September update

Been a while.  Not a lot to report other than the attempt on the Lakeland 100, which didn't quite go to plan.  It was wet, very wet.  The plan was the same as last time, since the feet were the issue last time.


The family had a cottage in Coniston and were on hand for support; it's just great to have them with me, and this year we had the addition of our little pup.

Leg 1 - Coniston to Seathwaite
Leg:  11.3km  659m ascent
Total:  11.3km  659m ascent
Planned time:  1:50
Leg time:   1:46:34
Planned total:  1:50
Total time:   1:46:34
0:03:26 ahead of schedule

IronMan and I set off together.  It was threatening rain the whole time, and in the end it rained heavily overnight.  A lot of people commented what an horrible night it was.  I felt fine getting to Seathwaite, although Pavel Paloncy appeared to be sitting in the corner looking unhappy.


Leg 2 - Seathwaite to Boot

Leg:  11.1km  385m ascent

Total:  22.4km  1044m ascent

Planned time:  1:55

Leg time:   2:01:50

Planned total:  3:45

Total time:   3:48:24

0:03:24 behind schedule

It was raining a lot by now, so my feet were wet anyway.  The underfoot conditions were the worst I've seen them, and this was to be the theme of the event.  Quite a few people took the short cut track and missed out on the Church - I know it's only a few hundred metres shorter, but it's still not the official route!

Leg 3 - Boot to Wasdale Head

Leg:  8.6km  297m ascent
Total:  31.0km  1341m ascent
Planned time:  1:45
Leg time:   1:54:41
Planned total:  5:30
Total time:   5:43:05
0:13:05 behind schedule

This leg was very wet too, and the rain really didn't help at all.  We spent quite a while in the Stroller checkpoint, having survived the shark in the beck.  IronMan spent quite a while changing socks and cleaning his shoes out, and didn't seem in his usual shape

Leg 4 - Wasdale Head to Buttermere

Leg:  11.0km  712m ascent
Total:  42.0km  2053m ascent
Planned time:  3 hours
Leg time:   3:24:55
Planned total:  8:30
Total time:   9:08:00
0:38:00 behind schedule

I was feeling good on the Black Sail ascent, with fresh socks inside my Hoka Speed Goats.  I'm loving these shoes, just the best thing ever.  IronMan was slow on the ascent, and even slower on the drop back down to the YHA, falling over occasionally too.  We struggled over Scarth Gap, and IronMan fell over more on the descent.  We found the hole-in-the-wall easily (I've done this section so many times!).  Once we got to the path beside Buttermere, IronMan ordered me to go on alone.  After some debate, I set off and was soon out of sight.  I was aware that the cut off of 9:30 wasn't far off, and that I was way off schedule.  I had a brief stop in the checkpoint and got going.

Leg 5 - Buttermere to Braithwaite

Leg:  10.5km  573m ascent

Total:  52.5km  2626m ascent

Planned time:  2:30 hours

Leg time:   2:13:13
Planned total:  11:00

Total time:   11:21:13

0:21:13 behind schedule

This leg felt fine and I was able to push the pace a bit to make up some time.  I fell over three times as the path was ankle deep in slippery mud, cutting my left knee each time.  I managed to run a lot of the down section after this, compared to last year.  I sorted myself out at Braithwaite, and changed my soaking socks again.


Leg 6 - Braithwaite to Blencathra Centre
Leg:  13.7km  478m ascent
Total:  66.2km  3104m ascent
Planned time:  3:00 hours
Leg time:   2:42:11
Planned total:  14:00
Total time:   14:03:24
00:03:24 behind schedule

Another leg that felt OK, better than last time.  I ran quite a bit of this too.  Little Dave's was the usual, although hardly any chocolate cake left!


Leg 7 - Blencathra Centre to Dockray
Leg:  12.3km  417m ascent
Total:  78.5km  3521m ascent
Planned time:  2:30 hours
Leg time:   2:27:40
Planned total:  16:30
Total time:   16:31:03
00:01:03 behind schedule

I have never liked this leg, but this time the heavens opened again.  The rain was torrential, and I had to put my waterproof trousers on.  The water was running underfoot, and I got a bit cold.  I was very glad to get to the marquee for some soup and sandwiches.  Unbelievable conditions this year.

Leg 8 - Dockray to Dalemain
Leg:  16.3km  370m ascent
Total:  94.8km  3891m ascent
Planned time:  3 hours
Leg time:   3:23:24
Planned total:  19:30
Total time:   19:54:28
0:24:28 behind schedule

I trudged along in the rain.  the only positive is that the river was super high and Aira Force was impressive.  The paths through this entire leg were swimming in sloppy mud, making any progress both very slippery and very tiring.  I'd lost the time I'd made up by Dalemain, but that wasn't too surprising considering how it had been.

Leg 9 - Dalemain to Howtown
Leg:  11.5km  294m ascent
Total:  106.3km  4185m ascent
Planned time:  2:30
Leg time:   2:49:08
Planned total:  22:00
Total time:   22:43:36
0:43:36 behind schedule


I changed socks and swapped to my old Hokas.  I popped a couple of blisters and stuck Compede on here and there.  My feet were infinitely better than last year, but I did spend quite some time in the tent sorting myself out.  The leg to Howtown was fine, and I jogged most of the descent to the Cowboy Checkpoint.

Leg 10 - Howtown to Mardale Head
Leg:  15.2km  765m ascent
Total:  121.5km  4950m ascent
Planned time:  4 hours
Leg time:   4:01:55
Planned total:  26:00
Total time:   26:45:31
00:45:31 behind schedule

It had stopped raining by now.  The climb up to High Kop was actually OK, as was the descent.  The dull bit along Haweswater was as bad as ever, but I managed to pass a couple to 50 runners here.  I didn't stay long at the checkpoint, and got going uphill.


Leg 11 - Mardale Head to Kentmere
Leg:  10.4km  511m ascent
Total:  131.9km  5461m ascent
Planned time:  3 hours
Leg time:   3:13:30
Planned total:  29:00
Total time:   29:59:01
 00:59:01 behind schedule

The Gatesgarth Pass climb went well, and the descent passed by OK too.  I was still running sections and the feet felt good.  I was unfortunately getting tired now, since I put the head torch on when I was heading to the farm before the last climb.  The rain had come and gone again, and Kentmere was a welcome sight.

Leg 12 - Kentmere to Ambleside
Leg:  11.8km  491m ascent
Total:  143.7km  5952m ascent
Planned time:  3 hours
Leg time:   4:09:??
Planned total:  32:00
Total time:   34:08:??
 Well, here we go again.  Sleep.  Stupidly, I had packed ProPlus in my drop bag but had left it at Dalemain.  Idiot.  Anyway, I started the falling asleep thing again half way up Garburn Pass.  This started to annoy me pretty quickly, but I couldn't do much about it.  The whole of this leg consisted of me waking up standing somewhere on the course.  People overtook me left right and centre.  When I got to Robin Lane the heavens opened again.  I spoke to my long suffering wife to let her know what was going on.  Then I carried on 50:50 sleeping and walking.  I'd missed the cut off and had to stop at Ambleside.  Damn!


So, after this I got a lift back with a kind chap in an MX5 (thanks).  After a sleep, my wife made me some bacon butties. We went to the presentations, and heard some crazy stories.  Annoyingly I felt good.


What next?  Well, out of three starts I've completed once and got to Ambleside twice.  Next year I'm doing the 50 to try to get a decent time and then go back to the 100 in 2019.  I've got the Red Rose 50 in a couple of weeks, then the Manchester half, then Hell of a Hill.  I suppose I'd be more gutted if I'd never finished the 100, but it's still annoying when I should really have 3 finishes but for stupid issues!


So, thanks once again to the family for all the support.  I couldn't do these events without you all.

June 2017 already

Long time no blog.  It seems to have become June 2017 and I'm not sure how that happened!  So what's been going on since the 2016 update?  Well, not a lot to be honest.


We are now into the final countdown to the Lakeland 100 2017, so most things this year have been related to this.  However, there was one rogue visit to some rocks this year...


In January I did the Rivington NightRunner with the IronMan.  I felt unfit, was slower than any other time, and fell on may face once.  Enjoyed it though, not a bad opener for the year.  We also had some family walks exploring the countryside around Ribchester.  The month was finished off by a return to my drop out point on the 100, when we did the Ambleside to Coniston recce.


February saw a few walks and shorter local runs, as well as a trip to Amsterdam for the weekend with LAA.  This is such a great place and we really enjoyed it.  The weather wasn't great but we had some great food (including bitterballen, stampot and a great steak at Café Loetje).  We didn't want to come home.


In March IronMan and I ran the Rivington Trail 26 route, again less fit and less quick than before.  It's still miles in the legs though.  Other than that, it was a good number of family walks and short runs.


April involved an epic Easter egg hunt, set up around the surrounding countryside and covering 10km.  The kids (and adults) seemed to enjoy it.  I also took in the first trip to the Lake District to combine some running and Wainwright bagging.  And then, at the end of the month, I met up with Nik at Work for a day in Snowdonia.  Whilst I was utterly rubbish ( I was glad to get up V3) we had a good day, and the BeardyBeast enjoyed a healthy post-climb snack at Pete's Eats.  Nice to see him too (eventually).



In May I ticked off a few more Wainwrights in my attempts to get some climbing into the legs, then IronMan and I did the Malhamdale Trail 22 and Howgills Trail 26 on consecutive days.  Day 1 felt pretty OK, but the Sunday was a bit of a shocker to start.  The first 25km my legs fought back and refused to do much at all, but after that they seemed to loosen up a bit and things improved.














LAA and I had a nice walk around Warton Crag and the local area with a relative, reminding me that it's a long time since I've been there bouldering.  I can't imagine I'd get up anything there at the minute, but Poison was one on my list that I never ticked off.
To round the month off, IronMan and I did the Pooley Bridge to Ambleside recce.  It was really hot again, and I still don't like Fusedale.  Nuff said.







So here we are at June, nearly half the year gone already.  99 Wainwrights done, 29 Ultra distances under the belt, still slowly ticking the BBC top 100 books (A Suitable Boy at present) etc.  We are going to have some changes soon as LAA finishes her current job at the end of the month, so is getting a dog soon and will have a more balanced and enjoyable life balance.
My main thing at present is to actually finish the Lakeland 100 this year.  Last year's issue was purely down to the feet failure, so I'm exploring footwear and socks still.  Hopefully if I can get this sorted I will be able to report back with some positive news.  Fingers crossed!


As an aside, I'm slowly re-uploading my videos to Vimeo (due to sound copyright issues).  One to embed here is David Vetter 7a+.  I believe there is some interest on the FaceBook Lancs Bouldering site (I don't do Facebook), so here's some beta.  I believe Dave Mann is keen to grab the 3rd ascent, but in the meantime here's some comedy gold:










https://vimeo.com/216287656

2016 Round-up

2016 is gone, and I can't say I'm sad to see it go.  Brexit.  Trump.  The deaths of a big list of celebrities.

January saw a couple of runs up Pendle Hill, but little else.  February was much the same.

March saw me run the Rivington Trail 26 route for fun, plus a few more outings to get distance in the legs for the Buttermere to Dalemain recce.  This was in April and went pretty well, finishing quicker than previous events.

In May I did the Malhamdale Trail 22 (with pie and peas instead of a medal), the Howgills 26 (felt harder this year) and the Pooley Bridge to Ambleside Recce (where Iron Man succumbed to the heat and a bad knee).

June saw a few outings to the Lakes and a few more Wainwrights ticked off, as well as the Pennine 39 (which was a good low key event courtesy of Joe Faulkner).

July started off well with more poor weather hill ticking, but finished on a low with me pulling out of the Lakeland 100 at 91 miles.  Back again for 2017.

August saw a great holiday to France, which was far too short.  September and October nil of note, November I ran the Hell of a Hill (one day only) which was "fun".  December not much activity wise, but a great month for birthday celebrations and a lovely Christmas.

Climbing wise, not much to report.  Nik, R-man and I met up at Knowle Heights in March where they did a couple of FAs and I did sweet FA.  In October I had an hour at Lower Montcliffe, where I was rubbish so ran up Winter Hill as punishment.

So here we are at the start of 2017.  Totally unfit for climbing and need to get back on the running.  To summarise

85 out of 214 Wainwrights done.
65 books finished out of teh BBC Big read 100 list
26 Marathons/ Ultras under the belt, and more to come
91.2kg with an abdominal measurement of 105cm - this is the main aim for 2017:  get back in some semblance of shape, back on the board, and get the UTLD 100 nailed.

Happy New Year everyone.