Todays permitted exercise!

[Mike T]

From our door I go uphill, short bit of road then into the forestry which gives about 250m climb in first 11/2k - a bit hard on old, cold legs!
Only done about 5 runs but Thursday Mr Strava said I did 6.1k with 340m ascent in 46 minutes.
Apologies for the metric nonsense!

Hmmm - it would seem you are faster than me - but then most people are!

[molehill]

Hmmm - it would seem you are faster than me - but then most people are!

I don't think so, you do 3 times what I do and repeat near every day of the week - I could never manage that these days.

[Mike T]

8.25 miles, 2,995 feet, 3 hours 16 minutes: Travellers Rest - Winterseeds - Grisedale Hause - Cofa Pike - Fairfield - around to the right of Great Rigg and the top just north of Heron Pike - Heron Pike - direct descent west to just north of Alcock Tarn - Greenhead Ghyll - Travellers Rest. Lots of blue sky, some thin high clouds, and the occasional bank of mist enclosing some tops. A moderate wind from the south. No rain. Terrain dry in places, but mainly wet/saturated and slippery. Quite a few walkers about; 6 other runners seen.

It was not at all cold today - T shirt weather, even on the tops.

[Mike T]

9.41 miles, 3,034 feet, 2 hours 59 minutes: Wansfell Pike, including along the ridge to the true top, and up and down the race route to the kissing gate. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 2,000 feet; misty below that. A few small transient patches of blue sky. No wind nor rain. Terrain mainly wet/saturated and slippery, but dry in places. Quite a few walkers on the Wansfell steps; 1 fellow runner seen.

This was the first time I have been down the race route for ages - the bracken is no longer a problem, but it is of course steep/muddy/slippery in places.

[Mike T]

9.19 miles, 975 feet, 1 hour 48 minutes: Rothay Bridge - Clappersgate - Brathay trails - Bog Lane - Skelwith Fold - Skelwith Bridge - Drunken Duck - Brathay Church - Rothay Bridge. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 500 feet. Constant light/moderate rain. No wind at this level. Roads streaming in many places. Very few walkers about; no other runners seen.

Apart from the gravel trails in Brathay this was all on tarmac.

[Mike T]

10.64 miles, 2,317 feet, 3 hours 16 minutes: Rothay Bridge - Roman Ruins - Borrans Park - Stagshaw Gardens - Blue Hill Road - Wansfell Pike, going up and down the race route from/to the kissing gate - Ambleside. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 2,000 feet. The occasional patch of blue sky. A moderate breeze from the south east; no rain. Terrain anything from dry to saturated and slippery. Lots of walkers in Borrans Park and on the Wansfell steps.

In Borrans Park I did 7 drills - 4 x 30 seconds of each drill; then 3 miles in total of short intervals - 120 to 180 yards, with recovery based on my breathing just starting to settle.

[Travs]

We do drills before every club session. Some of the training groups are quite military with them... we are generally left to do what suits us.

I do them during my warmup as well for races (not without a few funny looks when i do them at fell races!).... 10 mins light warmup, then drills, and a few strides and i'm ready to race.

[Mike T]

We do drills before every club session. Some of the training groups are quite military with them... we are generally left to do what suits us.

I do them during my warmup as well for races (not without a few funny looks when i do them at fell races!).... 10 mins light warmup, then drills, and a few strides and i'm ready to race.

I can remember watching a women's fell race near Keswick years ago - it was to qualify for representing England overseas - some were doing drills beforehand, and I noticed one was doing them much more competently than the others - she went on to win. I always used to get our AAC junior group to do drills, I think of them as being part of the vocabulary of movement. And we used to finish with body weight strength exercises. The juniors called it "Boot Camp"!

[Marco]

We do drills before every club session. Some of the training groups are quite military with them... we are generally left to do what suits us.

I do them during my warmup as well for races (not without a few funny looks when i do them at fell races!).... 10 mins light warmup, then drills, and a few strides and i'm ready to race.

I never did drills. Nothing against them, I just had very, very little coaching, and never encountered them in the three clubs I ran for over the years.

Warmup, however, I took very seriously. I also did 10 minutes of light warmup, but then I followed this with increasingly harder uphill intervals until my Scandinavian heart-rate monitor registered 180bpm or higher. I was taught that you needed to reach your top race intensity level during warmup to increase your heart stroke volume and gaseous exchange before the start. Then, 10 minutes before the race start I would stop, whilst sweating heavily, and put on pretty much every bit of sports clothing I owned to maintain heat right up to massing at the start line.

Worked well for me, enabling me to start fast and avoid obstacles and traffic and chase the leaders up the first climb.

[Travs]

I think warm-up, similar to tapering, is specific to individuals.

But i broadly agree that you need to have done at least a bit of intensity prior to reaching the start line... although for 5km and above i have toned it down to what i described above, ie a few decent quality strides.

But if i'm warming up for something like a 1500 or 3000 on the track then the intensity and duration of the warmup goes right up.

For a fell race i like to have done at least part of the warmup uphill, even if its part of the initial 10mins easy. Generally always do strides on the flat.

As much as the physical, i find that drills help to build a routine, and anything that switches your mind on to the fact you're racing (or training intensely) can only be a good thing.... they're also a decent indicator of how fresh my legs are... if i'm doing my drills with ease and my legs feel loose then i know i'm rested enough to perform well.