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.