Peakers Stroll (Take Two)

after last weeks 'short cut' i had it in my mind to go and run the full monty this sunday.
throughout saturday night the heavens kept pouring and i lay in my bed thinking 'no way am i running the route in this'. but as i awoke at around 0430 there was silence outside and my cue to get up and get ready for our little trip out.
we started from peak forest at around 0700 and were lucky not to bump into anybody at all until we were on the summit of Winhill. our run to that point had been beautiful. just me, my sidekick, a few sheep and cattle, and a wonderous landscape. running up high along ridges really inspires me and this is a great area for just that.

this time as well, the sun came and went but most importantly, the previous days downpours meant that charlie was plentiful in hydration.

from winhill we dropped down to ladybower giving the pooch the chance to douse himself in the reservior. a bit of climb out of the valley and we were on our return leg.



arriving in edale i only had one thing on my mind..a bit of tucker. the local cafe , 'Coopers', dutifully obliged with a splendid bacon sandwich for us both washed down with a tea for me. but now then...what's all this about...it was meant to be a run not a bleedin' picnic!!
and herein lies the rub of this post. for whatever reason(s) i was starting to not enjoy our trip out and all my demons were coming to the fore...
..my 'catholic' guilt about how selfish this pastime of ultrarunning is
..my feelings that it has been feeling harder recently, but as an old schoolteacher used to say ' who said it was going to be easy donaghue!'
..a feeling that maybe just maybe i can't be arsed anymore..a sin in itself!!
..or maybe i've gone as far as i'm going to go and maybe its time for a fresh chalenge
..and finally, i have enough pressures without running being another of them
so what's to become of all this? today was supposed to be a great day out..parts of it were, but parts of it weren't. i just don't know. this year has been more of a stop stop year than anything else.
but part of me feels abundantly grateful for being able to just do this kind of thing. i'm just not sure which side of my psyche will rule the day.
all suggestions welcome !

hot dog!

so we entered the peakers stroll rather than taking a trip up to osmotherley with one of the reasons (amongst others) being how i thought the heat might be too much for chasbie.
anyway we got there , peak forest, nice and early to register..still not sure why we arrived 1.5 hours ahead of the start but we did. this race is LOW KEY. the walkers had gone off at 9am and when we arrived there was all of 3 other runners there. but hey it filled out to all of around 40 runners by the time the bell rang...yes the bell, the starter standing on a street bench ringing the old school bell. a choice of 9,13,17 or 25miles was on the menu and we had naturally selected to opt for the full monty.
we'd met up with safety pin (aka simon moorhouse) whom we'd planned to run with and without further ado we were off, the bell still ringing in our ears.
from the sound of the bell it was all uphill right over and up to mam tor. and it was hot! but we had a fair bit to catch up on and time seemed to tick by quite easily.
once up on the ridge it seemed to feel even hotter with the heat of the sun bouncing back up from the limestone track and stone slabs.
it wasn't long before i noticed that chasbie was panting quite heavily. not only that, he kept trying to lie down in sheltered spots or roll in what were now totally dried up mudbaths and puddles.
the going was slow and trying and wanting to keep my boy from any harm i decided we'd abort the full monty and simply do the 13. handing over a bottle of coke and some jellies to simon, we bid each other farewell and he was left to continue with someone far bonnier than ourselves.
for the rest of the run i teamed up with 2 other nice blokes as i didn't have the 13mile route map. one of them had forgotten to wear his running shoes so had to contend with running in his merriel sandals, but being an experienced hardy fellrunner it didn't seem to matter to him in the slightest.
from hereonin there wasn't really much to report apart from the fact that once chasbie got into the river between hope and castleford, he emerged a changed dog. on fire. his usual self. but it was too late. i was mentally resigned to plodding back to the finish and was doing a splendid job of plodding physically. the climb up cavedale was tortuous, as ever thus and the site of the finish was more than welcome as chasbie dragged me along the final mile. no sprint finish today.
i dont know what to make of today really. its an odd one. i dont feel at all tired but neither do i think i would have done the 25miles justice had we carried on...but then at the time that didn't seem like a sensible option anyway.
and so another race that has lead to a degree of dissapointment. next up is lowther trail race in august..the question is..do i do it?

change of plan

not that anyone will be in the slighest bit interested but, for a number of reasons, we're now running the Peakers Stroll (25m) on Sunday instead of Osmotherley on Saturday.
we will return to Osmotherley next year hopefully.

bugger!

just as things were going well i get hit with 'man flu'!
where the heck did that come from! i haven't had a cold or flu for 18months or so and its summer!
seeing as there a few people in the agency falling like flies i reckon the air con is the prime suspect. hopefully not out for too long. but at least i'm sleeping like a baby thamks to a little help from the 'green stuff'!

the little things that make you smile :)

i was intent on running around 20miles yesterday. that didn't quite happen.
on saturday as planned, i did my 30minutes of kenyan hills in the field with the hill right behind where we live. i could have done a longer session but let's not get greedy eh.
charlie hasn't quite got the knack of this session yet, choosing to sprint each and every one of them leaving me for dead. in the end i guess boredom at my pace was setting in for him so he decided to keep running and jumping up at me just for laughs.



fast forward to sunday which as you may know is fathers day and i knew both hollie and will were excited by the whole thing. so having not managed to get out of bed early enough i decided to curtail my planned run so the kids wouldn't be waiting all day for my return (what it is to be wanted eh even if it is just once a year!).

the revised run was a lovely local 8 miler from hen cloud, over the roaches to hanging stone and back via a different track and finally a couple of miles of road to get the pace going. what started off feeling hard soon evolved into fluidity of movement with a good all round feeling. and i kept watching charlie charging about and thought how lucky i am to have him as my sidekick. he's top dog.



but what tickled me was the drive back. a group of teenage hikers making their way along the road were waving and cheering furiously at each car that passed them. our turn soon came and with roof down i sent out a resounding reply and salute. it was a great reminder of the freedom of youth, that anything goes no matter how daft or simple and it felt nothing but natural to wholeheartedly join in. it kinda made my morning.

then back home, the day got even better as hollie and will piled down the stairs with hugs and loves (and an absolute load of lovely cards (some daft) and little presents. they know me only too well so i've now got a great stock of ale, crisps and nuts. it would be rude not to open them all.



the rest of the day was so chilled. hollie baking her favourite raspberry topped biccies, will (with only 9 men) drubbing me on FIFA 09, and KD continuing her endless quest for the perfect eventer. happy times.

with a short run on Sunday i changed my plan for Monday and decided on a 7 miler early doors incorporating 5 miles at threshold effort. with a 5.30 start i wasn't expecting anything to shout about but surprise surprise i netted out at 7.47min/mile pace (vs 8.33 last week). maybe just maybe there are some signs that my running is just starting to take shape. or maybe they are famous last words!

back to the track (last to leave)

why am i posting at such an ungodly hour of 0230! its because we have had a slug in the living room (gross) for the past two nights that only shows itself when we all totter off to bed. so i hatched a cunning plan of getting up in the middle of the night to sort the rascal out. needless to say there it was lazing around on the floorboards. it was despatched at once into a now disused carton of ben and gerrys (thanks guys, the ice cream was yummy!) and suitably 'seasoned'.

all this excitement having been sticking to my plan pretty well so far. did a quick 5 with charlie early doors yesterday then went to the track in leek at tea time.

the guys at the track on club night are mainly short distance runners and as i'm trying to do more volume in the speed sessions right now i'm not finding much appetite to do likewise from the others.

anyway it was pretty hot and i managed to knock out 7 x 800's in clockwork fashion with a deviation of only 2 seconds between any lap! i find it hard doing faster stuff at a higher volume but rewarding too. with a final 800 and warm down to go i was the only one left..and maybe psychologically that's no bad thing either :)

another 5 with charlie in 3 hours then a quick massage at lunch.

best get some shuteye.

damn that slug! (that was)

getting my act together (put politely)

my 'running year' is usually a year of two halves. the first, where i look after myself, achieve new PB's and feel generally pleased with myself. i then feel as though celebrations are called for but ultimately forget to stop the celebrations with a corresponding decline in results etc. and as a result i beat myself up.

unintentionally, it seems this year i'm doing things in reverse order! i can safely say that i have yet to get my act (put politely) together this year and as a result have endured a real mixed bag of running experiences and results. if i was at school the report would read 'could do better'.

so my friends, i guess with 3 weeks to go before osmotherley it's time to knuckle down, put down the pint pot and the crisps and put some real effort in not only in my running but my lifestyle also.

so here goes.

geromino!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!