Walking poles at Ennerdale!

[invalidpassword]

re: "It needs serious discussion at committee level."
Sorry. Am I on the wrong website?
I thought this was 'serious discussion'.

[Stolly]

Personally, I hate the things. Since I have only one arm I could not get any advantage out of them so why should anyone else....

And that's another thing, having run with Trundler, he should be banned for not carrying the requisite number of arms! Its nothing short of cheating!

[Fellhound]

I know.... some people will do anything for an improved power to weight ratio.

... it's just a pity the available power is so pathetic

[Andy916]

Hiya,

Running Ennerdale with poles on Saturday was basically just a training run for something else...

...It's too rough + too many short climbs & descents in British races for it to ever be worth doing the large amount of pole training required to make any potential difference. For UK races you'd be far better off doing all your hill training without poles, than by splitting your training time between uphill pole training + pure uphill running training, which is what I do in order to train for the French races.

Using poles can make a considerable difference out there - but only in longer races and you do have to train with them a lot. ie on races where you've got long climbs, generally on a path, with a steady gradient so you can get into a proper rythmn. A lot of the runners you see using them also do ski mountaineering competitions in the winter - so they know how to use the poles efficiently & train with them year round.

Came across this nearly-decade old gem of advice so thought I'd say 'thanks', AlP.

I'm an 'outsider', a long-course triathlete, who thought poles might be useful after doing a race in Chamonix last summer. Similar to Triathlon X, for those who know Mark Blackburn's Lake District event, but even hillier with different terrain to UK. I thought my 'swimmers shoulders' might help my tired quads (after climbing 5000m over the course of 180km on a bike) but hadn't considered the training necessity and the UK terrain effect. Am happy to discover there's no point spending money on more clutter