Happy Days

The simple days are the best. I took the day off work because I've been feeling tired these last few days. Gave myself a good long lie in this morning - well, I made it to half past eight before I got itchy feet and had to get up and at the world. When I say the world, it was really just my world. I haven't moved beyond the grounds of my estate and it's been brilliant.

The weather's been great and I've been working in the garden - but only light work. Cut the grass. Pruned the pear tree - not the right time of year for pruning, I know, but I can't let it get any more overgrown. I got a pang of guilt for letting the pond get into a bit of a mess so I put that to rights and gave it a tidy up. After that I had a quick whip round the whole garden to remove the largest and most obvious of the weeds. It's all looking ship shape. Ready for barbecue season - if I actually had a barbecue!

There is something quite satisfying when you stand back and see the results of your labours - and you know what? I could get used to this gardening malarchy. It's been a really restful day. I almost feel like I should pack in the day job, buy the field next door, plant it up, get some pigs and chickens and live off the land like Tom and Barbara - well, more like Barbara than Tom...

Maybe not.

Off to the mountains again tomorrow for 20-25 miles and about 7,000 feet. Going east Black Mountains, starting near Crickhowell.

Been such a good day in simple kinda way. Oh, and I did put in a very easy resistance bike session.

An Abridged Version

I remembered to take my running kit with me to work. That in itself was a good effort on account that I have totally lost track of what month we're in let alone what day of the week it is but as six 0'clock approached, the supposed journey to the dark side of the city looked a long way off and with a heavy heart - and even heavier legs - I decided that forcing my tired frame round the Bridge Inn's 5k was not really sensible. These last few days in the run up to my traverse are more critical than can be given credit. I want another couple of decent long runs on the coming bank holiday weekend so I'm going to take it easy these next three days. To give my legs, body - and soul - a chance to recharge. I'm not yet broken and I want to keep it that way.

So, with some spare time this evening, I've had time to analyse Friday's splits - and they were good. In the days heat I managed to run the section from Garreg Las through to Fan Llia almost exactly on schedule, gaining just 8 minutes. If I could run it like that in the real thing I'd be well pleased. It was a good effort in my book because the aim of the day was to get the pace correct. I feel I'm getting in the groove. Holding yourself back, minmising effort to save energy for later is more difficult than you'd think.

Well this is sounding all too sensible, I'm off...

They Came In Two's

And unless you've been on the social networks you'll not have a clue what I'm on about when I mention cakes. As for the two lots of exercise I ran and I biked but I stopped short of the rowing.

It sure was hot out there today so I took it fairly easy over the 10.5km route. Talk about hilly though. For 'taking it easy' I still managed to get the heart pumping what with the 1,200 feet of ascent that included 'Breakheart Hill'. I've oft' gazed at Breakheart and thought to myself that I must find a route over the top and today I did just that. All in all it wasn't a bad little route. the section after Breakheart was - using technical terms - 'a bit rubbish' and I got a booter crossing a small water course that wasn't even on the map but despite that it wasn't a bad little route. If I can find a slightly better way off Breakheart today's route will be a keeper.

I got home in time to take the cake out of the oven - there's a gamble for you - no getting lost could I afford today else it was going to be a burnt offering. As it was I got home with a minute or two to spare before the timer went off. As to the cake it feels a little 'heavy'. I'm not sure it's risen quite as well as it should have. Maybe I'll try a bit more baking powder next time...

Anyway, the rest of today's training consisted of an hour on the bike. I couldn't get my mind off the boredom of it today so the hour lasted for about three but I got the job done. And that's the end of easter. Back to the grind stone tomorrow. Oh well, there's always next week...

Tri-hard

Lunch was a bit of a binge - at least for me, by my standards, it was. As always, the sister-in-law put on a great spread at the barbie. It was all a little too more-ish - as I went back for more, and a little more and... Anyway, not to put too fine a point on it, there were no bees and I didn't have a bonnet, make a little birdhouse in your soul - darn it's all gone a little weird, must be too much sun - to wit, I had some serious exercising ahead of me to burn off the excesses of lunch.

I started with an hour on the bike. The legs felt heavy and I felt the odd twinge from my hamstrings but nothing too bad. Then it was pushups and situps to hone the 'abs of steel' - happy to report they're coming along nicely, be ready in time for Butlins... Then it was a 2k row, in a fairly slow 8 minutes and 45 seconds. And then, in a final, over the top, dodging the bullets, push towards the enemy lines, I got through the front door and into the fresh air for what turned out to be a 6km run in an appallingly slow 34 minutes - although to be fair, it did have 650 feet of ascent. Happily there were no further twinges from the hamstrings and by the end of the run I was cruising at fairly high speed.

I tried a new route tonight, up to the Hobbs Quarry via the Church, looped around through the woods and came back via a different path across the fields. It was a lovely little run, with enough hilly bits to put it down on the list of runs to do again. So with the days three cardio discipline's complete I can relax, feet up and scare myself with the Walking Dead later tonight on Five. Been a good day.

Today's run:-

Bit Of A Non-Starter

You know whenever something goes well that it's going to be followed by something to redress the balance. I woke up this morning feeling a bit congested and suffering from a slightly sore throat. Arse - and that's putting it mildly. I guess I might have over cooked things in the mountains yesterday what with it being mighty hot. With the day looking like being another scorcher, and if anything even hotter than yesterday, I declined to run. Risking dehydration wasn't going to do me - or the throat - any favours. I did manage an hour on the bike but even then my throat dried a little.

After that I pootled around the house and garden completing various chores and the like - as is almost the law on bank holiday weekends. The front garden is looking tidier now the weeds have been pulled and the car is nice and shiny after its shampoo and rinse.

Still sniffling this afternoon I am going to rest. I feel like I should go for a run in the late afternoon sunshine but I know my throat will dry up in about three seconds flat. I feel totally guilty - and not least because it looks gert lush out there. My nose is still running so I'm not going to be stupid - at least something's running.

Anyway, hopefully I will get out for a run tomorrow either before I leave for Bristol or afterwards at Ashton Court - if I can find out whether anyone will be there for the old 10am run. Haven't been to Leigh Woods for yonks so that would be nice...

Well, there is one high point to a day that has been full of disappointment - Dr Who is back!!! Yeah baby - god I'm a child...

A Good Friday

Did you see what I did there? - I fire my script writer.

I got up before six, taped up my feet and pretty much that was that. In the car and over to the Storey Arms. When I arrived it was looking like being a scorcher - and it didn't turn out far off that but thankfully the clouds did come across from time to time to give me a bit of shielding from the Sun's damaging UV rays. I was well covered in sun block but you can never have too much protection and I never like an unprotected run - fnah, fnah.

I won't bore you with the detail - I'll stop now then - kidding. Basically it was a good run. Not quite the full 37 miles planned on account that I had to call off the final summit and one just before because I'd taken too long - that and the fact I was bloody knackered. In all I covered 35 miles with some 8,000 feet of ascent and it took me a staggering 9 hours - yes, nine hours.

As a recce for the South Wales Traverse it was a great run. I managed to hone a few points to further optimise my route. I managed to crack Garreg Las. The optimum route is to head along the low path, below the ridge, a little further than we did on the previous attempt. Then at the big boulder at the edge of the path followed by the big dip you turn right and climb right up to the top and pop out right at the summit. The climb isn't even very rocky.

The run off Garreg Las was also spot on. I headed along the ridge a bit further (north) and then gradually turned east, picking up a small trod that took me pretty much most of the way up to Waun Lefrith. Then a bit further on I tested the 'drop off the edge' technique from Fan Hir. Again, it's definitely the right way to go, going back to the 'steps' is not an option.

And finally the climb to Fan Nedd was the only other bit of experimentation. I tried to locate the 'veer right, off the path on the small trod that goes all the way to the summit'. To be honest I'm not sure I picked the correct one but the one I did followed also came out at the summit, but it did join a more solid trod half way along and I suspect that's the one I should have been on but if it was then I reckon my way was slightly more direct. It's the way I will go in the real thing as I know it get me to the summit on time.

And that was pretty much it other than picking off Fan Llia on a perfect direct line for once, avoiding going too far right as I have done on every other occasion.

All in all it was a good run and an even better recce. Even the live location seemed to work - at least it's generated a plot of the route, can't say whether the location came up live as I didn't stop to log onto the internet but I reckon it must have worked.

And now it's time to put my poor, achy breaky feet well and truly up. TV time.

Live Later

For those who give one, I shall be testing 'live location' on tomorrows run. What does that mean? It means the 'live location' tab will show a small scale view of my progress which, when clicked, will load up the 'mapmytracks.com' website live tracking page.

I know my mobile signal in the mountains where I'll be running tomorrow can be a bit 'iffy' so it will be a good test of whether live tracking in the mountains is really possible and how the mapmytracks system copes with loss of phone signal. Will it store history and upload when in coverage or just miss those bits out? I don't know so I guess we'll see. Fingers crossed...

I've Picked My....

Route for tomorrow's run. It looks like being close to 37 miles and around 11,000 feet. Might have to rein in my run for Saturday. I reckon 15 miles might be about right. That way I can stay in the forest and save some diesel in not having to drive anywhere. I've decided to run from the Storey Arms and head west towards the start but I won't get there before I turn around and come back. It should be a good choice on account of there are lots are watering holes so to speak and I think it's going to be another scorcher so I'll need it. Mustn't forget the sun block either!

Of course the downside to such long runs - apart from being thoroughly bloody knackering - is that I'm going to have to get up sub 6am - boo - and even then I still won't get home till close to 7pm!!! Cue the long day...

Tonight, by the way, I did a steady hour on the bike and now I'm off to the sofa and a DVD to relax....

Magic...

Shine. On recommendation - and having seen the bad boy in action at the High Peak Marathon - I have acquired myself of a MagicShine 808 head torch. To be fair it's actually a bike headlamp supplied with a headband. To say it's bright is an understatement. It is practically like having the sun attached to your head. I tried it out in the field - and planes tried to land! I cogitated long. I cogitated hard - it wasn't too painful - before making the decision to buy. It's an expensive bit of kit but sometimes times you just got to go for the top gear. I reckon this was one of those times and hopefully it will last a goodly while.

As to today's lunch run, it was a disaster. The sun was glorious but within three or four minutes I cramped up on both calves instantaneously. My legs felt heavy from the off so we weren't even going very fast. I had to stop and give them a rub. Fortunately I got going again and the rest of the run was incident free. We totally looked like joggers but interestingly it wasn't the slowest we've run the route - sure as hell felt like it though. I finished myself off with 45 minutes on the bike this evening.

I'm going to take it easy tomorrow because I want to bring my long run forward to Friday - just need to work out the route, gonna be an all-dayer again...

Not A Lot Happening Here

Well that about sums it up. A bit of row. A bit of bike. Some core body work and that's your lot. Martin and I have arranged a lunch run for tomorrow and to be honest my legs feel a bit heavy so it's going to be a steady one for me. Martin on the other hand is rocking at the moment. He was eighth in the Frenchay 10k on the weekend. I won't even try to keep up.

For the eagle eyed amongst you, you might have noticed the new 'live location' tab at the top of the page. There's not a lot to see at the moment but I've been doing some more testing of live location tracking. I've been testing a new service, MapMyTracks.com, and it seems more polished than the other service I tried. So provided the battery on my phone can last 24 hours (with its spare battery) I should have full live location tracking during my South Wales Traverse attempt. Well when I say 'full' what I mean is 'as live as my crap mobile reception' will give me - them yer mountains is pretty remote. Hopefully I'll get enough reception to give some semblance of 'live' tracking though. I'm going to give it a try on my long run this coming weekend and will post the details of when and where to tune in - for those that give a $"!t...

Nearing The Finish

of tonight's session and that can only mean one thing - the Gadget Show is almost over too. Just an hour on the bike this evening. Setting, easy. Legs achy but not too sore. Hip good. And the harmony of the Universe is returning to normal.

The results from yesterday's Orror are now online and there were more runners than I thought, 272. Makes my 53rd look pretty good in the cold light of day. I reckon I would only just have nudged top twenty on a fresh set of legs and considering I started towards the back, 53rd is a result indeed.

And being a nerdy geek bastard I've even had chance to analyse the GPS data - as only a nerdy geek mathematical physicist would do - to work out I was sub seven minute mileing along the four miles of the river bank section at the end. I don't go much quicker than that at the moment under any circumstances let alone eight miles in on a f&%ked set of legs. I almost can't wait to get the Traverse out the way so I can train a few speed sessions and go bust a sub-3 hour marathon in the Autumn.

Heck I feel fine right about now - there must be a fall waiting just around the corner...

Run In The Sun

and by golly gosh it was a hot one. My legs felt as alright as I could expect - that is, I could walk. Up early. Coffee and breaky consumed it was over to Tintern for Chepstow's Harriers Offa's Orror race.

As I jogged over to the village hall to register I knew I was going to be in for 'a little bit of trouble'. I could hardly run. Not in a pain inhibiting way just a 'legs why won't you move more quickly' kind of way. I paid my fee and headed back to the car to prepare. Then, as the hour of doom approached, I shuffled over to the start line. I decided to start near the back and see if I could coax my legs into life during the first few miles - it didn't work. As we hit the first climb I ground to a halt and had to walk - oh the shame, and it wasn't even very steep, as runner after runner passed me.

I finally manage to start looking halfway like a runner once we reached the Offa's Dyke - nudge, nudge, wink, wink. The legs started working and slowly I started clawing my way into and then through the field. I was able to make my best gains on the sharp descents. Being a bit of nutter I piled down the rocky, stoney sections leaving my fellow competitors for dead - but not literally. By the time we reached the far end of the course most of the climbing was done and it was just the flat five mile run in by the side of the River Wye back to Tintern - my favourite bit - NOT. It's like a bloody road race, the ground so hard and level.

Anyway, I continued to overtake but the gaps were much larger so I only managed to make up another dozen places. Finally back to Tintern, I crossed the line in 1:42 for the 20km race with 2,000 feet of ascent. More surprising was my 53rd place. There must have 200+ in the race. I survived it and more importanly so did the legs and I was only six minutes down on my best - so all in all not a bad result considering...

Offa's Orror

Now That's What I Call A Run

52km across the Brecon Beacons. I am, to say the least, slightly f*&ked right about now. In all there was about 9,000 feet of ascent. Conditions were ideal for a long one - ooh err. It was warm but not overly so and there wasn't much wind - fnah. Pretty much perfect.

I started out from the Tal-y-bont reservoir at just gone eight and mostly followed the route of the Brecon Beacons fell race - coming up later in the year for those interested, it's a corking twenty mile race. I digress. Once I reached Duwynt I dropped down to the Storey Arms to start my pacing practice. I ran the first part of today's recce too fast. I got to Storey Arms too quickly which was a bit of a school boy error. I really wanted to try and simulate 'real' conditions on the approach to where I was going to time my splits so I'd feel like I will in the real thing - fail. My main aim for the days run was to run easy and at the target pace I've set myself for the real traverse attempt. On that front things didn't go to well.

I got the absolute perfect line to Y Gyrn, found all the paths, walked all the ascent, held myself back but sadly got there five minutes too quick. OK, I steadied the ship and ran the loop around and back up to Duwynt - seven minutes too quick. I eased all of the up hill sections but still got there too quick.

Corn Du, Pen-y-Fan and Cribyn all passed in a similar vein - 2 minutes too quick a piece. The biggest fail was the run over to Waen Rydd. I decided to add an extra summit that isn't even included in the real thing, Fan-y-Big - stop it, it really is called that - but still got round to Waen Rydd nine minutes too bloody quick. I was better across to Alt Llywd - only three minutes up - and I got the drop to Abercynafon almost perfect on account of the drop off Alt Llywd is tortuous and I took it like a snail, and even walked bits - walking downhill? almost a sin - but I still got there with a minute to spare.

From there things got tough. The target time across to YStrad is an hour. Sounds like a lot. Felt like nowhere near enough. The climb out of the valley was killer. I took it really steady to conserve as much energy as I could but it felt too slow, far too slow. I thought I was going to need an hour just to get to the top ridge let alone the run across a few miles of wild country to YStrad. As it turned out my fears were unfounded, once I got to the top the run across was al-right and I arrived at YStrad with eight minutes to spare.

The drop through the quarry to Pyrgad farm went almost perfect. With Pat's magic route you save loads of time without needing to break into a sweat - another four minutes.

That was the end of the pacing section and I basically made my way back over the ridge, back to my car at Tal-y-bont reservoir. Yawn - that wasn't boring then - NOT.

As I type this the after effects of the run are beginning to kick in. All in all, though, it's been another bloody good day. I'm going to hop on the bike later for 30 very easy minutes to ease out the muscles if I'm to have any chance of running half decently at Chepstow Harriers 20km Offa's Orra race tomorrow. And then tomorrow afternoon I've the delight that is 'cutting the grass'...

Today's route:

Route Planning

Tomorrow's training route is well and truly planned - I only hope I can survive it! At 30 miles (plus a little here and there) together with its estimated 9,000 feet of ascent it is going to be - without getting overly technical with the fell running terms - a complete sod. I need to do it ergo I bloody well will do it. I'm guessing I could be some time - might need several kippers to be smoked because I'll be coming home for supper. No doubt it's going to be an all-day'er which means a 6am start to the day - where did all the lie-ins go?

I'm quite looking forward to Sunday's Offa's Orra. There'll be no pressure to run well - I'll have a bloody good excuse...