Any other time and this would have been great. It was awful though...

[lantern rouge]

That's a great summary Stolly and I can appreciate all those comments

More recces for me in the next few months, but for me, you're bang on the money. Personally, my training needs to work on my aerobic fitness (making the effort more effortless!) and then make sure there are plenty of LONG days...but you're dead right, it's the downs that take their toll on you and where the injuries come from.

Had miss most of my 10,000' this week due to a bloody cold and work. But, better to miss it now than later....


...keep chipping away at it.

Big day, Friday 20th June.

[andy k]

and another thing....

since it is descent that really builds the toughness in your legs.
And specifically running the descents, which you will need to do to get round in 24 hours
walking the dog won't really cut it, just not enough force.

[MickTor]

and another thing....

since it is descent that really builds the toughness in your legs.
And specifically running the descents, which you will need to do to get round in 24 hours
walking the dog won't really cut it, just not enough force.

You've not walked my dog..

[spen]

Probably been mentioned before but is 10k better in one day. Due to my family commitments I can only do one big day every fortnight and the other times would have to make it up over the course of the week.