Pyro's Yard v2.0

Janathon '12 - Ooh crikey.

2012-01-18T13:19:00.000-08:00

Blimey. Been a while since I did one of these isn't it! Let's try and catch up on where we've been and what we've been doing, shall we?

For a start, Janathon isn't really going particularly well for me, hence the gap in blogging. We'll come to the specific reasons why in a bit, but it isn't going... well, it's not going the way Janathon '11 went, nor the way Juneathon '11 went. Maybe it's a change in perspective, a failure to take it as seriously this time, or just winter lethargy and SAD getting in the way, but hey. I'm still more active than average, but let's say I won't be racking up the yardage like I have done the last two 'athons. That doesn't mean I've given up, though. That ain't happening!!

We'd got up to Day 11, so I'm only a week behind. Oops. Let's start at 12 then!

Janathon '12 - 12: The Horseshoe of Doom
This was a 10km-ish lap from my place, along Meanwood Road and through town, then along Kirkstall Road to the Better Half's place. It was doom because after about 6km on the tarmac my calves and achilles started seizing up, so I ended up half walking, half jogging, half stopping to stretch for the next 4km, to no avail. I'm guessing it's just from more mileage than usual on road and hard surfaces (I haven't really had a good steady off-road run so far this month, save for Jan 1st!), but it hurt. A lot.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janathon '12 - 13: Double Drop
3km from the Better Half's place to my office, uphill, cursing myself for pushing it the night before. 5km home around the Ring Road and back through Meanwood (via Waitrose for dinner) and into a hot bath to try and sooth out some of the aches and pains.

The way home was more of a 'fast walk' than a run, which annoys me a bit, but I'd rather not injure myself so I'd rather back it down and trek rather than try and 'push through it' and wreck. Ho hum. Music helps as usual

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janathon '12 - 14: Parkifying
A token short bimble to the far end of Meanwood Park and back. I'd love to claim this as a proper off-road run but it wasn't, it was on a hardpacked gravel track and the odd bit of frozen earth, was again a 'fast walk/jog' rather than a run, and my legs still felt lousy.

The afternoon and evening were spent over at the Better Half's, staying relatively* sober and taking lots of very embarassing pictures of other people. There was a large quantity of chargrilled animal, an icy shot luge, many cakes, firey things (provided by yours truly. Can't be known as Pyro and not play with firey things) and a small beverage or two. All the essential ingredients for a successful barbecue, really.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janathon '12 - 15: Not running? Again?
Nope. This time, out kayaking. Instead of biking I went boating, to the Upper Tees to be precise, with York Uni Canoe Club and assorted hangers-on. The section (High Force to Low Force) is relatively short, but good fun grade 3/3+ with a couple of 4s. I made a mess of the Dog Leg (pictured) and ended up taking a silly swim after flipping on the boil line - in my defence, the 'Hearts of Gold' rock (just out of shot) is a nasty place to get pinned, and my sensible head thought it better to get out before that happened to me!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janathon '12 - 16: To the pool
This one was a straight-off walk. I'd gone to bed at 10pm on the Sunday night (very unlike me) after a 3am finish and 8am start on Sunday, and with an LUUCC pool session to go to, so I walked up through the Woodhouse section of the Meanwood Trail, over to Hyde Park and down to the pool. Lovely hour and a half of playing around in my Squirt Boat (if you've never heard of squirt kayaking, it's worth having a look at) and then a nice gentle toddle back. My legs still felt manky, despite stretchings, beatings with a foam roller, hot baths etc, and it's something that's getting on my nerves. This is probably the point I decided to stop battering myself repeatedly and go for walks or walk/jogs to get in the mileage rather than force myself to run and get hurt.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janathon '12 - 17: Round and round we go.
Another walk/jog to the Better Half's house, via Cardigan Road, Kirkstall Road (I seem to spend half my running life on Kirkstall flipping road, and it's long and flat, just the oppostie of what I like running on...) Morrisons (to get ingredients for a rather lovely fresh Tuna and Shiitake Mushroom Ramen soup) and up the hill to the house. Legs have started feeling a touch better, still very tight on climbs though, and the tightness and awkwardness feels like it's throwing other points of my gait out of line - left hip, Gluteus and hamstring feel 'odd'. Not painful, just 'odd'. I think I'll stick with the jog/walks for a while!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And finally, getting us up to date!

Janathon '12 - 18: What was all that about?
Another same-route wander from the Better Half's to the office. The hill in the middle of this bit (Butcher Hill) really is a little stinker if you're running. Great if you want to do reps on it, like the local running club do, but a sod first thing in the morning when you're cold and not with it and not warmed up. Ho hum.
In the evening, a fairly direct walk home, up to Lawnswood roundabout, down the Otley Road to Headingley, then down Grove Lane home to make it just shy of 7km for the day.

It does seem odd that just jog-walking like this, I'm still pulling in a fairly decent level of kilometrage, I'm just doing it slowly. I think some of the bigger runs, including my 15km'er on Jan 1st, and the level of tarmac I've been bashing, have made this year harder on my body than last year so far. I'm struggling to get into the swing of things, I guess. Oddly, a week of not feeling good and taking it easy, including one day with no running, and I've still covered 45km on foot in total, plus 5-ish in a kayak. I'm down on my first Janathon's total so far, but I would put that on not getting the longer runs in at the weekends so far. And frankly, I've said the last two times "I'm not bothered about the numbers" and lied through my teeth when I said it. Maybe this time I've less of a point to prove.Maybe I'm just getting lazy in my old age. Maybe all of the above...

... but I'm still not going to quit.

*Compared to the majority of people there, VERY VERY sober.

Janathon '12 - 11: Out and back (with muffins!)

2012-01-11T15:50:00.000-08:00

Odd little bimble tonight. One of my housemates was having a 'dinner and bridge' night, so i decided to vacate the premises early. As I hadn't eaten, picking up food en-route seemed like a good idea, so after phoning the Better Half to make sure she was actually in the house, I popped in to Sainsbury's in Headingley and jog-walked over to Kirkstall with a bag of muffins (Cheddar and black pepper ones, as cited in previous adventures) and a block of Emmental. Pause the tracker at 4.05km (including the lap of Sainsbury's)

After a lovely stop at the Better Half's for a cup of tea and to toast my muffins (no, that isn't a euphemism, thank you very much...) I restarted the tracker and set off back the way I came, and returned home a little quicker and without the shopping to stop the tracker at 8.05km. Not bad for a short pootle of an evening! And proof that shopping must count as exercise (just for Maggie's evidence locker) as the extra 50m must have been around Sainsbury. Wasn't breaking any speed records for it, though. Not that I care!

So, onwards, to see what tomorrow brings! Night night :)

Janathon '12 - 10: Retch and recovery

2012-01-10T15:41:00.000-08:00

No, not the title of a new Jane Austen parody.

I decided after a relatively long run last night that I'd do a shorter one tonight. And I've been saying I needed to do some speedwork at some point. So I did. Try and run quite fast around the corner to the bottom of Moor Road, which has a little bit of an incline on it, pause and stretch out the sore calves, then five reps of walk-jog-sprint! up the road, with a steady jog back down and a little bit of stretching mixed in for good luck. Then a jog-walk back home

I'm adding in a different image today, instead of my usual Memory Map map. I'm adding in the mini-map and pace graph from the Sport Tracker console, because I like the spiky bits in the graph where it shows me sprinting. It amused me greatly, did that.

And now, to shower and bed. Night night!

Janathon '12 - 9: So, this running thing, eh?

2012-01-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

So, after a weekend off, how to ease back into Janathon as we know it?

Frankly, I'd had a rubbish day on Monday. Not bad bad, just drained, tired, short on ability to focus and high on propensity for mind to wander. I got home at half five feeling, quite honestly, like going straight to bed. But no, there's this small matter of running to do. Hmmm...

One of the day's small joys was, as is often the case for me, and Excel spreadsheet. Yes, I have a small, sad, slightly odd life. But this was an important spreadsheet, for it brought a little moment of hope into an otherwise fairly 'meh' day. This was the little spreadsheet that contains a record of all of my Janathon and Juneathon runs, from 2011 and 2012. And this little spreadsheet also simplifies all of the big numbers and silly pace calculations and shows me a little graph of how far I ran in Janathon and Juneathon 2011 and how far I've run in Janathon 2012. "Simples", as a furry rodent of the genus Suricata suricatta might put it.

The small joyous hopeful thing this simple spreadsheet showed me was that, despite not having run over the weekend, I was still ahead of my Janathon 2011 cumulative mileage. That might not seem like a world-changing idea, given how much I've done since Jan 1st 2011, but it made me a little happier, and it made stepping out of the back door in my running shoes a little easier. So the MP3 player went on, and I trotted off for a short run...

... Which became a little bit of a longer run...

...Which got even longer...

...And when I finally came home it turned out to be an 11-and-a-bit-km run. Which was far better than I'd hoped for.

So, perhaps sometimes the best runs do come at the end of the worst days. Sometimes you have to have the 'meh' to fuel the furnace with. Sometimes a bit of The Avalanches 'Frontier Psychiatrist' is the tune you want to be stepping out of the door to. And sometimes, the flat hard bit in the middle is still flat, but isn't quite as hard as you imagine it. Here's to more of those times...

Janathon '12 - 7 & 8: In which there is NO RUNNING!

2012-01-08T14:54:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I failed. Frankly, if I could have fit in a run this weekend I would have. But in between other stuff, I just never got round to it...

I, the plaintiff, do hereby plead 'guilty' to the offence of 'not running'. In my defence I would like to submit the following as mitigating circumstances:

On Saturday, January 7th, I did wilfully, and with malice aforethought, mountain bike 38km around the 'Beast' trail at Coed-y-Brenin forest. While for this I have numerous witness, they are also complicit in the same deed and therefore may not necessarily be deemed by the court to be competent / of sound mind.
On Sunday, January 8th, I did once again wilfully and with malice aforethought attend Coed-y-Brenin forest, and this time made a mischief of myself in the company of others around 20km of the 'Tarw' trail.

I throw myself at the kangaroo court's mercy, and plead loudly that "I was doing exercise! I must 've been, my legs wouldn't feel like this if I 'adn't!". That said, as crimes go, it was a fun one. Must try it again sometime...

Janathon '12 - 6: Short and sweet

2012-01-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm very behind with these things, I know, I know. But I've been away from the world to a place where there was naff all phone reception and no computer and frankly, it's been rather lovely. So there!

Day 6 was a short pair of runs, to and from work. The route's quite nice, similar to the route I bike but actually a bit easier on foot (no hauling bike up steep muddy "not a snowball in hell's chance" unrideable slope), though the long-ish drag up and round the ring road is, well, a drag. 4-and-a-bit km either way, so a decent haul for the day, but slow and a bit sore.

Next post covers and entire weekend. Spoiler, I know, but hey. What can you do?!

Janathon '12 - 5: What a difference a day makes

2012-01-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

So, map of yesterday's shambles of a jaunt first. It was cold, wet and miserable and I'd really rather not have any more like that, if that's okay with you? Thank you

Today couldn't have been any less like yesterday if it had been upside-down. This morning was still pretty horrible, but come lunchtime the wind had dropped, the clouds had cleared and the sky was blue! I even got home this evening to find the power on and the heating fixed! Wonders will never cease...

So, for once I actually felt like I wanted to go for a run. And slow, short and shambolic as it was, I did! Lots of stops to do stretching-y stuff because my calves are still a bit wrecked and I never warm down properly (slaps self on wrist....) but a nice steady 6-and -a-bit km potter on a rather pleasant evening, for once!

And so, to bed. I'll do some adding up some other time. For now, sleep!

Janathon '12 - 4: Eurgh...

2012-01-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

Well, that was fairly horrible.

Wet and windy plodding around a similar, but not quite the same, loop as yesterday. Bit shorter, since the weather here is, frankly, minging. And I set off without a waterproof and got caught in a bloody great downpour... Ah well, these are the days that make the rest of the month seem pleasant by comparison.

Not worked out distance yet, but was out about 45 mins. Well confirm and log when I get a chance to charge my phone (due to current weather conditions, house has no electric and no heating. Typing this on an old phone from under a duvet) and download the tracker file. It's just been one of those days...

Janathon '12 - 3: 'Twas a dark and stormy night...

2012-01-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

...and I really didn't feel like running. But I dragged my somewhat Frankensteinian carcass out anyway.

Slow jog/walk to warm up on the flat section along Meanwood Road, harder effort up the long climb to Hyde Park, gentler around the back of the park and then steady with short efforts to Headingley then simply concentrate on trying not to fall over from the traffic lights down Grove Lane and back home...

...to a house with no heating, admittedly, but at least the hot water still works. Thank heavens for small mercies.

And now, to bed! Night night.

Janathon'12 - 2: A game of two halves.

2012-01-02T13:38:00.000-08:00

Today was a bit of a bit-part day. Feeling pretty sore after yesterday (maybe I shouldn't have started on a nearly-10-miler) and with the weather looking cold and grotty, I abandoned the half-formed plan of doing the Back o' Skiddaw run that I've been saying I'd do for ages and went out for a brief walk with my parents. They're doing their own Janathon, walking and/or cycling every day, so it was nice to be out with them. Unfortunately my hips, thighs and calves were telling me to behave myself, so we had a nice (if chilly and windy)
5km-and-a-bit wander round by Harby Brow and over the fields, as shown below:

Part one - Over the fields and far away...

Unfortunately, I'm still playing by the rules of "If there isn't any running involved, it doesn't count", so once I'd got back to Leeds, I still needed to go for a run. My legs were still wanting me to behave, to sit down and immerse myself in the sofa, but my head decided it wasn't having any of that, so my head and I went out for a slow bimble around the block, dragging the legs along with us. It may have only been short, but it was a run, albeit a slightly slow one. I have a feeling there will be many occasions this month where I will have to ignore the protestations of my legs. They should know by now that I don't listen to them that often...

Part 2 - Round and round the rugged rock...

Oh, and as a little extra bit of niceness for the day, last night my friend Ann-Marie sent me the link to the Youtube promo video from last year's Grand Raid des Pyrenees, in which I get a brief cameo! If anyone's interested, I've posted it below, if anyone would like to watch (and yes, I'm the gibbering Englishman at the end!). I wonder what my next starring role will be?!...

Total distance: 8.69km

Total times saying "Ooh, that's a bit sore": Lots

Total cups of tea: 2

Total hot baths/showers: 2

Janathon '12 - 1: New Year's Wobble

2012-01-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

So, last Janathon I marked the first day of the new year with a 2.5km wobble, narrowly avoiding emesis on the way, having worked the bar in Torpenhow village hall for the New Years party the night before.
This year, same precedents, albeit with a much lower alcohol consumption (only 4.5 pints of beer, 1 pint of water and a cup of Rooibos tea), and I made it out on a lovely, sunny, scenic bimble around the 'homerun'. Couple of hours, just shy of ten miles, and very enjoyable.

Happy Janathon to everyone. I've started as I mean (but probably won't manage) to go on, I hope you all have as well.

Distance: 15.2km
Time: 2.04.09
Pictures taken: 11
"Happy New Year" 's to strangers: 4
Lumpy yawns: 0

'Twas the night before New Year

2011-12-29T11:22:00.000-08:00

So, for both the first Janathon and this year's Juneathon, I took it upon myself to plagiarise well known poems or prose as a little light entertainment, to break the loneliness of the long duration runner. It seems only appropriate to begin this Janathon the same, in a light-hearted vein, with a visit from our patron saint*

'Twas the night before New Year (or "A visit from St Jan")
With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore

'Twas the night before New Year, and all down the street,
Not a creature was stirring, they were resting their feet.
Their running shoes sat by the back door, so near,
Knowing that Janathon soon would be here.

And me, I was nestled, all snug in my bed,
While thoughts of the month to come danced in my head:
Thoughts of lycra, and fleece, of my windproofs and cap,
While pre-emptive leg pains tried to threaten my nap.

Then out on the lawn there arose such a racket,
I woke from my slumbers, muttering "Oh fackit..."
And away to the window I stumbled half blind,
Throwing open the curtains to see what I'd find,

The moon on the breast of the rain sodden grass,
Made me blink, and mutter, and wonder what ass,
Was standing out there in Ron Hills and Pertex?
When he turned, and he looked at me, and he yelled "You're next!"

"You dasher, you dancer, you prancer, you prat!
Stir your legs, you lazy arse, don't lie putting on fat!
To the end of the street! To the top of the hill!
Now run away! Run away! As fast as you will!"

And as dry leaves before a runner's feet fly,
When they're kicked up at pace, they take to the sky,
Straight up to the house-top the yeller he flew.
In his hi-viz, Ron Hills and headlamp too.

Soon, in a second, I heard on the roof,
The skittering, scuttling of a motion-controlled hoof.
As I drew closed the curtain, and turned back around,
Down the chimney St. Jan appeared with a bound.

He was dressed in his running kit, tech from head to foot,
Though his hi-viz was tarnished with ashes and soot.
And he jogged on the spot, unwilling to quit,
And I pondered his motion, as on my bed I did sit.

His eyes, how they twinkled, though his face it was old,
His cheeks glowing rosy, caught by wind and by cold.
And his droll little mouth broke into a grin,
"What secrets you'll learn, now you've let St. Jan in"

He was skinny and spry, but a jolly wee elf,
And I smiled when I saw him, in spite of myself.
And a wink of his eye and a scratch of his ear,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to fear.

A bottle of electrolyte he took from his pack,
Which he handed to me, which I drank and passed back.
And soon I was filled with a feeling of joy:
The trails would be my playground, the mileage my toy!

St. Jan spoke no more words, just stood there and smiled.
And in that moment I knew how we'd cover the miles.
He saw my grin, shook my hand, and whispered "Give it hell"
Then he strode out the door, other runners to tell.

And calm as you like he jogged away down the street,
Eating up the miles as they passed 'neath his feet
And as he did, he exclaimed, and I'd echo his shout
"Good luck to all! Run safe. Peace, out"

*Or I may have made that one up...

Future Imperfect

2011-12-25T13:28:00.000-08:00

Evening all. And Merry Whatsitsnamey. Y'know? Thing. That day where a fat bearded bloke (not me) comes and visits and brings pressies (definitely not me). Aye, you got it, that one. Thingy.

Not wanting to get into the soppy reflective stuff, but 2011's been an interesting year: Running an Ultra was something I wasn't expecting this time last year, but neither was getting back into proper kayaking form, building a couple of new bikes, taking my Dad down the Tyne in an open canoe or... well.. a lot of stuff. It's been good, really good,

So what's 2012 got in store? What big adventures to concentrate on now?

Firstly, Janathon. Because it's an awesome start to the year, a great way to kick the winter blues and, while it can be hard work, the collaborative atmosphere is fantastic. I'm happy to say I'll be participating again.

Secondly, and lasting a bit longer Twelve : Fifty-Two is a new project to build on the photography stuff I do. A weekly challenge with a group of friends, acquaintances and complete strangers, with a different theme to focus on each week, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. Should be fun, I hope!

Thirdly: Hmmm. I may be going back to the Grand Raid des Pyrenees. Not with a point to prove, not to try and better my time, just because I enjoyed the race and some others have expressed an interest in going out as well.

Other projects: Who knows? I'd like to get more biking in to accompany the running, more paddling in to accompany both of the above. There's always the desire to lose a couple of pounds and all of those should help. Where else in the world I'll end up is anyone's guess. It'll be fun finding out.

So, huge hugs to all anyone for taking the time to read this, best wishes whatever your plans are for the New Year, and keep smiling on.

Cheers!

Pyro

Mojo Days

2011-12-05T06:22:00.001-08:00

It's been an awesome weekend. One of those weekends that just feels good, doesn't involve stress and just seems to go, on the whole, pretty damn well. I like weekends like that. I reckon I need more of 'em.

Saturday night was Pie Night 2011. Like previous years, there were 3 varieties of pie on the table, with mash and peas - I like the traditional 'Pie & Pea Supper' idea, it's nice and simple - plus a few beers/wines/drinkies, whatever people brought or nabbed from the fridge. This years pie selection was:
- Steak Forestiere (inspired by our meal on the way to the GRP)
- Spiced Pork and Apple (suitably autumnal/wintery, I thought)
- Seared Tofu with Gingered Veg and Watercress (because I have to think of something to feed the veggies...)

'twas a small gathering, very enjoyable and fun, even if (as usual) the paddlers disappeared off into paddle-talk and everyone else wondered what the heck we were going on about. A small select batch then headed along to East of Arcadia for an extra wee bevvy.

Sunday morning was a bit of an early start, picked up by Matt and Maria at 8:45 to head up to the Middle Tees to meet the YUCC crowd. Levels looked pretty good, there'd been a fair amount of rain up in the headwaters, so the river was medium-high, 0.85 on the gauge. That translated as "High enough for the stoppers and holes to appear threatening, but not so high you can't punch through them". The second hole on Abbey Rapids handed out a couple of small spankings and a backloop or two for those who didn't keep their weight forward (not me. I must be learning...), so a bit of chase work in the gorge below, but the normally kicky little hole in the middle was pretty washed out so no major dramas. I'd not paddled with most of the group before, but it was good to see a couple of the apparent 'intermediates' take some initiative and lead through sections. Notable mentions for the day have to go to Kimmy for holding in there for a second roll attempt on Abbey and to Sam for upping his game after an early ducking.

The rest of the river was really nice. Whorlton Lido drop looked pretty horrendous at the river right end, so we portaged people around it to avoid any incidents. A couple of people were suffering with the cold - wetsuit and cag plus a couple of swims on a day when there were snow flurries on the river - so we bailed them out to one of the cars at Whorlton bridge before heading on. The section from Whorlton to Winston was fantastic bouncy hole-dodging. Whorlton Weir demanded a little thought and attention, and the theme continued from there, with a good bit of work on line choice and technique, but without having to worry too much about getting it wrong. The last sequence of drops above Winston Bridge was a one-by-one lead-through with some nice little surfy waves and big boily patches, just enough to stop you getting complacent. The sun even came out on the lower part!

All in all, an excellent weekend for the mojo, good company, good food and great paddling. Let's hope for more of those to banish the S.A.D over the winter!

Le Grand Raid des Pyrenees - the personal side

2011-09-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

So there's technical and logistical write-ups of the race going to other sites elsewhere, they're the ones that tell blow-by-blow story of the area, the trails, the race organisation etc. But this here is my blog, and this here is the personal side of things, so this here is the personal account of the Grand Raid des Pyrenees.

In the beginning...

A year ago, I would never have thought about running an Ultramarathon. A year ago, I rarely ran anything over 5km, except in races. Longer runs tended to butcher my feet with blisters which stopped me wanting to run. Road racing holds no appeal, and I'm not a skinny racing whippet so I'm never going to win anything doing it anyway. I run only for myself, for enjoyment and catharsis, to clear my head and shake out my legs.

Because of that, the whole build-up to the GRP has been very strange for me - not unpleasantly strange, but strange nonetheless. Running, as I have often said, is a weak discipline for me, so entering this was putting me way further out of my comfort zone than any other race of the past few years. There were a lot of doubts and a lot of questions, but I guess the ruling mindset was that I had to try, just for me - I'd feel like an idiot if I didn't at least give it a go.

There was a bit of a worrying precedent I wanted to try and avoid, though: At the Nokia C2C, my last big solo race, I'd suffered some pretty wild mood swings. The same thing happened at a Man of Porage a few years ago. I chalk those up to being out on my own (off the back in particular) for a lot of the day, and it was a worry to me that the same could occur at the GRP: A long day out, unknown terrain and being a foreigner could be a bad combination for that. It's difficult to quantify exactly what I mean by 'mood swings', but I felt I needed to avoid the cycle of getting 'down', hacked off, losing time in being miserable and feeling like I wanted to quit one minute, then seeing other people or a CP and being back 'on the level' again, only to drop again minutes later when I realise I'm still on my own and it's a long way to go. Sound crazy? Possibly does, but it's what I've been through in the past and I knew it would wreck my chances if it happened this time. Guess I'm more of a social animal than I like to admit.

To counter that, my planning had been as meticulous as it could be, I had the route book pretty much memorised, my kit was well sorted out, and physically... well. Someone asked me about how much training I'd done while we were shunting up the first few kms of uphill, and my honest answer was "probably not as much as I could/should have". January, and the Janathon, was the kicker that got me back into running and earned me my entry to GRP. I maintained the mileage fairly well from then until the Deerstalker in March. After that I dropped back on the mileage for a little while, kept things steady until my unplanned 'Samoan Sandals' effort at the Settle Saunter in May and then backed off for a couple of weeks to recover from the beating my calves took there. Another 'concerted effort' in June for the Juneathon, and after 200 miles over the month I definitely pulled back: Niggles in my right foot, ankle and knee were telling me that taking it easy for a while was a good idea. All too soon July was past, tapering needed to commence and it was too late to rush any more biggies in. So much for a rigid training programme. I knew I wouldn't be quick, but I also had a good feeling that I wouldn't be last.

I won't bore anyone with the trains, planes, coaches and automobiles that got me to Vielle-Aure for the start. It was a long haul, I was short on sleep, but dinner with AM and Jacques on the way from Toulouse to Vielle-Aure was fantastic. VA itself was very pretty, although my mind was firmly on getting some shuteye rather than anything else. Arriving on the Wednesday gave me Thursday to wander around and get my head straight and Friday to get my gear sorted and register before the off at the lark's fart on Saturday (5am - eesh!). Much kit faff had been eliminated by only flying with hand luggage, so I only had two possible sets of kit to choose from, though food choice did take a while and an extended trip to the local Carrefour.

I Would Walk 500 Miles

The 100-mile race had a bit of a shocker to start with - horrendous weather, storms, lightning, low cloud etc. The organisation wisely decided to delay the start by two hours, re-route the runners (swapping the in- and out-lap routes to avoid the higher ridge start in the midst of the bad weather) and cut the dogleg up to the summit of the Pic du Midi. Still, the first cutoff point saw a 10% dropout rate - I wonder how many people ran with ultra-lightweight gear and got caught out (a la ARWC '07)? It's perhaps telling that the guy who crossed the line second in the 100 was penalised and dropped to 14th, having been caught out at the gear check at Tournaboup. To me, it's a stupid and cynical mistake to make, for the benefit of a few grams. I'd gone as light as I dared on kit - new Montane Minimus instead of my old Paclite, Petzl E-Lite in place of a heavier Fenix as my back-up light - and I can't say the few hundred grammes made an appreciable difference, at least, nothing that training more and stopping less couldn't have replicated and out-stripped. I had lightweight kit that I had confidence would see me through, rather than lightweight kit I hoped I wouldn't have to use. Perhaps that's the difference

The day was much better for the 50 mile start, a cool, dry morning, not horrendously cold and an only slightly clouded sky. Kind of suited me, I was happy enough on the startline in shorts and a short sleeve Icebreaker top. Once the gradient turned upwards properly I was nice and warm, though some of the sections where the 850-strong 'crocodile' snaked to a halt started to get a bit nippy before the sun rose. Stopping briefly on the first wee summit to get a pic of the sunrise over a temperature inversion in the valley was a feeling that'll linger - part exhilaration, part admiration, part nervousness, but a very cool place to be all the same.

The terrain round the course was a good mix. Some of the rocky sections made me wonder how the 100mile winner had clocked 22hrs, and how the 50 mile winner ended up doing sub-10. Maybe I was slowed down by the snake of people in front, but some flat and downhill sections were still definitely unrunnable, and you'd be risking your ankles trying to move too fast over them. In the early parts, the climb to the Col de Bastan and some of the traverse around the lac de Greziolles were hard work. In the late stages, descending from the Col de Bareges over the rocks in the dark in particular slowed me right down. Maybe in daylight I could have held a better pace over them but that's life. The woody, rooty, muddy singletrack late on was a hardship as well, picking lines to keep the feet dry was a tricky job, and it was hard to move smoothly over those sections. Poles, in this case the wonderful Leki carbons that Anne-Marie had lent me, were a definite advantage, short 'vaults' over streams, help with balancing on stepping stones, and a bit of support on high rocky step-downs. Add to that the 4WD effect when climbing and I realise why, for me at least, I wouldn't attempt a long run like this without them. People can argue about the energy balance (greater energy output but spread over a larger number of muscle groups), but for a multisporter like me, with a fairly decent level of upper body strength, it's a no-brainer.

I conciously tried to limit the time I spent at the seven feed/water stations: easy to lose 10-15 minutes at a time by faffing with kit, checking maps etc. Realistically, 10 minutes was still a decent break for a bit of food, a toilet stop, a roadbook check, and that was about it. Honestly, excellent course waymarking made navigation irrelevant and if you were confident in your kit selection, not swapping or faffing every time, there was no need for longer. Artigues (FS2) and Tournaboup (FS5) were the only places where I stopped longer than 10mins - Artigues after a 15km push to recuperate a little for the stage after (7.1km, 1200m ascent) and Tournaboup to switch socks and shirt and grab more food before heading into the night - and both of those were still sub-20 mins. Perhaps it's an art to balance short stops at feed stations with not losing time on energy crashes between them, but I felt like I got it right. The climb to the Pic du Midi summit was the only place I had a 'low', and a couple of gels and my mp3 player sorted that out quickly enough.

Team Europe

As I said right the way up there ^ , company seems to be a good way of alleviating the heebie-geebies, and things couldn't really have worked out better that way. At the Col de Sencours feed station, on the down lap, I got chatting to a French guy called Phillippe who'd been moving at a similar pace just ahead of me. He'd left just before me but stopped to talk to a marshal at the junction off the main trail. I caught him and we opted to run down to Tournaboup together, a cracking bit of actual running down some lovely dirt singletrack - one to take the bike back for, and a camera (there were llama. This amused me greatly). Not long after the Super Barrege ski station we caught up with a German girl by the name of Carmen, again, moving at a similiar pace, and she tagged along, all of us speaking English with some gentle teasing about multilingualism*, national stereotypes** and a healthy dose of self deprecation***. When we got to the feed station, kit-checked and clothes changed, the official acknowledgement went round that it would probably help us all to work together into the dark section, navigationally and psychologically, and so Team Europe was formed. I think that little union played a big part in getting me through the night in fairly decent shape, took the pressure off when I was suffering and gave me the chance to try and pull others along as well. We were slower than we could have been on the descents, as Phillipe's knee started to disintegrate on the rocks after the Col de Barege (ITBS / tendonitis), and it forced him to pull out at the final feed stop at Merlans with only 13km to go. But perhaps, had we not teamed up and moved together slowly, we might have all stopped moving along at all and all quit. I felt sorry for the guy, he'd pushed hard to get through the descent but knew the final burst could have done more harm than it was worth. We passed another runner with her partner in tears half way down the ski piste descent to Espiaube. The same trouble, ITBS in both knees and in crippling pain, too far beyond Merlans to head back but still a long way out from the finish and undoubtedly going to run tight on time. It's those points where the head needs to direct the legs and shut the rest out, and I felt for her.

As it was, Carmen and I crossed the line at 3:59am, making our official finish time 22hrs 56mins. We were seen in, even at that ungodly hour, by Anne-Marie and by Carmen's friends. A different Phillippe, this time one of the race cameramen, stuck a large lens in my face and I jabbered happy rubbish for a minute or so. I got a T-shirt that reads 'Finisher' - I'm very proud of that T-shirt. We walked back to the accomodation, Jacques took a photo of my feet. I showered and passed out. Lights out, game over.

10 Lessons Learnt.

1) A trail Ultra is an amazing experience. Well worth doing, and yes, I probably will do another. Rose tinted specs, perhaps, but I honestly really enjoyed the GRP.

2) When the feed stations are regular and well stocked, you don't need to carry a lot of food. I dumped two full ziplock bags at the Artigues feed station (about 30km in) with a note on them saying "FREE - HELP YOURSELF" because, frankly, I was carrying far too much. A bag of Jelly Babies or two and some gels would have been fine.

3) Foot care is MASSIVELY important. I was doing grand until about 8km out from the finish. My Injinji toe socks had been fantastic for the first 50km, I changed into a clean set of Groundhogs at Tournaboup and was cracking on until my feet got wet in an un-noticed stream across the track, about 7km out from the finish. Half an hour later they'd blown up completely, and the last 5km was agony, as my now white and puffy feet got pummelled in trail shoes on a tarmac/ hardpack surface. Note to self - pay more attention and keep the feet dry. That said, I still wouldn't go for Gore-Tex shoes, I still think my radiator-esque feet would wilt under their own personal greenhouse effect if I did

4) Small things can perk you up immensely. Little joys of the GRP included:
- French dried mango. Very different to English dried mango.
- Llama. Not to eat, just to look at.
- Hot veg soup with cubes of cheese.
- Sunrise from a hill-top.
- Self-deprecating national humour, from three different nations (see the Humour Annex below)
- Two chunks of dark chocolate and a wedge of orange. Better than you'd think.
- Mistaking a marshal's tent for a large boulder. Later, mistaking a large boulder for a tent. The mind plays tricks, y'know.

5) Carrying a small teddy around a race with you not only gives you companionship, but also a talking point when you take him out of your pack to take a photo of him at a checkpoint.

6) The point where you say "Right, only about 6hrs to the finish, then" is the point where you have entered the Twilight Zone of the Ultra mindset. From here, there may be no going back.

7) Pushing a little harder to reach the first cut-off point well ahead of time is worth it, even if the extra effort does make you wild-eyed, crazy-looking and apt to scare the nice ladies at the feed station.

8) When in the aforementioned wild-eyed, crazy-looking phase, do not be surprised when a nice French lady tells you to go and sit down and she'll bring you a cup of tea over. She is probably fearing that you'll assault her with the empty kettle you're clutching in confusion.

9) If you're going to carry an mp3 player, set it to Random. That way, when you pull it on in a wee low point, you can giggle all the way up a climb to Sir Mixalot's "Baby Got Back", summit the Pic du Midi to It Bites' "Calling All The Heroes", and dance your way back down to the Utah Saints' "Something Good" and the Dave Matthews Band's "Rapunzel"

10) When the pain does kick in, with only a few kms to go, suck it up. Well remembered advice includes the words "The legs only do what the head tells them" and "The fastest way to get the pain over with is to get to the finish". I guarantee you, the adrenaline of the last kilometre will mask the howling nerves in your feet.

Thank you, and goodnight

There have been a few people behind the scenes who have supported me a hell of a lot, and they deserve a mention too:
Anne-Marie Dunhill is a good friend from international adventure races, a fellow journalist, and the Press Officer for the GRP. She's the person who invited me over in the first place, had faith that I would get round, and waited for me at the finish at god-knows-what in the morning. Without her, I wouldn't even have tried.
Graham Kelly and Gary Vallance are the two people I've turned to for Ultra advice, both being much more accomplished and experienced distance runners than me. They are the two 'gurus' who have been able to answer my various questions and offer snippets of advice that made me feel a wee bit better about what I was trying to do.
Stuart Hale has been the technical advisor, particularly dealing with my weird ungainly gait, lightweight kit and the scientific side of an Ultra. He's also sorted me out on the nutritional side of things, though the nice men at customs did nearly try to confiscate half of my supplies.
There's been a whole host of others who've encouraged, advised, abused, and told me I was crazy. Thanks to all of them as well - every little helps.

So that's all for now. I''m proud to say, my visualisation and prophecy came true:

On August 28th, in the afternoon, I sat in a cafe in Vielle Aure,

drinking coffee, munching on a croissant, chatting to friends

having completed the Grand Raid des Pyrenees.

Thanks for reading.
Pyro

--------------------
Geek annex: Pyro's GRP Kitlist:
Head cover: Headsweats racing cap, Buff
Torso: Icebreaker short sleeve, Keela long sleeve tops
Waterproof: Montane Minimus jacket
Legs: Nike ACG shorts, Montane Featherlite windproof pants
Socks: Skins calf guards, Injinji / Groundhog socks
Shoes: Mizuno Wave Harrier 3
Haulers: Inov8 Race Elite 15 rucksack plus bottle holders, OMM Trio 4 front pack for convenience
Poles: Leki carbon trekking poles (thank you AM!)
Nutrition: High 5 gels, 4:1 carb drink and Zero electrolyte drink

--------------------
Humour annex
What do you call some one who:
   a) Speaks three languages? A - Trilingual
   b) Speaks two languages? A - Bilingual
   c) Speaks only one language? A - French

Phillippe: "I have a Belgian friend who's just become a multi-millionaire. He buys and sells French people."
Pyro: "How does he make any money doing that?"
Phillippe: "He buys them for what they're worth, and sells them for what they think they're worth"

Carmen: "We'd better keep moving, I'm very cold"
Phillippe: "Yep, I'm cold too, let's go"
Pyro: "I'm not cold. It's because I'm fat and British"
Others: "True..."
--------------------

The Magic Juneathon part 3

2011-07-04T09:00:00.001-07:00

It was the fourth of July - Independence Day, if you’re an American - and the garden was very quiet.

Florence, Dylan and Brian sat at the foot of a tree, dejected. Dougal had been missing for a whole month, and they were worried that he’d gone for good.

“My old shaggy pal” moaned Brian “Run into the ground by the Juneathon”

“He’s, like, gone to a better place, maybe” said Dylan. “Like, Bristol”

“I think it’s time to talk to Zebedee” said Florence. “Maybe he can magic him back”

Right on cue, Zebedee boinged into the garden, right next to where the trio were busy lamenting. “You called?” he said.

“Zebedee!” said Florence “You have to help us!”

“Do I?” said Zebedee. “With what?”

“We’ve, like, lost a Dougal, man” said Dylan “And it’s, like, de-shaggied the garden.” To prove this point, he then fell asleep.

“That was careless of you” said Zebedee, somewhat mischievously. “How did you manage that?”

“We were doing a Juneathon” squeaked Brian “And we think the silly clot got the rules wrong.”

“We think he just kept running” said Florence. “He could be anywhere”

“Ah” said Zebedee “So. If you were a dog with very short legs, no idea of what day it is, and a taste for sugarlumps, where would you be?”

Brian and Florence racked their brains, while Dylan snored serenely, though he did mutter something that sounded like “Abergavenny”.

Mr Rusty wandered past in the background, carrying a spare sprocket. He paused, hearing the conversation.

“Well” piped up Brian, after a while. “Somewhere where lots of people would feed him sugarlumps all day long”

“Good start” said Zebedee. “And where would they do that?”

“A zoo?” said Florence.

“He’s not dangerous enough to be in a zoo” said Zebedee

“You’ve not seen him first thing in the morning” tittered Brian

“Blackpool” said Mr Rusty, quietly.

“A sugarlump factory, by the ‘seconds’ bin?” said Brian

“You’re stretching” said Zebedee

“Blackpool” said Mr Rusty again, a little more loudly.

“A W.I. canteen?” said Florence, carefully

“Still very cold” said Zebedee

“BLACKPOOL!” shouted Mr Rusty, waking Dylan and startling Florence and Brian

“Why do you keep shouting ‘Blackpool’?” squeaked Brian, from inside his shell.

“Well, there’s donkeys at Blackpool, that take you for a ride on the beach, and people feed them sugarlumps all the time. Seems sensible that he’d be there” said Mr Rusty, then with a sniff he turned and wandered off back towards the roundabout.

“Right on the money!” said Zebedee, and with a twitch of his magic moustache, there stood Dougal... Except...

Dougal hadn’t quite been ready to be magic’d back to the Garden. There was a stick tied to his ears, with a carrot dangling off the end, his hair was all bunched up in ribbons, and a small, slightly confused, child sat on a rug on his back.

“Hey! What’s all this for?! I was living like a king!” Dougal shouted, looking round wildly.

“Dougal!” shouted Florence, running up to give her old friend a big hug

“Shaggy breeks!” shouted Brian, staring fixedly at the carrot “You brought me a present, you shouldn’t have!”

With that, the small child started to cry. And he continued to, until Zebedee magic’d him back to Blackpool and his mother.

“So” demanded Dougal “I got to Blackpool via Crewe, Otley and Carlisle. How far did everyone else get? What did I win?”

“You great wally!” laughed Brian “You were supposed to come back here every night!”

“But then how would I have got to Blackpool?” snapped Dougal

“Slowly, I reckon” giggled Zebedee.

“Yes, Dougal, you win” laughed Florence. “Here’s your prize: A cup of tea and a sugarlump”

“Ah well” sighed Dougal, slurping his tea “Better a king for a day...”

“It’s a dog’s life, eh?” giggled Brian “Or should I say a donkey’s?”

“Watch it, mollusc.” said Dougal.

Florence giggled, Dylan sighed in his sleep, and Zebedee boinged gently on his spring, laughing, until evening fell on the Garden.

“Right” said Zebedee. “Time for bed.”

The End

( The author would like to give his thanks and apologies to Serge Danot and Eric Thompson for the use of their characters. )

Juneathon - It's a wrap!

2011-07-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

So, wrapping-up Juneathon, as I did with Janathon:

Firstly, have some graphs. They look kinda pretty, in a "Ooh, squiggly lines. Wassat mean?" kind of way.

The first is a profile of daily run distances in km, contrasting Janathon this year with Juneathon.

<<JanvsJun2.PNG>>

It shows, rather nicely, that I spent much more time in the "10km-and-up" zone than I did in January:

Length January June

20km+ 1 3

15km+ 3 7

10km+ 6 14

Those 'long runs' in Jan were the preserve of weekends, pretty much, whereas in June it was easier to clock a long run of an evening without worrying about temperatures, ice, clothing etc. Oddly, however, I spent more time in June running on tarmac than trail, where January was all about off-road mileage predominantly, June consisted of many more 'all road' runs. I still managed to discover some new trails and get in some interesting trail routes and trigs, so perhaps that balances out.

Interestingly, both lines show a slump of sorts around days 19-24 - I think mentally this is where an 'athon is hardest. You've put in 3 weeks of solid effort but there's still a week plus to go, which weighs on the mind. I'm happy with the variation in distances - sometimes you have things to do of an evening, sometimes you want a long run, sometimes you just need a recovery run - but I'm also happy that very few of my 'short' runs dipped below 5km (only 3 in June against 6 in January). I think my perception has shifted since January, and 'short' tends to mean 5 miles rather than 5 kilometres these days.

The second graph is a cumulative of distances over the month, and the divergence of the lines is the interesting part. (well, interesting if you’re me...)

<<JanvsJun1.PNG>>

As the other graph shows, the longer average runs in June have pushed the distances quite nicely, and there's rarely a point (day 3 being the exception) where the variance between the two lines is negative - days 14 to 17 are almost paralleled, but in the main, the increase in divergence is steady.

Secondly, some numbers:

In January, I totalled 251.92km. In June, 322.44km (an extra 70.52km)

In January, I ran for 34hrs 35mins. In June, 44hrs 16mins (an extra 9hrs 41mins)

So I ran for longer and did more miles. That's no great surprise, really.

In January, my average run was 8.13km in 1:07, a pace of 08:14mins/km

In June, my average run was 10.75km in 01:28, a pace of 08:14mins/km

So, I'm not moving any faster on average, but I'm running further at the same pace. Good enough for me, for now.

And that's all for the statistics, you'll be glad to hear.

From a competitive point-of-view (for I am...): Counting running distances only (from the RunningFree pages) I finished 5th, only a handful of km behind Jenks in 4th.

That’s better than Janathon, in a much bigger field, with some very tough competition, and a whole bunch fighting hard for the top ten. If it weren't for a bunch of factors both external-competitive (Chooban, StevieG, Vinsta, Jenks, PPP, MumWhatRuns, PaintedRunner) and internal-personal-encouraging (having done Janathon, proper gait analysis, Grand Raid des Pyrenees, The German, Abradypus, Maggieee, K as in Cake, etc etc), I don't think I'd be anywhere near that. I'm resigned to saying I'm a runner, a slow one, but a runner all the same. So long as I keep it up...

From a more human, less analytical point-of-view, I've noticed a difference myself. I did suffer a whole bunch of aches and pains in June, but nothing consistent and nothing as bad as I'd feared. My last gait analysis, pre-Juneathon, showed that my running style has adapted an awful lot, and while it's still pretty odd, it's getting easier to clock the distances up without significant pain, blisters etc. I don't think you can run 30 days on the trot without some things changing to account for it. Stu and the team at Accelerate have looked after the gait analysis side for me brilliantly, and without their advice I definitely wouldn't be where I am, running-wise. I'd still be hobbling round getting mullered by blisters and wrecked calves on every run.

Physically, the other nice change is that I've lost about 8lbs over the month. Partially that's due to the running, partially it's due to a couple of modifications to my diet (mainly just cutting down my portion sizes!). At the last weigh-in (not something I do obsessively, I hasten to add) I was under the 13 stone mark for the first time in about 10 years. Not much under, but under all the same. Having less of me to haul about should pay some dividends, and while I reckon I've another half-stone to go, I'm not obsessing about it and I'm not trying to take any rush routes. There's no easy way to do it (I can't afford liposuction...) so it'll have to be the age old solution of working at it steadily. That's fine with me.

Mentally I guess there's a few changes too. The idea of heading out and pushing 20km+ in an evening doesn't faze me so much, the idea of a half marathon is very realistic (slow, but realistic!), and I'm feeling a lot more confident about the upcoming Grand Raid des Pyrenees, though I know I need to get some big hill days in, with a pack, between now and then, and I can't slack off the training. Speedwork and/or joining a running club probably wouldn't go amiss somewhere, but I'm wary of my old tendency to try and push too hard too fast and don't want to injure myself. We'll see how things pan out over the next 6-8 weeks and where we are when GRP comes around. After that... who knows?!

Oh, and to any readers wondering what's happened to Dougal... You'll find out. Soon.

Cheers!

Pyro

Juneathon 30 - Endex.

2011-06-30T15:50:00.001-07:00

So, Juneathon is done. Honestly, at lunchtime today, I want sure I'd make my target. But, we got there, and in relatively fine style.

The run itself was again unexceptional, a slightly weird experience running down Briggate, the main shopping street in Leeds, but after that, I hit the canal for 5 miles of steady trot to the Abbey Inn (and a bit beyond) before looping round Rein Road and up to the Better Half's place, to pause the clock at 18.1km. A quick can of something caffeinated and back out for a quick loop of Abbey Park and the Vespers. Back to the house to stop the final tally at 21.4km - a half marathon to finish on, and a final monthly haul of 323km, 201 miles. That's enough for me.

A big thanks to Cathy and co for another month of fun, and well done to everyone who's joined in. And a huge thanks to everyone who's provided amusement, encouragement and mild abuse as well.

Pics and map when I've set up my PC in the new house.

Cheers all!

Pyro

Juneathon 29 - Ouch

2011-06-30T03:28:00.000-07:00

So. 8.74 km yesterday, early in the morning, takes me over 300 km for the month. That's my original target passed with a day to spare. Woo! Cake for the moment, 300 candles (and a fire extinguisher) on order.

I have, of course, already declared another target - 200 miles, 322 km, which leaves me in need of a half marathon tonight to finish. However...

My legs are, frankly, shot to shit. As well as cracking the mileage over the past 3 days, I've also been moving house, and yomping boxes up-and-down a couple of flights of stairs has done me in. Add to that last nights whopping 4hrs of sleep and you get a rather blitzed Pyro.

Not admitting defeat just yet, not for certain. But low and slow will have to prevail for me to make it. Please, if you read this before 6pm, send me good vibes. I may need them.

Juneathon 28 - Non-Stop Operation

2011-06-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

Another 12km in the bag, the reverse of a 10 route from the other day with a wee diversion tagged on around Clarendon Road. Nota a massively exciting route (non of the recent ones have been, really) but more miles in the bank and a step closer to the end. And nicely accompanied (continuing our world tour of hip-hop music) by the Dust Junkys 'Done and... Dusted' and Everlast's 'Whitey Ford Sings The Blues'. All good.

(Map when, as stated on previous post, MemoryMap stops being a sh*t...)

Juneathon 27 - Stay Human

2011-06-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

Oh blummin' 'eck! Nearly forgot about the blog bit again. Fer smeg's sake!

Anyway, sneaking under the 24hrs, just (since it was 11 when I went out last night. Too flipping hot...) I ran a 10km loop to bring me up to 280km this month, making my 300 a relative stroll in the park. It looked a bit like this:

(Map to be added when I work out how to stop updated version of MemoryMap playing silly sods!!)

However...

I still have a job to do. A 22km job And that doesn't fit in with the '20km over 3 days' numbers. But. It does fit into the 'I like nice round numbers' plan. And the 'I like to finish with a tester' plan. And the 'I like a challenge' plan.

321.86, here we come.

Juneathon 26 - Mind over...

2011-06-27T03:44:00.001-07:00

So. Day 26 was a short-ish run, and a very gentle one, and I'm blogging
this now so I can catch up and stop slipping behind again.

Before I start on 26, let's just nip back into history to fill in some
blanks about Runs 24 and 25. They were both long, as you can see. Not
intentionally so though, in either case.

Despite my insitence that I wouldn't do, I've found myself 'running by
the numbers' more in the later stages of Juneathon. Not specifically
going "I have to run X-km tonight, so I'll do Y-route" but definitely
going "This could do with being a long one because I want to make Z-km
this week so I can hit my 300 by the end of the month". My recent runs,
and both 24 and 25 in particular, started out with a particular route in
mind and just went off-plan at some point, but turned out okay. 24 was
going to be a short recovery run, just an out-and back to the Ramada
hotel at Golden Acre, about 8km. Then I got to the ring road roundabout
and turned left, mainly... well... just because I felt like it. It
turned into double what it was meant to be, and ended up a ten miler.
Not a very interesting one, but good mileage all the same.

25 was a different kettle of herring, definitely. Again, starting out as
a planned 10km-ish loop on known trails, I decided to investigate a path
I'd seen on the map that followed the line of a railway tunnel from
Cookridge to Bramhope, then over the Otley Road, then across some
nice-looking fields on a previously unexplored footpath... The next
thing I knew I was at Lineham Farm, which I'd been to in January, and
knew I was still a fair way from home. Oops.

As I'd not planned to be out quite this long, or to have run that far,
I'd not taken food or drink with me, and it was a very warm evening, so
I was starting to suffer. But, as Mr Churchill put it "When you're going
through hell, keep going", so I plodded on, taking a line to make the
return shuffle enjoyable rather than direct - no sense in flogging my
backside off on tarmac when I could at least have interesting trails to
distract me. So, I looped across more nice fields to Eccup Reservoir,
linked in to the top end of the Meanwood Trail and shuffled my way back
home for a 20km-er, flopping into the house with the words "That was
just about 3km too far." A couple of pints of High-5 and a bath later
and I felt vaguely human, though my legs are still irking me for it. Ah
well.

And so, boldly on to 26, in which our hero (erm... Me.) goes for a short
one again.

Well, it was kind of short. The Better Half's comment was "I thought you
were going for a *short* run tonight?!" when I said I'd done 8km. Maybe
it's an '~athon' thing that I've started thinking of 8km as a short run,
maybe it's just an increase in my own running confidence. But anyway.

I set off with not much of a plan in mind, started the tracker, and
thought "Hmmm. Tell you what: Let's start the countdown timer, jog for
half an hour, see where we end up, then turn round and jog back". I
couldn't find any reason to disagree with myself, so I pottered off,
jog/walk/jogging along the Otley Road, with a fairly arbitrary target of
the Ramada hotel, which I know is 4km away, therefore giving me a rough
pace of 7:30min/km I trotted away, and approaching the hotel, the
bleeper still hadn't gone. I got to the 4km mark with 20 seconds to
spare, and spent a short while laughing at that. Don't ask me why, it
just seemed funny to me at the time. Then I turned round, reset the
timer and jog/walk/jogged back, hitting home again with 20 seconds to
spare yet again, something I again found inordinately amusing. Strange
what running on a warm night does to you.

So that's it, up-to date. Until later tonight when I do the whole thing
again and probably fall apart. It's getting to that point in the month,
isn't it?

Juneathon 25 - Argh!

2011-06-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

No song lyric in the title, just the way my legs feel now.

Turned out to be another long one - just shy of 20km. Again, got distracted by interesting looking trail and ended up miles from where I was intending to be. Worked my way back slowly as, due to not anticipating a 20km, 3hr run, I hadn't taken any food or water with me. Must rethink that particular strategy, I reckon...

Anyway, it looked a bit like the map below, was lovely and sunny for the vast majority of it's length, and took me far too long, but I don't really care. I do care about my sore legs though, so I'm going to have a cup of tea and put my feet up. Which is nice...

Juneathon 24 - Bang and Blame

2011-06-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

Still behind, but catching up! I WILL get tonight's run blogged tonight.. but first yesterday's!

I ran ten miles. Don't ask me why. I think I took a wrong turn somewhere. But ten miles it was and ten miles I'm quite proud of, in that it was only just over two hours. So faster than I would normally do. 's not bad, really.

Looked a bit like this:

Juneathon 23 - Round in circles

2011-06-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Aargh! I'm getting behind with these, aren't I? Must try harder... (story of my life...)

Last night was a short, slow, 6km loop of the block to the Better Halfs and back via Headingley, becuase after a faster 11 on predominantly tarmac on Wednesday I've got sore feet. Recovery runs yesterday and probably tonight and we'll try and shift some longer ones over the weekend to push the distance back up. The juggernaut is still rolling on!

Juneathon 22 - Mastermind

2011-06-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

(after the rather wonderful Deltron 3030 track...)

Not many words about yesterday's run. Just a map. I was faster and more flowy than usual, may have been down to the combination of Deltron and Rise Against whopping through my headphones. Never a bad thing. 11.3km, 1:20, which is fast enough at this point in the month. Now into the final full week, 220km down, 80km to go. Smoke me a kipper...

Juneathon 21 - 200/220 (full version)

2011-06-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

I couldn't work out what this said.

So - replacing the placeholder post with something proper about Run 21 and the end of week 3! Took me a while, I know, but hey.

Juneathon 21 was a really lovely run, for a few obvious reasons:
1) It was out in the woods and scenery, not just hacking round the local streets.
2) It was a really lovely evening.
3) There was a trig pillar involved.

The Shepherd

All of these things make me inordinately happy.

I'd decided I was sick of being stuck in an office and trailing the local streets and woods day-in-day-out, and I'd planned a run up on the Chevin for a little while. There's a trig up there (in the side marked as Caley Deer Park on the OS rather than the Chevin itself) which I'd not bagged, it's only a short drive from home to get there and it would make for a good uppy-downy woodsy run. Plus, as can be seen above and to the right, there's a bunch of sculptures in there which are quite interesting and I'd have bnice things to look at while bimbling around in the woods. The Better Half came up with me and went for a short walk while I went for a slow run.

A not very surprising view: Otley.

I looped west from the Surprise View (not very surprising: You could see Otley) car park first, along to the end of the Chevin trails, then south and back east to run the lower track across the face. Slightly muddy, but very nice gravel trail along through the woods soon brought me to the old East Chevin quarry car park and a short climb up the East Chevin road took me over into Caley Deer Park and along bridleway and sneaky singletrack (which I might have biked in the past with the North Leeds MTB club).

Libations! Happy Birthday dear Ordnance Survey...

Pretty soon, I was near Caley Crag, scene of a wee bouldering adventure or two (and a picnic or three) and headed for the loop round Caley wood and round the back to my target of the day - a trig pillar! I admit, I'd promised to take cake and beer, but had to limit myself to nuun electrolyte stuff and a cereal bar (no space in a bumbag for cake and beer bottles). Still, another one in the bag and a suitable salute to an organisation created to help keep out the French (a noble aim) and now responsible for the greatest mapping in the world. And for leaving wee concrete pillars all over the place for me to run to. How considerate of them.

After that it was just a short jaunt through the wood and back along the road to the car, and then a short dash down the face of the hill to go and retrieve the Better Half who'd gone for a walk, got lost, ended up in Otley, found a path running roughly the right way, walked up it then wandered off it, all while wearing in wholly unsuitable footwear, and was now stuck on some steep muddy ground under some beech trees, but wasn't entirely sure exactly where she was... Must see if we can find her a sense of direction somewhere soon.

All in all a lovely jaunt, 9.7km in a fair while, but it was a nice evening and I was admiring the scenery. Which is allowed. Honest. It took me over 200km for the month (Just shy of 210) and celebrated the 200th for OS. Near enough!

The Magic Juneathon (pt 2)

2011-06-22T08:58:00.001-07:00

As the days continued, everyone in the garden kept up their running. Ermintrude and Brian pottered in circles, distressing the garden flowers and drinking more cups of tea than is probably healthy for a snail. Mr McHenry tricycled every day, finding new tracks he'd never tricycled before and looking for new places to dig flower beds. Even Mr Rusty managed a few short laps of the roundabout, mainly chasing runaway horses or pinging sprockets, or occasionally the odd flyaway child. Dylan kept count, chalking up everyone's scores on a blackboard in between naps: Florence was the clear leader, but then, Dougal still hadn't been seen in days.

Dougal, it seemed, hadn't really understood Florence's idea. Dougal was now a very, very long way from the garden. And he was lost. Very lost.

Somewhere near Crewe he stopped for the night, bedding down in an old barn. As he curled up in the hay, a small Welsh voice sounded out from the shadows. " 'scuse me, boyo. Would you mind not stealing all my duvet?"
Dougal looked around wildly, trying to spot the source of the voice "Erm. Sorry. I was trying to find somewhere to sleep. I'm a bit lost"
"Oh dear. That's no good, is it? Where have you come from then?"
"Well, I set off from the garden about two weeks ago."
"Which garden would that be, then?"
"The garden. The one with the roundabout. The magic one"
"Well now, the only magic roundabout I know's near Swindon. Is it that one?"
"Hmmm. I don't think that's the one I'm after. It's a long way, though. I must be beating all the others easily."
"Beating them at what, boyo?"
"Beating them at the Juneathon."
"What's a Juneathon when it's at home then?"
"You run every day in June and see how far you get. I haven't seen any of the others in a good while. I must be winning, although I'm a bit tired. You wouldn't, by any chance, have a sugar lump going spare? Or a cup of tea? Or both?"
"Certainly, boyo. Just give me a moment and I'll put the kettle on. Welsh Cake while we're at it?"

Dougal watched as a small, elderly hedgehog in a miner's helmet crawled out from under the hay pile, dragging stalks and dust with it. "Now then, to that cup of tea. My name's Bernard by the way, boyo. What do they call you?"
"I'm Dougal."
"Charmed, I'm sure."

Dougal and Bernard chatted into the night, over tea and Welsh Cakes. Back in the garden, the others held a council to see what they could do about finding Dougal.
"I've lost my old shaggy pal" moaned Brian. Then he brightened. "More tea and sugarlumps for everyone else, though"
"He's a resourceful pup" said Ermintrude "I'm sure he'll be having a jolly time"
"He's, like, playing hide and seek with us" said Dylan, awake briefly.
"We need to find him" said Florence. "He might be in trouble"
"He might be in Scotland" laughed Brian "You know what his sense of direction is like"

They resolved, first, to send out a search party, and each formed a search pattern. Dylan, of course, stayed where he was "To, like act as a base in case he comes back, man". Mr McHenry rode his tricycle round the edges of the garden in a slow patrol pattern. Ermintrude chatted to the flowers to ask if they'd seen him, and Brian asked a couple of mole friends of his. Florence looked round the walled garden, in the bushes, and searched Dougal's house, to see whether there was any sign of life. There wasn't, and his pile of sugarlumps looked very forlorn.

**To be continued**

Juneathon 20 - Nothing Else Matters

2011-06-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

(In this particular case, the very beautiful Apocalyptica version of the Metallica track. If you haven't heard it before, have a look here)

A short bimble tonight - well, 6km, short enough for me, and the first time my run has been under an hour in a while - because, frankly, I need an early night! Whether it's achy legs, various stresses (both the Better Half and I are in the process of moving houses*), work, the hundred-and-summat kilometres I've run this month or whatever, I'm not sleeping properly. Because I'm not sleeping properly, I'm spending the day propped up on large quantities of caffeine so I don't make silly mistakes at work. Because I'm propped up on large quantities of caffeine during the day, I can't get to sleep at night. Because I can't... you get the picture! Like Pacman, it's a vicious circle. So tonight I went for a short run and am going to go to bed early to try and break it.

In other news, I'm happy to report that tonight was the first run under 10km in a good few days. Back-to-back 10+ runs (with a 20+ in the middle) is a great feeling for me, as it gives me a bit more confidence for the Grand Raid des Pyrenees in August. My weekly distance is trotting upwards slowly, weeks one and two of Juneathon were 65km/40 miles each, week three is set to be 75km/45 miles, which makes me pretty happy. Week four will be tapered down a bit, but who knows, if the adrenaline gets to me (and I get some shuteye between now and then) it might plateau. I'm still on course for my vague target of 300km over the month. But one wee bit at a time. One foot in front of the other until it's done, and we'll see where we end up!

*Not together, I hasten to add, before anyone gets ideas...

Juneathon 19 - Tortoise.

2011-06-19T12:09:00.001-07:00

So called because it was slow. 10km, but slow.o Enjoyably slow, though. Can't complain. Nae bugger listens...

Juneathon 18 - The 4-stage plan

2011-06-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

Blimey. This feels odd. It's just gone 2pm and not only have I done my running for the day, I have a chance to sit down and blog while it's actually daylight. This is very strange indeed.

Today was a 'long run day', but I decided it would be more fun, and less stress, to split it down into three shorter ones. It seemed like a good idea, and meant I could do all those important sport-y things like warming up, cooling down etc.

Stage 1: For once, I actually got up when my alarm went off (instead of hitting the snooze button repeatedly) so I was up and about and more-or-less functional (okay, I'd had a coffee at least) by 7:30. I set off slowly, jog-walking around the back of Beckett's Park and through the trails, tracks and backstreets down to Hyde Park, taking about an hour for what tracked out to be 5.6km - 10 min km's is respectable enough when you're ~~bimbling~~ warming up.

Stage 2: Hyde Park parkrun, though I didn't have a barcode with me (can't find it and don't have a printer!). A fast(ish) 5km, two-and-a-half laps of Hyde Park, sub 27mins but I can't be much more precise than that - it's about right, I should in theory be beating my PB, but would do better if I had a couple of days of rest beforehand!

Stage 3: After a coffee and a bite to eat at one of the cafés near the uni, I jogged steadily down to Meanwood road and onto the Valley Trail for a jog back up towards home. Not as fast as parkrun, but not as slow as my warm-up, it was a fairly nice morning, a little grey but cool and not too windy, and the trail and park were pretty quiet. A quick push up the edge of the ring road and through the Hollies, trying to up the pace a touch for a few ks, and I was soon back home, looking at my tracker, working out my distances and realising I was about 2km off a half marathon, so...

Stage 4: I went for a slow, steady jog/walk/skip/high-knee/dance loop just around the local streets to make up the distance. A final trot to end a fine morning, and a fine haul of distance to go with it!

Then I sat down, made a cup of tea and some salmon and cream cheese muffins, and began to write. And it all went downhill from there...

Juneathon 17 - Low and slow

2011-06-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

Nice bimble up and onto some new trails today, ones that branched of familiar ones, or ran close to them, but I'd not looked at. Not much to report since it was just a long, slow 10km, but that does get me up to 100 miles this month, so that's a pretty cracking achievement again. Aside from that it was just a nice steady trot up towards Cookridge and Holt Park, but then past the normal turn-off and looking for the track down to Lane End and Rushes Farms. I deliberately kept it shorter and turned right towards Paul's Pond, despite there also being another trail into the back of Bramhope to take otherwise, so I can save some other interesting pink dotty lines for another day (and it's part of a loop pointed out by Gary V who ~~fortunately for the rest of us~~ sadly isn't doing Juneathon this time). Plus, the right turn made the loop nice and heart shaped (ish. Near enough. Real hearts don't look anything like that that shape, anyway...)

After a couple of hard 'n fast nights, it was nice to have a slower bimble again, and should prep me in for Parkrun tomorrow, to see if all this bimbling and blethering has had any effect on my 5km PB. We'll see!

Juneathon 16 - We'll all float on alright...

2011-06-17T05:02:00.001-07:00

A quick blog for what turned out to be a reasonably quick run for the second night on the trot - no, I haven't deliberately kicked it up a gear, it's just the way things have worked out.

I'll add the map in later, but the gps track failed due to pilot error. Using a new piece of software (ViewRanger) for nav and tracking, but it handles the route recording differently to any other system I've used and I haven't quite got used to that yet. Fortunately it was an easy all-road loop to trace into Memory Map, and I managed to keep an accurate time for once so we have our stats.

The loop was from home, down to and along Kirkstall Road, then climbing up Woodsley Road top the edge of the university before turning left and heading back along the Otley Road to home, all of which was much enlivened by Modest Mouse's 'Good news for people who love bad news' plus a few other random tracks, and also by the Corsa full of girls who cheered as they passed me trying to 'sprint' the last half km.

In the end, the run 1:13, and clocked me 10.7km, giving a sub-7min pace and pushing the months tally over the 150km mark! Next stop, 100 miles :)

The Magic Juneathon

2011-06-16T06:51:00.001-07:00

It was all very hectic in the garden. Summer was in full swing, the flowers were in bloom, and the Roundabout gleamed in the sun. Everyone was happy, except one: Dougal. Dougal sat in his house with a cup of tea and a sugarlump and watched the summer through the window.

"Everything alright, old chum?" enquired Brian, appearing at the door.
"Don't you ever knock?!" snapped Dougal. "I can't hear myself think for you sneaking up silently."
"Sorry, dear captain" replied the snail "but I am a single-footed master of stealthy approach"
"You are a noisy mollusc. Now what did you want?"
Brian considered this a moment, eyeing the teapot. "Well, offering me a cup of tea would be pleasant, dear hound, but mainly I came to ask if you wanted to join in our game. Florence is organising it"
"Hmph. Well, I suppose I've nothing better to do. Come on then, snail."

Near the roundabout, Florence, Dylan, Mr Rusty and Ermintrude were waiting. Well, Florence, Ermintrude and Mr Rusty were waiting; Dylan was asleep in the shade. All the waiting had tired him out. As Dougal and Brian approached, Ermintrude spotted them and began to trill "And here they are, our final brave warriors, up for any challenge! The armoured knight and the shaggy beast! Never to be bested!"
"I'll best you, you walking handbag" muttered Dougal.
"Now now, my canine compatriot" chided Brian. "Be pleasant, for she maketh the roses grow."
"Glad you could come, Dougal" said Florence. "We're going to play a game."

Florence began to explain the game. "It's called Juneathon. Today is the first of June, so we will go for a run, and we will run every day for the month and see who gets the furthest"
"We could end up pretty far out" came Dylan's voice from the shade. "I'll just, like, wait here and judge. Or, like, just wait here. Zzzzzzz"
"What about those of us with no legs?" piped up Brian "I'm not what you'd call a natural runner."
"You can ride in style upon my head, snaily dear" offered Ermintrude
"Most kind" accepted Brian, with a small bow.
Mr Rusty opined that he would have no time to run, since it was summer, and roundabout rides were popular in summer, so he would need to be tending to the machinery. In his place he called Mr McHenry, who agreed so long as he could use his tricycle occasionally. He offered to ride slowly, so he wouldn't get any advantage from the wheels. Dougal was less than happy about this, but agreed to run anyway for all his friends were doing it and he would hate to be a spoil sport. They all lined up, next to the roundabout, and on Dylan's command of "Like, go!", they all began running.

Florence was a very good runner, and decided on a short loop of the garden paths, but ran very quickly. She soon got back to where Dylan was asleep, wrote down her distance and tucked the note into the dozing rabbit's pocket. Ermintrude and Brian ambled away slowly, taking a longer route between the trees, stopping regularly for tea, or to munch on some flowers, or to admire the scenery. "That's a funny hat she's wearing" said a bird, watching them pass.

Mr McHenry walked steadily back to his potting shed, collected his tricycle, and began to ride laps around the outside of the shed. When he became dizzy from riding round and round he stopped, put the tricycle away, and walked less steadily back to Dylan, writing a note of his distance, leaving it, then going back to the shed to lie down.

Brian and Ermintrude returned later, having had a lovely day out.
"My thanks to you, my dear cow" said Brian
"Any time at all, snailykins. Same time tomorrow?"
"If you don't mind? I've enjoyed myself thoroughly today"
"Of course I don't mind, dear snail. See you here tomorrow"
And they left their notes and went their own ways, whistling and singing.

As the sun began to set over the garden, all the runners had returned and left their notes. All except Dougal...

*** To be continued ***

Juneathon 15 - Walking on a Thin Line

2011-06-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

Long thin map today.

"You can't stop me, I'm close enough to kiss the sky..."

Those were some of the first words that fired out of my headphones as I set off tonight, and I guess in a way it's true. You can't stop me. I can stop me, if I want to, but just for now I guess I don't want to. So I'll keep going.

"If pain and mania show what we are, I'll draw your skin and push us too far..."

I'd been down to the Better Half's house for dinner straight after work, and letting it settle and relaxing had taken a bit of time, so it was nearly half 10 when I finally wandered out the door. That said, cool evenings suit me a bit better than hot muggy days, so tonight was perfect. I hit play on the mp3 and was greeted immediately with the opening riff of the Guano Apes 'Walking on a Thin Line' album. From that point, tonight was going to be about trying to move quickly. The music dictated that.

"The beast is a rhythm, and the rhythm got me..."

Up the Otley Road isn't particularly exciting, but it's relatively level and a good steady push to start off with. I turned off at the petrol station to head round the back of Adel as 'Pretty in Scarlet' came on, one of my favourite tracks back when I first got this album, in 2004, while living in Hamburg. Around the back of Church Lane (round the spooky graveyard, not through it) and across the field with 'Electric Nights' and 'Quietly' kicking in. A quick stop to stretch just below the Lawnswood Arms, and then it was a game of 'get back before the album finishes'

"I agree, it's enough to be just me..."

By this point it was chucking it down. Warm-ish, but chucking it down. So I did what any sensible runner would do, took off my shirt, bundled it in my hand, and ran off down the main road topless and giggling. I did manage to make it back before the album finished, in fact I got back mid-way through 'Storm', which seemed kind of appropriate. Checking the tracker as I stopped it showed a 7.5km loop in 46mins, which is a touch over 6mins/km - a damn sight faster than I've run for most of the month. And it felt surprisingly good. Maybe more music is the answer, but as the last line of the song goes:

"I'm ready to run with the storm."

Juneathon 14 - 14 for 0

2011-06-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

So, end of Juneathon Week Two. How's it been so far?

Hmmm.

Distance wise, I'm on course for my arbitrary targets and exceeding my own expectations and perceived limitations. I've run two back-to-back 40 mile weeks, with multiple runs over 10km and three over 10 miles. Not something I would normally consider myself capable of. Physically I'm standing up pretty well, aches and pains are present but nothing that I would get alarmed about. I'm running off-road wherever possible, stretching before, during and after runs, warming up well on longer runs (they tend to start off at walking pace anyway!) and warming down pretty well. I've got the odd wee blister, but what do you expect?!

Unfortunately, I've hit the doldrums motivationally. My last four or five runs have been alright time and distance wise, but in terms of 'head space', rubbish. Tonight started badly and, fortunately, improved gradually (thanks in part to some textual ~~abuse~~ motivation from Ross) to end up with me in a good mood, feeling happy, positive and above all, comfortable. All of which is made even better by the fact it also turned out to be a 10-miler.

As we enter Week Three, the pressure's still on to keep that distance down, even if it's only for my own satisfaction. There's a few other pressures around that are taking up some headroom, so hopefully we'll get those dealt with as well and then Weeks Three and Four (and those last two heady days where we all push like crazy to cram in the last minute mileage) should hopefully pick up. I really, really hope so...

Juneathon 13 - The Dark (K)Night

2011-06-14T02:58:00.001-07:00

Short lap last night, in the dark, sure to spending too much time viewing house and yakking with potential future housemates, 4.1km sprint lap around the ring road and West Park in just over 22mins, so about as fast as I get!

Back to longer plods tonight. Woo!

Juneathon 12 - Beckett's

2011-06-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

A short jaunt in the rain today - round the back way into Beckett's Park, a couple of half-arsed, unenthusiastic laps, and then back home. Legs feel surprisingly trouble-free after yesterdays long run, but I'm still grumpy and un-motivated. Oh well...

That is all.

Juneathon 11 - Half time

2011-06-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, I got my long run. It wasn't the long run I'd been planning, but it was a long run all the same.

And, for most of it's length, it felt rubbish.

I woke up cranky today, as opposed to the past week where I've just gone to bed cranky. I slept way later than I was planning and as usual that completely hoofed my Plan A for the day. Reverting to Plan B would have meant sitting on the sofa with the other half of last night's dinner and vegging out until 6pm when I'd acknowledge that I still needed to do my run for the day and stumbling out for an hour or so, arriving back still cranky and no better off and feeling guilty about it. It's an awkward situation where mind, mood and motivation seem to all be in the doldrums, maybe because of the distance I've already run this month or just because it's the weekend and I'm feeling a bit flat.

The solution was to stick some music on and just walk out of the front door, start the tracker, and see where I ended up, one junction at a time. Set off onto something familiar, that way your legs know where you're headed without your brain intervening. At each split, a quick decision - left or right? Right. Okay, go - without any thought to the distance, the incline, the route. Go for what looks interesting, investigate what you haven't done before, go home when you feel like it, when you get bored. Not the greatest methodology, to be honest, but a fairly successful one.

I got back to the house having stomped, gurned, sworn and plodded 20km. That made me grin a little, so like the last run of Janathon, I made myself go for another slow jog round the block to make it a half marathon. That made me grin a little more. The grumpy bear that went out has started to become slightly less grumpy, and more just a tired. Once he has been fed and watered and had a hot bath (and maybe even a beer...) he might be back to normal. At least, until tomorrow morning...

Juneathon 10 - SHORT!

2011-06-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

Ha! I knew I'd manage one short one this week! Erm...

Is it a good sign that I'm perversely proud of only doing a short run? I think Juneathon may be doing something to my head...

Tonight I mainly jogged slowly to Sainsbury's and back. My sat tracker shows 3.64km, but I think I forgot to pause it, in which case that distance includes multiple laps of the supermarket trying to find muffins. That's muffins of the 'toast and butter' variety, not the 'double-chocolate-full-fat-American' variety. These are cheddar and black pepper ones which are good toasted with cream cheese and smoked salmon, as opposed to the other type which are bad for me but good with coffee.

I may have a long run tomorrow, just for a change...

Juneathon 9 - Nifty Fifty

2011-06-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

Slow, slow, quick-quick-slow. That was about the theme of tonight's run, but I'm happy to say it takes me up 80km / 50 miles for the month so far, which is pretty astounding compared to the fortnight it took me to reach the same point in January. Maybe it's the lighter evenings and warmer weather making long runs more appealing...

I set off up towards the Cookridge and the back of Holt Park and stopped for the customary 'pit-stop' at the shopping centre (see the last post of Janathon for details), but stuck to the road rather than the golf course track back to the Otley Road. A nice little cross-filed footpath took me over to the church (not as spooky in the daylight), before looping round Long Causeway, across the ring road to the Hollies and back up through Oxley. Not particularly fast, although after a hard 9 days, I'm happy that my legs are standing up to anything like 8:30min/km pace for that length of time. Tomorrow night is going to be a SHORT slow one, as I keep promising myself (damn my competitive mind and comrades-in-Juneathon) in prep for something a bit bigger over the weekend!

Juneathon 8 - Round and Roundhay

2011-06-09T11:05:00.001-07:00

Late blogging of last night's run, I know, but it wasn't really that eventful. I opted for a slow jog around Roundhay park, heading up to catch up with Claire and Geoff at the Aire orienteering event (Sprint Series - too short and fast for tired little me) before bimbling off to grab the trig pillar just off the ring road, getting soaked through in an unexpected heavy shower in the process. I opted then and there to run back through the wood to try and keep a bit dryer, which was a good call because it meant I ended up bumping into Suzie who was also out for a run and joining her for the return leg to the Mansion.

See. Not eventful at all :)

Total distance 6-and-a-bit km.
Not that concerned about the time.

Juneathon 7 - Out and about

2011-06-08T03:54:00.001-07:00

Last night was a recovery run. After the hilly moorland of day 6, my legs needed a little bit of a break, so a slow shamble was the order of the day, distance immaterial, but a day to just head out for a pootle and see what happened. In the end, what happened was just the top side of 8km in about an hour and a quarter's running - the full GPS file shows 1:40-ish, but I stopped to meet up with the better half and potter round Sainsbury's to pick up dinner. I haven't included the pottering time, or mileage.

And so, to the end of Week One stat-attack (because, as was pointed out in January, I am a geek):

Total distance: 65km / 40mi - The same distance as my longest week of Janathon, a point I reached at Day 11 in January.
Average distance per run: 9.28km / 5.77mi - 4.3km further than my Janathon week 1 average.
Total time: 8:47, giving an average daily run time of 1:15.
Average pace: 8:07min/km or 7.4km/h (or 13min/mi - 4.6mi/h) - a little quicker than my January average of 8:13min/km for the month.
Total beers drunk: 0
Total takeaways eaten: 0
Total times I've said "Eesh, my calves are a bit tight": Many
Total bits of fun pretty singletrack: Could be more
Total abusive/encouraging posts to friends: A few.

Roll on Week Two - I'll be starting with something different tonight, and going orienteering!

Juneathon 6 - The long haul

2011-06-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

I've said in an earlier post that I want to spend less time in June reading maps and worrying about distances and more time just going out for a run. Contrary to this, I keep catching myself at the maps, making plans, looking at routes, going "Ooh, well, that would put me up to X-km this week... dagnammit! Behave!". Today's run started a bit like that, with a plotted, measured, planned route, but I'm happy to say that the planning went a wee bit awry when I spotted some pretty looking trail that looked like it'd be fun to run down, and the rest of the route varied between the planned and the "Ooh, shiny... less go see where that goes..." This is, I think, a good combination. Especially on lovely sunny summer evenings like tonight.

Sunshine on singletrack

I drove up to Guiseley, with the idea of looping round on to Baildon Moor to pick up two rogue trig pillars* that I'd planned to stitch onto an Ilkley Moor run, but never got the time (or inclination) They seemed to sit in the middle of an area with lots of pink dotty lines on the map, meaning possible interesting singletrack to wander along. The start didn't disappoint on that score, hardpacked snaky woodsy trail running up the edge of a field, parallel to the road, dappled sun shining through the trees. It was a pretty stiff haul up for a K or so, and then the footpath turned right and up along a ridge before dropping down into Hawksworth (not the one near Kirkstall, another one. Common name around these parts, methinks.) From here, field-edge grass track had its monotony broken up by the pair of Curlews swooping around above my head - I'm not sure I've ever seen a Curlew in real life before, only pictures, but the bill is distinctive enough! I stopped to watch a while, chomping a handful of Jelly Babies and a gulp of water, before pottering off again towards where the trail dropped steeply down to Low Springs and more pink dotty fun-looking lines.

Runners right, horse gallop left

From Low Springs (where the pink dotty lines did indeed turn out to be quite fun) came a bit of a long drag, up a gravel and tarmac lane past some very posh looking holiday cottages and expensive houses - at least, I assume they're expensive. I'm only going by the number of expensive 4x4 vehicles parked outside them. At the top, accompanied by nice warning signs, was a horse gallop. I'm not in much of a position to judge, but I reckon running down that would have been harder work for little me than it is for a much larger stallion, so I opted to go for what looked like a footpath to the right. Probably the best idea, I think; getting mowed down by an irate mare at full bore would probably have spoiled the day.

Trig #1 - Baildon Hill top

From the gallop, more sunshine, two 'frontal assault' pushes up hills and the first trig! Baildon Hill top. A quick stop, to let the guy taking a panorama get his picture without a small sweaty runner in-shot, the off downhill to cross the golf course (good running on greens, I've found. Very level...) and drop onto tarmac very briefly to climb to the second trig. I'd seen this one on StreetView (strange thing to look at, I know) as it's just off the Hawksworth road climbing north out of Baildon, so I knew it would be an easy find. There, at 11.25km run, I committed the slightly silly mistake of pressing 'Stop' on the tracker instead of 'Pause', hence why today's RunningFree update is logged as two runs. No tech issue today, just Operator Error...

Restarting the tracker, I plodded onwards, avoiding the nettles on the tight bits of trail - grippy shoes really are a Good Thing in those conditions, aren't they?! - trying not to get chased or stood on by the horses in the field with the bridleway through it, trying not to eat ALL the Jelly Babies in one go, for they are treats for when we have done well, like reaching the top of the hill without stopping. Although I did allow myself a couple when I had to stop to let some golfers tee off, on the basis that running across in front of three guys who are about to whack a small hard ball with a metal stick and who have the sun in their eyes was probably not a great idea. At least, not if I wished to keep a few things intact, like my teeth, and my consciousness.

Trig #2 - off Hawksworth Road

Pretty soon, after a fairly uneventful bimble up and over another golf course - what is it about golfers?! They seem to get everywhere... - I was back in Guiseley, with a mere kilometre along the pavement back to where the car was parked, next to the White Cross pub, the Prachee curry house and Harry Ramsden's chippy. Talk about temptation. I managed to resist, and simply drove home to pasta, meatballs, a hot bath and the slightly long-winded blogging of what turned out to be a 10 mile run! According to the Tracker 16.62km, 2:28:17. I'm happy enough with that!

Oh, and lastly, as an aside from tonight's run: I've said, many times, that entering the 'athons is about me and me only - I'm not competing with anyone else. Unfortunately, I'm quite a competitive soul at heart, and can't resist a bit of cheeky verbal, especially with Ross (Chooban), an old compadre and long-time AR associate entered in Juneathon as well. So, I've been guilty of a bit of joshing. And before we've even finished Week One. Oops... Sorry 'bout that Ross. We'll see how we both get on, eh...

*Note for newcomers to this blog. The author has developed some kind of bizarre attachment to the angular concrete lumps deposited around the country by the Ordnance Survey to aid in their mapping of the British Isles, and often goes to great lengths to 'bag' these pillars either on foot, by bike or for the few roadside ones, by car. When conversation turns to 'Trig-Bagging', the easiest option is just to smile and nod.

Juneathon 5 - Tech issues...

2011-06-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

So, first technical hitch of Juneathon - we knew it was going to happen, didn't we. More about that later, but first...

Juneathon day 3. 2.8km, 27mins

Expanding on the two very brief blog posts from the weekend, I've been back up in the Lakes for the weekend as my Dad was going into hospital for his second full knee replacement. The better half and I drove up on Friday evening in the blazing sunshine, met my Mum at home and went for a quick bimble round a short local loop, the one I did on Jan 1st, but in reverse. We pottered off down the field, then started climbing sharply onto Brown Moor, watching her ladyship first fall over while trying to run uphill - she doesn't really run off-road - and get followed by first a herd of curious bullocks, then a few curious sheep. Perhaps they could sense the shared vegetarian-ness.We climbed over the stile and made our way carefully across the next field, full of cows with young calves - never the best thing to have in a field with a public footpath through it. From the top we turned left and made our way back down the hill to the road and back through the village to home.

Juneathon 4 - 8.7km, 1hr

After a day of tea-drinking, hospital visiting and general pottering, we got back to the village and Mum suggested heading along to our local (The Greyhound Inn) for dinner, as they do a very good veggie curry for her and the better half, and very, very good Cumberland Sausage for me. We'd got back just before 6:00, the table was booked for 7-ish, time for me to go for a run then. I'd thought about the Ireby loop, or a slightly longer version, but the time constraint meant I missed out on the extension through Ireby itself and back by New Park lonning, but the new(ish) bridleways section and a nice pic of the poppies growing in front of the old church made up for it. And so did dinner, when I got back.

Today, the weather turned inclement, so the bigger hill run I'd been plotting never worked out - I'll shelve it for another day later in the month when I'm feeling a bit more tuned in. It's a route I've never run, but have walked and biked at various intervals and I think it'll be a stunner, so we'll keep it for a good day. Instead, we mooched around Keswick a little, walked down to the lake and along to Friar's Crag (not mileage I'm counting, mind. 'Mooching' isn't a listed activity on RunningFree) and had lunch at the Lakeland Pedlar, then drove home and I though I'd get a slightly longer run in from here this evening.

Juneathon 5 - Approximately

The tech glitch is one of stupidity, really. While trying to answer a call while taking a picture with the ViewRanger mapping software and Sports Tracker running in the background, my poor abused wee Nokia decided it was out of memory, and proceeded to shut down on me. That panicked me a little, as I've only just had it repaired after it last decided to die on me, so I spent a little time trying to reboot it and opted not to run so heavy on applications. Unfortunately, because it is my all-in-one solution for my hectic life, this lack of mobile means I haven't got accurate timing or distance for today's run. I was out just under an hour and a half, by my rough reckoning (derived from "what was on TV when I got in" minus "what was on TV when I set off") and when I plot the route manually into Memory Map, it comes out at about 12km, so that will have to do. As there's so many little tracks in the woods, I can't be 100% on that, but it's a near-as-damnit approximation. It's a route I've done plenty of times before, through the Meanwood Trail, and probably one I'll do a few more times before June is out, so we'll get a measure another day and adjust if necessary!

Juneathon 4 - Home Turf

2011-06-04T13:46:00.001-07:00

Slightly longer jaunt today, 8.7km from Torpenhow along to Prior Hall, through the lonning to the Ireby road, up the little bridleway (gated, well maintained, pretty flowers up the edges) and back to Cockshott bank, over the top and back home. About an hour's jog, nice and steady, with the odd stop to take pictures (below) or stretch tight calves.

It's nice being up in the old stomping ground, and I'm hoping to get out for a long fun hill run tomorrow. We'll see :)

Juneathon 3 - In Reverse

2011-06-03T16:21:00.001-07:00

A nice short hilly loop tonight, around my old home of Torpenhow. In fact, a reverse of the horrible hungover Janathon-the-First run, only this time without the hangover and with the Better Half in tow.

Hannah in the Solway sunset.

A stop-starty 2.8km in 27 mins, but with a lovely sunset over the Solway to admire, who's counting the time?

Juneathon 2- The Abbey Round

2011-06-02T14:30:00.001-07:00

A lovely sunny evening round of Kirkstall Abbey and the Vespers, accompanied by Steve G, in his first proper Juneathon run. We'd waited until 9 to set off, as it's been a pretty warm day, and headed down to Kirkstall road, through the Abbey park, along the road and then up through Vesper Road, round the loop and back along Burley road to the house.

A nice steady 45mins, covering 5.3km, and a good stretch out after the longer run yesterday!

(Route map to come when I'm on a different computer!)

Juneathon 1 - And so it begins...

2011-06-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

First Juneathon run out, and a very pleasant day it was too! I'd spent various bits of today staring at Google Maps trying to work out where to run, what mileage I was aiming for, whether to go hilly or flat, tarmac or singletrack, high or...

...And then I remembered that those decisions, those hours of poring over maps and stressing about mileage, were the things I enjoyed least about Janathon, and that my best runs came when I sacked the maps, the minimum mileage and the agonising and just did what I wanted to do.

Hill #1 - Newlay Locks

With that in mind, I got home, stuck my shorts on, chucked a bottle in the bumbag and headed out. 1:20-ish later I got back, having had a lovely bimble from the house, down to Kirkstall Abbey, onto the Leeds-Liverpool canal, along to the Abbey Inn (where, reputedly, there is the exit of a secret tunnel from Kirkstall Abbey. Presumably so the Monks could nip out for a cheeky pint without the public spotting them), and then along the edge of the river, up onto the A65 and up through Hawksworth Woods, Butcher Hill, across the playing fields, and back home.

Hill #2 - Hawksworth wood

Final distance clocked in at 11.4km, which seems pretty respectable. Very glad of being able to dump the .gpx files from the Sport Tracker straight into Memory Map for the route plotting, because there's so many little snickleways and uncharted little bits of singletrack to nip through that I wouldn't have a hope in hell's chance of plotting these things without it. Oh, and in the name of StatisticalStans'sTesticles, my average pace worked out at 7.07mins/km, which is a little quicker than I was averaging in January, though it didn't feel any faster. That's probably a good thing, I reckon.

So, 29 more to go. Woo!

Juneathon route 1 - WestPark - Kirkstall - Bramley - Hawksworth - West Park.

Tech rehearsals...

2011-05-31T12:39:00.000-07:00

So, just time for one last-minute pre-Juneathon shake-down and 'tech rehearsal' before the whole shebang kicks off, everything goes to pot, and I find myself lacking the energy, the inclination and the mental capacity to fix it. The tech I'm rehearsing is part attire and part gadgetry, and I'll cover both in this pile of waffle, along with the route, just to make sure everything's working and I know where I am, you know where I am, and everyone knows their positions, cues and lines. Okay? Okay...

The gadgetry first: I'm attempting to log Juneathon on a different GPS device - or at least, a different GPS-enabled mobile phone - than I did for Janathon. The shiny Nokia N86 at least has the capacity to connect to my computer, which will (hopefully) make logging the routes to RunningFree a darn sight simpler. It could have been even simpler if Nokia hadn't discontinued their own SportTracker software and web service, as RF could have picked my uploads up directly from that and logged them automatically. But they've dropped it and the aftermarket company that have nabbed the software created their own service but failed to keep the integrations so I'm just going to have to transfer GPX files from the phone itself. (Makes mental note to remember data transfer cable if going anywhere...)

So far, so strange. Attire next. The short run-out tonight was a chance to start wearing in a few new bits of kit that will be aiding me through Juneathon and beyong, to the GRP in August.

Wave Harrier 3! And my ankles.

First off are the new shoes, a spangly pair of Mizuno Wave Harrier 3s. These came out tops after a fairly intensive 2-hour shoe shopping session with Stu and the team at Accelerate down in Sheffield. Stu helped fit me out for my last pair of trail shoes, the Saucony Xodus that saw me through Janathon, and will be helping me through Juneathon too. The Harriers are an addition, with a bit more grip for fell running, and to work with the fact that my gait has changed - quite a lot - since the start of the year. The first run out seemed fine, a bit of tweaking and wearing in needed to balance the tension in the laces between 'not moving at the heel' and 'not squeezing the life out of my foot'. But for a first run out, damn comfortable, grippy as a really quite grippy thing, and very easy to run in.

Toesocks! And my ankles...

Along with those is a pair of the wonderfully strange but also, from first feel, just plain wonderful Injinji toe socks. Yep, that's right, toe socks. Imagine gloves for your feet. That's the badger. The better half's first comment on seeing these was "Eugh. You look like your feet have died" (I assume that was a reference to the khaki green-ish colour rather than the shape...) After getting over the initial 'slight-oddness' when pulling them on, these are damn comfy, and should reduce the time spent picking bits of grit, dirt etc out from under and between my toes. They're also Coolmax, so should help keep my (very warm) feet from getting too sweaty on the run, a problem I would certainly be having if I ran Juneathon in the wooly Karrimor socks I used in January.

So, the run itself was uneventful, just a short spin down from the house, across Oxley and into the Hollies - I like the Hollies as a testing ground because it's got a bit of everything, ups, downs, gravel, tarmac, mud, wooden bridges, tight singletrack and open fire-road. A lap down some tight stuff and back up some rocky stuff, around some tarmac-y bits and back over the pitches (all with little bits of faff, shoe-tying and stopping for a drink involved) meant a pleasant little 28min 4km bimble. Just right for a shake-down and loosen out before the mile-munching starts in earnest tomorrow. Bring on the Juneathon!

Amo Amas Ah'm at it again...

2011-05-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

(Yes, my Latin is that damn bad...)

So, after 155-ish miles, countless (well, you could count them if you're bored, there should be around 31) blog posts, hours of poring over maps, a bunch of new trig pillars and some new friends, Janathon came to an end. I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to pottering about as I normally do, and not running very much. Some, but not very much.And I thought lots about how I needed to run more often and still failed to do much about it.

Well, now it's back on. 155 miles to beat. JUNEATHON here we come.

Yey!

Higher Ground

2011-05-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while. Sorry.

What's going on: Not a lot. Nothing much different to when I last posted, anyway. Still working for the NHS, getting back into paddling (cracking weekend at the Tryweryn last weekend helped the confidence a lot) and doing the odd bit, though not as much, biking. Still running, though not with as great a frequency. The Deerstalker was a fantastic race, way back in March (Oops, meant to write that up...). Knocked 17 minutes off the PB to bring it down to 2:12, and could have been maybe five minutes faster if I hadn't started at the back of the field - early queueing, though I managed to cut past some of it, was a major sapper.

I'm still prepping for the Grand Raid des Pyrenees, and this is where this latest little story comes in.

I'd been planning a big "see where we are" weekend, which just became known as the 'Ultra Weekender', to comprise two long run/trek days and a camp and banter evening in the middle. The optimum date came up when looking at the LDWA events calendar, with the Settle Saunter 26-miler on a Saturday, which meant a good opportunity to camp at Horton-in-Ribblesdale and have a bash round the Yorkshire 3 Peaks on the Sunday to make it a 52 mile weekend. No worries!

Okay. I admit it. I was a bit optimistic.

A few posts on Facebook and forums garnered only one willing recruit for both, with a couple of others saying they'd be up for the 3 Peaks, and one saying she'd be at the Saunter but wasn't sure about doing both. And so yesterday morning, Debs, Steve and I lined up at Settle Victoria Hall to set off on the Saunter.

The route was fairly straightforward - Settle, Feizor, Austwick, Clapham, then a long drag past Ingleborough cave and Gaping Gill to Ingleborough summit, just shy of half way. From the top, down to Slatenber, Cold Cotes, Newby, back to Clapham and Austick, then loop through Oxenber woods to Feizor again, over to Little Stainforth, then down the riverside back to Settle.We trotted off across fields and through the lanes, and I have to say I didn't feel as good as I was hoping. Lots of niggles, back, hips, calves and feet, which I put down to my normal habit of feeling rotten at the start of a run and hoped they'd just fade off as we continued. I dragged behind as Steve and Debs navigated and pushed on, hoping I'd buck up soon and get back on form

We got through Feizor, and with one minor hiccup (read instructions more carefully is the tip. Footpath signs aren't always in plain sight.) we continued on. more field-edge grassy footpaths, I still wasn't feeling any better, and my heels were now starting to hot-spot, which wasn't helping my feeling of wellbeing. When we got to the Clapham checkpoint I taped them up while we checked in and had a bit of food, and we headed out for the long drag up to the top. It soon became obvious that the damage was done, though, and taping the heels had had little effect - I was still in pain, especially while climbing, which we had a good 4 miles of before we summited.

Trio on Ingleborough top - Steve, Debs & the shoeless shortarse

I'd decided on using my Mudclaws because of the recent rain, thinking I might need the grip on grassy descents. I've had them a while and had run Deerstalker in them, without taping, without any issues. I can only assume the new pair of socks I had on contributed, or some other factor has changed since March, but my heels were shot. I know I have odd feet anyway, but haven't normally blistered heels when running. But, as we passed Ingleborough cave, I started trying to think of solutions, and as we neared Gaping Gill I decided to sack it and sort them out. Time for some fairly desperate action...

The first choice was to see how I went in just my socks, but the gravelly track soon put paid to that. The solution for a bit of protection was to put my shoe insoles into my socks and pull them on like that. Fine for a short while, but the insoles slipped around and it didn't really work, so out came the Vulcan tape again and on I trotted, insoles taped to feet, socks over the top. The stony steps as we climbed were a bit of a different challenge, trying to find foot placements than didn't hurt, but we kept moving. On the last short push to the summit plateau, I felt like I could keep the temporary footwear technique up for a while, but wasn't going to complete the day, and I said so to the very patient duo. With the way the wind was going to be on top, the best solution was for us all to check in, the for Steve and Debs to head off ASAP so they could get a decent time for the day, while I made my way carefully to the next manned CP and withdrew - not an option I relished, but the one that seemed sensible in the circumstances. That said, the feet seemed to be bearing up well so we made our way, together, off the end of the Ingleborough plateau and down towards Slatenber.

FEET! - One trashed pair of socks.

Another little overshoot (we should have spent more time navigating and less time yakking) and a quick recorrect and we were nearly there, with a strange decision made: I would try and continue, despite slowing the others down. Steve nearly spat out his cereal bar at the comment "Basically, I want to be able to tell people I did over a half-marathon, in my socks" and so we trotted on, more slowly than I would have liked, as quickly as I could manage. Debs navigating for the day was cracking, and the banter, story-telling and general craic was fantastic. We moved on as best we could until the very end, back into Settle with Steve having his bad patch, and me becoming sore-footed, and Debs leading from he front, chivvying the pair of us along with regular shouts of "Come on boys, keep up!". We finally made it back into the Victoria Hall in 8:52, a lot slower than any of us had been aiming, but having had a fun-if-a-bit-strange day on the hill. I'd jogged and walked 15 miles, or thereabouts, in a fetching socks-and-insoles combination, and while my feet were definitely sore, I was still standing. Not a bad effort.

Needless to say, however, the plan for the 3 Peaks was hastily ditched, and we all headed home to have a day of hardcore grade 5 chilling-out. Tactical retreat, honest.

HUGE HUGE thanks to Steve and Debs for sticking with me in the circumstances, and next time I'll bring different shoes, or socks, or at least a tested combination, I promise!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes...

2011-03-22T09:09:00.001-07:00

o, it seems Janathon has had a positive benefit on my running. I guess you don't do anything for 30 days straight without it affecting you, for better or worse. But maybe you don't really notice it until other people get involved and tell you how it's changed you.

I've managed, to a degree, to keep up the running since January. Not as much, I admit, but regularly, a couple of times a week. Even paced, long-ish distances, and almost 100% off-road on familiar, fun trails. I'd noticed a few changes myself, mainly physical ones. I knew I wasn't getting those little 'niggles' that I'd suffered in the past: lower back pain when climbing; IT Band twinges on long descents; tight calves, well, pretty much permanently; the horrendous 'toxic ten' I always suffered trying to find a comfortable steady pace straight out of the box. Psychologically as well, the idea of going out for a run doesn't gall me like it used to do: I no longer shrink in fear and dive for my bike to travel mid-length distances; When a mate turns up at the door with trail shoes on his feet and a slightly mad grin on his face, I don't hide behind the sofa any more. I do make sure to pick up a headlamp, though. We may be some time...

But, like I say, it takes impartial observers to point out what's really changed. For me there's been three comments that stood out, all delivered very differently but all added to the mental portfolio of things to dwell on when I'm suffering up a hill:

1) "You've dropped some timber"
Half in surprise, I think, from a canoe club friend. I had to admit I haven't actually lost any weight, I've just moved it around - bigger legs, smaller beer gut. Then again, drysuits aren't what you'd call 'slimming'

2) "You're not running like a pregnant duck any more"
From a team-mate while out on an impromptu Meanwood Trail run one Saturday evening. I laughed so hard it nearly put me right off my new, improved, now less Frankensteinian stride.

3) "You've always had a distinctive gait, but now it's just your upper body that's distinctive."
From my mother, after seeing me at the Mighty Deerstalker trail race. I've no basis for comparison of what my upper half does. As long as it stays above my lower half then that's fine with me.

From these comments I have deduced the following:
1) People seem to have been deluded into thinking I'm thinner than I am.
2) Never expect a straight compliment from anyone from East Yorkshire.
3) My legs no longer stand out in a crowd, unlike the rest of me.
And, perhaps most importantly,
4) I have improved my running, in terms of style, comfort and speed, because of (or perhaps in spite of) all of the above.

All of them are brain food, in their own way. If people are noticing a change, then perhaps it's more real than I thought it was. If I look lighter on my feet, smoother, more comfortable, then that's no bad thing. If I'm aching less and getting held up by little niggles less, then that's good too.

I'm still not an out-and-out footslogger. I will always be a Multisporter, Adventure Racer, Kayaker, Mountain Biker. But I don't think I can leave Runner off that list any more. And those little comments, whether surprise-based, mock-insult-based, or hazily undefined but positively meant, are all fuel to the fires while I'm out being a Runner.

All in a day's work

2011-02-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

I guess Janathon's had a few positive effects, on both my running and on life in general. In terms of running, it has meant I wasn't worried about the prospect of covering 20km-plus over a day, and in terms of life it's meant I've met some new, friendly, like-minded people. Well, 'met' is a contentious term, but at least commented on blogs and had them comment on mine...

Yesterday was a combination of both of the above. I headed out relatively early in the morning to get down to the Leeds parkrun, a nice steady 25 minute jog from home down to Hyde Park as a warm up, then a steady 28 minute 5km, taking it a little bit easy as I knew I had more mileage to come over the day and I didn't want to wreck myself early on. A cuppa and a bottle of water at the Union and a lovely couple of hours just relaxing, stretching out gently, enjoying the sun, the Redlands Palomino Company and a good book, and then back over to Hyde Park for the 'Northern Post-Janathon 5km and Lunch'

To explain that to any non-Janathoners reading, Cahy andthe Southern contingent of Janathon were having a meet up, prize presentation, 5km jog and meal down in Hyde Park, London, to celebrate the end of the month and let people meet each other 'properly'. Unfortunately for me, London's a bit far to travel just for a jog and a meal, so a couple of us had discussed a 'Northern' extension, in Hyde Park, Leeds. There were three of us lined up to be there, myself, Rich (Fitographer) and Duncan (UnshodNortherner). None of us had met before, but we'd arranged to meet at the parkrun start line, then do a 5km lopp around and about (route map below), then head over to Opposite for a cuppa and a sarnie.

I was early, as usual, Duncan arrive about five-to, and we chatted and waited around until 25-past but unfortunately Rich never arrived, so we headed off on the run without him. A nice steady pace down the park and over the Otley Road, then up through a series of small alleys and snickleways into the woods on Meanwood Ridge, trying to avoid the muddier patches as Duncan runs in Vibram FiveFingers toe-shoes (hence the 'Unshod Northener' tag) which are a wee bit lacking in grip on the slippy stuff. U-turn at the gate and back along the low trail back through the woods, out onto Meanwood Road and back up the hill towards the park. We took it steady and chatted along the way, although Duncan admitted it was probably the hilliest run he'd done since he started running. Pretty soon we were back in the park, and just waiting for the bleep from his Garmin to tell us we'd covered the distance - and we had. Bang on 5km start to finish, a friendly passer-by did us the obligatory finish picture, a quick call to Gary V to link up with the Southern contingent and say hi, and headed over to the cafe for tea and medals and for me to be very curious about the experience of barefoot running in the FiveFingers. Oh and who'da thought, Roast Beef and Roast Parsnip sandwiches are actually rather good..

It was cracking to meet another Janathoner in person, to get a different perspective and share a few stories, and when Duncan headed off into town it was also nice to head to the Union bar and watch England hammer Italy in the rugby, before a brief walk and a slow, steady jog back home through Meandwood park and the Hollies, with the Sat tracker showing a total of 22km for the day - a nice Half Marathon, spread over a day. Excellent fun!

On and up.

2011-02-08T04:58:00.000-08:00

So, one challenge ends, another arises. As the song says, that's the way (ah-hah, ah-hah) I like it...

I placed top ten in Janathon, 6th place I think, which was a heck of a shock. I never entered for any sense of competition, just for something to give me the motivation to train early in the season and to give me a kick up the jacksy to do some work. I'm happy with my mileage and the effort I put in, I know the areas where I could have done more and the reasons why I didn't, I've shifted my view of my own limitations, I've run further in a month than I probably ever have in a year, and I've managed all of the above without injury. All good stuff. Really good stuff, in fact.

And now, with the lessons learnt from Janathon, we carry forward to the next challenge. It's a way off yet, but it's a reason to continue jogging, logging and blogging. And to express it the same way as the big piece of paper on my wall does (target visualisation, don'tcherknow):

On August 28th 2011, in the afternoon, I will be sitting in a cafe in Vielle Aure, drinking coffee and munching croissants, chatting to friends, having completed the Grand Raid des Pyrenees.

I'd said elsewhere that a road marathon held no appeal to me as a target, while a trail Ultra did. Well, through a friend, in recognition of the Janathon kick-in-the-bum, I've been offered a place at the GRP, an ultra-marathon which is generating a lot of attention as it develops from fairly humble beginnings 4 years ago. 1500 competitors this year, and the race entry is now sold out, which gives you some idea of how big it's becoming.

It took me a little while to decide. I'd said many times before that in Adventure Racing terms, running and trekking were my weakest disciplines. Excitable, incorrigible me saw the invite and whooped and hollered and danced; Sensible, logical me wondered about training mileage, asked a couple of good friends about their Ultra experiences, and picked brains. The former thought things like "how cool would that be! Big hills in the sun!"; The latter knew that 'big hills' equates to 'hard work', and 'the sun' to 'crispy-fried Pyro'. Neither of me could actually come up with a reason not to try, though, so I agreed with myself that it seemed only right to accept. Our formal entry was submitted yesterday, so we're on system green from here.

The race, though I use the word advisedly in my case, is the 'Grand' course: 80km (50 miles) with 5000m of ascent and a maximum finishing time of 25 hours. Both of me unanimously decided that the Ultra course, 100 miles in 50 hrs, was maybe more than we could chew for a first ultramarathon. Starting from Vielle Aure, the route ascends to the Pic du Midi, which looks stunning in last year's race pics, and around the areas of the Col de Tourmalet and the Hautacam, names synonymous with hard climbing, at least for cyclists. In 6 months time I will be ready for it, mentally, physically and technically, and in 6-and-a-half, I will be heading out onto the hills for the longest long hike of my life. And both of me are looking forward to it.

So, here's to the next challenge, whatever yours is. Cheers!

Broken

2011-02-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

My resolve is broken.

I swore I wouldn't. I swore I'd stop.

I have to confess...

...I went for a run. Whoops.

Airienteers Headingley streets 45min Score-O: 7.95km, 50:50 (damn me trying to push for those couple of extra controls...)

Just as well. Big plans ahead. Febathlon, anyone?

Janathon #31 - Time, and a half (Pt 2)

2011-01-31T17:13:00.000-08:00

So, last orders were called yesterday and I was happily queueing for the metaphorical bar, ready to get a short swift one in for the road. The numbers looked good: Yesterday's big effort, although less than I'd been hoping, stood me at 142.4 miles (or 229km, for those of us who think in metric) - a still long-ish but definitely manageable 12km to finish at 150 miles. I'd kind of dwelled on this point for a lot of the day at work, mulling the numbers in my head. I'd hoped to hit the 150mi yesterday, which would have left a 10km bimble for today to take my tally to 250km, which is more my kind of round number. I'd even jogged a couple of K to the Co-op and back at lunch time, to pull that 12 down to a 10, to make it easy on my legs. But...

241.40 is not a nice round number. And I like nice round numbers.

To make my 250 would entail me running my longest run of the month on the last day. But hell. I like a challenge. If I didn't, I wouldn't have been involved in this crazy shenanigans in the first place.

I got in from work, ignored the maps, chucked a couple of things in my pack and went out. To paraphrase Laurence Oates, I was planning to be some time. Trotting up the road feeling those familiar little creaks that showed that I'd been somewhat abusing myself for a month actually made me smile. After tonight, we can rest, tonight we run. More than once the Douglas Adams-isms about flight and inverse confidence came to mind*, and I trotted onwards towards Cookridge and Holt Park with a vague plan in mind.

The first part of that plan was actually a quick stop. Holt Park has one redeeming feature, to the post-work runner, and that is a clean and functional public toilet. I went about my business, and then trotted out again, much to the bemusement of the chavs and little old ladies who tend to frequent Holt Park Asda of an evening. From there, down the road once more and left across Cookridge golf course, round the edge of Breary Marsh and 'Paul's Pond' (Don't ask me, that's what the new, shiny-looking signpost said) and out onto the Otley Road by the Ramada hotel, scene of the commencement of an earlier run this month. The tracker said 7.72km, which raised a grin, because I knew from here via the MVT home was about 9km, a good starter for ten.

The trail went on, and I actually felt good. Really good. Those endorphins do wonders sometimes, don't they? Along the road from the edge of Golden Acre, up through a chunk of woodland on a footpath I'd seen on the map but never been on (Was very nice. Woody singletrack is fun, whether on foot or bike) and back down the road, blocking another few kms into the route. Up the road once more, to above the Adel jumps - thanks to the BMW driver who actually slowed to sit behind me as I jogged to the top of the small-crest-with-blind-corner and waited for me to wave him past, no thanks to the dozen-or-so idiots who seem to think that, despite the headlamp and hi-vis, it's still okay to leave your lights on full beam when driving towards a runner - and right into the woods once more.

Through the MVT, and down towards the cricket club, checking the Sat Tracker and feeling the urge to call home: "You know that 10km I was going to do? Well, I'm past 12 and I'm still miles from home. Oh well" and up and across the North Leeds Moors, dropping down to the top of Seven Arches, then along the 'outlap' trail, over the fallen tree and through Speeder Chase back to the ring road. Across and up and down the Horse Climb and check the tracker again and it says 16km. Hmmm...

I feel good. I've still got the legs. I've still got the lungs, the heart. I've still got the head. Home, quick pitstop, then we're going for it.

Up to the ring road once more, and up, the Pyro Plod in full force. Through the Hollies, up the hill, across Oxley and home. Pause the tracker at 18.9km. Change shirt for a clean, dry, merino top. change Buff for fleece beany, neck a glass of water, then out again, not far now. A half marathon finish is very much on. Back to Beckett's, for the nth time this month, around the edge of the courts and through the turnstil and past te monument and into the dark snickleways and back onto Kepstorn Road and we're HOME!

22.19km / 13.79 miles in 2:49:04. My first ever half-marathon run, and I still feel strangely good. Runners high? Perhaps. But certainly a night to remember.

I finish Janathon with:

A total mileage haul of 251.36 km / 156.19 miles.
A total of 33 hours, 42 minutes of running time.
An average pace of 7:55 mins/km, with a standard deviation (pace) of 01:19 - not bad, given the variability of run lengths, aims, speeds and terrains involved this month.
7 mileage targets beaten, at varying intervals.
A weekly average of 50km per week for 5 weeks (even if I run no more this week!)

None of this would have been possible without al the support I've had from friends, family and complete strangers who've posted on my blog, encouraged me, abused me on Facebook and occasionally just gone "You're doing what? Are you nuts?" Tonight's run is dedicated especially to this latter category. Yes, there's a good chance I am nuts, but I've got a solid pair of legs and a decent heart and lungs, even if the brain's a bit shot. To everyone else, I hope you enjoyed the ride

Lastly, this would never have been possible without Cathy White organising the challenge, the guys from TalkTalk and Audiofuel for backing it, and the myriad of wonderful people who got involved and puttered, strolled, bimbled, sauntered and occasionally legged it through January themselves. Thank you so much, all of you.

And now, the fat bloke has finally sung. Goodnight all, and thanks.

Pyro

*For those who are not avid fans of The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy the two quotes in question are:
1) There's a knack to flying. You have to be able to throw yourself at the ground, and miss.
2) It's not knowing you can do it. It's being ignorant of the fact you can't..

Janathon #31 - Time, and a half. (Pt 1)

2011-01-31T13:31:00.001-08:00

Tonight's run: 22.19km, 2:49:04.
More chat and stats analysis once I've eaten my own bodyweight in pasta...

Janathon #30 - A madman on the moors

2011-01-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

A last chance for a big run before the end of the month (and to stay ahead of a couple of close runners behind me, since Gary V pointed out that I might be in with a shout of a top ten finish. Thanks GV, nothing like a little pressure to focus the mind...) and a chance to bag some more trig pillars, just a couple, but a couple that I probably wouldn't get otherwise.

I'd been planning a ramble over Ilkley Moor since the start of the month. I don't know the area that well, only having been there for the Jack Bloor fell race, but it's always seemed to be a good place to head on a decent day, and the lure of the trigs was an added incentive. The original plan was to do it by train, head to Ilkley and loop up and over, picking up two trigs on the moor before dropping down to Baildon, grabbing the two pillars there, then down to get the train back from Saltaire. Sundays, unfortunately aren't the best time for regularly spaced trains, so I decided to drive to Ilkely, pick up the first two and then drop back down.

The Swastika on the Swastika stone

The day's been a little overcast, and very cold, but dry and fairly bright. I parked down near the Station in town, since that's where I should have been starting from, got the poles out and headed on up the hill. Last time I was here, for the Jack Bloor, my back had seized on me early on in the run and been agony for the entirety, so I was hoping to avoid a repeat of that. After the initial steep start, I headed around the 'edge' of the moor, via Heber's Ghyll and the Swastika Stone (pictured left), continuing along towards Nab End. A sight on the horizon caught my eyes, so I trotted along to find an awesome willow-sculpted wolf, howling out from the edge of the moor. I'm glad I took my SLR out with me now!

Howlin' Wolf

From the wolf, it was a quick potter along the edge, then turn south for a bit, then back up the wall edge towards the first trig pillar of the day at Long Ridge End. It wasn't long before I popped through a shooting gate in the wall and could see the little concrete truncated-pyramid-of-joy on the horizon, and number one was in the bag. I ratched around in my pack, pulling out the water bottle, the camera (for obligatory picture of pillar - the "I'm making this up as I go along" rules of Trig Bagging state that the pillar cannot be claimed unless you've verifiable photographic evidence), and the bag of snacks. A few quick munchies were nice, but it was getting very cold, so on with the Sportwool top, pack everything away, collapse the poles and strap them in, and move off again, following the edge of the wood.

I'd had my Minidisc on all day, and as I've said previously, music can lift me at a moments notice. At this point, any observers would have heard the "oh hell yes" and seen me start dancing along as "Call Me Al" came on. It's one of those songs that gets me going quite easily, and it came at a fantastic time, when I needed something to up the heart rate and warm me once more. Bouyed by a bit of Paul Simon I had a quick look at the map and realised I could bag 3 pillars, not just 2: The Rivock Edge trig wasn't far off, I had plenty of light, and it was an easy-ish track. I'd seen the Rivock trig when I was first planning the route, but it lay just a little too far off route for 'the big one'. Since I was on Plan B, why not add it in?

Through a short bit of pleasant wooded singletrack, then out into the middle of a whole chunk of felling operations. Joyous. Tilhill had kept the path clear of brash, which was nice of them, but the ground was still heavily cut up, so it wasn't the easiest of trails as I'd hoped, but I was soon out the other end and heading round the wall again before popping across the clear to trig 2 - the unplanned second album! This was a nice bonus to the day, and added a few k's to the general mileage. It's a shame it was boggy dogleg to get to, but the light and the view from the point were well worth it. And I'd remembered the mini-tripod today so getting a shot of myself at the trig was a possibility. I did, but I look so bad I'm not publishing it...

After heading back the way I came, and back onto the main whaleback of the moor, it was a relatively easy bimble, on some well worn trods over to Whetstone Gate, and the melodious sounds of "If I Had A Million Dollars" soon filled the air as I sang along. I'm sure the Barenaked Ladies didn't sound quite so out of breath as my rendition, but so be it, they weren't out running while it was recorded.From the transmitter masts at Whetstone, along the stone-slabbed trail to the Thimble Stones and we were nearly at number three, and with just a heartbeat stopped (to switch the disc for The Best of the Beach Boys) I was there in minutes. This time I will publish the self-portrait, not because it's good, but because it's appealingly cheesy.

From there I dropped pretty directly back to White Wells, down the footpath, singing my little socks off and slipping and sliding on the muddy trail. I have to say, today has been one of the best days I'd had out on the fell in ages, and bar a couple of the steeper, soggier bits, I'd pretty much been smiling the entire way. The few people I passed on the descent must have looked at me with a mix of admiration and fear, for I was descending like... well... like a fell runner. And that can sometimes be scary.

I got back to the car and stopped the tracker at 18.1km in a shade over 3 hours, including stops. That leaves me just over 12km to do tomorrow to make it 150 miles in the month. I can be happy with that.

Janathon #29 - Race pace, race face.

2011-01-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

A slightly strange but ultimately very rewarding day today.

I'm an occasional attendee of the Leeds parkrun. For those who don't know what parkrun is, it's an organisation running weekly, free, fully timed 5km time trials. They're not a race as such, but with barcode timing, signage and marshalling, they're almost certainly the best free event a runner can go for. They're also a great way to benchmark performance. Like I say, I only attend occasionally, but since my first run last year I've stripped over 3 minutes off my PB.

Let's just say, with 200km already in the bank this month, I wasn't expecting miracles. I decided to head down early on a bright but damn cold (-5°C) morning, so I could get a bit more of a warm up, though as they say, the best laid plans etc, so I didn't head out quite as early as expected and didn't quite get as much warm up as I would have liked, but hey. Some warm up is better than none, and then we were lining up for the start of the run and then off. I started the tracker and braced myself for the pain!

The Leeds course does two-and-a-half laps of Hyde Park, a diagonal from the statue of the bloke with the wellies (no idea who he is, but his wellies get painted fairly regularly) across to the Hyde Park pub, then left around the park edge, to start the first full lap behind the Library pub. Two full laps and you're done. The hard part is the back side of the park, which you do on all three turns, as it's a fairly long gradual-but-continuous climb, petering out at the start area and then flat across to the finish area, before you set off downhill again.

I always set off slower than I finish - it takes me a while to settle into pace - and I knew that the orange-vested bloke paced 26 minutes would probably be out of my range, but I concentrated on one runner at a time, reeling them in. That went especially for the climb. I always feel like I can open it up a bit more uphill, and there'll always be some poor sod suffering more than me. Growing up in the Lakes does wonders for your power on the hills, evidently. The frontrunners lapped me, as they generally do, but only a handful, and these are the guys who are running sub-20. My only aim is to finish, and hopefully keep it sub-30. I made it through, with a good push up the last climb, and sighted on the person I wanted to pass before the finish, only to have her put a kick in, presumably with legs a little fresher than mine. While I got close, I never caught her, but she did laugh in the finish funnel when I told her I'd been sighting on her. She'd done the same with a guy in front of her, and he'd kicked too, so there were two of us who had just missed the target.

Anyway, time-wise I was very, very pleasantly surprised. Like I said, no miracles, but only 3 seconds down on my PB after 4 weeks of daily running seems pretty good to me. 26:51 for today, plus two 16min, 2.1 jogs as warm up and cool down either side. Not a bad day at all!

Janathon #28 - Take me out tonight

2011-01-29T05:30:00.001-08:00

A very chilled one for number 28, and a lovely way to spend an evening.

It was payday, and I felt like celebrating, so what better way to do it than to have a leisurely jog into town, meet the other half there, have an excellent dinner for two at Wagamama, then walk back to Headingley for a quick drink in Arcadia (and a catch up with some friends who are trying to goad me into running a trail Ultra while also planning to steal my gear to run a mountain marathon) and them. a brisk walk back home. An easy way to rack up the mileage, and thoroughly delightful with it. 8.42km, time immaterial.

Hundred Acre Janathon - Part three

2011-01-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

After catching a Jagular and letting it go, and still looking for a Janathoner, Tigger and Pooh found themselves by the big oak tree by the little path in the furthest corner of the Hundred Acre Wood. And they stopped and looks at the ground in surprise. There were *hundreds* of footprints here, as though lots of Janathoners had been here, dancing. "If we could see a Janathoner dancing, that would be REALLY special" said Tigger.
"Oh yes" said Pooh. "I'd heard that Janathoners liked dancing. It helps them do something when they're not running"

So Tigger and Pooh decided this would be the perfect place to hang the internet and the clogs, and looked around for a branch to hang them from. Tigger looked up at a big, wide bough that would be perfect and had a little shiver. He'd had an uncomfortable moment up a tree that he didn't want to repeat. "Pooh" he said "Maybe we should get some help to hang the clogs up, because it's very high" and he bounced off to find help, leaving Pooh with the things to arrange.

Pooh looked at the internet, and the clogs, and thought a while. "Do we hang the clogs up and drop the net, or hang the net and drop the clogs, or hang both and drop ourselves, or put both on the floor and jump out? Oh bother..." and he shuffled this way and that, moving the clogs here and the net there to see what would look best to a Janathoner. He'd just come to the conclusion that he didn't know when Tigger appeared through the woods, with Piglet, Roo and Kanga in tow.

The five friends soon came up with a plan: They would put the clogs into the net, and fold it in half, and then hang it by the corners from the big wide bough. Then they would sit and wait for the Janathoner, which should be so impressed with the internet and the clogs that it might dance, and they could watch from behind the big oak tree. They were all too small to reach on their own, but with Kanga stood on Pooh's shoulders, and Roo stood on Kanga's, and Piglet stood on Roo's, Piglet could just reach up high enough to tie the ties that Tigger passed up to him.

Pooh, at the bottom of the tower, was feeling a little bit strained, and he tried to keep his mind on being strong and standing up, but with all the weight on him his mind soon wandered. And as his mind wandered, so did his legs, and just as Piglet finished the final tie, his legs wandered a little too far, and they all came down with a BUMP. All except Piglet, who was left hanging from the internet by one little paw. "Help! Help" he shouted, holding on tight to the net. "Climb up, Piglet!" shouted Pooh from the floor, but Piglet's little arms weren't strong enough to pull him up onto the rest of the net. All he could do was cry "Help!" as his hold started to give way.

Just as he thought he could hold on no longer, Piglet felt a paw grab him by the back of the neck and pull him up onto the branch. He sighed, in panicky relief, as a small black furry thing, with bright yellow eyes, rubbed against him and said "mreow?": It was the Jagular, who had mistaken his cry for help for another Jagular getting ready to jump on people (for everyone knows, Jagulars sit in trees, shouting "Help! Help!", and wait for people to walk underneath before they jump on them). Piglet hugged and thanked the Jagular, which looked a little confused, shouted "Help! Help!" and then jumped merrily off the branch onto the pile of Pooh, Kanga and Roo.

Once they had disentangled themselves from the pile, each other, and the happy, purring Jagular, they admired their net, and all went behind the big oak tree to hide and wait for the Janathoner they were sure would come by. And they waited, and they waited, and the sun started to set, and it started to get dark. Pooh hummed a nervous little hum, because he didn't really like the dark, but with all his friends around him he was sure they'd see a Janathoner very soon. And just when his hum was getting very nervous, they heard it...

Through the Hundred Acre Wood it came, a huffing, puffing, tromping noise getting louder as it got closer. There was a bright light, getting brighter and closer as the thing loomed out of the darkness, along the little path, towards the big oak tree. And there, by the big oak tree, puffing and panting, it stopped. And while they couldn't quite make out the shape of it, because of the darkness and the bright light, Pooh and his friends knew what they could see: A Janathoner!

The Janathoner stopped by the tree, and leaned on it, and Tigger gasped. It was dancing! They all peeked out from behing the big trunk as the Janathoner lunged forward on either leg, squatted down low, pulled each leg in turn up towards its bottom, and bent over, trying to touch its own toes. It looked like a very strange dance, and the friends whispered excitedly to each other.
"Why is it dancing, Pooh?" asked Roo.
"I don't know, Roo" said the bear.
"Maybe it's practicing for something." said Tigger
"Maybe it just likes dancing" said Piglet
They all thought this was very likely, and they watched carefully to see what other dances it would do, but the Janathoner stopped, shook each leg in turn, took a deep breath, then turned to set off once more along the path, right towards the bough to where the internet and the clogs were hanging.

There was a loud CLUNK as the tall Janathoner's head connected with the clogs, wrapped in the net, hanging from the bough, and it sat down very heavily on the little path. The friends behind the tree gasped as they saw it rub its forehead and say "Ow!". But Pooh Bear heard something in that "Ow!" that the others missed, and he padded out to the sitting Janathoner. The others followed him cautiously, and too late they realised that the shape with the light was someone they all knew very well!

Christopher Robin sat on the path, rubbing his head, as his little friends approached. He was dressed in shorts, a vest and his plimsolls, and had towelling bands on his wrists and forehead, and he was puffing and panting. "Pooh? What are you doing here?" he said, as he saw them in the corner of his headlamp beam.
"We're trying to catch a Janathoner! Would you like to help us?" giggled Tigger, bouncing forward in the gloom. Christopher Robin looked at Pooh, and the bear nodded. "We are. We've got an internet and some clogs, and we want an Janathoner to come this way"

"You silly Pooh!" laughed Christopher Robin "I AM a Janathoner! I've run one lap of the Hundred Acre Wood every day since January the first, and I've written about every single one on my blog! I think I might win, I'm sure no-one's run further than me."

Pooh and his friends stared, and Christopher Robin giggled and stood up. "If I'm going to win, I've got to finish my Janathon run for tonight. If you all come along with me, you might even get a medal" So Christopher Robin and Pooh and Piglet and Kanga and Roo and Tigger all jogged off down the little path, and right around the edge of the Hundred Acre Wood, and then went home for a cup of tea, and some medals, and to write about their adventure on Christopher Robin's blog.

THE END

(The Author would like to thank and apologise to A.A. Milne for borrowing his characters temporarily. If anyone would care to illustrate this story in the original pencil-sketch style (not the Disney variant, please!), I'll happily republish this with pictures)

Janathon #27 - Are we nearly there yet?

2011-01-28T01:02:00.001-08:00

A very quick blog about last night's run. It's not that it wasn't a good run, just that I need to get to work!

Headed out from home to kind of reverse Wednesday's route - Oxley, The Hollies, Meanwood - but instead of looping back up the Otley road, I dropped down to the Uni for the Thursday night canoe polo session.

8.42km, 1:06, then an hour and a half of polo. An excellent evening all round, and only 6km to do tonight to make it 200!

Janathon #26 - Rocking the hard place

2011-01-26T15:25:00.000-08:00

If I had to list my religion, it would probably be 'music'. It's the one force in life that can bring me up, cool me down, hack me off and change my day around in a heartbeat. I haven't had enough of it recently.

As I said this morning, yesterday was a hard day, for a variety of unknown reasons. This morning felt a bit better, though the whole day I've been rottenly tired, yawning and generally feeling like I was about to fall asleep at my desk, which is surprising because I had an early night. Caffeine withdrawal, perhaps, having only about a quarter of the volume of industrial-strength coffee that I normally put away. Anyhow...

Home from work and eating, because I think 'not enough fuel in the tank' was probably another reason for my malaise of yesterday. Pasta bake, Cumberland sausage and a brew. A touch of CSI while it all settles and prep the Minidisc. Lots of rock (old and new) and hip-hop, and hang the maps for tonight, I'm going to run by feel. I'll set off thattaway and see where I end up, whether it's an out-and-back or a loop, who cares? Just me, my music and my sat tracker. Cans in, and off we go.

Well.

There couldn't have been more of a contrast. While I'm not saying I went from being a plodding hippo to Haile Gebrselassie, I felt so much better with something keeping my head in the right place (metaphorically. Physically it's still on top of my neck, more-or-less where it should be). I headed down to Headingley and over to Hyde Park before hanging a left, up onto the Meanwood Ridge and through the woods, following the Meanwood Valley Trail over Monk Bridge Road, through the park and along to the ring road, then up and back through the Hollies and Oxley Hall. There was the odd little walking section, and a few stops to stretch out tightness and shake down tension, and a couple of moments just to laugh and go "oh hell yes". Honestly. Ever tried running through a trendy student area with Bachman Turner Overdrive playing at full whack in your ears? You'd laugh too.

I got home and stopped the tracker, with the Cunninlynguists' 'Caved In' (feat Cee-Lo Green) bringing me back to level, and grinned at the readout. 11.42km in just under 1:20. That means, even with stops, sub-7 minute kilometres. I'm still grinning...

Tonight's soundtrack was as follows (in alphabetical order of artist):

* Death by diamonds and pearls - Band of Skulls * Love has a diameter - Biffy Clyro * Ain't seen nothing yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive * More than a feeling - Boston * The Story - Brandi Carlile * Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen * The South / Caved In - Cunninlynguists * 3030 / Mastermind - Deltron 3030 * Good Show - Dive Dive * Psycho System - Dubwar * Non Stop Operation - Dust Junkys * How Much Longer? - Eve 6 * Midlife Crisis - Faith No More * Hounds of Love - The Futureheads * Quietly - Guano Apes * Last Man Alive - The Levellers * Toast - Manakin * Drain You - Nirvana * The Magnificent - One World Orchestra * Steam - Peter Gabriel * Microsize Boy - Tweaker *

Janathon #25 - Peaks and troughs

2011-01-26T02:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (for I am posting this the infamous morning after) was the hardest day of Janathon for me so far. Physically and mentally, I just felt flat, nothing left in the tank, no secret reserve of cheerfulness and strength to pull on. Just a very run-down, flat, Pyro.

I'm not sure what brought this feeling about: 24 days of consecutive running almost certainly played its part; perhaps too much activity and not enough fuel input over the weekend made for depleted reserves; maybe pushing for 40 miles last week was a bad idea; perhaps my immune system's a bit low and I'm coming down with something. I don't know the cause, only the symptom, and the symptom was that I felt like a deflated balloon.

I think we're into a second set of doldrums in the Janathon now. Days 1 and 2 were awesome, a runner's high, but from there we hit a dip as it sinks in what we're trying to do. We grit our collective teeth and keep pushing onwards, and it gets easier again as we settle into a rhythm and our bodies adjust accordingly. We celebrate the occasions, a week done, 100km, half way, 100 miles... and now we find ourselves with a week left to go and our bodies saying "Precisely how long do you think you're going to keep this up?" The world becomes still, the helper wind on our back drops, and all we have left to keep us running is our own grit.

Last night was one of those grit-only nights. It took effort to stand up from the chair. It took effort to open the front door. It took effort to put one foot in front of the other and just move forward. Tonight was not one of those wonderful, bright, easy nights where the world is running with you; it was one of those agonising grey ones where it seems to be spinning against you.

4.5km, 42mins-ish. Plus a brief stop to catch a haggis for supper, which was then eaten in grumpy silence while I had the mickey taken quietly by Hannah and her housemates. The world is a little brighter this morning, and the walk home was a little easier. We'll see what tonight brings.

Janathon #25 - Any which way but straight

2011-01-25T09:56:00.000-08:00

Nice gentle bimble to the Give It A Go session organised by LUUCC last night. I decided against the direct route to the uni pool (which would have been about 4.5km) and went off on a wander through Beckett's Park and the back lanes, which meant a circuitous, inny-outy, multi-surfaced 7km in about 55 mins.

After that, a lovely night at the pool, a quick pint of Leeds brewery's Midnight Bell (fantastic dark ale) and a lift home. Joyous!

Tonight I'm going for a short one, hunting a haggis to have for supper. There's not enough hills to be able to chase one anti-clockwise, but I reckon I should be able to find one somewhere..

Hundred Acre Janathon - Part Two.

2011-01-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

Having made their rissolution to find a Janathoner, with an internet and some clogs, Tigger and Pooh decided to split up to collect the things they needed. Tigger bounced off to Rabbit's house to see if he could borrow the clogs Rabbit had been making, while Pooh wandered over towards Eeyore's house toward the pond to find the internet, or at least a fishing net.

Pooh had found the net, and was carrying it back when he decided to stop by and see Eeyore. Eeyore was sitting in his house, chewing on a thistle and looking glum. "Oh, hello. I see you have a net. You've not come to catch me, I suppose?"
Pooh smiled at Eeyore. "No, Eeyore. This is my internet. Tigger and I are going to catch a Janathoner, they like internets and clogs, and they run a lot." "Oh." said Eeyore. "I couldn't be a Janathoner then, so there's no point catching me. Running too much makes your legs fall off, I suppose. I'd rather just stay here"
Pooh agreed that yes, running lots might make your legs fall off, but he'd never seen anyone without legs so maybe it took an awful lot of running before that happened. They both stood in silence a while, thinking about this, and then Pooh said that he must be going, this Janathoner could turn up any time and they needed to be ready.
"Oh well." said Eeyore "Thank you for stopping by, anyway."
"You're welcome" said Pooh, and pottered off back to find Tigger.

Tigger was talking to Rabbit, and bouncing lots. Rabbit was watching him bounce, and getting a slightly sore neck.
"Yes, I have some clogs" said Rabbit. "I made them for tap dancing in. What do you need them for?"
"We're going to catch a Janathoner!" said Tigger. "They like clogs, so we thought if we found some really nice clogs and an internet, we could get one to stop and we could see it or catch it. But they run lots, so we have to be really quick!"
Rabbit thought about this, but he was too busy to come and help them catch Janathoners, so he went to the cupboard and found his shiniest, best pair of clogs. "You can use these, Tigger. They're my best pair, so they should be very attractive to a Janathoner. Tigger bounced around him, hugging the clogs and Rabbit in turn "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you Rabbit. These are very fine! I'm sure we'll catch a brilliant Janathoner with these!" and then he bounced back off to find Pooh.

Tigger found Pooh stood by a small path in the wood, looking at the floor. "Look Tigger: prints." Tigger looks at the floor where Pooh was pointing and got very excited as he spotted a set of paw-like prints padding along the path. "They're very small prints, so maybe this is a very small Janathoner. It should be easier to catch to start with, so maybe we should put the clogs here and wait, then catch the Janathoner with the internet".
Tigger thought this was a good idea, so the set the clogs in a pretty position on the path, then hid behind a tree next to them with the internet, ready to jump out and catch the curious Janathoner as it admired the clogs. Pooh started to hum a happy hum, but Tigger stopped him in case the Janathoner heard him. Pooh did the same when Tigger started to bounce a little, but soon they heard a fast snuffling shuffling coming along the path, and they got themselves ready with the net. They heard the noise stop, and sniffing noise around the clogs, and with a "one, two, THREE!" they jumped out from behind the tree and dropped a net over their curious Janathoner!

The thing in the net was black and furry, with bright yellow eyes. It peeked back at them from the inside of the internet with a slightly confused expression, and very quietly said "mreow?". Tigger peeked more closely, then looked at Pooh and addressed the problem. "Pooh, that's not a Janathoner. That's a very small Jagular."
Pooh was quite excited, because he'd never seen a Jagular for real before. But he knew that Jagulars could be fierce creatures, and very dangerous, so he peeked carefully at it from a little way away. The Jagular looked at Pooh, said "mreow!" then purred and smiled a little at him. "It seems friendly. I think we need to let it go, Tigger" Pooh said, and Tigger agreed, so they set about trying to free it from the confines of the internet. The Jagular waited and washed itself very patiently, purring quietly at the pair while they untangled it. Once they had freed it from the net it sniffed at them both, then gently licked Pooh's face, rubbing itself against him, before padded quietly off into the wood.

The two friends looked at each other, and had a bit of a think. "Maybe we thinked too low, Tigger" said Pooh. "Maybe if Janathoners are bigger, we need to think higher up.". Tigger bounced a little, thinking of another plan "Maybe if we hung them up from a tree, the Janathoner would see them, and stop, and we could see it then!". Pooh hummed a little hum, thinking in his wooly little brain about how nice it would be to see a Janathoner, and Tigger bounced more because this plan meant he could climb a tree again. He'd climbed a tree before, but it hadn't been very good last time. This time he would see a Janathoner!

Janathon #23 - Centurion!

2011-01-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

Firstly, and perhaps more importantly than tonight's run, I've had a fantastic weekend. The Lakes was awesome, sharing the log cabin with 'Team DamX' (Mark, Dave, Martin and Laurent), cracking banter with the LUUCC mob, good food, good ale, and above all else, phenomenally fun boating.

We started off Saturday with a run of the Leven, from Newby Bridge down to Haverthwaite. Once portage for me, around Backbarrow falls due to a lack of confidence, and one roll on one of the drops below, but enough to start nudging my boating state of mind back into place, it having been AWOL for the best part of two years. The afternoon run on the Crake was pleasant enough, a beautifully cold, crisp day, but marred by the fallen trees and overhanging vegetation making it hard, cold, damp work for the unwary and the relative newcomers.

Sunday brought an ace run of the Kent, including leading a somewhat unsuspecting first timer over Force Falls, and the pride stayed firmly intact with a completely dry run. The afternoon was a jaunt down a very low Lune, a portage round the Constriction drop (it looked ugly) and a short spell of jumping / front-flipping / backflipping from a small crag into the river at the getout. All in all, a couple of brilliant days.

The runs this weekend have been squeezed in amongst all of the above. Both Friday and Saturday's runs were done after returning from the pub, so as you can imagine they were slowish and short. Tonight I could have cooked up all the excuses in the world - I'm tired, I've done a lot today already, I needed food, etc etc ad nauseum. But there was a mileage at stake and it had to be done. So, on with shoes and off and out towards Adel and round the back. 7.5km, 55mins. That puts me beyond 100miles - 100.89, to be precise, but who's counting the point-somethings? Okay, I admit it, I am. But every little helps...

Sometimes you need a 'trigger': Your motivation curve is on its way up, but you just need one more little nudge. One tune nudged me over today. The video is below. Enjoy it, I did.

Janathon #22 - Jack and Jill

2011-01-23T01:14:00.001-08:00

... Went up a hill.

Well, it was Carrick and Mark, actually, and neither of us broke
anything, though Mark did fall down a few times.

As I said the other day, I'm up in the Lakes for a kayaking trip this
weekend, and trying to fit a couple of runs in around paddling and
socialising. Last night it was a 4.5km ramble up The Hoad, a wee hill
on the outskirts of Ulverston. Very pleasant on a cold, crisp, clear
night, and a pleasure to have company on a leg as well. A couple of
beers and some sleep later we're off to paddle the Kent and the Lune
today, and I'll fit a saunter in either between the two or tonight
once I'm back in Leeds. A rather pleasant way to spend a weekend...

Janathon #21 - Just enough

2011-01-21T16:36:00.001-08:00

I'm in the Lakes, the place where I earned my name (thanks Closed Circle/Dai Jenkins). The only appropriate place to make my target. And I've done it, after 4 pints of Old Peculiar.
From Mark's place, the log cabin, to Booths, two laps of the roundabouts, and back = 3.2km, which takes me over my 150km target - 40 miles this week, average 50km a week for 3 weeks, and 150km total. 10 this weekend and I've hit 100 miles. More than I've ever pushed myself to before. I'm proud, and slightly drunk. Woo!

Goodnight all, and keep pushing.

Pyro

Hundred Acre Janathon - Part One.

2011-01-21T05:57:00.000-08:00

It was winter in the Hundred Acre Wood, and most of the inhabitants were spending their time huddled up in their houses, keeping warm. Sometimes they would pop out, to collect some wood, or for another jar of honey, or some thistles, or maybe even to say hello to a neighbour. But generally they all stayed at home...

...All except Tigger.

Tigger was, as usual, a bouncing ball of energy. Someone had told him, just before the New Year, about a creature that he might see if he was out of his house in January, called a Janathoner. Tigger was intrigued, he'd never heard of these Janathoners. Heffalumps and Woozles, yes: They were often heard of in the Hundred Acre Wood. But Janathoners? Never. And what a funny name!

Tigger had bounced around the woods many times this January, trying to find one of the elusive Janathoners. He hadn't seen a single thing! He'd been told that Janathoners were only visible for the first month of the year, and he knew it was getting close to the end of the month, so he was searching every day, but had only seen the odd shuffly-looking tracks that he knew must have been a Janathoners. He was very upset, so he decided to go and see his old friend Pooh, to see if he knew what to do.

Pooh was sitting in his favourite chair, with his head in a jar of honey. When Tigger knocked, he reluctantly put the jar down and shuffled to the front door. Pooh was tired, and not in a very good mood, and he opened the door slowly, just a crack, to see what the matter was...

...Pooh was knocked flat on his back by the door as his excitable friend bounded through.

"Pooh!" burbled Tigger "You have to help me find a Janathoner! They're out in the woods every day but only for a few more days and I haven't seen one yet and it'll be even more exciting than tracking a Woozle and we haven't got much time what do you think?". Pooh held his breath, counted to ten, then gently pushed his friend off him.

"What's a Janathoner, Tigger? And sit down and have a cup of tea" he muttered as he sat back on his chair.
"They run! They run every day, but only for a month. I don't know why. But we have to find one!"

Pooh considered this, but being a bear of very little brain, he didn't quite know what to do. He thought a while, and hummed a little Janathoner-thinking hum while he was doing it. Soon Tigger began bouncing in his chair, and Pooh got very distracted from his hum. Although he was a bear of very little brain, he knew they needed more information on these Janathoners, so he thought that they should ask the wisest person they knew. "We must go and see Owl. He will know what to do." And so they went.

Owl was at home, and he greeted the friends with bleary eyes. He had been trying out hibernating, after reading about it in a book, but he kept being woken up by loud thumpy noises and bright lights during the night, which he put down to being a new herd of Heffalumps passing through the Hundred Acre Wood. Every night he woke up, listened until they had gone, then went back to sleep. When Tigger and Pooh had explained their quest, he looked at them a moment, thinking, then wisely said "You need an internet. I've heard about these Janathoners too, and I heard that, when they're not running, they spend a lot of time in internets, wearing clogs. Maybe if you get an internet and some clogs, you might be able to lure one in."

Pooh and Tigger listened and decided this was very wise, so they left Owl's house with a rising sense of happiness. Pooh hummed a small, internet finding hum. Tigger bounced happily, singing along with Pooh's hum, before stopping suddenly in his tracks. "Pooh? What's an internet?"
Pooh thought quickly. "It's like a fishing net, Tigger. Maybe if we can't find an internet, a fishing net would do."
"I know where there's a fishing net, Pooh! Down by the pond!"
Pooh thought about this and decided it was a good idea. It saved a lot of time trying to find an internet, and the less time he spent on this, the sooner he could get back to his honey. "And Rabbit was making some clogs, we could borrow them, just for a day."

Tigger bounced even higher, he would soon see a Janathoner! Tiggers bounce more and more when they're excited, and Tigger was VERY excited now. He couldn't wait!

Janathon #20 - Persickologgy

2011-01-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

It's all persickologgical. Or headological. Whichever you believe in. If it's a placebo, but it still seems to be working, is there any point telling anyone?

These are the thoughts that wander through my head as I potter around a 7km loop of Cookridge and Holt Park, specifically related to the compression calf guards I'm wearing. They seem to work for me, but would I run any worse without them, and if I did, would it be because the calf guards actually help, or just because I think they do?

Questions like this cannot be any worse than my earlier attempts at poetry. Maybe I should stick to hard facts for the next 11 runs. Starting now:

7.07km, 51:27, and now only 2.86km to go to make it 150km in 3 weeks. Reckon I can manage that tomorrow night...

Janawocky

2011-01-20T06:05:00.000-08:00

To all the Janathoners (and anyone else following the adventures of the Janathon), Pyro’s Yard humbly presents:

Janawocky
(with apologies to Lewis Carroll)

'Twas darkness and my sodden toes,
Did slide and stumble as it rained.
All dribbly were my running clothes,
As the slurping paths I trailed.

"Beware the Janawock, my son:
The legs to ache, the words to post.
Beware the blogging urge, and shun
The dubulous hours lost"

I took my grightening torch in hand;
And long the noisome shoes I sought.
I founded myself at foot of stair,
And stood in hesitous thought.

But then, through furbled thought, I swear,
The Janawock, with miles to gain,
Came tinkling throught the frigid air,
And giggled as it came!

Left, right! Left right! And on and on,
My noisome shoes went ticker-tack.
I ran for miles, then turned: ‘twas gone!
So I went harrumphing back.

"And hast though escaped the Janawock?"
Just for today, but so it goes.
"Oh spanglish day! I'll sleep away!"
Tomorrow's route? Who knows…

'Twas darkness, and my sodden toes
Did slide and stumble as it rained.
All dribbly were my running clothes,
As the slurping paths I trailed...

Janathon #19 - Out on the town

2011-01-19T15:41:00.001-08:00

I wouldn't normally class the walk to the pub as part of an exercise regime, but tonight I'll make an exception on the basis that a) I did jog some of it and b) the pub in question is 3.5 miles away, and I've jog-walked there and back.

In between these two jog-walks, I've had a very nice pint of mild and listened to some good music at an open mic night. Which was nice.

Oh, and interestingly, my horoscope in the Yorkshire Evening Post today said "Great strides forward can be made with a positive frame of mind." I know. I'm sure of it...

Janathon #18 - Monolithic

2011-01-18T16:35:00.000-08:00

I'm very lucky, I think, to have good friends delivering good advice. Advice with knowledge and experience attached, rather than just "I read summat in the paper..." Advice like this, whether it's big stuff or little stuff, life-and-limb saving warnings or just "you might find it easier if..." type hints, can be invaluable. And hell, they could save me doing silly amounts of damage to myself while trying to set myself targets.

I have set myself the target to finish this week having run 40 miles. Well, actually I'm setting that at 40-and-a-half miles, for that will take me to another milestone (or should that be kilometer stone?) of 150km over 3 weeks. A couple of good friends, another Janathonite and a non-Janathonite fell- and ultra-runner (and both all-round nice chaps as well) have given friendly encouraging advice/warnings about not knackering bits of myself in the attempt. Advice which, to be honest, I'm very happy to follow.

To make my target I need to average about 7.5km a night, which is quite a big ask. But the bonus, and my ace in the hole, is that no-one's telling me how fast I have to do the distance. Yesterday it turned out to be a fast 8, because my legs felt good and I had the energy to go for it, which is okay. Tonight it was slow, but that's okay too.

Tonight the legs weren't feeling too good. Not "oh my god they're going to fall off" bad, just "Yep, I ran quite quickly yesterday". It's a good hurt, in a way, but a hurt that reminds me that not all nights are like last night, and that tonight has to be a night when I shake down, take it a bit easier and just have fun. So I did! I loaded the Minidisc with The Cat Empire (funky Aussie jazzy hip-hop-type-stuff) and The Grit (Geordie rockabilly punk-type stuff), put on baggies as opposed to my racing snake lycra, (the attire which once got me described as looking like "a bulldozer wrapped in cellophane"), picked up a pair of walking poles and headed out the door for a mix session.

The mix was good fun, alternating jogging (with poles held like a rifle), Nordic walking, and walking vaguely normally. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to where I was going, so my feet and my head lead me round in a big loop with some inetersting hills and fun downs, mainly off-road for the outlap. I did have a stop in Meanwood park when I noticed that part of the new play area looked like two large standing stones... except they had climbing holds bolted to them...This required further investigation and testing, which concluded they would be quite good fun if I came back one night with my rock boots. Wet trail shoes didn't hold too well on tiny slopers...

Mini climbing walls: Yey!

After that brief sojourn into alternate sports, I headed off along more of the Meanwood Valley Trail, up a few more muddy hilly bits, then shambled slowly back up the Otley Road from Headingley, having stopped at Sainsbury's for meatballs and mozzarella to go with my pasta and sun-dried tomato sauce for tea. The clock stopped at about an hour and forty minutes, but I'm taking 20 off my actual movement time to cover the climbing and the shopping. Oh, and the distance was over my daily target at 8.45km. And the legs feel much better now...

Janathon #17 - The long and short of it.

2011-01-17T13:49:00.000-08:00

First off, an explanation and an apology. After my blog about my run on Saturday, I received a couple of comments, which I haven't published, about a specific comment I made, which pointed out a couple of things that in my food-deprived and oddly-humoured state, I hadn't picked up on or thought about.

The comment in question was the offhand crack that "I've been reliably informed by an Osteomyologist that running on tarmac can cause cancer of the knees."

First off, this is a joke. A long-standing joke between myself, a friend who happens to be an Osteomyologist, and a handful of other people involved in a certain series of Adventure Races. 'Cancer of the knees' is used as a slang term for the way your legs feel after two-and-a-half hours of running around the city streets chasing checkpoints. Running on tarmac does not induce actual cancer of the knees. I apologise to anyone who misunderstood this.

Secondly, I also apologise for the implication that this misinformation was passed to me by a practitioner of the healing arts. It has been pointed out to me that this might be perceived as a slight on members of the Association of Osteomyologists. That was not my intention in any way, shape or form, and I therefore apologise for any offense this might have caused to them. The practitioner in question has treated me a small number of times, and I've nothing but respect for his work and that of his colleagues.

With that, hopefully, dealt with and sorted, on to tonight's run and the forecast for the week.

I've got off to a pretty good start, with the long bimble on Saturday and a fairly decent 8km yesterday, and I reckon, after my 30+ miles last week, I should aim for 40 miles this week. I've a good head towards that target after the weekend, but I need to average 7.5km a day for 5 days. That means more long runs and less recovery, which might get hard to crack.

With all of that in mind, I headed out tonight to do at least 8km. I headed off gently up the Otley Road, as I often seem to, then turned off at the traffic lights after about 2.5km and onto a loop around Adel, from the sports club, past the church, around Sir George Martin Drive (anyone know why there's a street in Leeds named after him? Liverpool I could understand, but...) and back to the traffic lights, then try and push the pace back past Bodington (again) and down across the ring road and home. Simples!

It worked, as far as plans go. A bit tight in places, but a fairly respectable 8.3km in 52:56, so nicely under 7min/km. If I can keep runs like that up, I'll hit the 40 alright, and who knows what might come after that...

Janathon #16 - Sunday bloody Sunday.

2011-01-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

I knew today was going to be short on time. I knew after yesterday's wombling about I was going to be tired. I also knew there was jack-all chance of me fitting in a daylight run, and that the evening would probably be out as well, for reasons I shall explain later. So, the only reasonable (and I use that word advisedly) thing to do was to run early in the morning. Hmm.

There's one problem with that: Mornings are normally something that happen only to other people. Given the choice I hibernate as long as possible until daylight and a nagging alarm with no more 'Snooze' presses available drag me from my slumbers. Today would have to be the exception.

The run itself was singularly unexceptional: Left house just after 6am decidedly woozy and not really sure what I was thinking; Trotted gently up the Otley road to the Ramada hotel, 4km and about 30mins away; turned round and trotted back, trying to push a bit harder on the long flat bit by Bodington Hall and down to the ring road roundabout, then sprinted the last bit from there to my house. 8km, 56:12. Miles in the bag and feeling more awake. A quick shower, coffee, packed lunch put up and back out in the car for a not-more-or-less-but-differently satisfying bit of the day.

The rest of the day has been spent helping teach a group of people from Garforth Town FC, and it's associated enterprises, on an Emergency First Aid at Work course. The 8 students, myself, and Dave from Extreme Care have had a cracking day at the club. And I hope, for their sake, we made it entertaining enough to not just be a dry, humourless going-through-the-motions type of course. I know I've had fun, met some nice people, and enjoyed myself immensely. I think some of them may have been worried about my coffee intake, though.

Oh and the reason an evening run wasn't going to be a goer: Post course roast dinner courtesy of Dave's mum. Fantastically good, and a large enough protion size to render me immobile for the rest of the evening. I'm not complaining, though...

Janathon #15 - Saturday Shakedown

2011-01-15T14:19:00.000-08:00

I'd intended to get up onto the moors and put in a good, solid, long tab day with a racing partner, Steve, today, but a spell of miscommunication meant we never made it to the moors, and I was sat in Leeds, having missed my occasional Saturday 'fast 5km' at parkrun. At that point, about 10am and my second cup of coffee, the usual nagging doubts set in. The niggling little "Well, you could skip it and make the blog up - no-one would know", the occasional "You did loads last week, you could have a day off, maybe just walk round the block, that still count, right?", the ever-present "Face it, pal. You've run for 14 days consecutively. Your legs aren't really in the shape you'd like 'em to be. Knock it off, eh?" and the particularly seasonal "Look out of the window. It's pissing it down and blowing a hooly. Put the kettle on and sit back down.". This is, after all 'annual festival of activity and excuses', and so far I've been long on activity and short on valid excuses...

With all that in mind, I stuck my running gear on, conceded to the weather gods by wearing fleece tights and a Paclite jacket, and headed up to Harewood.

I've run a few loops around Harewood in the house, but it occurred to me that I'd always confined myself to one set of tracks. So the plan was to park jut off the main road, walk/jog across the estate, then walk/jog back, dependant on how I was feeling. A vague plan, a bit of food, and an OS map in hand, I sauntered off.

The route was a bit convoluted: Down the old driveway (it may not actually be the old driveway, but that's what I always think of it as), up through the woods towards the Emmerdale set and past it, onto a track I'd not run before. A lovely sight as I pottered along, a pair of Red Kite hovering over me and following me along the path. I'd have a picture, but the sods buggered off as soon as I got the camera out. Typical....

I rambled out of the far side of the estate, and stopped to have a look at the map and realised two things:
1) I wasn't far from Lineham Farm, a place I'd had a number of dealings with in my former job but never actually been to, so maybe it was worth a quick ramble over thattaway.
2) There was a trig pillar not far from there, so it was definitely worth a quick ramble thattaway!

Pleasant if muddy filed-edge-type footpaths took me over to the wonderful facility that is Lineham Farm, an outdoors centre type place that is run by "A charity which provides free week-long activity holidays for local children in need of a break". I didn't go in, but the high ropes course looked awesome. And yes, I am just a big kid at heart. And then they took me back away from the prospect of Jacob's Ladders, aerial balance beams etc, and up another set of field edges to a slightly more grown up obsession, trig pillars. This on, at the Bowshaws, had evaded me so far as it doesn't sit easily on any of my regular routes. Well hell, if it wasn't the right day to go bimble about off a normal route, I should have gone home ages ago for a nice cup of tea and a sit down.

Should have kept my hat on! Bowshaws trig pillar

After finding it, and taking the obligatory photo (as demonstrated by me here and by Gary V on his latest blog) I toddled back down towards Eccup reservoir and homewards. Here again came a quick check of the map and a moment of "Hmm, north or south side of the reservoir?" North - Shorter and straighter, but mainly tarmac access road and boring. South, more wiggly and longer, footpath. South it is then, I've been reliably informed by an Osteomyologist that running on tarmac can cause cancer of the knees.

I rambled off, more field-edgy-type stuff, round slightly familiar trails, glad of the Gore-tex because it was still raining, and then onto the shoreline footpath which, as it's fenced off from the actual reservoir by quite a meaty fence, widened so they can drive Yorkshire Water vehicles down it, and hardpack surfaced, mean I might as well have run down the tarmac. I believe the internet vernacular is 'FFS'. Still, it was all mileage in the bag, and getting back onto actual tarmac then came as less of a shock and I trotted across the dam and up the bridleway.

I have to admit that a minor error on my part sprang up at this point. I'd set of a lot later than intended, and rambled a little further than I thought I was going to, a little slower than I thought I was going to. And it was kind getting dark. And I'd kinda neglected to take a headtorch with me. Which meant it was time for a more direct loop home. The problem is that the direct route was very muddy and potholed, and I couldn't really see where I was putting my feet.... Oops. The handful of people who saw me as I wandered, wet, muddy and grinning, back past the Emmerdale set (fully lit up and looking busy, they must have been filming) must have wondered what the hell I'd been up to. I didn't stop to explain, it'll be much more fun to let their imaginations play with that one.

Anyway, I made it back to the car intact, having had a thoroughly pleasant day out, a nice trot along some new places I'd never been, another trig pillar in the bag and a little night adventure to boot. SportTracker showed a final tally of 18.8km in a smidge over 3hrs.... Hang on...

Okay, I'm not going to be leading the mileage charts by quite a long chalk, but today's bimble has given me two new acheivements to celebrate in my own inimitable ouevre...
1) I've just done my first 10 miler of Janathon
2) I've now passed 100km in total! Woo!

Definitely beer and a bath time now, methinks.

Janathon #14 - A marathon and a sprint pt 2

2011-01-14T12:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I talked mysteriously of second and third targets. Again, these are minor things in the grand scheme of things, but they've been my drivers to get out and run hard (well, hard for me) today. They've been something to aim at, something to be proud of, and something to go "Holy sh*t. I never thought I'd do that." at. And tonight, I've done 'em.

(Author's note: Apologies for the geeky stats-obsessiveness of all of this. I never said I was cool. And Steve and Katy did say they were expecting a maths puzzle after my alliterative efforts last week...)

As we left it yesterday, I'd cleared a marathon over the week - 26.2 miles, 42.16km. Because of the extra distance Hannah and I ran around Kirkstall park, I was actually just above that, sitting at 43.83km. Not a bad haul, for a fat boy who doesn't run. But rather than rest on my laurels of 'having run a marathon in a week', I'd been sat looking over my stats in the spreadsheet. And a couple of thoughts occurred.

1) Take that 43.83km. Add to that the 2.51km I'll have jog/walked to get home in the morning before work - that gives us 46.34km. Add on the 35km I ran in Week One. That takes us to 81.34km over a fortnight, right? Right.Well, 81.34 isn't a million miles away from 84.32, is it? It's only, what, 2.98? Sounds about right. But what's so special about 84.32? Well.

If I got off my backside after work, and trawled out for a teensy-weensy 2.98km run, say 3km for rounding off purposes, I would have run the equivalent of 2 marathons in a fortnight. Again, yes, this is compound mileage and compound time, but I'm no runner, normally, so this is important for me m'kay? A nice personal acheivement to tick off Week Two of Janathon. But hang on, back to the maths a second, something else occurs...

2) So suppose I'm at my double-marathon-in-a-fortnight point of 84.32km. Take off the Week One tally, that 35. That puts us at 49.32km this week. Hell, if I'm out for a teensy-weensy 2.98km, why not throw in a wee bit more, say, ooh I dunno, 680 metres? That way, we can tick the little box that says for the first time, probably ever, I've run 50km in a week. After all, what's 680m between friends?

And hell, if I'm going out on one of those, why not try and do it fast?

Tonight's tally: 3.86km, 20:06 - giving an average pace of 5:12 min/km.
Added to this morning's 2.51km in 22:54 that's a day tariff of 6.37km at 6:45min/km.

For the rest of the weekly breakdown, see the image below. I'm off for a bath and a beer.

Janathon #13 - A marathon and a sprint.

2011-01-13T12:37:00.001-08:00

So, should the 13th run be unlucky? Should everything be put on hold to avoid the jinxed date? Nope.

Not, especially, when there's a couple of targets that can be reached.

Okay, I said I wasn't competing with anyone, and that I was just running for myself, but the chance is there to make some personal battles up, and make some points that I'm proud of.

So, tonight was the first of those targets. I set off from home for the downhill sprint to Hannah's for stage 1 of the plan. A quick 2.5km (14:45) and I was at the door, sweating and panting. A quick stretch, and then I headed back out, accompanied for the first time on a Janathon run. Hannah and I logged out and across Kirkstall park, down through the Abbey grounds, then pushed back up the short, steep hill back to the house. A nice, steady 3.21km (22:49) to finish the day's session.

"So what..." I hear you cry "... is this target of which you speak?" Well, for the first time in my life, I have now run 26.2 miles. Okay, not continuously, I admit. But it's a nice number to be proud of. My compound time for this marathon would appear to be 5:16:40. That'll do me.

There's two more targets to go, which I *should* be able to tick off tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Janathon #12 - Justified and ancient

2011-01-12T14:14:00.000-08:00

I feel, honestly, like something the cat has dragged in, mauled, eaten a bit of, and left the rest to fester in the shed. 12 days in - over a third done! - and I'm into a weird rhythm of good night - good night - bad night - recovery run night - dubious night - oh, maybe I'm okay night - ouch.

Tonight was an 'ouch'. Not a particularly long or fast night, because of the 'ouch'. Calves and whatever-the-hell-you-call-it up the outside of my calves. Both trying to kill me, or at least make me stop running. Still, I've got another 7km-ish in the bag, new trails again, through the back of an old quarry and into Ireland Wood. I was intending it to be about 5-and-a-bit km, but one of the footpaths I was planning to take doesn't seem to exist any more (at least according to the house that's built where it used to be) and another footpath wasn't signed and I missed it in the dark, so I took a slightly longer route.

According to SportTracker, 7.12km, 53:06 for tonight. I'll be happy with that, once I've had tomorrow's recovery run and got out of the 'ouch' phase of my weekly cycle...

Janathon #11 - Two Trig Tuesday Take Two!

2011-01-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

A lot of alliteration for a little bimble out onto the hills!

Relatively short but hilly Two Trigs run tonight, and very muddy. All the footpaths are just soggy brown streaks up a grassy field, and the only change in consistency is the crunchy five millimetre ice layer on the surface!

The clim wasn't too vicious, just enough to warm the legs, and the first trig gave a beautiful view to the south over some of the leafy suburbans and over into Bradford. The second trig, beautifully embedded into a wall, gave a lovely view of Leeds Bradford Airport. Honestly, I've seen prettier places...

All in all 4.9km, 41:45. A little slow because of the mud, and stopping to take pictures. But who's counting?

(Obligatory pics of two trigs below - sorry for slightly shaky crap phone camera pictures!)

Janathon #10 - To and fro

2011-01-10T13:09:00.001-08:00

Just a short run today - well, actually, three short runs, mainly resting up a touch from yesterday and in anticipating of a bigger run tomorrow night. I ran to work, at lunch time, and back from work. Seems a little odd, but it's a good way to get in a few short sessions (2x2km, before and after, each about 15mins, plus 1x3km at lunch, about 20mins)

Despite the long one yesterday, the legs are feeling much better - less tightness in the Achilles - and are now just dull and achy. Dull and achy I can cope with. Hot baths help. Talking of which, off for one now. Night night!

Janathon #9 - Listener Supported

2011-01-09T10:24:00.000-08:00

Split session tonight, and I'm going with the SportTracker version of the distances, because I can't plot the trails through Meanwood accurately enough on MemoryMap to get a definitive figure. And hey, the Tracker reckons I ran further than the map plot does. That makes me happy, as did Michael Franti & Spearhead's "Stay Human" on the MP3 player on the run. Hence the title.

As I say, I split the session. Part 1 was a 4km, 40min walk from home to the Ramada Jarvis hotel by Golden Acre part. Walking to both warm up, to stretch the calves, and to enjoy a crisp, chilly but bright winter evening. The pastel-y sunset was quite pretty, and the traffic buzzing past was probably wondering what this lycra'd up loony was doing sauntering up the main road like he'd nothing better to do. It was nice to 1) be out in daylight and 2) shake the legs out with an enforced walk.

Part 2 was the run. From the hotel, the Meanwood Trail drops away from the road, round the nature reserve and continues back through the woods all the way back to Hyde Park. I wasn't quite going that far, but it was a good way to start.

The run seemed steady: A couple of short hard 'pushes' on hills where I knew I'd get a break over the summit, a couple of short sprints on flat fast sections, a couple of pauses to take a picture, to stretch, or just to admire the view. Running trails I ride regularly, I knew the best lines down most of the rough stuff, around the mud pools and through the dark bits. Back up the ring road, through The Hollies and across the Oxley sports pitches, then sprint down Otley Road to the bus stop to stop the clock at 9.24km in 1hr, 40seconds.

The longest run for me of Janathon so far, even without the extra 4km walk, so I'm happy. Counting it all together that's a 13km session in the bag, a cracking hip-hop album on the stereo and a cheery Pyro off for a bath, a Massaman curry and maybe, if I'm really good, a beer.

Janathon #8 - The Darkness

2011-01-08T15:47:00.000-08:00

Night trail runs, although my bread and running butter at the moment, always feel weird to me. I enjoy them, generally. Often more in hindsight than during, but hey. There's a certain purity to bashing through the woods on a muddy path, living only in that little dribbly pool of visibility from your headlamp. The world is small, and close, and personal, and anything in the dark to the sides doesn't exist: It's just you and the Cone of Reality extending 10-20ft in front of you. Maybe it's a really short form of goal setting, or maybe it's like the donkey with the dangling carrot. "You want to see more? Come right this way..."

Tonight, I kept pushing to try and run to the edge of my little enclosed, claustrophobic, vision-limited world, but I never got there. It was more than 20ft, I guess. The GPS reckoned 6km. All I know is I ran for 45mins and never reached it. Oh well. Maybe I'll get there tomorrow night.

Janathon #7 - On the mend

2011-01-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

Still recovering from the first week of the Janathon (did you think I'd forgotten?!) so run #7 was another short loop just to eke some miles out and massage some life back into the legs. A short but a little faster loop than usual - 3.2km in 19:50 (so just under 10 minute miles, something I don't do too often)

It was just a short sprint (Map below), but it needed to be a fast lap just to shake the legs out. When I got back I could feel 'the burn', but it was a pretty good one. And it's the end of week one, so I celebrated with a very nice Thai green fish curry and a glass or two of very nice Sauvignon.

My week one stats probably aren't that impressive, but as I said after #6, I'm competing only with myself, and I'm a Data Analyst by profession so I like the geeky side of life. But they are, as follows:

Since this post just sneaks under the 24hr limit to blog, that's me up to date. and I'm also sat in my running kit
ready to get Week Two kicked off. Another 5km here we go...

Janathon #6 - R&R

2011-01-06T11:19:00.000-08:00

Just been reading a few of the other blogs from other Janathon... erm. I can't really call them 'competitors', can I? Isn't this just supposed to be an incentive to run? Hell. 'Janathoners' will have to do.

There's a couple of them out there who are seriously racking up the miles. 'Auswomble' and 'Local Adventures' - aka Kevin and Gary - seem to be watching each other and pushing hard. The collective atmosphere coming off other people's blogs, comments on Facebook etc, and the community feel is awesome. I'm glad I got involved.

Sometimes, though, the spirit is willing but the flesh is falling apart. Tonight was one of those nights - like I said after yesterday's run, I needed a recovery day. I'm still determined not to lapse though: My challenge isn't how many miles, or how many unique routes, or even total time or pace or averages or... anything. It's just to see if I can do it. The only way I can 'cheat' is to not run, and that's only of impact to myself. Tonight was a forced, slow, jog-walk-jog, a grand sum of 3.6km from the University into Leeds city centre, to the phone shop in specific, and back. A time of 'who cares', but it's another run in the bag and another day closer to the 31st.

Tomorrows will probably be another slow one, probably before work, since I'm off to the Lakes immediately after. But again, it'll be another day, another run, another post. I'm not competing with anyone but me.

Janathon #5 - Lily the Pink

2011-01-06T02:43:00.000-08:00

Day 5 and I'm starting to feel the pinch of the Janathon. I'm not sure, even back when I used to orienteer regularly, that I've ever run for 5 days straight. normally 3, then a rest day, then another 3. Needless to say, things are starting to ache.

Fifth run of the year was down to be a general run, at least in my Rough Plan, which I composed yesterday morning to try and bring some order to the chaos, so I laced up my boots and pottered off towards the park. The effects of five consecutive days of abuse showed: My calves, thighs and lower back were all vying for my attention in their own special ways; unlike my fourth-day Two Trigs, I had ceased to be a singing, bouncing, lycra clad almost-superhero and had regressed to a lumbering, shambling lump. It became fairly obvious, halfway down the grassy path towards the corner of the woods, that I could do with a short recovery run some time soon. So, back to normal, then.

I ran this loop, or a variant of it, a few weeks ago, when there was a foot of fresh powdery snow on the ground. I stumble down across the grassy pathway, push for the short steep up to the fence at Beckett's Park sports pitches (wincing at the entirely predictable burst of pain from my calves), around the top of the embankment, through the old turnstile, then along through the dark woods to the old gateway/folly/thing, a memorial to a visit from a Queen. Every time I come here I try and remember which Queen and when. I never manage...

Here I've got to stop and stretch: My calves are tight as a really tight thing, and in the interests of not damaging myself it's probably worth it. A few awkward, unbalanced, wobbly stretches later, and I'm loosening a little, so onwards, through the Leeds Met campus and across the other bit of parkland. The surface is curious, wet underfoot but with a permafrost hardness beneath the inch of waterlogged grass. Where people have run or ridden more it's cut up and soggy, in other places it's pristine and hard. Seems like a fairly good analogy for the British winter, all-in-all.

I'm still shambling as I come to the edge of the allotments behind my old house, and follow more fence-edge singletrack through more wet woodland to drop out at the bottom of the hill below the cricket ground. I'm more cautious than last time I ran here: Then it was ankle-deep snow and hard frost, now it's wet leaves and clay; then I had my Mudclaws on, now I'm wearing my trail shoes and the grip level isn't quite the same. Onto the tarmac to clean the clinging mud out of the treads, feeling the pinch in the calves again as I trot up the short hill then limp back round to the middle of the figure-8. Turn the corner, feeling my shoes slip slightly and noting the subtle glossy sheen of ice on the road, then along the pavement on the side of the park. From this edge of campus, I dive into the network of ginnels and snickleways across the back of the park, the church and suburbia. There's a couple of paths that are new to me, that I'd seen on the map but never used, and they're a handy connector to keep me off the main Otley Road. They are also, in a burst of almost inadvertent good planning, relatively flat. I'd picked a route with not much in the way of climbing, which can only be a good thing for my legs. I'm soon back out onto the road for the short jog back to the house. I stop the Tracker and walk a couple of laps of the block, aiming to warm down a little more thoroughly. I stretch some more, then unlock the door and drop back into the warm comfortable fug of home.

All in all day 5 was not particularly quick and even less graceful, but I'm still in the game and I'll have a recovery run for day 6. Scores on the doors were 5.5km, 38:15 including time spent stretching. So far, so good, although nothing has yet explained why I had Lily the Pink stuck in my head for the majority of the run. Ho hum...

Janathon #4 -Two Trig Tuesday

2011-01-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

It's amusing, how friends, when they perceive that you may be having a crisis of faith (running faith, in this case), come up with all sorts of motivational tools, from the encouraging (thank you AM, Nonie and Gary V), to the abusive (cheers Graham) via the downright blooming strange (merci, Ross).

For the record, my resolve may have flickered a little, but only in that I needed to eat and then let my food digest before I went for tonight's Janathon Two Trig Tuesday spectacular!

In the past, while poring over OS maps for the little blue triangle-and-dot symbols that make me so happy, I'd spotted a couple just across the Aire valley from the house - beyond Kirkstall and over into Bramley. I'd always planned that, as these two were both on or close to tarmac, I'd pick them up by road bike, but with a little kick in the jacksie needed for Janathon, and a suitably configured route, they looked like a viable foot option. About 7km, 120m-ish of climbing. I reckoned on sub an hour for both.

As I said, I'd got in from work in need of food. As part of this month's exercise regime, I MUST start eating a proper breakfast. I can cope through the morning 'til lunchtime on caffeine alone, but hunger starts getting the better of me mid afternoon. I've been good enough to avoid the plethora of biscuits that lurk in the office, but I would be better served by having breakfast and then being eat dinner later... Anyway, I digress...

HandyMap (TM)

I'd had a bowl of noodles, and an hour-or-so's break while I checked the route on Memory-Map. Not wanting to carry a full OS of the route with me, I decided to take a diddy map of my own. In marker pen. On the back of my hand. Not that it was a complicated route, just an area I'd never run in before, and a little bit of reassurance would probably be a good thing. I headed down to leave the car at Kirkstall to set off out and up. And I do mean up. The map (the proper one) and profile below shows you the route. Four kilometres of climb followed by three-and-a-bit kilometres of descent, more or less.

The Author at the first Bramley trig pillar

Bouyed by the encouragement/abuse/strangeness of pre-run conversation, and by the Best of the Beach Boys ringing in my headphones, I set off from the car and started the SportTracker. Steady jog along the canal, beautifully paced by Good Vibrations and California Girls. The climb starts, a long gradual drag and I up my pace to match the beat of I Get Around (Maybe I should worry about that, but anyway...) and Wouldn't It Be Nice (To stop? Not yet...) It all starts creeping up on the legs, swaddled as they are in 3/4 tights and Skins calf guards as Surfin' Safari kicks in and I just have to smile. I'm not moving massively fast, but I'm honestly feeling pretty damn good. The night air is chilly, which suits a sweaty fatboy like me. Up the pace a little notch more to Fun Fun Fun, though I'm in no fit state to sing the high notes. A sad loss to the world, I feel, but at least the inhabitants of Bramley get to keep their windows and eardrums...

Behind Bars - Bramley Trig #2

A handful of tracks later I'm nearly at the first pillar, and searching desperately. The HandyMap (TM) has a junction missing, so I'm looking about 500 yards short. It turns out to be nearly in someone's front garden. Quick pic on the camera phone and onwards. Short lope along the flat then turn left up towards Bramley Baths and part rictus/part grin a lot as the road steepens and my Minidisc throws me Don't Worry Baby followed by Little Deuce Coupe. I don't have the fastest set of legs in town, but it kept me smiling as I jogged into the park and headed up the grass towards the transmitter mast where the marker pen marks tell me I should find the second pillar which turns out to be on the wrong side of a large fence. A pic has to happen all the same, but it's a distant one, unfortunately.

From now, it's pretty much all downhill, so time to up the pace. Little Honda and D'You Wanna Dance work well, but Little Surfer Girl and Oh Caroline No get skipped. Not in the mood for those, having too much fun.

In the ensuing confusion of skipping track I manage to slip the MD into Random mode. Normally I would regret this, but for the steepest, fastest section of the run it throws me an absolute diamond. I leg it down the hill, head down, parachute-wide grin probably retarding my speed more than my legs, all the while trying to keep enough air in my lungs for the low parts of Barbara Ann.... Just take a moment to picture that, please. I hope that image makes you smile.

Pushing on, I hit the bridge over the still icy canal and decide to sprint the last 750m-ish to the car. As I do, Do It Again comes on. I'm sure this is a run I'll repeat, or run a variant of, but for tonight I'm done. 7.4km, 54mins. Not bad at all. Janathon run #4 done, and still smiling.

Many thanks to all my friends for encouragement and abuse in equal measure, to Brian Wilson & co for company and fantastic running music, and to whoever first created SportWool tops, 'cause they're just damn great.

Cheers!

Pyro

Janathon #3 - Mind doesn't matter

2011-01-03T13:10:00.000-08:00

Still trotting on with the Janathon madness. I've not mustered any long runs yet, but it's been a case of fitting running time in between dashing back and forth around the Lakes, seeing people and getting sorted to go back to work tomorrow.

Gary V wrote a cracking piece on keeping motivated. He's dead right, and perhaps this Janathon is something that will be useful in establishing a routine of running. Whiloe I'm not dashing up and down the country as much as he is, the hardest battle will be getting out to run, either (gulp) before work, or after. The lure of the bed and the sofa are strong ones.

Today's run was a little 'shade-over-5km' round the block loop in Leeds, but the hardest part for me was that it was after a few hours of driving, a full day out-and-about, when all I wanted to do was sit down, have a cuppa, and put my feet up. Instead, I made sure my running kit was in the car and easily accessible before I set off back to Leeds, changed in the car outside my house, and ran straight away, before I'd opened my front door and the soft furniture could exert its magnetic tractor-beam on my backside.

The loop's just a street loop, but it's a regular easy jog. It will probably be used a lot through the month on the basis that it's well lit, not too taxing, and already an ingrained route for my feet, taking away from me the extra stress of having to decide where to go! I head down the Otley Road from the house, down into Studentsville (aka Headingley), and loop round past the takeaways, bars etc. There's nothing like running past your favourite Chinese to motivate you to run.... Erm... I may be wrong on that point.

Anyway. It's also nice as a run in that the first half is downhill and the second half uphill. I know I suffer worst in the first 10 minutes of a run (Toxic Ten syndrome...), especially if that ten minutes is ascent. So this one's a nice steady drop down as described, and down to the cricket ground, then it gradually winds itself back up towards the Co-op at Butcher hill, then a flat jog along suburban backstreets to home. Not quick, in tonight's case (30-35mins-ish. I really should start wearing a watch) but steady away, and enough to fit in between arriving home and divesting the car of it's multivarious contents courtesy of a week-and-a-bit's holiday.

The first 'bigie' of Janathon is in the pipeline for this weekend, with the Nav4 crew heading up to the north Lakes for the Old Crown Round. I'll be there, dragging my sorry arse across the fells. I'll let you know more about it if I make it back... ;)

Janathon #2 - Not quit yet!

2011-01-02T16:26:00.001-08:00

Not a bad start to the New Year! After feeling fairly ill for the majority of yesterday's run, today was fantastic.

I'd headed down to Ulverston to meet up with Dave, Mark and Lucy, and after a very enjoyable night of curry, beer and movies at the Hobbit Hole, a cracking night's sleep on the sofa bed, a lovely Cumberland sausage breakfast (god's sake, I need to run just to burn all of the Christmas excess off, don't I?!!) we went off for a quick wander up the Hoad, a wee hill just on the outskirts of town, to the John Barrow memorial. Lovely views over the estuary, the frozen canal basin and back up north into the mountains.

Headed back up home and stopped a couple of times, for tea and cake in Kendal and then for today's run in Keswick, the old alma mater. Parked in Stanger Street and had a lovely scenic bimble around the park, onto the old railway line, along to Friar's Crag, through Crow Park and then back up to the car. From the plot in the RunningFree site, looks like four-and-a-half miles or so, which is nice. Felt like less. Maybe that's a good sign, eh?!

TTFN

Pyro

Janathon #1 - Sickly New Year.

2011-01-01T04:55:00.000-08:00

So, avoiding all the festive gubbins and straight into the first run of the year, and the first of Janathon 2011.

I have been for my first run. I now feel a little sick.
This may be the result of a hilly couple of kilometres, the seven or eight pints I had last night, the excess of stodgy party buffet food, or a combination of all of the above. Welcome to 2011 anyway!

Either way, a lovely, if slightly ill feeling, short run around Torpenhow, onto Brown Moor and back down the old village sports fell race course. Nice to be out, even in the dull greyness of New Years Day. Long may the running continue, and I'm sure I'll have stopped feeling ill by the time I've done posting this!

Interesting times.

2010-12-31T06:57:00.000-08:00

Ho Ho Ho.

Happy New Year and all that festive chuntering to anyone out there who reads this. I realised, when someone linked to my blog from theirs, that it's been quite a while since I wrote anything here. You must all have become terribly frustrated at the lack of blethering waffle with which to fill five minutes of your day. I apologise, wholeheartedly.

Anyway, a few things are up and running. I left one job and started another - now Data Analysing once more, for the NHS. I still haven't escaped Leeds, but I'll manage it at some point. I've bought some skis and played around in snowy parks, bought a playboat and paddled it a couple of times (I'm still useless, and in answer to various people's retorts, no, I am NOT going to start paddling at Holme Pierrepont every week). I've had some amazingly beautiful snowy night runs, and some horrendously muddy trail rides, and at the moment I'm up in the Lakes having a lovely, peaceful, quiet Christmas and New Year with my family.

There's a bunch of vague plans for 2011, which include, in some semblance of order:
Janathon - Jog-Blog-Log. Read the link for an idea of what the heck it is.
The Mighty Deerstalker
The Nav4/12
Possibly the Heb2B Adventure
Maybe a trip to the Dolomites and the Sellaronda Hero
Maybe the Open Adventure C2C
After that... who knows?!

You should end up seeing lots of posts as of tomorrow as part of Janathon. Then again, if I fail catastrophically, you won't.

All the best for 2011, and see you all soon. Thanks for your continues patience at my waffling.

Cheers!

Pyro

Coast-to-Almost

2010-09-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

So, the Coast-to-Coast is done with. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped. A combination of factors, mainly physical, a little technological, maybe a bit mental as well. These are just some assorted memories from the race, good, bad and ugly, and a few thing to pick up on for the future.

Start
Introductions, banter, catching up, the sun rising over the sea, watching dawn chasing us, having a brew by the beach and getting sorted for the off. Praying for fine weather, preparing for rain. A brave Provost greeting, the sound of the horn and away.

Stage 1 - Run, 11km. 1:11:15.
Taking it steady, knowing Phil was behind me, until he caught me again. Rewarding myself with Jelly Babies, cursing myself when I felt like I needed to walk. Pins and needles in my left foot, a blister on my right. The beautiful red sunrise off to the left, over the hay field. Up the drive of Cawdor castle, "You're going the wrong way, Pyro. The teashop's that way", into the transition, fast change, and onwards.

Stage 2 - Road bike, 55km. 2:24:19
Feeling good, down on the bars early, pushing a good gear on the flat. Turning upwards at Galcantry, running out of gears technically and physically, grinding on the up. Daviot, having to step off and stretch my back out, but through the tunnel and on, and up... Being glad Ross had warned me about the exposure on the top road, keeping going to keep warm. Head all over the place, up and down like crazy, highs and lows physically and mentally. Dropping my sweets, insidious climbs, being caught and dropped, the first Racer category rider going through. Tucked and dropping, aero-a-gogo. Descending fast but cautious to Inverfarigaig, a couple of short snotbag climbs, then the signs for the turnoff, into transition. People sitting in transition, 3 close together, other people looking worse than me. Beef wrap, drink, food, into the boat and off.

Stage 3 - Kayak, 17km. 2:35:44
Better shape than some. Fighting with the boat and what little swell there was, back end of the boat (a whitewater racer) being pushed out of line every minute or so. Constant re-correction, Houli's tape on the paddles (from him borrowing them for training) rubbing blisters. Wobbling like crazy when I stopped for food. Catching Elizabeth and someone else, feeling sorry for the latter as he pulled over and apparently got picked up by the safety boat (cramps). Loch Ness going on forever into the mist, starting to see the end looming but still a way away. Bouys coming into sight, Racer paddlers coming into sight, the end coming into sight. Out of the boat, up onto the headland, and seeing Big Chris and Trudi. Limping to the bike park, legs tight, still smiling

Stage 4 - MTB, 53km. 3:56.45
Out of transition, fast and smooth down the canal, feeling the pull in my left knee (ITB). Fast rotation, spinning away, pace but not power. Seeing Racers getting cheeky parental support not 30yds from a Marshal, onto the tarmac, onto the singletrack, off. Empty tank, struggling with the mud and the climbs, off and pushing, on and riding, off, on, off. Fantastic singletrack hairpins, roosting it down towards Invergarry, onto the tarmac again for a while. The Racer with his helmet on his rucksack (tut tut tut), off-road once more, feeling like we were going the wrong way, fire-road on and on and on, Clunes, then Bunarkaig, places I recognize at last. Knees getting worse, seizing when I stop, easing some when I spin, agony when I have to put the pressure down. Helping out the pair struggling on the road, the guy on a hire bike with the jammed chain, grovelling onwards on the road, to the Corpach road, into known territory, into Claggan...

"Sorry mate. They moved the cutoff forwards half an hour. It's twenty past four, you've missed it."
Mixed feelings. Pluses - Saves the knee, saves me from the killer trek. Minuses - my race is over, I haven't completed, I came here to complete. Frustration, food, painkillers, dry clothes. "If we'd started on time instead of 15 minutes late" - You'd still be 5 minutes out of time. Driving to Glencoe, resigned gradually. Seeing old faces and friends, cheering for the prizegiving, seeing Bruce up on the podium. Off to our 'Hobbit' for the night, Dark Island and excellent burger in the Bothan bar then sleep. G'night.

Lessons to be learnt.
It's a frustrating one. If we'd started on time and the cutoff hadn't been shifted, I would have made it in with 25mins to spare, headed out onto the hill, and probably got cutoff at the paddle start, which was what I'd said was my worst case scenario. I'd have been suffering with my knee but I'd have kept going. I won't ever blame an organiser for shifting a cutoff, but more notice, a message via the marshals further up the course for example, would have been a sign to push, instead of cruising in to preserve the knee. Starting on time would have helped as well.

I'm not one to try and blame everything on technology. The simplest improvement I could make would be to train more, get fitter, mix endurance work with speed work, spend more time doing the mileage, and lose some weight. I think the ITB problem is a symptom of pushing too far too fast, better training would alleviate that as well.

Tactically I think the race played out as I'd wanted. I didn't waste time in transitions, I stuck at paces I could continue (be they slow or otherwise), and I ate when and where I needed to. Steve, as support, was absolutely superb on getting what kit I needed, where I needed it, when I needed it. We'd prepped and planned very well, sorted the gear as we needed it, and stuck to our gameplan.

Foodwise I made a couple of mistakes, and these showed. I've never been good at eating first thing in the morning, so I need to possibly force more food down pre-start. I had a bowl of porage but maybe that's not enough. I munched a few Jelly Babies on the run, which was about all I needed, but should have eaten more on the road bike in prep for the paddle. Cumulatively, not enough went into the tank on the first 3 stages, and I started to crash out on the MTB. I ate everything Steve had prepped for me on the MTB, and was still dropping off. Food strategy is definitely something to work on.

Technologically I'd make a couple of changes. Altering the gearing on my road bike bring it in line with my MTB (and therefore my normal riding style). A triple chainset (or a compact double) would be a good start. Computers on both bikes might also be a help, although I'm undecided on this: I don't know whether being able to see pace and distance would be a boost or a frustration. I don't ride with a computer normally so something I need to get into the habit of.

A different boat would also make a difference. I took a whitewater racer because, frankly, it was what I could get a hold of, but it was probably one of the slowest boats there. The mechanics of steering (leaning) and the lack of rudder meant I was getting pushed out of shape by the swell, despite it being relatively small, and spent too much time fighting the boat to be able to paddle effectively. Something like a sea kayak, with a rudder or at least a skeg, would help.

One thing is for certain (he says, signing his own execution warrant)...

...I'll be back for another go.

"I may be some time..."

2010-09-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

So, the latest batch of lunacy looms. And it's a biggie. The Nokia Coast-to-Coast, the focus of a summer's (ahem) training. 160km across Scotland, run-bike-kayak stylee. And guess what? I'm nervous.

A wise old man (or was it a doddery old goat?) often used to tell me that being nervous was natural, it showed you were taking things seriously. Well, I often try to pretend I'm not taking it seriously, but in this case, it's a definite lie. I'm taking it really, really seriously. I'm in Expert category. That's not a refection on my abilities as a racer, just that I have the skills and desire to put a long kayak section into my race. I may be the least Expert of the Experts, and there's only 40 of us.

I'm competitive, if only with myself. My only aim is to complete the course, irrespective of ranking or time. I am going for a long day out in the hills. It will hurt. I know all of this, I keep repeating all of this to myself. But the truth is thus: If this were a team event, I would be less nervous. The support and presence of others in the same boat is a big motivating factor to me. But this is a solo event. Steve is supporting me, of which I'm very, very grateful. Aside from that, I have to push myself the entire way. No helping hands, no extrinsic motivator alongside, no-one to help through their bad patches and to be helped by through mine. I don't handle solo racing as well as I do team work, and this is a big solo. Mentally, that's hard work for me. We'll see how it pans out.

What's in store for me then?
11km trail run - 55km road bike - 17km kayak - 53km mountain bike - 23km run/trek - 1.5km kayak.
What's making me nervous is the foot work. An 11km trail run is neither here nor there, it's two-and-a-bit laps of the parkrun. It's a gentle shuffle to get me warmed up and into the race. 23km run/trek worries me more. I'd never think of entering a road half marathon. I know, theoretically, I can do the distance, but it's a long way, at the end of a day like that. That is the crux, for me. In my own head, I need to clear the cutoff at the end of the MTB leg by at least an hour, to give me a comfort margin for that trek and to see me clear of the cutoff time at the start of the final kayak. Not making that final cut, to be that close, to look across Loch Leven and be able to see the finish but to not be allowed to complete, that is the worst case scenario.

It won't be quick or pretty, but then again I'm neither. Am I prepared? Ask me at 5am on Sunday.

A day in the half life

2010-08-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

More work to be done, more training to be done, more life to experience, more to do. Always. I've made what is for me a rather large change in giving up caffeine in the evenings. To help me to sleep better, ostensibly. Feeling less dehydrated is useful as well.

Last week was far too sedentary though. A little bimble on the mountain bike, a wee bit of walking, a toddle around on the roadie. Nothing much, nothing fast, nothing hard. Enough - a session most days - but not enough to feel like I'd done anything. Oh well. Live and learn. Sort it out and move on.

The weekend was a fun one, Timmy's stag do, up in my old stomping ground of the Dales. A nice wee ramble up Ingleborough on Saturday morning, a couple of hours up and down, including some dithering at the top in the mist. A phenomenal day of falconry and archery, including hunting with a hawk, and a nice ride around Gisburn on Sunday. No crashes this time, though, though the technical bits at Whelpstone Crag did get the better of me. I had a quick run up to the top of the Crag as well, since there's a trig pillar there.

And now we're back into the swing of things. Harewood run on Monday (map below), a beautiful summer's evening jog around a beautiful estate. Being followed by a Red Kite was a highlight, I see them most mornings on my drive to work, but to be within 30 yards of one was phenomenal. After the info we'd had on hawks and falcons hunting on Saturday I was a bit nervous, but apparently they're carrion eaters, and I wasn't quite that dead-looking. Meanwood bike loop tonight, a great ride in the sun, spinning the legs loose and riding however I felt like it.

Days like that are the type of thing that make it worthwhile. The sunset evenings, the steady sun and cool breezes, the stunning nature and little moments of niceness. They offset the bad days, the rain, the pain, the misery. Let's hope they continue!

First ride nerves

2010-08-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

First 'proper' ride out on the road bike today - I'm still awaiting the new rear mech for my mountain bike after Porage the other week, so there's been a few days of tweaking and a decision to get some road miles in.

I went out for a short spin on Sunday to see whether a bunch of my hopes and fears about owning a roady were right* - some were, some weren't. I can, contrary to my own belief, climb on a big double chainring. It's not necessarily the sat-down spinning I'm used to, but I can do it. I still can't, for some reason, get my head round riding on the drops (the lower bit of curly road bikes bars, for any non-riders out there). The posture just feels weird, the upper half of my body feels weighted but unsupported, and it's just not quite right. I therefore spend most of my time resting on the brake hoods - not particularly aero, but easier for me. And I still feel as if I'm perched on top of the bike, not sat in it. That might sound odd, but it's the difference between my road bike and my MTB.

So, since Sunday I've tweaked the bike around, altered seat position, bar position, tuned the gears (might still change cassette if I'm worried about climbing gearing), new saddle, new stem... a whole bunch of bits. And after all that fettling, I couldn't just sit the bike up against the wall and admire it, could I?!

The plan I've been bandying about was to save myself some cash on petrol and to half-and-half my commute. At 35 miles it's just a leeetle too long to ride the lot, but leaving my car in Wetherby gives me an undulating 30km route to the office. Fairly simple: a good ride distance, decently surfaced roads, and no horrendous climbs (but a few long gradual ones). Problem is as a non-roady, I've no idea of how long 30km will take me!

I left the warm safe comfort of bed this morning at 6:45am (a serious sacrifice for me, believe me) and drove up to Wetherby. Finding a place to park at 7:30 isn't too much of an issue, so a wee bit of faff, gear up, make sure I've remembered the essentials (netbook, deodorant, trousers etc...) and set off. I'd planned to spin the first bit and take it nice and easy to the Bridge Hotel. I reckoned an average 20kph would give me an hour-and-a-half's ride, 30kph would put me on an hour. I'd no idea which of these was more realistic and I've not got a bike computer on the roady so it was just ride and see what time I got in. A brief stop at the Bridge to tweak the saddle level - too much nose down, slipping forward on it more than is comfortable for a gentleman - and onwards.

I never ride with a computer or a watch, so speed and distance on rides are odd concepts for me to consider, things I find out after I've finished the ride. I'd worked out the distances between set landmarks on the route - the A59 junction, Boroughbridge roundabout, etc - but as I'd forgotten to print them out, my actual time taken was meaningless until I got to the office. I rode at what I felt was fast but steady, still able to speak a sentence or sing a line of a song, and rested occasionally on the slight downs. Eventually, the rise to Dishforth roundabout turned up and I knew I was about 3.5km from the office. Time to switch back to 'spin' mode and warm down a touch. Arrive at the office, slug back a bottle of nuun, couple of cereal bars, have a wash, get changed and ready for the day. Back into routine...

It turns out I did it in about 1:10-ish. So make that pace about 25-26kph. I've no idea if that's good, bad, respectable or damn slow, but it'll do as a benchmark. The ride back will be slower, I'm just going to take it steady. Maybe...

*Oh, and there was, of course, a trig pillar on route. Scott Hall Road in Leeds. Trig sits on the island between dual carriageways. At least that one's easy to find!

Porageer!

2010-07-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

"And so it came to pass, that the Revolving Head of Porage spaketh, and it invited the people unto Scotland and it said "Race! Run, ride and be happy." And the people heard, and ran, and rode, and raced, and were happy. And then cameth the steps..."

Okay, a slightly bizarre intro to a race report, but a slightly bizarre race to be reported upon. The Man of Porage is a bit of a strange not-quite-a-race not-quite-a-group-ride kind of thing. There's a trophy, you get invited rather than entering, the organiser changes every year, and it's quite a long way.

I've Porage'd before (see an old post for what happened last time), twice in fact, and had been last both times. I wasn't really expecting anything more this time. I knew I'd have company at the back of the peloton this time though. When the invites went out, Ross, Rachel and myself decided to ride together and make the most of it. Rachel later decided she'd rather get the nav practice by riding alone, so myself and the wee ginger one decided we'd have a nice bimble on our own.

We set off from Strathaven, starting off with a quick wee bit of street orienteering on foot, then a trio of bike CPs on the same O map, then onto the variety of scaled OS extracts towards Glassford, Quarter and Chatelherault country park. There were a series of CPs that could be gathered in any order, but there seemed to be a natural sequence to them unfortunately it involved zig-zagging back-and-forth across the wooded valley, which involved steps. Lots of them. We'd taken a different route to Rachel and assumed we were in front of her, but with the variable routes, she could have been past us without us seeing, so we kept pottering on through the park.

It's amazing what you find in these suburban woodlands and parks, and we found some steep stuff, some nice wiggly singletrack, and some steps. Lots of steps. Some ridable, some not. Them we found the M74, which was lovely. We headed underneath it for a quite round of Strathclyde counrty park, hoping for a challenge on one of the rollercoasters, but sadly not this time. A little tricky nav (car parks not quite on the map), dodging broken glass, and more fun wooded singletrack and then onto tactical tarmac!

I say tactical tarmac - our reasoning was thus: We weren't rushing, we weren't going to win, and while singletrack by the river might have been more fun, it would also take more energy. So we lapped onto the road for a while, back onto trail, back onto road. We got a bit lost around Dalzell Castle - my fault, since I was the navigator - after stopping for a bit of lunch, some suncream, and a nice conversation with a gentleman who had lost a £2,000 dog. More singletrack, more steps, more tarmac, and we got to the food stop at Crossford, and the next maps. Max and Justin were sat eating as we arrived, having already done the next stage, a figure-8 loop, so we had some food and a natter. They headed off, and Pete, Charlie and Dave arrived. Pete gave us a couple of handy hints about the trails on one half of the figure 8, then we headed out ourselves. We saw Dan on his way back as we headed out onto loop 1, then lots of climbing, lots of nettles, a fair bit of mild cursing and a lot of fun stuff later we arrived back to find Rachel sat at the give-out, so more food, more banter and another refill of bottles and we were off again. In the wrong direction, it turns out, but we sorted that out fairly quickly (Urban OS is not always the easiest to follow...)

After more woody singletrack, field edge snakey dry soil path, and some more tarmac we headed into the woods near Kirkfieldbank, following the Clyde still, towards Corra Linn, opposite New Lanark. And that was when it all went a bit wrong.

Basically, a chunk of brash, evidently wanting to pretend to be a snake, jumped up and bit me in the rear mech. My rear mech very rapidly succumbed to stick poisoning, and snapped. Being as I ride a full-suss and the stick had also managed to put a slight twist in my chain, it was quite obvious that the bike was not going to accept being singlespeeded, and was not going to be ridden any more that day. With great sadness (and possibly a little bad language) I dismantled the rear end of the gearset, taped the cable out of the way, swapped my map board onto Ross's bike and let him loose to navigate for himself* while I jogged myself and my bike out of the woods. I ran/scooted the 3km-or-so past the Falls of Clyde and onwards through the wood to the next manned CP where my race ended, after 80km, in the back of a car.

Chauffered by Martin, we headed off towards the finish at Wiston Lodge. It was a bit galling a drive, to be honest, as us short-routers were to skip the big off-road haul up and over Tinto and the last section would have just been a tarmac grind. The way I'd been riding I knew I could have completed, but it just wasn't an option. We drove on, passing Rachel and giving her some encouragement (I believe her words were "Make sure the kettle's on") and looking at the mist-shrouded hill that the long route guys would be descending off, with more than a little envy. We got back to the lodge, and I waited for Ross so we could run the last activity, a 2km orienteering leg, together.

That duly dispatched, we could shower, dine, drink and enjoy a wee camp fire to our heart's content. A bottle of Ardbeg was produced, and we made merry until not particularly late in the night, when the cumulative effects of 10hrs-or-so in the saddle made themselves known and it was time to hit the sack.

Despite the breakage and retiral, I'm really happy with the way it went. Myself and Ross rode well and had a good craic at the same time. There were a couple of shaky patches, physically and navigationally, but nothing major. We averaged about 9.5km/h for the day, which over that distance I think is respectable. I rode further than I have in 2 years (since my last Porage) and felt pretty good the majority of the way. Even just to get 75km in the legs is a good thing, to me. Ross finished in 10hrs 43min. I retired at around 8h 30min, but I'm confident I could have ridden the extra distance. It's annoying, but sometimes sh*t happens. Next time, I'll complete.

As with all things, there should be thanks. Thanks to Gary, Rich and Marty for course design and testing, Caitlin and the rest of the Tompsett clan for accomodation and food, Ross and Rachel for company, amusement, and general encouragement/abuse, Martin and Jules for marshalling, and all the other Porageers and visitors for a lovely evening out in the country.

Thanks for reading. Take it easy, and all the best to anyone else on their own adventures.

Pyro

*In hindsight, this may have been a foolish option as I saw him again half an hour later, having only just worked out where he was. Numpty!

More MTB

2010-07-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Another longer loop around Leeds. Myself and Giles set off to do the Meanwood loop, but I took the OS map out in case I fancied a longer ride. Come the top end of the trail, Giles opted to head back and I continued North up across the fields towards Eccup reservoir, Harewood, and the Emmerdale set. Just shy of 30km in the end, about 3 and a half hours of nice steady pacing. A couple of map/food/faff stops, and a beautiful evening to be out and about.

The view across the crop fields - very pretty, although the pic from a phone camera isn't the best!

And of course, it wouldn't be complete without me trying to bag some trig pillars. Picked up the pillar north of the Adel jumps on a short out-and-back, pictured with the bike below, and the pillar embedded in the hedge at Brandon Lodge. The one at Tunnel How is still defying me - GPS tracks show I'm near it - very near! - but the new-ish plantation and a lot of undergrowth mean it isn't visible, and it will take some bushwhacking to get to it. I'll get it at some point though!!

New toys

2010-07-08T14:28:00.000-07:00

It's a road bike.

And no, those pedals aren't staying on it. They were just so I could sort the saddle height out...