Training Log Archive: OJ

Up Loxley before a day of conference, feeling much better and ran a bit faster and further than yesterday. Saw a heron, which put me in a good mood.

Up Loxley before conference, not feeling too bad really, just a sore throat overnight and a bit stuffed up.

As suspected yesterday, I have a small cold. Spent the day in Leeds at a conference and I doubt that my heart rate ever made it over 50bpm, so a good way to recover.

IW. Feeling a bit peaky this morning.

IW from the Works via Eccy Woods, Limb Valley, Porter's Brook. Strangely warm today, felt like the summer again. No hot water at uni so had to brave a cold shower.

From work to the works, nice and steady.

Good session on a new purple circuit with Hil and Phil, managed to tick off a few of them, but lots were too hard. Next time.

IW via Parkwood Springs. Had to work quite hard due to a heavy bag. Wild conditions, it's been a while since I got so wet. It brought a smile to my face.

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HFW after the Elite Athletes scheme inauguration. Got to 'meet' (be in the same room as) Jess Ennis, don't you know. Had a few glasses of wine and sobered up on the way home.

Early IW, lovely morning but very chilly and I was not really dressed for it.

HFW. Didn't plan to run this long, but it was such a nice evening and the running felt good so I just kept going. Up Porter's, over to the Sportsman, down through Rivelin, up to Stannington, tried to find the way down to the Robin Hood, but took a couple of wrong turns into cul-de-sacs and got in a bit of a boo. Tired by the time I made it home.

Tour de Ladybower from Cutthroat Bridge. Ran a bit further than I planned, up to Back Tor, down to Fairholmes, up through Haggside. I was going to head back via the breasts, but it was such a nice day and the running felt so good that I couldn't resist dropping down to Snake, up the Win Hill Ridge, over the dam then up to Bamford Edge and back. A really good route with a few big hills and it felt effortless compared to slogging around busy streets and parks. Ahhh, therapy.

Out of the door at 7am, and it was a much better experience with the streets quite empty. On the negative side it was dark and drizzling. Ran another lap of Regent's park at a decent pace.

Morning run in London from Tavistock Square to Regent's Park where I ran 4x5/1 pretty hard. Nice morning for it, but I got in a bad mood with cars, bikes and pedestrians on the way to the park and back.

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Day off down in London, too busy all day for training, but lots of walking about. Tiring stuff...

IW via the Parkwood Springs rubbish dump. Beautiful morning for it, a taste of winter in the air, and it felt great to be running. Write-off of a training week though...too much on at work.

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Easy to Jen's work.

At the works with the girls. Tried a new wasp circuit, which was at my limit. Managed to get a few ticks though.

IW via Bolehill Park. Such a nice morning I couldn't resist heading up the hill.

HFW.

FRA leg 1 in the Lomond Hills, running with Ralph. A pack of about 6-7 of the favourite teams formed on the way up the first climb, and save for a bit of jostling, everything was fairly stable on the fast run out to West Lomond. It felt good to hit the proper hills and I really enjoyed the first climb and steep descent, where the pack was whittled down to Shuttleston (out in front), Pudsey, Edinburgh and Helm Hill. Ralph ground it out on the next big climbs and we managed to stick in there, before the long fast run back to the changeover. We pushed hard on this section and managed to edge past Helm Hill and Edinburgh, before a lightning fast descent of some grassy fields, where Ralph set a hard pace, bringing us in in 2nd place.

The rest of the team did a grand job, with Little Rob getting over his Hodgsons fall with a good time on 2nd leg, Neil and Rhys giving everyone (except Mercia) a schooling on the navigation leg, and Callum running his socks off to stay ahead of Tim Davies and Alistair Brownlee and take 3rd overall, about the best result we could have hoped for on the day.

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Fairly minimal warm up and down, but quite a bit of excited running about after to cheer the team in.

Some sedate recce-ing of the route with Ralph. Looks fast!

Resting up for the weekend - found out that I'm running with a speedy young whippersnapper.

HFW, dumped my bag, then ran 9x90/30 up Rivelin followed by an effort up the coppice track in 4.36 (new PB, I think). Bust a gut for it though, and toiled all the way home.

To Jen's work.

Climbing at the works. Tried to tick off the remaining blacks, but I failed on quite a few of them after a few attempts. I climbed hard, but didn't achieve much, so a bit of a frustrating session.

Ran HFW for no reason other than to save the tram fare, jumped in the shower, then Jenny tempted me out to join her and Clare for the first part of the girlie run. Nice and sedate pace up Rivelin, then back through the allotments while the girl carried on. It was completely dark by the end, but I can see in the dark, so it didn't matter.

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HFW. A bit tired, like.

Sedate pace up to Loxley Common, a loop in the sun, and a cruise back down the hill. Legs felt alright for running, but walking up and down stairs on the other hand...

Langdale Horseshoe, my first Lake district classic fell race, 14 miles, 4000'. Having heard stories of difficult route finding and technical descending, I had planned to stick in the pack and use more experienced runners to show me the way. Funnily enough, my plan didn't really work out...Rhys and Callum set off like rockets up to Stickle Tarn and I went with them. They peeled off the Dark Peak peleton before the top and I found myself at the front of the pack with a small gap at checkpoint 1.

I kept up the same sort of tempo on the tough climb up Thurnacar (in my head I was measuring the climb in 'Kinders' - as in 2 Kinders up to Stickle Tarn and another Kinder up to Thurnacar) and my gap was about 1 minute by checkpoint 2 at the summit. At this point I was still waiting for the rest of the pack to close in on me, but when still had a decent gap at Langdale Comb I decided to change my tactic and pull out as big a margin as possible by the top of Bowfell, to give myself a buffer for lack of local knowledge on the second half of the route.

I felt good all the way to the top of Bowfell and couldn't see anyone behind me on the ascent so I took the time to have a bit of sports drink and a few jelly babies. Then came the technical part of the course, and straight away I lost a chunk of time coming off Bowfell when I strayed way off the main path. Back on track by the col, and I took the best line I could find to the West of the Crinkle Crags ridge, but it was rocky and undulating, so I think it could have been better. The climb up to the summit of Crinkle felt big, and I knew I was getting tired.

I somehow managed to miss out the Bad Step off Crinkle and came down a rocky gully instead, then ran hard on the fast descent to Blisco. I knew that if I made it to the top of Blisco with a gap then the race was in the bag, but I could feel the cramps coming on in my hamstrings. I stopped for a stretch at the col and looked back to see an empty hillside, then set off up the last big climb. Both hamstrings were cramping, but I ran through it and felt good again by the top. I switched to Bilbo's Blisco o map for the final descent and navigated my way down the racing line taking care not to go astray (as did plenty of the field behind me).

My margin was down to not much more than a minute on Mark Palmer by the finish, so he must have run a much better descent than me. Rhys was an excellent 4th, he is on good form at the moment, and Dark Peak took 1st and 3rd in the team prize, much to the annoyance of the Lake District clubs. A great day out, and I actually enjoyed every minute of the race, it doesn't get much more fun than this!

Very short warm up and a hobble down with Tom Edwards in the sunshine.

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Loxley valley, nice and easy.

Busy, busy, busy, and resting up for Langdale.

More direct route IW, taking it easy for the rest of the week.

HFW with a ridiculously heavy bag before heading out to see the Manics. Great!

IW.

HFW with Rob at an honest pace with a couple of decent hills thrown in. Felt like we were going well until a punter with an ipod came cruising past us on the way up Porter's Brook. I was offended.

IW, lovely sunny day, it felt wierd.

I couldn't bear sitting at my desk looking at the blue sky outside any longer so I took an early run HFW via Fulwood, Lodge Moor and Crosspool. I ran 3x5min/2min mainly uphill efforts, then a 6min hard run all the way back down to Langsett Rd to give my legs a taste of things to come at the weekend.

Ian Hodgson leg 4 with little Rob. Mixed fortunes for dark peak on previous legs and we set off in 5th with Calder valley and Keswick within our sights. We set of hard and beasted St Sunday crag but disaster struck as we ran off the summit when Rob stacked it in a cluster of sharp rock. Terminator-like he got up and kept running in spite of the fact that he was badly damaged, but as the adrenaline wore of up Fairfield it became clear that things were not good. We made it to the marshalls at Hart crag who gave us warm clothes and spoke into walkie talkies a lot, then walked tentatively down to the finish. Good to complete the course at least, and I hope that robs cuts and bruises get better soon!

Gentle recce of leg 4 of the Hodgson's with Jon Morgan, who was going to be my partner until the vets' team poached him for themselves. We found a good line for the descent, just a shame we didn't make it that far the following day...the day Dark Peak stop racing themselves in vets/open rivalry might well be the day we win this race. In the end neither the vets nor the open team won their classes. I propose an all out team effort to nail the open class next year.

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IW in the pouring rain. I only ran because I needed to have a shower, feeling tired still and Jen is pooly, so playing it safe.

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