Return of #cumbriankrupicka

My last post, way back in August was a dark journey into uselesness, and its been a long path to last friday, when i was allowed to start running again!

I wont go into details, but i was poked, prodded, investigated and operated on, mostly to discover the cause of my retching, and some in the constant care of my heart. I've either been in hospital or the dr's surgery once a week for 12 weeks give or take the odd week off! All towards the word last week to start running again! 

So, health crap aside, lets go running! 

12 weeks without a run after averaging 25/30 miles a week previously had taken its toll! I'd piled on almost 14lbs, and some days id been bed bound with illness. 

First run back was 3.6 miles with about 550ft ascent. Surprisingly i climbed the first 220ft ascent quite well, and managed to keep trudging over the undulations and down the descent. The climb up 'Bastard Hill' reduced me to a walk and i allowed gravity to guide my descent back to the car!

The second outing was less impressive!! Feeling buoyed by the success of the first run, Azja & I headed to Dodd. A 4 mile run with 1400ft of ascent in the first 2 miles. After the 1st mile i was very glad that the light had gone & we hadn't brought headtorches, which forced an early descent!

2 days later i headed up Latrigg after dropping off Azja at work. I have a love / hate relationship with Latrigg. I'm ridiculously slow up its initial 900ft/1.75 mile ascent, but i love the views and the descent! Today it took even longer! Which is fine, i fully expected it to be worse! But Cumbrian Krupicka returned! 

      I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaack! (Chunkier)

Agent A & I headed out a few days later to a fun route above Loweswater. He is averaging 2-3 miles a week for the year, so we were about even fitness wise! There's a long slog up an old farm road, then a steep, undefined route up open fell to the first summit. These first 2 miles were, as expected, slow and littered with walking sections. After this there is a steep descent then it undulates across the tops for a mile or so. Cue lots of photos in perfect Autmn conditions! 

                 Crummock Valley

                 Cumbrian Krupicka 

          Agent A above Crummock

After the undulations & the final summit there is a perfect singletrack descent back the car. I said to Agent A as we descended that it's the type trail you could run all day & never get tired of, it's a gem, hidden away beyond the popular fells.

Today Azja & I had to visit Keswick so decided to have a bimble up & down Latrigg together.

I was fairly happy to see that my ascent was 4/5 minutes than Monday, and a bit closer to my average! Our initial plan was to head straight back down, but the sun was breaking through, and it wasn't too cold, so we opted for the longer route back through Brundholme Woods. 

       One of the best views in England

               100+ steps of torture!

       Azja cruising through the woods

              Mud glorious mud!

The moving time for the run was only actually 3 minutes slower than pb, but we had a lot of photo stops, breathers & stitch stops! 

So i'm back & raring to be fitter than ever before! My plan is try to be conservative, quality miles over a quantity of miles. With winter fast approaching i'm looking to concentrate on my climbing ability and speed work, rather than just banging out miles for the sake of it. Unless of course it snows, then there'll be a few longer outings 👍

It feels good to be running again! Thankyou all for your support, patience and humour, it has truly helped me these past 3 months.