Sunday 9 August. 11,400' of therapy.

I wondered how on earth I was going to get anything of any consequence done this week after such a big week last week, including the mighty Borrowdale race. As it turned out I had a corking week's training, with 11,400' feet of climbing and some glorious runs.

It was hard going though, and my legs were really heavy. I remember from my summer round that the early training weeks are done on tired legs, you just have to get through it. It's frustrating because you expect to start feeling faster and stronger, but the thing to remember is that's to come.

Maybe even this coming week? I ran Monday to Friday last week and have had the weekend off to recover. It seems to have worked. For the first time in a couple of weeks nothing is sore, so perhaps this week will see faster times and freer running?

It's fair to say that it's not just the prospect of a winter BGR that presents a need for such consistent training. I'm still coming to terms with redundancy and not quite knowing what i'm going to do next. The running is really helping, I'm doing the job research between runs and each run usually ends up with more ideas to explore. I've got a few months grace to sort something out and so I should be grateful in getting such a good deal, especially as running provides such good therapy. I'm not sure how I'd be without it.

The highlight of the week was a cracking day out on Friday, a superb outing on the Carneddau. It wasn't a long day, just the Paddy Buckley leg with a run back to the car - 4000 feet of climbing and about 13 miles in just over three hours all in. As well as it being sunny, and as well as managing to run well within the PBR 23 hour splits without too much effort, it was really good to explore somewhere new. I know the main summits well but the two outliers were new to me. It made me realise that it's been years since I did a new summit and I'm keen a explore a bit during this time off.


New summit for me, Pen Y Helgi Du

I'm looking forward to another week's therapy, with the prospect of a Peris Horseshoe recce at the weekend...

Week summary:

11,400 feet of climbing, 46M

Monday - 4 Tattenhall railways with Andy Blair, 1300' ascent
Tuesday - Moel Famau run 6M and 2300', same as last Tuesday but a little quicker (1:33, very heavy legs), then 2 more railways in the evening with the club (700')
Weds - Clwydian Hills race route, 9M, 3100' - 2 hours, very heavy legs. A stunning evening.
Thurs - 8M easy running on the flat with the club. Felt awful, just light headed and just wanted to run alone, so I left the group. Was OK by the end.
Friday - 13M, 4000' climbing - Carneddau PBR leg, really lovely 3 and a bit hours.
Sat/Sun - Harry's christening in Peterborough, so no running. Ate lots of crap!

Tune in head - Cornflake Girl, Tori Amos - a belter!