Training Log Archive: rcro

Met up with Mark P in Rudry for an easy chatty run around Draethen and Ruperra Woods. A bit wet underfoot in Draethen and an over-excitable dog made things a bit slow.

From there down into Machen to do the footpath other side of the river that I'd never done before, and carried on until the iron bridge and then long climb to the top - which had some pretty good views today. Mostly downhill from there, apart from the up.

Not moving too well - and behind Mark on the hills. He seems well rested - so guess Clare is doing all the work at the moment!

https://www.strava.com/activities/5384478376

A short stop off in Ashperton to see what I can find of the canal, tunnel, and spoil heaps on top. Unable to persuade anyone else from MonRoss/NGOC out and as was 20 minutes later than intended starting, shortened the route and changed from mixed terrain loop to almost all road.

Started with a bit of a detour to see the castle, although all I found was moat. Couldn't get to a position where I could see the tunnel mouths, but was tempted to ask the guy whose garden has the tunnel mouth in if I could have a nose. The whole section generally just needs tree clearance, and the bed is otherwise undisturbed.

Did a little bit of footpath at the far end to see the subsidence that has led to the temporary closure - I ran other said subsidence twice so not bad at all. Might have to defer doing the whole of that footpath in case other landowners have blocked the path due to it officially, at least, being a dead end at the moment.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5375714976

Glad I did cut short as lots of holiday traffic on the A438 meant I didn't get to the track at Cheltenham until 12. Then judged and umpired 47 races, with not a huge amount of time in between - a very ambitious schedule and we ended up starting the last race an hour late. At least with 3,000m and the steeplechases I was able to get out and walk around the track a bit, but fairly tired now from all the standing.

Getting new squares but not wanting to drive far. Edvin Loach church to Tedstone church and back on the roads. Fairly typical terrain of lots of hills but none very big. Some good views over to Clee Hill and Malvern but weather closed in a bit.

The road is at the more “forgotten” end of the scale, even by local standards - absence of foundations as well as surface don’t think the army could do a better job blowing it up. Car made it through, just.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5371411477

Since 2 weeks ago the local BBC radio has turned off its AM frequencies. Unfortunately north and east of Bromyard is still a complete dead spot for their FM and DAB coverage so looks like the service is now only available online and free view. Maybe rather than bashing them over a woman freely giving an interview nearly 30 years ago, bashing them for failing to deliver the basic service would be more justified.

Robinswood MapRun. Legs not good today and was a real struggle after the first bit of uphill - and was quite a lot of it.

S-19-29-16-6-22-25-17-7-27-26-10-28-24-23-18-21-30-15-14-12-8-F. 480 points.

Needed to look for a way to overlap with a previous run and think I’ve done the over bridge by the Crypt before so went to there. Did a bit of the hill going out and had trouble matching paths and vegetation on map to reality - got 29 but not by the route I intended.

Second time in did a lot of walking up the hill, and the map made sense until just before 21 and then from there was a lot of unmapped and non existent paths. Indirect route to 30 as again made no sense of map, and then some trouble getting down as very steep and backed out and went round.

Lots of mess with 12 as took a wrong path, then an unmapped path, then the mapped path wasn’t there and ended up on another path that may have been on the map. Able to relocate which was good, but went through an extra crossroads to what I was expecting. This delay meant I then opted to come straight back rather than risk more map issues for an extra 10 points.

Very warm this evening. Not used to it any more. Dodgy map made things a bit more challenging. Would be nice to run here when legs feeling better.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5367966383

Penyard with MonRoss. No motivation to run at home and looked to be too nice an evening to waste. Nice chatty pace and took in quite a lot of paths I've not done before.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5362739878

Still not really up for it. 3x mile and just went with 6.30 pace which was hard enough. Didn't do the 4th, then did but didn't time it - probably in similar time. It's all a lot easier when not counting down to the finish.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5357029778

Legs back to being rubbish, so took it relatively easy. Was going to drop down into town but didn't happen and stuck to the Ridgeway.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5351622593