Well that was a bit of an epic fail.....
I wound my way over to the edge of the Berwyns. The drive was unremarkable except for getting caught behind a large motorised caravan. At every turn I was crossing my fingers, hoping it would turn away from my route - but it didn't for a long, long time, perhaps thirty miles! The queue behind was huge. Why the drivers of such slow moving vehicles can't just do the decent thing and pull over for two minutes to let us faster moving bad boys crack on is beyond me. Selfish, pure and simple. When Vera is holding things up she does the proper thing and puls over to let those behind go past. I lose a minute, they gain twenty. That's the way to do it.
Anyway, back to the fail. I arrived, by midday - you can infer from that, that I didn't leave stupid early, I didn't need to. Based on conditions I went with the bumbag and a selection of fine foods - read, nasty tasting energy gels and bars - and some water. It was a murky day so the views were a bit rubbish but at least it wasn't raining and then I was off to ascend Cadair Bronwen.
I very quickly realised two things. Firstly, although my back has been improving it certainly ain't fixed and secondly, I wasn't going to finish with dry feet. Solid ground it was not. I went steadily. Neither fast nor too slow and I was managing the back but after half an hour I knew I wasn't going to make the full distance so I changed plan and converted to an out and back. Keeping to the inland side on the way out and ridge edge on the way back.
Despite my lack of proper running this last month I felt surprisingly full of it - sssh, stop it. I had a few twinges in the legs but I think that was due to a touch of bad back runners leg - a condition one gets when one modifies ones style - or lack of it - to absorb more 'shock' in the legs. I got to the turn around point, took a look at the limited view and headed back.
I never really got to the point of feeling tired but it was never the less a frustrating run. I'm feeling concerned as to the LAMM in a months time. I'm really not sure my back will be up to it. In all I covered just shy of 19km and had a lot more running in me. At that point my back didn't feel any worse than when I started but it was definitely a hindrance. Then came the fail.... Literally 50m from the van, possibly less, I slipped on a patch of sphagnum moss. With my normal cat-like reflexes hampered, I went down. Not badly, falling to my hands, but the damage was done. The sudden motion was not good for my back. I got up and back to the van but I new it was game over for the weekend.
Having struggled to change out of my running kit I decided further running in the mountains this weekend wouldn't be sensible. Even if it settled down overnight would I start the next run with the back feeling slightly worse and then the next run even more so? I decided it wasn't sensible to continue with the plan so packed up and came home.
I'm happy to report the back isn't feeling too bad today but it's probably a little worse than this time yesterday, not by much but enough to feel the difference. It is disappointing and very frustrating....
I wound my way over to the edge of the Berwyns. The drive was unremarkable except for getting caught behind a large motorised caravan. At every turn I was crossing my fingers, hoping it would turn away from my route - but it didn't for a long, long time, perhaps thirty miles! The queue behind was huge. Why the drivers of such slow moving vehicles can't just do the decent thing and pull over for two minutes to let us faster moving bad boys crack on is beyond me. Selfish, pure and simple. When Vera is holding things up she does the proper thing and puls over to let those behind go past. I lose a minute, they gain twenty. That's the way to do it.
Anyway, back to the fail. I arrived, by midday - you can infer from that, that I didn't leave stupid early, I didn't need to. Based on conditions I went with the bumbag and a selection of fine foods - read, nasty tasting energy gels and bars - and some water. It was a murky day so the views were a bit rubbish but at least it wasn't raining and then I was off to ascend Cadair Bronwen.
I very quickly realised two things. Firstly, although my back has been improving it certainly ain't fixed and secondly, I wasn't going to finish with dry feet. Solid ground it was not. I went steadily. Neither fast nor too slow and I was managing the back but after half an hour I knew I wasn't going to make the full distance so I changed plan and converted to an out and back. Keeping to the inland side on the way out and ridge edge on the way back.
Despite my lack of proper running this last month I felt surprisingly full of it - sssh, stop it. I had a few twinges in the legs but I think that was due to a touch of bad back runners leg - a condition one gets when one modifies ones style - or lack of it - to absorb more 'shock' in the legs. I got to the turn around point, took a look at the limited view and headed back.
I never really got to the point of feeling tired but it was never the less a frustrating run. I'm feeling concerned as to the LAMM in a months time. I'm really not sure my back will be up to it. In all I covered just shy of 19km and had a lot more running in me. At that point my back didn't feel any worse than when I started but it was definitely a hindrance. Then came the fail.... Literally 50m from the van, possibly less, I slipped on a patch of sphagnum moss. With my normal cat-like reflexes hampered, I went down. Not badly, falling to my hands, but the damage was done. The sudden motion was not good for my back. I got up and back to the van but I new it was game over for the weekend.
Having struggled to change out of my running kit I decided further running in the mountains this weekend wouldn't be sensible. Even if it settled down overnight would I start the next run with the back feeling slightly worse and then the next run even more so? I decided it wasn't sensible to continue with the plan so packed up and came home.
I'm happy to report the back isn't feeling too bad today but it's probably a little worse than this time yesterday, not by much but enough to feel the difference. It is disappointing and very frustrating....
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