I obviously been reading this thread

This week has been the first week in 3 months where ive not kept up my fitness routine.

The treadmill has developed a squealing noise every time my feet his the floor ... ive tried lubricating it etc but its not quite going to plan.

If ever there was a hint to get out there for a run then i suppose this is it so ive been out and about looking for some possible off road routes that do not look too taxing.

Need to buy some kind of Garmin watch ... i suppose a cheap one will do for starters ??

I wouldn't say you need a Garmin at all. You're overthinking the whole thing. Just get out and run!

If you're worried about about getting your pacing right, just use the basic rule that if you can't hold a normal conversation without gasping for breath every few words then you're running too fast. Conversely, on your speed sessions, if you're not on your knees by the end of your intervals, then you're running too slow.

My advice would just be to stick some trainers on, get out the door, and run somewhere. Explore, it's fun!

Fwiw this is the Garmin that I use: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Forer.../dp/B003EG83LK

It's a solid bit of no-frills kit that just does the job easily with no faff. But forget about that for now. Just run ffs!

if you end up buyin a gps watch, don't buy the 110, just because it's already >5 years old. you'll get more value by buying a modern entrance model that is similarly priced.
dcrainmaker just released his winter sports gadget buying guide yesterday: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/11/w...endations.html

but yeah, no need for a gps watch (even though i use mine religiously, hehe)

27th November

6km, 35:42, easy paced run down the canal. Slower pace than usual because my dog was ****ing around like a boss and I had to keep stopping to try and get him to catch up!

Are you on Strava Tron?

sure, i'll send you the link in a pm. (don't really want to post this publicly).

29th November

Lee Mill Quarry Relays

Wooow what a day. This was the forecast the night before, and it certainly didn't disappoint:



The conditions were so bad that the race organiser actually offered teams the chance to defer their entry till next year, and several teams took him up on his offer. It didn't deter too many though and there were more than 100 teams turning up for a slog across the bogs of the West Pennine Moors.

As organiser for my club's four teams I had the added pressure of making sure everyone was where they should be, when they should be. Our first four runners got off fine and everybody else had turned up and were given their numbers and instructions so everything actually started off pretty smoothly. Things got a little bit worrying though when our fourth leg 1 runner hadn't come in after an hour and a half - the leaders came in at about 50 mins and by 1:20 almost everybody else was in. It was especially worrying as this was her first ever fell race and I didn't really know how well equipped she was to cope with the conditions. Eventually at about 1:45 she came hobbling into the finish looking pretty distressed. She'd turned her ankle right at the summit of the course and had been struggling the whole way round. She put in an amazing effort to get round the rest of the course though, I just hope the experience hasn't put her off entering more races in the future.

Other than that hiccup, everything seemed to be going well. Runners were coming in off the course with tales of horrific conditions on the tops, man-eating bogs and even a lake that had sprung up on part of the course. About half an hour before I was due to be going off I was in the car getting ready when the rain went completely bonkers. Luckily it only lasted about 10 minutes, but I really felt for the guys out on the course in that. It was serious cloudburst stuff, and combined with the 50mph winds that must have been atrocious to be out in.

I got to the start line at about 1:25, expecting my leg 3 runner to be coming in at about 1:40, only when I got there the race organiser was already rounding people up for a leg 4 mass-start at 1:30! I quickly stripped off to my race gear, but then realised that two of our other leg 4 runners weren't around. I had a mad sprint around and luckily found them walking up to the start field. If I hadn't they'd have missed it and maybe wouldn't have been allowed to run.

The rain had stopped by the time my leg started, but it was still crazy windy. The race started up on a decent track for a while before heading out onto the open moorland. From here it was just boggy and muddy the whole way to the top, a climb of about 250m. As we got near the summit I saw the Mountain Rescue vehicle driving off down an access road with it's blue lights on - later on I heard someone had to get taken to hospital due to suffering with hypothermia, but has since made a good recovery.

For some reason they'd shortened the route to cut out the very summit, but it was only a shortcut of a few hundred yards. We headed down the access road track which was a nice respite from the bogs, but then we cut off there and headed down the edge of a small ravine on a really muddy and slippery singletrack path. It was difficult staying upright on this bit, but when we headed off down a steep grassy bank, it was impossible. I ended up doing most of the descent sliding down on my arse, but at least it got me down quickly!

From there it was another mega-steep climb where at points I was using my hands as a kind of uphill crawl. The final run across the tops from there was what everyone down on the ground had been talking about. The wind was blowing in our faces, gusting upto 60mph or more at times, and the ground was a quagmire. There was standing water and mud everywhere, and you had no idea whether it was going to be an inch deep, or three feet deep. I went in up to my waist a few times, and at one point had to pull a girl out who'd gone in and got stuck. The wind was so strong that at times you literally couldn't run into it and had to slow to a walk. After this section we dropped down into the disused quarry that the route is based around, and we came across 'the lake'. A dip in the ground had filled with water and the choices were to cut under a barbed wire fence and climb up a steep slope to run around the lake, or wade through freezing cold waist deep water. I wussed out and went under the fence!

After that it was a fairly straightforward descent back to the finish. I came in at 1:03:23 for exactly 10k which I think shows just how tough this course was (I expect my flat 10k time to be around 40-41 mins).

Elevation profile:



Despite the weather and terrain conditions, almost every one of the 400+ runners seemed to be smiling and having a great time. The event definitely affirmed my belief that fell running is the greatest sport in the world! A few good performances over the last few weeks has really got my motivation up so after a few easy-ish weeks I'm going to get back on the training to do another block of maybe 6 weeks of solid effort. Christmas may disrupt that a little but I'll do what I can. Going to rest today and get back out tomorrow. Hopefully some photos from yesterday to follow.

**** me it sounds awesome. Where do I sign up?


Yeah we def need pics of all these girls you're talking about.

Haha just find a winter fell race and enter it. Conditions not guaranteed, but find a race on the most digustingly wet and boggy mountains you can and you'll have a good shot at getting something similar.

Thought you might be interested in this coverage of the Mourne Skyline race that was aired on 4 recently: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/g...e-skyline-2015

Couple of photos from the start and finish of my race taken by a dedicated guy from our club. His son was racing with us so he decided to come along and go up on the course to take pics of us all. Unfortunately nothing from up on the hills proper as it was too crazy for him to spend all day up there, so these were taken on the track that ran for about 500m at the start.





No girls sorry Brickie

Unsubscribed


j/k, good link - I already had that race penciled in as a long term goal. Had no idea it was televised.

It looks like a pretty cool race, definitely a tough one. The problem is they seem to have an entry limit of 200 for some reason. That seems like a really low cap for a race that I'd imagine would generate a lot of interest, especially with it being part of the Skyrunning series. I'd have thought a commercial organiser like that would have been trying to get as many people in as possible, especially as it costs 3-4 times as much as most other similar races (although still not as much as a Tough Mudder!).

Somebody put up some pics mixed with some video footage that he took on Sunday. If you skip to about 9:15 you can see what the conditions were like on the summit for the leg 3 runners. So glad I didn't have to be part of that!

2nd December

5.9km, 196m climbing, 50:44

Been feeling pretty crappy this week. I'd come down with a little something on Friday, felt better by Sunday but then being out in that weather all day probably didn't do me too good and started feeling crappy again Monday. Thought I'd be fine to run last night, but on the first climb I was puffing away and feeling ****ty so just took the easy route back and didn't do a second loop. Still feeling **** today so not going to push anything, am just going to wait till I feel 100% before running again.

Haven't got much planned for the next few weeks. There's a short but high and steep fell race on 27th December that I might do. In January there's a winter league of races that I'm looking on getting involved with. There's a race every Sunday for 11 weeks, and they're all between 2-5 miles and a mix of cross-country and fell races. I think you have to do 7 races to count for the league so that's a decent target. Also someone in my club has organised a new ParkRun for my local town and that's starting in the new year so will get down to that to run it and support it. It's a hilly one though so no 5k PBs to be set there. Lastly, people in my club are trying to persuade me to do a 24 mile hilly trail race at the end of January. It's a bit far for me, but it's not really a race as it's organised by a long distance walking club. There's no timing, not even an official start, and plenty of food and drink stops around the course. Probably not going to do it but I'm keeping it in mind.

Still haven't gotten into fell running yet, but my 10k race today was in 50mph winds and torrential rain. Step in the right direction, I'd say.

Nice! Did you enjoy it? Do you have a log on here?

I'm still feeling crap, so no running till next week probably. Being ill sucks....

Since it was a race, and a little bit of friendly competition always makes it more enjoyable, I don't think it would have been anywhere near as enjoyable if it had been just a regular training run. I should definitely do more races than I do.

No I don't have a log - I don't like sharing.

Feeling quite a bit better today but still not up to running. Will hopefully start again on Thursday. I've entered a 7 mile road race on Sunday, hope I'm up to that.

10th December

5.8km, 32.24 - One of my local loops, out up an undulating bit of road, then back on the flat canal path. Canal path was mega wet and muddy due to the insane rainfall we've had recently.

Finally feeling up to running again. Probably back to about 90%, but felt fine while running. The rest over the last couple of weeks will probably have actually done me good. The plan is to get out on Saturday for a short run, then I have a 7 mile road race on Sunday. I have no idea what the race is like, I only entered it because the husband of one of my gf's work colleagues is running the race because they live in the town it's based at. From my knowledge of the town, it's going to be hilly, which will suit me over the road runners I guess. I don't know what my racing legs will feel like after the layoff though, especially as this is the longest road race I'll have ever done (actually the only true road race as Parkruns aren't officially races).

Going back to the rainfall I mentioned, it's been a pretty sad week as at the weekend large parts of the Lake District where I do a lot of my running and racing was absolutely hammered by rain and suffered tons of damage due to flooding. A lot of roads are impassible, some villages are cut off, facilities have been trashed and homes wrecked. Some video footage of one of the villages that's been hardest hit here - link. My home city escaped the worst of the floods, only a few areas got flooded, but one of those was the electricity substation which meant the whole area, 55,000 homes, was out of power for 2-3 days earlier in the week. Not ideal for hitting those end of year VPP goals!

13th December

Longridge Xmas Pudding 7 Mile Road Race

7 miles (11.3km), 208m climbing, 47:48

Glad I did a little bit of research on this race before I got there. I thought it was going to be a bit hilly, but it turned out that it had 208m of climbing over the 7 mile course! The route climbed for the first 2/3 then was solid descending for the final third....



Having no experience in pacing myself for a race like this I predictably went out way too fast, finding myself in a group of about 7 leaders for a while, and running 3:53 for the first km (grade-adjusted to 3:36/km by Strava). I slowed down a bit but still ended up putting in a 21:20 over the first 5k of the course, which isn't bad seeing as it had a net uphill of 75m.

My fast start meant that when I slowed I had people passing me the whole way, which was a bit demotivating. I thought that when we started the descent I'd start to pass people like I do on fell races, but it turned out that the descent wasn't steep enough (and obv not technical enough with it being road) for me to get any advantage there really, so for the first time ever I was getting consistently passed on the downhill by guys that had obviously paced themselves better.

I got in with a time of something like 47:48. I reckon around 40th out of a field of about 350. Results aren't out yet though so going to keep an eye out for those this week.

Also, I found out that some of the new Star Wars movie was filmed in the Lake District. I know nothing about Star Wars, but still thought it was pretty cool to see my favourite area and all the hills I regularly run around being used as a backdrop for scenes like these:

Nicely done! Sounds like an awesome race...are you happy with your finish?

The Star Wars stuff is pretty cool, taking my kids next week.

Yeah I'm happy with how I did, although tbh I had no real goals for it and don't really know how I should have done. With it being so hilly I'm not sure whether my time was good (for me) or not. Also can't really say anything about my position in the field because road races draw a different crowd than I'm used to running in. Saying that, top 10% or so is pretty solid and my pace seemed good (around 4:10/km) so yeah I'm happy.

I'm afraid I have to admit that I haven't even seen the original Star Wars films. I don't know why, but I guess I just never got round to it. Well, actually I did once, but I fell asleep (tired, not bored) and never got round to trying again. Thought it was pretty cool to see the terrain I know and love as a backdrop to the film though.


14th December

4.2km, flat easy paced recovery run on the canal path

I wasn't going to run today because yesterday actually left me aching - probably a combination of having a lay off for a while, and not being used to racing on a hard surface. I played a pretty huge poker session though so didn't get to take my dog out, and was feeling pretty hyped up from winning 11.5bi on the day, so figured I'd burn off some energy and sort the dog out at the same time by going on a nice easy recovery run.

15th December

15.8km, 1001m climbing, 2:28

Last minute decision to go up to the Lakes and have a run. I was motivated from watching that Star Wars vid and was going to do one of the hills the features prominently but the cloud was down quite low so decided to go to my favourite mountain, Skiddaw, instead. I know the area there quite well, and worked out a route that posed no navigational problems. I could follow either fence lines or good paths the whole way.

Not much to share in the way of pics from today as the cloud was down, but here's a couple...

Looking back up at the end of the first part of the descent from Skiddaw summit:



The hill to the right-centre that's in cloud was my final summit of the day:



Bonus dog picture on Bakestall. It's classed as a separate summit but wasn't really, more just a plateau halfway down the descent of Skiddaw. He managed to roll in something at some point on the run and now stinks of **** but I'm too tired to bother bathing him tonight!

17th December

4.6km, 28:43, my usual nice and easy paced run down the canal. Wanted to just test my legs out as my left knee/ITB was playing up again on the descents on Tuesday, and I'd been getting a sharp pain in my right foot, but both felt fine.

18th December

11km, 57:58, easy paced road run, mostly flat just a few small hills

21st December

7.9km, easy paced road run, mostly flat

22nd December

24.7km, 2:14

Decided to up my distance for my long flat run today and go for 15 miles. It was mega grim out there, very windy, raining at times and very wet underfoot. The first part down the canal path was really muddy and I was sliding about all over the place because I had my road shoes* on. Then part of the hard surfaced river path was completely flooded. I decided to just go for it, but when I'd got about 20m into the water I realised I was upto my knees and the water went on and got deeper for as far as I could see so figured I had to abort and go round another muddy grassy path. The canal path on the way back was ankle deep in freezing cold water in large sections so that wasn't fun either!

Anyway, I got through about 15 miles and while I was never struggling endurance-wise, my legs, especially around my ankles, were feeling really stiff and a bit sore. I guess that's natural for my longest ever flat run and expect a 10-12 miler to now feel a lot better. I definitely got an insight into how tough a marathon must be though.

* My 'road shoes' are actually my oldest most worn out fell shoes with the tread worn right down so they actually have a fairly flat sole. Getting some proper road shoes delivered tomorrow so hopefully they'll fit and I don't have to worry about my shoes actually falling apart while I'm out on a run.