Training Log Archive: andfall

Buttermere Horseshoe Fell Race (British Champ Long)

Should probably make an effort to write something for this…

Not being fully recovered from hamstring tendon problem, I approached this thinking I wasn’t going to be competitive and would just get round and enjoy taking part. Have done a lot of fast uphill walking mixed with easy downhill running over the previous 8 weeks (totalling around 56k ascent) along with a lot of strength work in the gym as prescribed by physio, however, the longest continuous run I’d done had been 10k steady on the flat. I’d done virtually no uphill running (a little on easy gradients during the LAMM) and no interval training for fear that it would aggravate tendon and delay recovery. Knew I had plenty of strength in the legs but didn’t think I’d be able to sustain a high enough pace to be competitive.

Started off at a fairly quick but relaxed pace along the road (still equal to the fastest pace I’d run in last 3 months). Started the climb up whiteside pike in about 20th place. When the gradient begin to ramp up, I started overtaking folk whilst fast walking and made up several places over the climb. Took a fairly easy pace along the runnable ridge to hopegill head whilst Karl and a few others came past and pulled away. Followed the rocky path off Hopegill head towards Grassmoor which wasn’t the best choice as several others came past on the more runnable grassy terrain to the right. Over first section of race to Newlands Pass, I was generally creeping past people on the climbs and getting overtaken on the descents but not losing much ground.

From NP, went up the steep by the waterfall then contoured around Robinson trying to replicate the line I took in 2013 when following Simon Booth. Managed to find a few trods but ended up a little high on the contour and had to drop a bit to avoid crossing a boulder field before bashing up through long heather to the col – post race analysis indicates there wasn’t much advantage in this although if reccied properly, it may be quicker. Caught Joshua and a few others on climb up Dale Head then caught Ross on the descent off Dale Head towards Honister. At this point realised there were only 3 ahead and thoughts of not racing went out the window.

Felt good on climb up from Honister, then was a bit hesitant finding route over to inominate tarn and Al Anthony, Karl, Ted, Ross and a few others caught up. Made a silly error coming off the path after tarn and doing a banana round to the left whilst intending to go straight to hit the corner of fence – ended up about 50m too far left.

Pulled away from others again on climb up high crag and reached top of High Stile in 4th with Ted about 30-50s behind. Followed eroded path down into valley before Mellbreak then contoured too low down to Black Beck, bashing through ferns on the way. Meanwhile, Ted took a higher contour and sneaked past on the left to get about 60m ahead on the climb up Mellbreak. I resumed fast walking and closed gap to 20m by the top.

Followed Ted down a grassy gully off Mellbreak with a bit of fern bashing to reach track at bottom, at this point noticing that both shoe laces had come undone. Carried on regardless and caught Ted fairly quickly on the track as he seemed to be suffering. Didn’t think to check map in the last kilometre thinking that it would be fairly obvious which way to go – it wasn’t – at least not for me. Got to a fork in the road – asked some kids which way but they didn’t know so went straight on and turned out to be wrong – oops. Ted, who was about 20m behind, went the correct way – I finished about a minute behind and in 5th place. Despite error, I was pleased to finish top 5 and felt reasonably OK at the end whilst others looked fairly done in. Couldn’t really have pushed harder as I would have aggravated tendon and undone several months of hard work to fix. If I’d known I could make the top 5, I might have reccied some of route or at least checked out the run in to finish!

An hour after finishing, found out I wasn't in the results as I'd missed the dibber at Newlands Pass - Doh! Had been too focused on getting a drink here and hadn't seen the dibber. Managed to get reinstated though.

C • Nice one 2