Today's Training

[Travs]

Track session tonight, another warm one.... although peferable to being windy and wet on the track... conditions which persisted until 5 or 6 weeks ago.

3 x (600mtrs, 100mtr jog, 300mtr)

1. 1:59, 56secs
2. 1:56, 54secs
3. 1:56, 53secs

Finished off with 5 x 60mtrs

Very pleased with that... my last session on the track also involved 600mtr reps and was a bit of a disaster, so it was pleasing to be consistent... was just at the back of a group of half a dozen, which was just about perfect giving me a pace to hold on to.

11 miles for the session, along with 4 miles AM.

Have been assigned a session for the weekend of 2 x 20mins, which i'll most likely do on the treadmill to allow me to do the session entirely uphill.

[Llani Boy]

This weeks RATRun was from the Norfolk Arms at Ringinglow, the new home of the Tigger Tor Fell Race. Seven of us set off on a hot and humid evening on a revised version of the race route.

Up through Lady Cannings Plantation to the TP at Ox Stones and over to Burbage Edge on a lovely peaty trod. Down through waist high bracken into the Burbage Valley and across the river. Through the knee deep bog and up onto Higgar Tor. Over to Carl Wark, where we picked up the race route proper back to Ringinglow which took us back down to the river and up the other side to Burbage Quarry. From here it was mainly all narrow single trod through scratchy heather over to Parson House, across Houndkirk Road and on to Houndkirk Hill. More heathery trod to Houndkirk Road again, and along it back to Ringinglow.

Wonderful views on a lovely evening run of 7.5 miles, 1,238 feet in 1hr 17mins. Back in the very busy Norfolk Arms delicious chips were washed down with Farmers Blonde 4% from the nearby Bradfield Brewery

We have tended to move away from melted cheese on our chips of late as some of the cheeses have been of the over processed heart strangling type. Recently, Mayonnaise and occasionally Aioli,(now there's posh) have been our favoured accompaniments!

[Travs]

On thursday night we were assigned our session for the weekend....

A lot of the group being track runners, there were a lot of 5 x 2mins, or 6 x 150metres being dished out.

Which made it all the more amusing for everyone when i was given 2 x 20 minutes. But i was looking forward to it, deciding to do it on treadmill at a gradient of 8% to give a hard session of fast uphill running.

First rep went by ok, didn't really know what pace to go off at, so found i pushed harder at the end to maximise distance.

2nd rep the challenge is to match or beat the first one.... realised to have any chance i was going to have to start off at a faster pace and just see it out through what would no doubt be a grim last 10 minutes.

And so it proved... started to feel the build up of fatigue at about 13mins in, and by 15mins i was checking the time every 30secs, praying for the end.

Ended up doing 120mtrs further on the 2nd rep, so mission accomplished. 8 miles for the session, and 4 very easy miles this evening, to round off a very good week of 77 miles.

If i could put this last week together into a block of training over several months, i would no doubt be a considerably fitter runner at the end of it... however its not always so simple... will just concentrate on trying to keep the quality high over the next couple of weeks to bring me to the start line of the next couple of races in good nick.

[Travs]

Club night and a pyramid session on the grass.

1min, 1min, 2min, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1......
rest periods were equal to the preceeding rep.

Considering the weekends activities i seemed to cope quite well, and my usual performance of dropping off the early pace and then coming back through the group towards the end, didn't really happen... stayed on the back of the group and even starting picking a few people off as early as the 3rd or 4th rep.

On the 4minute rep i went off on my own, not fancying 4 minutes trailing round a football pitch, and headed off on a hilly loop to add some variety.

Session was rounded off with 5 x "flying" 30mtr sprints (ie build up to full speed prior to the start line, and hold it for 30mtrs before decelerating).

Not quite as warm as the past week.... but was very humid and by the end we were all drenched in sweat.... i was covered in a film of salt in the fashion of someone who had just completed a long summer fell race.

A big day.... 12 miles for the session, on top of 5 steady miles AM.

[Llani Boy]

Last nights RATRun was from The Anglers Rest at Millers Dale. Six of them did a 7 mile loop around Millers Dale which took in Wormhill and Tunstead.

I decided to save my legs for Warslow tomorrow so did a gravel bike ride up and down the full length of the Monsal Trail. A lovely sunny evening for 21 miles, 475 feet in 1hr 23 min.

Back at the Anglers we sat outside by the River Wye where there was just enough breeze to keep the midges away. A combination of cheesy and non-cheesy chips were washed down with a fantastic Indian Runner 4.1% from The Wincle Brewery.

[mr brightside]

I thought you'd junked cheesy chips due to unreliable cheese quality? The way of making crap cheese is to modify the whey with synthetic additives after the curds are removed to make real cheese with. It's a similar process to the catalytic cracking of lower, heavier crude fractions that are left in the bottom of the fractionating column after the goodies have been boiled off. My mate used to work in a curry and pizza takeaway, on the side of the cheese bags was a label that read, '60% cheese, 40% cheese substitute'.

[Llani Boy]

I thought you'd junked cheesy chips due to unreliable cheese quality?

I have junked them but one or two RATRunners are looking for an early meeting with their maker so we have a few bowls of each!

[anthonykay]

Beacon Hill, Broombriggs and Windmill Hill: 75 minutes, which is still not long enough if I want to be ready for Turnslack in 4 weeks. The path over Brrombriggs goes round the edge of several cattle pasture fields, but today the cattle in one field were all crowded on and close to the path, so I had to divert round them; but the grass wasn't tussocky enough to prepare me for Turnslack.

[Travs]

A combination of working late on thursday, and not being fully recovered from tuesday's efforts, meant i missed the thursday track session.

So onto this morning and another tough treadmill session...
5 x 5 minutes at 15% gradient (5 minute recoveries in between).

Despite being on the treadmill this session is definitely no soft touch.
Didn't quite feel as gruesome as last weeks 2 x 20mins.... mainly because at 15% incline the pace is by necessity a little more manageable than what i was knocking out last weekend at 8% incline... but it was still a very uncomfortable session to complete in a quality and consistent fashion... i was absolutely drenched by the end.

8.5 miles.

[Travs]

Another solid week of 75.5 miles.

My scribbled records show me we've reached week 26 of the year, and at half way i'm averaging 68.25 miles per week (last year's average was 69 mpw)

More of the same next week.... basically grind it out for another week and a half, then a few very easy days before the Four Fans.