Saturday, January 25, 2014

I Enjoyed That

Despite the murk and the strong winds. Character building I think they call it. It actually wasn't too bad out there. It's true, the views weren't great - in those few breaks in the murk - but it could have been a whole bunch worse. In fact, pretty much like the driving rain piling down outside right now as I type. I'm bloody glad I got up at six o'clock to get on the road early.

I went with the clockwise loop, as devised last night, and picked up the main jaunt from Blaen y Glyn car park to the Lower Neuadd res and west, up to the ridge. I plodded along, trying to keep a little focus on at least attempting to run powerfully - it didn't work. I ticked off the summits round to Fan-y-Big - snigger - before cutting off the ridge an onto the boggy Beacons Way. At the bend I kept straight to go off piste and round the west side of Craig y Fan Ddu, dropping to a 620m contour - damn, sssh, note to self, don't divulge findings...

Anyway, after reaching the path at the south end of CyFD I turned upwards and ran the ridge back towards Waun Rydd to keep the mileage up. I remember why I limit my running along that ridge. It get's a little muddy towards the end... I eventually made it to the cross-paths at the end and headed homeward.

I found a nice little track just below the Cwar y Gigfran ridge. I was intending to be atop the ridge but I came across the path and, in the tradition of all the great explorers, followed it. As I neared the spur at the end of the ridge (above me) I decided to cut down across the valley before crossing the next feeder stream so I would cross the main river in the valley bottom slightly higher up and with less water flowing. It was a good plan and the crossing safe.

With only a few more minutes running left, I made it back to the van in just under three hours. I was happy with that. My route more or less followed that which I had planned with the exception of the 'lower than the final ridge' ridge path.

I covered just over 14 miles with 3,000ft of ascent. I did start to tire in the last couple of miles but by then the hard work was done and it was just a case of making my way off the mountain. I finished off the day's training with 45 minutes on the static bike to unwind. I feel things are starting to move in the right direction.

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