18th Wilmot Wander - 32 mile Challenge

Well, i trained for the miles and arrived at Chaddeston Scout Hut at 7.30am on Sunday 24th January,

Start time for the Wilmot Wander was 8.06am,

The Weather was fine, clear but a little cold, no worries the next 32 miles would keep me warm,

The first 22 miles of the challenge was tough with approx 3500ft of climbing, sticky mud with flooded fields,


Lily not getting to close as "your a sweaty daddy" Checkpoint at The Bridge at Duffield

The route took you out of Chaddeston, towards Morley, then across towards Duffield, Radbourne, Mickelover, Findern, Stenson, Swalkston, and then on the old railway line into Pride Park, over the A38 to finish.

My personal experience was as follows;

Started well and soon found myself passing runners and walkers, as each group set off at 2 minute intervals, arrived at first check point feeling comfortable

The climb's felt easy, and the conditions suited my pace and running style,
The miles passed and then i was caught by a team of two, who flew past me and followed what i thought was the wrong path leaving Morley, i had a feeling that this was wrong and switched my route to the the correct exit across the road,

I didn't see them again until the Water Towers at Radbourne lane,

Claire and Lily were meeting me on route in four places,



Coming down the road into Checkpoint at The Bridge at Duffield

First place was second checkpoint at the bridge pub, Duffield, the 6 miles i covered before that are a regular training route, so i felt really comfortable, and didnt realise that i was running so quickly, i was running this at race pace and come down the hill into the checkpoint steaming!

Quick drink, check in, number 49, kiss from Lily and Claire then off!


The next leg was again training route for me, so just kept plugging away at the runners and walkers in front of me, was also getting passed by a few as well, but would never have kept up with them.

Pushed across the fields at the back of Vickerwood Farm and across the road nr the Mackworth Hotel, up the two fields to meet Claire, Steve, Anya and Lily cheering me on,

Stretched a stiffening calf, water and gel then cracked on 18 miles in, and going well apart from the calf,

As i reached the A38 i had ran with and by some great runners, but kept ticking of the miles,

From a mental point of view i always, split long events into groups of miles, for this i had thought a lot about this, and my mental split were,

6 miles
10 miles
6 miles
6 miles
4 miles

Splitting like this makes the distance easy to manage mentally, and from experience never think about the distance covered...

So arrived after a very long and drawn out 4th section at the Stenson Bubble, all toe path and tarmac left, must be at least 9 miles of this, swapped shoes and lost about 5 mins on two teams that i had been pulling away from, but needed a few mins to take on fuel and water, including the last gel,


Change of shoes at the Stenson Bubble

Only the toe path to go and i could see the two teams in front of me, so set off at 8.30 min mile pace to claw then back, to my amazement i did, by the Swalkstone checkpoint,

5 Miles to go, and as i set off, for the final push a team of three guys came behind me, one of them was really struggling, but with a team of three you can double time the distance, run and walk run and walk, i kept with them with only 2 miles to go and then held back a bit,

Looking at my Garmin i pulled myself over the A52 bridge at 6hrs 20 mins and made a final dash for the scout hut,

Finished,

Final time, was 6hrs, 23mins, 58 seconds, 32miles/4325ft of ascent,

Personal thanks to Claire, Lily, Steve and Anya for your support! and Special thanks to Claire for the great Sunday lunch i received when i got home.

Grindleford Recce - 17th January

GrindleFord Gallop Recce,

Planned to do the Lambs Longer Leg at Hayfield on Sunday 17^th, but due to the continued bad weather and snow in Hayfield in fact across the Uk it had to be postponed, the organizer stated that he had walked the course and felt that it was to dangerous to run.

nr Ball Cross Farm – Baslow

As a result I decided to go and recce the second half of the Grindleford Gallo route, which covers Bakewell – Baslow,

Parked just nr the Monsal trail on the B6048 and ran the section up and across Edensor, through Chatworth and into Baslow, leaving Baslow up Bar Hill Road, onto Baslow Edge, Turning at Eagle Stone,

Eagle Stone

Great day all round covered 12.85 miles and 2996ft Ascent

Good training for the Wilmot Wander

Hill Reps x 6

Created a loop at Markeaton Park, Friday 15th January,

It covers 1 mile dead, with 210 feet of ascent per lap,

Tough little route, long drawn out climb to start, tricky little traverse and then small sharp climb and then descent through woodland, run into park is 1.5 miles warm up,

Then on with it, headtorch ready, lungs ready,

Felt really tired, long week at work, friday night

Did six laps, and managed to keep steady, but not race pace of 9.11, just a matter of doing some training i think,

Wild Trails to Far Horizons: An Ultra-distrance Runner

Just reading this little beaut! and having problems putting it down

If you need any motivation read this book,



Day 1 - 145 miles
Day 2 - 96 miles
Day 3 - 79 miles

Mike Cudahy is one of the foremost ultra fell runners in the country and now something of a fitness legend. In the course of decades of running he has covered distances from 70 to 270 miles, finding inspiration in challenges such as the West Highland Way, the Scottish 4,000 foot peaks and the Coast-to-Coast. In 1984 he achieved the ultra runner's equivalent of the four minute mile, the first under three day completion of the 270 mile Pennine Way.

The semi-autobiographical account of his ultra career constitutes the first part of this book.
'The Kingfisher's Wing' both continues and develops the theme of endeavour and inspiration. Included in this set of essays are three episodes from Mike's record traverse of the Munros, his 500 mile, ten day run through the Scottish Highlands, a 120 mile winter walk and a solo winter traverse of the 4,000 foot peaks shortly before a hip transplant. These tales of endeavour are seeded with essays of a more whimsical nature.

Throughout, Mike describes the inspiration which motivates and supports his challenges, in particular, the power and beauty of nature, the love and support of friends and the almost self-destructive will to succeed; this latter never more strikingly presented than in the final essay by fellow ultra runner, Mike Hartley.

The book contains guidance and advice for those who may aspire to emulate the achievements described. Above all, however, is Mike's observation that, 'the human condition is an amalgam of beauty, joy, sorrow and striving. Human frailty is not so important as how that frailty is embraced. Only endeavour which fails to enrich the spirit truly fails.'

Long distance - training tonight

Long distance training

I have three long distance events coming up and need to get some miles in,

Idea is to run out tonight headtorched up to the Ostrich nr long lane Derby, and back,

This will give me a 19 mile round trip,

Will update on progress....

Hill Training - Markeaton Park

Hill Training,

Well reps, have been planning a route around the park that needs to take in a minimum of 200+ft of ascent in a mile,

Last night, sorted it,

This gives a route that i can train on, lap by lap,

And if i need to carry out speed work, three fast laps then recover,

Or if i need stamina, 10 laps,

All good,

Last night did 5 laps (5 miles), covering 1300 ft, with run in and home,


Loads more snow in Derby.....

New Diet - 2 weeks then review?

THE DIET

This is the new diet, trying to follow this to the letter, This is for 5 days of the week, eat as you like during the weekend, but not over board.


0730 Bowl of whole grain porridge with raisins made with semi skimmed milk or Granola, 2 pints water, pot of green tea.

1030 low fat natural yogart with blueberries, raspberries and almonds, more green tea or water.

1300 cuscus frozen steamed veg can of tuna( or alterntive) steamed spinage olive oil. More green tea or water.

1500 low fat cottage cheese with spinage and sesame seed oil, more green tea or water.

1800 brown rice steamed veg and ( fish, chicken, turkey, tofu, eggs or cottage cheese) more green tea or water.

2100 bowl of home made musli (whole grain oats, pumpkin seeds, lin seeds, sunflower seeds, dried fruit no sugar) with semi skimmed milk.

Here's to the weekend,

Shinning Cliffs Fell Race - 10th Jan

Really snowy/icy conditions for the race.

Arrived early and recce'd the course with Steve Shaw, friend and Dark Peaker


2 laps in hills behind the Hurt Arms Ambergate

'
A great event with some good fell runners in attendance, only the die hards' turned up for this one with a temperature of -2 ( wind made it feel like -7)


First lap from the start i think i pushed just right, turned at the top with plenty of energy, for the descent

Put my head down and kept going, pushed really hard to the split.


Then arrived at the split to find that we were being directed back up the climb, you are joking here, i managed to pace myself for the descent then another climb

Some runners questioned this, and after a while, we were informed to do the climb then back,

Arrived at the cone with a second loop to do, what a cock up,

But finished really strong, legs felt great, stamina is there just need to get them legs moving faster..... Speed sessions on hills i think.


Race covered TBC miles - TBC ft of ascent

Finished 74th in 44.45 which i can't say is correct, some 13 mins behind the winner and 3 mins of mid table.

Resting.....

On the 13th Day of Christmas i rested....

Planning the next big assault...

The Sandstone Way.



The Sandstone Trail runs for 55 kilometres/34 miles north to south along Cheshire's central sandstone ridge.

Highest point: Rawhead, near Bickerton in central Cheshire, rises 227 metres/746 feet above sea level. It's the highest point on the Sandstone Trail and the views from the summit 'trig' point are exceptional.

Total ascent: Total ascent/descent for the whole Sandstone Trail is 1268 metres/4160 feet.

12 Days of Christmas - Completed

Set off into the snow and blizzards last night and completed the 12 miles. It has been a slogg but well worth it,

The last 12 miles from front door to Shrove Tide platform Ashbourne! 6 - 8 inches of snow in places! 78 miles + some extra total 91.5 miles

12 Days of Christmas

ok, here we go, this is in fact day 11, which i am aware of,

I set this up on the 21st December,

On Christmas Day 1 Mile
On Boxing Day 2 Miles

And so on...........

When you get to day 12 you will have covered 78 miles

I set out mid morning on Christmas day to find everything solid under foot, 1 mile, seemed to takes an age, ran it with a small headache in 7.04, not bad.

The days continued with the weather getting cooler,

On the 29th December, decided to go on a long run with Steve, friend and member of DPFR,

9am start from Radbourne Lane water towers taking in a route that covered The Ostritch pub on long lane, the back of Kedleston Hall all equating to 18.5 miles.

Day 10 arrived and i set off at 7.20am ish still dark and very fresh, in deed, covered the 10 miles in 1hr 29 mins, good pace in the slippy conditions,

I have two days left, tonight is 11 miles.......