Time to rest

Total miles this week 38 including an 8 mile threshold run (in the dark and through some wooded areas: I need to choose a better headlamp as part of the MdS kit preparations) and a steady 5 miles. I felt too tired to do a back-to-back session in this last of the 3 week cycle.

Sunday

Distance: 25 miles

Ascent: 1495 ft

Rucksack weight: 5kg
Calories burnt: 3493

Time: 5h11m

An out and part-way back route along the Dales Way to Grassington then I was picked up in Burnsall. Just before I finished I was zoned-out listening to some music and absolutely bounding along pretending I was playing some drumsticks (no one else was around): I think it was the Maxim chocolate and caramel bar I'd not long had.

I was absolutely buzzing and finished the last quarter mile in 7m30s pace! But as soon as I stopped I felt very sick, so that serves me right.

In the last 3 weeks I've done a back-to-back run/walk twice which has included a long run/walk of more than 20 miles: the longest run/walks for each of the last 3 weeks, with a weighted rucksack, have been 21, 22.5 and today's 25 miles.

I feel I've broken through another barrier but I'm really feeling it. The last week or two I've found myself sleeping a lot more and it's become a little bit more difficult to get out the door to do the long runs. From the research I've read on MdS preparation this reaction is perfectly normal: the body will adjust and allow for increased distances and time on the feet.

To be sure I'm going to take it easy for the next couple of weeks to repair and recover, particularly to give some time to a worrying knee grumble that started coming on a few weeks ago. Jim, my sports masseur, has found the quads muscles of the affected leg particularly tight. Tucking my foot under my behind and leaning right back flat on the bed (it's taken a while to be able to do this!) stretches them out and gives some temporary relief.

On the other side of that rest period the hard work will really have to start in earnest, as will some decision-making on kit and equipment.

The MdS is coming around a lot quicker than I expected. I'm looking forward to some serious Christmas food troughing to get prepared for it.

Feeling weary

Felt fine during this week on the shorter faster runs. Total miles this week 35.5.

Saturday
Distance: 4 miles
Ascent: 284 ft
Rucksack weight: nil
Calories burnt: the calories gained from smelling a couple of Krispy Kreme doughnuts
Time: 42m

I'd planned my long run for today but awoke still feeling tired and my Achilles also felt tired and sore. A general malaise so, following the golden rule of listening to your body, I knew today wasn't the right day. Instead I took it easy around the local reservoir. Got my rucksack ready for tomorrow's effort.

Sunday
Distance: 22.5 miles
Ascent: 2931 ft
Rucksack weight: 5.1kg
Calories burnt: 3500
Time: 6h6m

This was tough work. An easy first couple of miles was followed by 2 or 3 miles straight up to the top of a local moor. The weather was bad: drizzling rain, strong winds, visibility of about 50 metres as a maximum, even worse on top of Bingley Moor. I'd worked out the route I wanted to take in advance and thankfully had brought the (waterproof!) map with me because I ended up having to read off that with the compass in several places. At one point I wasn't in fact on a route I could have sworn I was on and had completely missed the turn I wanted: must have been covered in the peat bog or poor visibility.

A number of times I wanted to jack it in and go home: I was quite cold despite wearing three layers, a wool hat, wool gloves and working hard. But I knew that once I finished all the creature comforts of home would feel all the better (a point well made in Robin Harvie's book "Why We Run", a good read).

I also knew that it was at times such as this where the mental training becomes just as important as the physical: it can be so easy to cave in to what the mind is saying but by changing the approach to the task at hand the body will push on through anything.

I was simply going through that next developmental phase of training for a multi-day event: getting the body used to getting up and doing a large distance day after day even if the mind doesn't at first want to.

Not long after these wobbles, and having got some more food and drink down, I felt a lot better. I saw a few runners up on Rombald's Moor by a plantation who passed me going the other way and I felt oddly much better for having seen humanity for the first time in about 3 hours. After a Maxim chocolate and caramel energy bar (delicious but unfortunately useless for the Sahara heat) I found myself now blasting along an uphill section of a path to a rocky outcrop on the moor, being careful not to send myself off the edge and down the other side.

Descending the other side of the moor I came across my only experience to date of the "glory", an optical phenomenon, as a quick burst of the sun behind me cast my image down on the clouds below me. This was a fascinating sight and I whiled away a couple of minutes waving my arms about in the air to amuse myself by seeing my effect in the "glory" (I'm sure you would too!).

I'd only just passed a couple above me by the rocky outcrop and in my excitement ran back up to them (where I got the energy from I don't know!), gasping: "Look! Quickly! [gasp] The [gasp] halo [gasp] effect!! Come down and have a look!"

I don't think they understood the rarity of this occasion. The wife started fiddling nervously with her belongings while the husband looked at me wide-eyed with his mouth gaping to show his half eaten sandwich, hand suspended mid-way to his mouth deciding whether to finish eating his sandwich or attack.

I left them to it and only realised later, after having fed and watered myself and relaxing in a hot bath to a clearer state of mind, that if I suddenly saw standing in front of me a large, drenched strapping chap with cropped hair who looked as though he hadn't washed, eaten or drunk for three weeks (being out in crap weather for 6 hours produces that effect) gibbering on about coming down to the edge of a precipice then I might become nervous too.

Apologies to that couple in the unlikely event you're reading this!

Bulls are quite big . . .

Last week was a rest week: a 4 mile run along a beautiful sandy beach while on holiday in the Outer Hebrides was all I did, other than some core stability work (which is key to helping with the weight of the rucksack on long runs/walks). I knew the coming three weeks were going to see some hard physical work so I wanted to ensure I was as fresh as possible.

This week (total miles 34.2) has seen the usual couple of short mid-week runs: usually faster or "speed play" sessions to try and keep some semblance of basic running speed at between 9 to 10 minute miles.

This weekend has seen a good back-to-back:

Saturday
Distance: 21 miles
Ascent: 2089 ft
Rucksack weight: 2.5kg
Calories burnt: 3090
Time: 4h36m

Over and around the Dales. I started a bit too late in the day bearing in mind how quickly the dark comes in at this time of year. It was cold, some warmth in the sun, crisp, dry and clear. The ground was though very boggy in places because of heavy rains this week.

The highlight today was coming across a field full of cows and an extremely large bull. The route I needed was on the other side of this blockage. A high stone wall to my left didn't make it easy to go any other way.

It'll be fine, I thought, they're usually placid and I'll walk around them. They had other ideas: the bull, who had been standing at the back, pushed his way through the parting group of cows and walked proudly to the front. Still I thought it would be fine so slowed a bit and kept walking around them, hugging the stone wall to my left.

A little bit too close for comfort the bull stood square on at me, raised his left leg and stamped it down hard on the ground . . . twice. And then started moving forward.

Survival instinct kicked in! I scrambled over the rough stone wall and the annoying wire fence that was on top of that . . . only to find myself in another field with another group of cows and a bull. I figured I could probably run to the northern wall ahead of me faster than the bull in this field could reach me so I legged it, coming round the back of the cows and bull in the other field to the safety of the path I needed to get to!

A few miles later I looked to the horizon and realised this was taking me longer than I'd anticipated: I had about an hour of light left. I stepped up the pace to finish where I'd parked the car in the almost-dark, feeling okay but tired.

Sunday

Distance: 4.1 miles

Ascent: 618 ft

Rucksack weight: 6.7kg
Calories burnt: a couple of Mars Bars

Time: 51m

The legs felt surprisingly good but with the rucksack soon tired going up a steep hill. The cold bath at the end was more of a shock than usual: I'd forgotten that if the outside temperature has dropped then so has the temperature of the water coming in to the house drawn from the mains! I got out once the legs started going numb and felt better after a hot shower.