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
