Navigation practice

I have my first exercise with the Border Search and Rescue team on Sunday – the simulated rescue of a casualty from a spot high in the Cheviots (NT892191 since you ask). Worried about exposing my ineptitude with a compass as soon as we leave the cars, I decided to recce it today. Lots of snow around with a nice hard shin-shredding icy crust to cope with, but by picking up a fence line and working my way along it, counting the changes of direction and taking a bearing from the last one, I was delighted and astonished in equal measure to find the location without any difficulty. Must have been a fluke. Nice jaunt in its own right, covering some ground only a few miles from the house that I wouldn’t otherwise have bothered with. Dogs loved it too, apart from the bit where I chucked them in the river at the end to wash the mud off. Bit chilly, apparently!

Devils Burdens Relay

Ran my first hill race of the year yesterday – leg 3 of the Devils Burdens including climbs of Bishops Hill and West Lomond. Difficult to guage fitness because I was running with a slower team-mate, but the fact that I was straining at the leash, enjoyed it hugely and felt very comfortable and bouncy throughout has to be encouraging. Note with alarm that Crispin managed another long ‘un yesterday. Really must get out for some proper miles this week, if only the bloody phone would stop ringing. Note with even more alarm that his knee has exploded. Hope it doesn’t lay him low for too long. His injuries do have a habit of outstaying their welcome!
We’re planning to have a bash at the 33-mile Wuthering Hike in mid-March, which gives me a good target. 7 weeks to get fit.

Craig y Nos, Crumbly knees, curry

I’ve had to increase my curry intake in line with my weekly mileage. So thursday and friday nights were massive takeaways from the very good Kashmir in Canterbury. I was working with the truly dynamic and efficient Canterbury City Council on friday, then went to brother Nick’s house in Borough Green afterwards in time to pick up the pieces from Eddy’s 6th birthday party and get properly fried by sith lightning from Count Dooku. No training occurred, other than a brisk walk to the pub, and the lifting of heavy ales. Hungover 6 miles on return to Brecon.

Today I managed a 20-miler from home to Craig y Nos country park, with pack in 2 hour 54 mins. This route stays low, but apart from 5 miles on road was pretty squidgy and heavy going. I did it without food or drink, and in general I’m going to try this for long training runs, as recommended by Mark Rigby (and there’s not much he doesn’t know).  Mind you, this can make one feel rather fractious, so I was very glad of the weeny cafe at Craig y Nos, where I got a mug of tea, 8 Welsh cakes, and a quarter of bon bons.

I’ve done about 140 miles in the last month, which is trivial for most distance runners, but actually for me approaches the most I’ve ever done. It’s paying off already – the children now run away screaming when I take my socks off (blood blisters, green bits, etc). Unfortunately, on finishing today’s run my left knee started hurting most abominably, on the front of the knee cap which was rather swollen. Still, mustn’t grumble.

Easy as she goes…

Set out on a run a couple of days ago, and within a mile, on the first gentle incline, my left calf went into a crazy spasm. Hobbled home – and I mean hobbled – and pussy-footed around for the rest of the day with a rock-hard lump in my lower leg. Much better yesterday after lots of stretching and a bit of a rub, so I kept the run-every-day pledge going with a gentle 1-mile jog with the twins (aged 7) along the road. Racing this Saturday, so will give it the kid-gloves until then.

Halleluja – on Hownam Law

I was on a bit of a high until I read in Crispin’s post that he managed 17 miles over the hills today. My completely legal high was occasioned by my first jaunt up Hownam Law in 2010 – a run I usually manage a couple of times a week, even when I’m only running a couple of times a week! The thaw is well into its stride now, but the distribution of the remaining snow and ice is curiously random, with abrupt snow-fields seeming to loom out of nothing and catch the unwary runner (and dogs) unawares.

A glorious run nonetheless, although at 45 minutes, a feeble effort compared to young Flower’s. I must get the finger out! Pictures here.

What next – locusts?

The snow is dead, long live the floods.  Like the Scottish Borders, most of mid Wales is now under water after two days of rapid thaw. After doing only a couple of 20 min blasts last week (away with work in slippery Bedford) I took the chance to hit the roads yesterday. Intended to do 15 miles, but it was pissing down and I only dragged my self out of the door at 4pm, so I cut it down to about 10, a loop through Pont Faen.

The lanes above Brecon (towards the Epynt) were rivers, confused by piles of rubble and bits of tree. Perfect running condition, I think not; 1 hour 11 mins. Sore legs and nipple burn, but my feet are still baby soft with 10 toenails, which shows how much work I’ve got to do!

Today – I’m about to set off on 20 mile jaunt from home to Pencelli, via Storey Arms and the whole Brecon Beacons ridge. Will carry pack and change shoes when I hit the hills, which I expect to be a ghastly mix of mud and slush. A sunday dinner at the Royal Oak lies at the other end. More later…

Later… well yes that was pretty horrible (the run, not the dinner, nor the pint of Reverend James). Very hard going on the hills, with a total mix of deep snow, deep slush, bare ground, sheer ice, massive puddles, and the usual heather etc, so I was walking and swearing much of the time, and falling over a bit. I cut a couple of miles due to setting off late, so probably about 17 miles, 3 hours 10 mins.

Now I’m wrecked, and wondering how on earth I’m going to run 32 miles on mid March 13th – yes, part of our 3PYR training plan is to do the Wuthering Hike (aka Haworth Hobble), a 32 mile ultra race in the Yorkshire Dales. It’s run in pairs, which should help us rediscover that mutual telepathic understanding that is so important for these events (the ability to let your partner know with a mere grunt that you are a ragged blown-out husk, that you might be sick any moment, that you hold him entirely responsible).

Hurrah for the Hills!

At last, after 15 days marking time on the road up the Kale valley, a very rapid thaw in the night made the surrounding hills suddenly and unexpectedly accessible. The overnight thaw, however, gave us quite a headache to wake up to. The drain running under the ground above our property was completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of water pouring off the hills, and the overflow carved channels through the remaining ice and snow that diverted it straight down our drive, submerging the entire garden to a depth of nearly a foot and seeping through the vent-bricks into the cavity under the house. A few inches higher in there and it would have completely written off the insulation in the floor, and cost us many thousands of pounds. We spent a frantic couple of hours in pouring rain digging through ice and gravel to divert the main flow of the water away from the property and into Hownam Burn, which was in impressive spate, having increased from its normal one-metre width to about five. Some pictures of the aftermath, once the water had subsided, can be seen here, but they give no hint of the fury of a couple of hours previously.

Anyway, the day improved immeasurably after lunch when I took the dogs for their first decent run in over a fortnight, on saturated ground and a few remaining snow-drifts over Hownam Ring and Hownam Steeple. It was a real tonic, and I was delighted to find a definite springiness in my legs, although whether this revealed real fitness or merely a psychological release is hard to say. whichever it was, it felt damn fine!

Trudging towards the spring

After 13 days of this cursed snow I’m getting mightily tired of running on the roads. Part of the problem is that I only have a choice of two roads, living as I do four miles up a valley with a single turn-off. I”ve tried getting onto the hills a couple of times, and succeeded once by following recent tractor tracks (which were rutted, rapidly refilling and darned tricky), but anywhere that hasn’t been scraped or gritted – i.e. everywhere but those two roads – is still under snow varying in depths from mid-shin to shoulders.

My beloved hills, which rise from the end of the garden, are taunting me. They are wonderful to look at, but utterly impenetrable. Surprisingly, a fortnight of pounding the roads hasn’t reduced my legs to splinters and mush. Couple of races – one cross-country and a fell-running relay coming up before the end of the month, which may or may not give some idea of fitness, depending on the conditions.

Roll on the thaw, and bring on the spring. Also need to plan a recce of the Lake District leg with Crispin (bikes and running) and a solo recce of Ben Nevis. Once the snow’s gone, of course…

More snow

Sunday 8th: two hour run along the Brecon Canal to Talybont and back. My longest run on the flat for well over a year, and I got really tired in the last ten minutes. Hard work on the snow, and only averaged 8 minute miles. Beautiful conditions with the canal completely frozen, but the ducks and geese were really crotchety.

Saturday 7th: a winter wonderland experience, 2 hours on Corn Du, Pen Y Fan, Cribyn to the Gap Road, and back the same way. Millions of folk on the lower slopes, sledging, snowboarding, skiing, larking about, but hardly anyone venturing into the cloud at around 1500ft… real white out, continual spindrift, thick cloud, deep deep snow. There were a couple of moments when I actually could not see anything apart from whiteness in any direction, very disorientating sensory deprivation. Made it a tad hard to know which way to run. I almost leapt off the edge of Corn Du, which is certainly a shortcut to somewhere.

Top of Corn Du, icy eyebrows. Exceedingly glad I donned the Paramo instead of the Pertex!

 

 

 

 

 

Self-timer on the summit of Pen y Fan, beautiful views!

It was so cold that the hot drink in my pack was a slush puppy with icebergs when I got back to the car.

Loving my Kahtoola micro spikes – a must-have item for all fell runners! But must get shin pads for this – more wreckage from ice crusts.

 

And then on the way down, just as I came out of the cloud having seen nothing at all for two hours, this happened, lasting about 2 minutes before the sun dropped behind Fan Fawr…

 

Yesterday, 20 mins rowing in front of the telly (QoS!). Could end up rowing for hours (days?) in the race.

Snow

Damon says….Still deeply snowed in here, with no equipment or post coming in and no orders going out. Schools closed, roads impassable but freezer and pantry well-stocked, house snug and children in good spirits. Fresh hay arrived by tractor yesterday, so horse, pony and donkey very relieved after a few days of very thin pickings. Had a run with Anooshka today (after my road-run with Oscar) during which I stumbled around in chest-deep snow on the hills, and ended up having to commando-crawl over the worst of it, much to the dog’s bewilderment. Some lovely snowy photos here.

Crispin says… shins recovering from the mashing they received from snow crusts on saturday. Managed a run at lunchtime today in deep fresh snow, up the hilly lanes to the common above Talgarth, about 5.5 miles in 42 mins – much harder work than usual. Animal tracks everywhere – otters, rabbits, joggers.

I can’t believe the boaties are lounging about doing nothing til Easter… at least they should be doing some rowing training! Last year there was no wind for half the race.