Bit of a mixed week with the Calderdale Hike being a 22 mile DNF, I know at least what sort of races I want to do.
I’d only really entered the Calderdale Hike because it was cheap and local to me, and I wasn’t sure how my legs would feel anyway with the Oldham Way being only 2 weeks before and in the end Ally ended up joining me and we treated the day as a bit of a navigation exercise and didn’t bother racing it so the DNF wasn’t significant to either of us in the end.
Running with Ally & Amanda
Ally suffers with her calves cramping up a lot and they did so after only a mile of the race on saturday so instead of our plan to try and run the flats and downhills, we ended up walking nearly the whole time. It just took too long to be enjoyable and there’s another blog post I’ve got in mind about when I would DNF a race and when to gut it out and finish no matter what.
The weather was grim and walking for 7 hours wasn’t really on the agenda and even with 4 layers on top in the end, I was still dressed to run a little bit more so was in shorts and just started getting a bit cold. Not much to gain for completing the remaining 8 miles of tough terrain.
The rest of the week largely passed by with some easy runs at a pace that has got comfortably towards the sub 8 min/mile mark which feels like progress.
The only downside was a fall on friday which gave me a pair of sore hands and a mighty gravel rash down my leg. Not even sure what I actually tripped on, just that I was running along at 7 min pace then the next thing, going down like a sack of spuds.
On the plus side, I know for sure that races that require active navigation are not for me. I run to switch off my brain and I enjoy just cruising along the trails taking in the scenery and focusing on the trail rather than wanting to be constantly checking a map.
My aim for learning to navigate was to open up the number of fell races I could do which require the ability to navigate in case you go off course so I think while I still want to and need to learn to navigate, I don’t want to enter races where it’s an active part of the challenge.
It’s been a busy few weeks recently with The Grizzly, Oldham Way Ultra and the this one and my training has been a little disrupted because of the races and recovery times so I’m now looking forward to getting back into a 10 or so week cycle of regular running.
- Monday – 7.7 miles
- Tuesday – Rest
- Wednesday – 7 miles
- Thursday – 7.5 miles
- Friday – 6.7 miles
- Saturday – 22 miles
- Sunday – rest
Total: 51 miles approx 5000 ft elevation.