here comes the sun :)

finally, that great big ball of fire in the sky and clear blue skies decided to pay us all a visit this week (see proof below). to celebrate the occasion, and a couple of birthdays in the UC household, I decided to take a half day holiday and sneak a little run in, in shorts would you believe it!

maybe it was unofficially the first day of spring and the kick start required to get everything to start coming back to life again

the route was so good I decided to do it all again,and more, yesterday with raldiss. i'd guestimated off the top of my head it would be around 20 miles, in the end it was 24, which make it very pleasingly our longest outing this year so far. a row of 3 consecutive and rather brutal climbs towards the end ensured a tasty sting in the tail..all good training for the events coming our way soon. and charlie ate it up too without any difficulty which was reassuring to see

i can't wait now for light mornings and balmy evenings. it can only be all good.

ice road truckers

well all i can say is i didn't expect that!
me, raldiss (of 2010 c2c fame and supplier of the finest 'running pies' known to man) and charlie had a day's indulgent running planned from edale. so off we set off from home at 8am, into leek for some juice and then onward bound on the buxton road. only not so onward as it turned out. out of nowhere we went from cold blusterly conditions to a -5c artic-like landscape, with driving sleet/snow making for a whiteout. clearly the gritters weren't expecting it either.

needless to say, chaos was all around. lorries jack-knifing, cars unable to negociate inclines and the odd one detouring off the road altogether.luckily we were in the landrover but even so had to drive with care. descending into buxton it was obvious that our edale rendevouz would have to wait for another day so we hung a left and headed up to the cat and fiddle.
from there, our 5.5hr run out was tough going, with snow ,slush and mud slowing our progress and ensuring that our feet stayed soaked and cold throughout. i chose full waterproof bodycover whereas raldiss run in shorts! manly or niaive? i'll let you choose.




anyway, we had a hoot and gave ourselves a double reward. recovery eggs and bacon at peak view cafe followed a little later with lashings of re-hydrating staropramen and fish n chips in my local with mrs uc too. a grand day out altogether, even though not as planned

happy days

see the light

now that i've indulged myself in my previous post with a dusting of personal philosophy it's back to the nitty gritty

firstly, the magical mitts of mr michael honey @ trinity house in macc seem to have done the trick. he's an amazing physio and thanks to him any issues i encounter never become big ones. cheers mike!

so with near to full tendon recovery i thought it time to go longer. forecast sunny, we took off to the goyt valley with a 'make it up as you go route' in mind. it wasn't sunny but it was very wet, muddy, slippy and mysteriuosly beautiful as ever blessed with a heavy blanket of clag. and an early start means we get the place largely to ourselves bar any werewolves not yet in bed

as it went, our route, solely taking place around the goyt valley covered large parts of three local fell races - 'windgather', 'shining tor' and 'goyts moss' - though i dont think i quite ran this at anything near racepace!
the feeling of being back out without physical restrictions or niggling doubts was immense though i took it cautiously to avoid any repeats of unexpected and sudden inbalances ..there were plenty to be had without proper due care and attention

i could also tell that charlie knew we were back in the swing of it all again..my rucksac being a bit of a giveaway (more about that in a moment)

forecast sunny,i kept an eye out for it. 3 hours in at 11am it tried to show itself but our northern clag is a hardy type and not one for dispersing so easily. at around midday the sun finally won or maybe the clag just let it!

so that was our first 20 mile outing, with oddles of sqidgy ups and downs, for a good couple of months. i finished feeling strong, with plenty left in the tank, and no niggles around the knee area

right! and now on to a piece of kit first used by me yesterday..i cannot believe i haven't had one before..and so blindingly obvious

attached to the front of my sac this little number (though not as small as illustrated..im not a midget) meant i never had to take my pack off throught the run..simple yet genius..like most of the best gadgets that pepper our lives from time to time are!

if i could bottle 'now'..

..i would