As regular readers will know, over the past month or so i have struggled to get much running in between workloads and an issue with my shin, but this week saw a return to some decent running!
The mileage wasn't huge on either of this weeks runs so far, but it brought a return to the sacred mountains of the Lake District in Northern England!
Before issues at work arose, we had a 'Sunday night run club (SNRC)' of colleagues who enjoyed getting into the hills for an hour or two after a generally shorter shift, not all runners by preference but each with a love of the mountains!
So on Sunday myself and 2 others had decided to resurrect the SNRC and hit the local mountain, Latrigg. Standing only 1207ft high, it is a deceptively tough little bugger! Starting on a dirt road called SpooneyGreen Lane and turning into a 3/4ft wide trail it climbs 1001ft to the summit in a mere 1.75 miles! From the summit however, there are some phenomenal views:
The SNRC also created two characters #CumbrianKrupicka and #AgentA myself being the former, and a colleague being the latter:
Myself on the left, and #AgentA atop Latrigg last autumn.
Despite the many fellrunning legends in and around where i live, the ultra-world hooked me in, though the Bob Graham Round still has my strongest desire!
Of the athletes within the ultra scene, one in particular stood out. For reasons unknown, or possibly because he ran a full marathon at age 12, Anton Krupicka became my first running idol, and still remains a great source of inspiration. The shirtless look was soon adopted (on warmer days) and ergo #CumbrianKrupicka was born, #AgentA lent my copy of Unbreakable and followed suit soon after! There is now a friendly rivalry to summit bare chested on our runs, whether there is snow on the ground or sun in the sky!
The run on Sunday followed the now tradition, and once again i found myself stood atop Latrigg shirtless for a quick photo! Generally we descend off the summit and into Brundholme woods for some tasty trails in the forest and along the river, but feeling unfit and overfed from xmas we decided to descend via Gale Rd car park, and then down SpooneyGreen Lane back to the cars.
On Monday i had a day off work, and the weather was awful! It was blowing a gale and the rain was steadily falling, so i opted to be a bit lazy for most of the day, catching up on mail and running errands.
At about 3:30pm i decided that i owed it to myself to get out into the weather and log a few miles, though the sofa had me a death grip!
I hate running in a waterproof jacket, i feel overheated almost immediately and can never find a way to be comfortable in one! so i just threw on a Montane Featherlite smock and headed out. I ran my local route on a hill out the back of town, 600ft of ascent in a little over 3.5 miles. I could feel the previous nights effort in my legs, and willed myself to run hard despite the fatigue, the first and steepest ascent actually felt pretty good and going into the rolling trail across the top of the forest i managed to open up the tanks a bit and ran an 8minute mile in the mud! The final hill (bastardhill) was pretty rough though, my quads were burning and i was very grateful to summit and hit the steep descent to the car!
I adopted a collie / labrador cross pup this week too. He is 9months old and was already named Blade, needless to say he will be a regular training partner! Shorter runs for now, working his way up to longer days in the mountains in the future!
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