I hate this new design of Blogger

Is it only me that can no longer format paragraphs and get pictures to embed correctly?!?!?

YYFY!

Dry days- 67
Days of rain- 53

Marathon Day!

Due to the new house I haven't been running this week. However, despite this I was going to take today seriously and approach it properly- I only had a couple of beers last night. I had bought a shower-proof jacket yesterday in Preston after looking at MetCheck. The weather has been terrible this week, and today was no exception. The Doc and I were out of the house just after seven, after I'd eaten mini Shredded Wheat at six and a banana smoothie just before we left. There were no signposts for the Marathon or its parking, plus there were road closures, so it took a bit to find where we were going. The parking mentioned in the booklet for the race wasn't great. One was full, the other had decided it wasn't accepting event parking. We ended up in some backstreet and then walked in the pissing rain to the start.

It was cold, windy and very wet standing around waiting for the gun. After saying farewell (possibly literally) to The Doc I jogged up and down a bit to try to get warm. I had my Helly Hansen long sleeve thermal on, then my Satch T shirt and the shower-proof on top. I wasn't exactly warm like this, so I didn't envy the people huddling under trees in T shirts and shorts. I had said I'd do the run in five hours, so I was in the penultimate wave which took 6:24 to cross the line after the gun. The first five or so miles were past the fire station and Kellogg's and was quite built up. This meant that whilst everyone goes soaked in the continuous rain, the wind wasn't a factor. Once outside the M60 this came into play and the rain became horizontal. I was utterly soaked by this stage, and cold. Between twelve and sixteen miles we zig zagged around Dunham Massey, through country roads with three inches of standing water and then through a park with two inches of standing liquid mud. My feet had been wet before, but by now they were waterlogged and covered in mud. At this point a stop in at the Rope and Anchor was tempting, but I pushed on. At various Marshall tents there were lots of runners in foil huddling for shelter. A lot of people on the route looked very very cold, and many were walking. To be honest, conditions were awful and about as bad as you'd ever want for a long distance run.

24 miles saw me back inside the M60 and a little more shelter, thankfully. At least I wasn't going to get any colder than I already was. After the 20 mile point I felt more upbeat, and managed to up the pace a little. I seemed to be overtaking quite a few flaggers now, including most of the 4:30 and 4:15 pacemakers. My habit of stomping up hills in shite weather was holding me in good stead. I managed to run all the way, and finished in 4:38:59 which was nicely under my 5:00 target and considering the conditions I was quite pleased. The Doc was relieved to see me at the finishing mud bath. She was pretty cold just from standing in the rain. After that we came home to warm up in the bath. So, unending rain and wind. Lovely, I think I'll leave Manchester next time! Although I think I'll enter the London Marathon ballot tomorrow when it opens. And I need to decide on the Preston Guild half vs marathon.

Split times:
10k-  1:05:28
10 miles- 1:44:31
Half- 2:16:36 (Second half- 2:23:22)
20 miles- 3:30:29
Finish- 4:38:59

New House

Dry days- 64
Days of rain- 53

We got the keys for the new house yesterday. When we got into the place we found it was a bit of a tip- half the cupboards had cornflakes/ flour/ etc scattered through them. now it's emtpy you can see how battered the carpets are and how much decorating needs doing- basically everything.

The Doc spent a few hours cleaning last night, I pulled rawl plugs out of the wall and filled holes, then started on painting the kitched. The Doc seemed a it taken aback by how much needs doing, but it's all superficial stuff so it'll be great at the end of the day. Having said that, a board is a little down the list at present.

Marathon this Sunday, then we have a week off so if I'm in any fit state I'll get more work done on the house.

Wainwrighting

Dry days- 62
Days of rain- 48

Today was supposed to be my 5 miles easy jog/walk, but as I was off yesterday I decided I would try to tick a few Wainwrights. The weather was so-so on the way up and I was parked up at Hartsop by 11:30. I had decided to use this as a bit of a trining session so I pushed myself a bit to see how fitness was. I followed the track up to Hayeswater, then left up the fell and on to The Knott. I was pleased to stomp up to here fairly quickly and managed to overtake quite a few people. At the summit it was trying to snow, so I stopped and put my waterproof trousers on.

I dropped down from the Knott and then headed left to Rampsgill Head and on to High Rise. It cleared for a while so I had some good views over to the North. Back to Kidstye Pike, then to the Straights of Riggindale in order to head up to High Street. On the way a Coast to Coast walker asked me where they were going as they were lost. i would have thought it prudent to be able to navigate effectively before doing such a walk, or am I being elitist?

High Street's wall reminded me that I had been up here years and years ago with my father. I remember huddling behind that same wall 25 years ago, hiding from the wind. I remember my Dad finding half a maggot in his apple- it took me years before I'd eat apples again!

From High Street over to Thronthwaite Crag, then back down over Gray Crag- the descent from here was rather slippery and tedious- and back to the car in under 3 1/2 hours. I'm feeling the fittest I have in years. Doing 7 Wainwrights in a day has brought the total for 2012 to 9, one more and 10 Munros and that's one of my aims ticked.

I've just found this article which is basically what I did. I think their distance is 2 miles too high though.

After a blast back home I went to see The Hunger Games with Doc Jnr 1, which was pretty good.

Pleased for once

Dry days- 61
Days of rain- 47

My running training has been moved forward one day out of sync due to other commitments. It was a lovely day yesterday, I could have had a couple of hours out on the rock but motivation was lacking and it's so close to the Marathon that I had to force myself to get out running.

I was supposed to be doing a 6 mile gentle run but I set off to see how fast I could do a 10k, since I felt quite good the last time I went out. I set off pretty fast, which winded me a bit as the first 3 miles was pretty hilly and I thought I'd have to stop and have a lie down. I managed to keep going, and after a while I settled into a reasonable rhythm. I was pleasantly surprised that I could pick up the pace over the last mile and made the 10k in under 48 minutes. Now I know in real terms that is pretty slow, but my previous best 10k was 56 minutes so being 8 minutes quicker is quite good for me. I feel quite fit at present, which is a nice change, and I'm almost (but not quite) looking forward to the 29th when I will either die or cross the line in a blaze of glory*.

Thursday I am supposed to be doing an 8 mile gentle run, but I may go to the Lakes on Wednesday and stomp up a few hills. Hopefully that will get me nearer to my Aims for 2012.




*Well, not so much a blaze of glory as I'm not aiming for a good time- I just want the self satisfacion of having managed to complete a Marathon.

15 days to go

Dry days- 60
Days of rain- 45

I've had a hell of a week at work, so that's all I've done this week. This morning I headed out for the easy 10 mile run. The first 5 miles took me 52 minutes but I was feeling good. I decided to stretch out a bit and see how could get on. I managed the last 5 miles in 46 minutes, at around 9 minute miles. This felt pretty easy, and I managed the ten miles in 1:38 which beat my aim of doing the Preston Guild ten miler in under 1:40. I may have to look at a quicker time to aim for.

Catch up

Dry days- 58
Days of rain- 42

I haven't blogged for a few days, I don't seem to have had the time to do so.

Wednesday morning dawned with heavy rain. I had intended to go somewhere but the forecasts suggested crap weather in most places. In the end I opted for a trp to Wet Pooh. To avoid a repeat of recent disasters, I phoned first to confirm the bouldering was open. It was fairly quiet when I got there, just a couple of one to one tutoring sessions. I warmed up by doing all of the problems up to V4, then flashed half of the V5s and failed to do the other half. There is only one V6 in this set, albeit there are a few v6/7s and lots of harder stuff. After a couple of hours and a warm down of traversing I headed home rather tired with sore skin.

On Thursday evening I continued my Marathon training with what was supposed to be an eight mile run. I intended to do four times around my usual two mile circuit, but each time I went past the teens at the bus stop I got abuse. After the third time around I couldn't be arsed with a fourth round of abuse so I quit and headed home. Six miles in around an hour, another slow 10km.

On Friday I decided to have a wander up to Healey Nab to have a look at my old project. It started drizzling as I walked in, and it developed into proper rain by the time I put my boots on. The tops were all wet, so I could only warm up on the Project which felt hard. The undercuts were dry, but I didn't make any progress at all. The rain got heavier and I left pretty quickly. I did notice that somebody has chalked up the right wall project traverse, although this still looks hard.

Yesterday, it was the last big run in the training schedule. It as raining in the morning, but after a banana smoothie I headed out at my steady pace for a real test of my fitness. The route I had picked had quite a few hills on it, so not the easiest run. I felt pretty good up to the fifteen mile mark, but the rain and wind was starting to chill me at this point although I managed to plod onwards into the more sheltered final stretch. The drinks bladder I recently purchased from Rock and Run is a godsend, very handy just to top up on fluids whilst continuing to run. My carefully planned snacks of pork scratchings and chocolate seems to be the perfect blend of proteins, carbs and salts. At. 18 miles I was only a few hundred yards from home, but I needed to do one circuit of the local two mile ring. It took a little effort of willpower to set off around this, but once I got going I did the last two miles at ten minute mile pace. Back at home I had managed 20.5 miles in 3:42 which Haile Gebrselassie wouldn't really be impressed with, but I was quite happy- if I can carry on at that pace I know I can do a sub five hour marathon, which I would be very happy with. Once home, I cooled down and had a shower then a tin of beans on toast. Yum.

Today the Blobs, myself, the Doc and Doc Jnrs went to Sizergh Castle for the egg hunt. It pissed down all day. As Doc's brother and his daughter were with us, the Big Car was full so I went on my motorpipe, which was quite fun with zero visibility and gallons of spray. We managed the egg hunt in the rain, with surprisingly little moaning. I think the turn out was poor due to the rain as they were giving an extra egg out if you found number 17, of which there were two. We had a picnic to eat, but the consensus was to bail and have it at home in the warm and dry. We all headed back, but I caught the Big Car up quite quickly as it was stuck in a queue, and I was filtering through. The M6 was busy and I spent a fair amount of time filtering through queues here too. I got home pretty bedraggled, but an hour before the Big Car crew. When they returned with a puke coated Doc Jnr 2, who had barfed up the chocolate egg he had consumed on the way- this apparently looked like chocolate sauce, but didn't taste like it. After everyone was home we had picnic at home and chilled out. What a day, typical Easter bank holiday in the UK.

I'm working all this week, and my colleague is away so I am expecting to get battered. I need to try to fit more running in this week as it's not far away now. And then I can concentrate on bouldering.

Parbold

Dry days- 55
Days of rain- 37

It's been too hot for me recently. This morning was another sunny day with clear skies, and hot. It's only four weeks to the Manchester Marathon, so I continued my training by doing 12.5 miles this morning. I thought I'd try to push it a little, and managed the first five miles in 52 minutes, ten quicker than usual. I felt the last 3 miles, but managed to keep pace and got back in 2:01:46 which I was fairly pleased with. The Doc did her usual 5k run. The Preston Guild 5k is close on the tail of the marathon.

This afternoon the Doc dropped me off at Parbold Hill then went onwards to look at furniture shops. I had a look at Parbold Hill Quarry, which isn't in the Brick that I've found and the only reason I knew of it was seeing James Jennings' photo topo over on UKC. The main Mentalist wall was nice and clean, although slightly seeping/ muddy in some of the slots. I jumped on Fundamentalist which felt hard until I managed to get the hang of the pop to an edge, then I managed it first link. Mentalist is a fun problem too. I had a look at Mentalist Direct, getting close to latching the high left sidepull by the power of lank. I was thwarted by mud in the right hand starting sidepull.

I did Vesuvius/ Vesuvius Base Camp, which both felt miles easier than the V6 they are given. I eliminated the back wall too, but they still felt around 6b+. I did Etna after this, which I found hard. It was only when I got home that I realised this uses the arete, so I had added my own eliminate up the face.

Walking back up the hill to the road was hard work in the heat with a heavy bag and pad. Feeling OK now though.

Here's some footage from today, as well as last Sunday at Duxon Hill: