So March is over, another month closer to my Bob Graham challenge. Though with 13 Months of training to go, it seems a long way off. On the other hand, it doesn't seem far enough away!
I clocked in at 69.57miles with 26,461ft for March. A week working away on long shifts, a week of having my OH home from Uni and an insanely busy Easter Weekend at work (which is still continuing with the odd mix up of random school holidays) the first and last weeks of the Month were pretty quiet on the running front. A busy day at work can include over 6 miles of walking/stairs, even as far as 10 miles on a wet Saturday during school holidays. Add in the stress of keeping a very busy shop running smoothly, and by 6pm all you want is a beer and bed. Makes getting out the door a very hard choice.
For some it's not a choice, they just go out, put in the miles and ne done with it. For me, it's the balance of getting the miles in, but not exhausting myself and doing more harm in the long run than missing a few sessions. It's an infuriating situation, I know what miles and ascent I want to be doing, but I also know my own body, and when the tell tale signs of extreme fatigue start showing, I have to be sensible, though sometimes getting out and blowing off steam can be as beneficial as missing a session.
Honestly though I am happy with March. Coming off a serious dose of Flu in February, and the life outside of running throughout the month, I think I did well to get 26.5k of vert into very few runs - just 12!
My new favourite session, love it or loathe it, is the 10kg weight vest hill reps that I devised for myself. Starting from the Grisedale car park just above Braithwaite, there is 375ft of climb between the first step and the first stile, in a little over 0.3miles. Certainly steep enough for working the legs, especially when you add the extra weight. I start my watch and go up and down as many times in 60minutes as I can, as soon as the clock hits 60 I head back to the car, a short sharp session. Now, uphill is not my forte, my heart doesn't work in a way to make uphill in any way shape or form easy. The lack of nerves means my brain can't tell my heart that I'm trying to go up this steep hill with extra weight, so my legs scream for oxygen and blood flow, my lungs get the message so I begin to suck in huge breaths, but my heart plods on at resting rate. Eventually the hormones released by my leg muscles reach the heart in the blood on the way back, heart then interprets the state of the returned blood, and kicks in. a bit.
Anyway, I struggle on the ups! the first time I did this session I managed 3 full up and downs and got about a 1/3rd of the uphill on the 4th rep. I was hurting. Worse than a full day out with 6/8000ft of climb. I'd covered a little over 2 miles and 12/1300ft and my legs were toast. The day after being the first time I had had DOMs in a long time! The next week I got to within spitting distance of the stile to signal the top of the 4th rep, but as per my own rules, I turned round and headed back to the car on the stroke of 60. I skipped the next week as my OH was home and we don't get a lot of time together usually, but the week after I went back out and made contact on the top of the 4th rep about 4 seconds before the clock ticked over.
My aim is to get reach the top 5 times in the 60minutes through the continuation of my training, at which point the incline will move to Cat Ghyll. 600ft in less than half a mile, with the weighted vest - I doubt i'll get many reps out!!
I finished the month off with a sunset bimble up Whiteside, along the excellent ridge upto Hopegill Head and back down the storm ravaged remains of the Gasgill Ghyll path.
All but the weighted vest sessions have been in the Inov 8 Terraclaws, really enjoying running in these shoes, and for me works in just about every situation, just need rockplate for the super rocky sections. The weighted sessions are done in the roclites, more cushion to curtail the extra 10kg i'm carry and the exponential increase in impact through my feet!
