Todays permitted exercise!

[Mike T]

12.05 miles, 3,605 feet, 3 hours 41 minutes: Fairfield Horseshoe clockwise, taking the 1st, 2nd and 4th trods to the west on the way up, descending on the west side of the wall, and going down the rock step. Mainly overcast with occasional sunny spells, the cloud base was at about 2,500 feet. Intermittent drizzle/sleet. A cold strong unpleasant wind from the north. Below 2,000 feet the terrain was damp with good grip; above 2,000 feet there was a sprinkling of snow/ice, increasing to a couple of centimetres higher up: the rocks were slippery but otherwise traction was good. I saw 10 walkers on the route; there were 2 fellow runners, 1 in the valley, the other ahead of me on Nab Scar - they vanished, so I think they went to Alcock Tarn.

The 3rd trod to the west on the ascent is only really useful when descending.

[Mike T]

10.02, 2,731 feet, 3 hours 34 minutes: Travellers Rest - Butharlyp How - Easedale Tarn - Blea Rigg - Sergeant Man - Tarn Crag - Far Easedale - Travellers Rest. Sunshine and high clouds, a few minutes of drizzle, that strong cold wind from the north persists. Terrain dry/damp with good grip. Very few walkers about; no other runners seen.

[Mike T]

10.03 miles, 3,462 feet, 3 hours 23 minutes: Wansfell Pike from 2 sides, including up/down the race route from/to the kissing gate, and a clockwise loop along the ridge to the true top. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 2,500 feet. A few minutes of drizzle. That wind from the north was only moderate at this height. Terrain dry/damp with good grip. I saw about a dozen walkers on the fell, and 1 runner.

[Mike T]

11.71 miles, 3,468 feet, 4 hours 17 minutes: Travellers Rest - Far Easedale - Mere Beck - Sergeant Man - Tarn Crag - Far Easedale - Helm Crag - Bracken Hause - Green Burn - Travellers Rest. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 2,750 feet. No rain. A moderate breeze from the north. Terrain mainly dry with good grip. Not many walkers about, though there were quite a few on Helm Crag. 2 fellow runners seen, going from Calf Crag to, I suspect, Sergeant Man, taking a line well to the left of Mere Beck.

There is some new snow on the very top of Helvellyn.

[MattPo]

I recently brought the Forest of Bowland map, as apart from running a couple of Hodder Valley Show races it's not an area I know. It's only an hour from home, so today I ventured over. I went to the NE corner and ran up to Keasdon Head and then over to Raven's Castle and Thistle Hill and back to the car. Lovely run with no people seen on top and snipe, curlew and grouse around. The ageing climber in me was surprised and impressed to find Cold Stone crag. Snow on the 3 Peaks and in the Lakes, and good views of Morecambe Bay. A lovely day and an area I will be exploring more - now I'm retired.

[Mike T]

10.73 miles, 4,098 feet, 3 hours 31 minutes: Travellers Rest - Winterseeds - Grisedale Hause - Grisedale Tarn - ascending via the zig-zag steps - Helvellyn - descending on the grass next to the steps - Seat Sandal - south ridge - Winterseeds - Travellers Rest. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 2,900 feet. No precipitation. A moderate wind from the north. Terrain mainly dry with good grip; some ice/snow above 2,900 feet, but grip still OK. Lots of walkers about, some in large groups; 6 fellow runners seen.

[Mike T]

10.72 miles, 3,045 feet, 3 hours 38 minutes: Travellers Rest - Butharlyp How - Easedale Tarn - Tarn Crag - Sergeant Man - Mere Beck - Calf Crag - Steel Fell - Travellers Rest. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 2,700 feet. A moderate breeze from the north east. No rain. Terrain dry with good grip. Not many walkers about; no other runners seen. Car parks busy but not overflowing; town also busy.

[Mike T]

12.06 miles, 3,803 feet, 4 hours 35 minutes: Travellers Rest - Butharlyp How - Far Easedale - Tarn Crag - Sergeant Man - Blea Rigg - Easedale Tarn - Far Easedale - Helm Crag - Bracken Hause - down the zig-zags - Green Burn - Travellers Rest. Overcast, with the clouds just catching some of the high tops. A few patches of blue sky. Perhaps 5 minutes of drizzle/graupel. A strong cold wind from the north west. Snow on the ground above about 2,200 feet. Terrain anything from dry to wet/saturated to snow covered: grip very variable. I only saw about a dozen walkers on the fells, and no runners.

[Marco]

A Garmin-certified 6666 steps around the National Memorial Arboretum to the East of Alrewas, covering 2.91 miles. As it's situated by the confluence of the rivers Trent, Tame and Mease it's very flat, so I wasn't that interested in going - but a family member was.

As memorials go it's very good, and what I thought was one of the best parts was an original type 24 pillbox, still in its original location on the banks of the river Tame, that you can squeeze inside (just).

A hidden benefit was the excellent view of the Derby-Birmingham rail line, and the site of a class 60 pulling 32 102.6 ton tankers (which I believe were loaded as it was heading north away from the Kingsbury oil depot). It's the heaviest train I've ever seen, and the equivalent to 100 lorry tankers.

[Travs]

A Garmin-certified 6666 steps around the National Memorial Arboretum to the East of Alrewas, covering 2.91 miles. As it's situated by the confluence of the rivers Trent, Tame and Mease it's very flat, so I wasn't that interested in going - but a family member was.

As memorials go it's very good, and what I thought was one of the best parts was an original type 24 pillbox, still in its original location on the banks of the river Tame, that you can squeeze inside (just).

A hidden benefit was the excellent view of the Derby-Birmingham rail line, and the site of a class 60 pulling 32 102.6 ton tankers (which I believe were loaded as it was heading north away from the Kingsbury oil depot). It's the heaviest train I've ever seen, and the equivalent to 100 lorry tankers.

In a past life I worked at Kingsbury Oil Terminal for BP as a site engineer.

And immediately prior to that worked at the Murco Oil Terminal just outside Cov, where the trains would pull into our sidings and i'd pipe them up to our pipework system and offload the oil (heavy and hard work in flame-proof gear, especially in mid-summer).

Really interesting work, but i couldn't live with the shifts.