Bob Graham Training Log

A guy, who I assume is called Jonathan O'Keeffe, has utilised the Strava API to allow Strava users to produce details reports of their activities over the past year. This is the website address http://www.jonathanokeeffe.com/strava/annualSummary.php.

I used the site to export my activities to a comma-separated file (csv) that I was then able to import into Excel (or in my case Libre Office Calc (a free version of Microsoft office)). The data was imported in a raw format, basically one record for each activity. I wanted to group the data by week so that I would have an idea of the height (mtrs) and distance (km) I am achieving each week. This took a bit of Googling to extract the week number form each activity and a lot more Googling to find out the date of the first Monday in each week. It was then necessary to group the distance and heigh gain by week, which was achieved using the Spreadsheet "Pivot Table" functionality. From the Pivot Table it was then a simple task to create a couple of charts of the weekly height and distance completed. The results can be seen in the two images below.

I mentioned in another post that in September 2013 I started to develop an abdominal muscle injury. I struggled on with that until I got January's Trigger out of the way. That is why there is a peak right at the beginning of the year. Once the race was done I really cut back the running to concentrate on gym work to strengthen my core. This can be seen in the massive drop in activities in the spring. Since the late spring I have been slowly building up my activities and it is going pretty well at the moment.

Now that that I have the spread sheet functions in place it is a fairly straight-forward job to do more exports over the coming months and update these charts.

Bob Graham Training

Like many others I first heard of the Bob Graham via Feet in the Clouds. Unlike many others it really caught my imagination - I would love to have a got at that! That was 3 or 4 years ago. It was just not practicable back then. I was just too new to fell running (never ran in the lakes) and with a young family it would be very difficult to fit the training in around parenting duties. I though maybe when I am 50 and two of the kids are in secondary school I may be able to do it. Well that is next year and I have thrown my hat in the ring. I have got great support from the few guys at Pennine who know and looks of incomprehension  from my work colleagues!

From a bit of Googling and reading some of the invaluable threads on the FRA Forum I have got an idea of the type of training required. Basically the consensus is that it is climbing rather than miles ran that matters. The 68 miles for a BG in 24 hrs is a little bit less that 3 miles an hour.  It is the 26,000 ft (8000 metres) that is the challenging bit and from what I read it is the 8000 metres of down hill that is the real killer. So any Bob Graham training has to really concentrating on the climbing.

Surprisingly there is not a great amount of information available on the web for Bob Graham training schedules - so I had to create my own! I found a 6 month training plan for a 100 mile ultra, that I was able to open in the Google Docs spread sheet package. This is all based on distance - building up to the 100 miles on race day. Using the spread sheet functionality I took 100 miles to be equal to 3000 metres (10,000 ft) and recalculated all of the daily mileage targets as height gained. Living west of the Peak District I am not great on hills from the house. I have  one climb (Cobden Cross) a couple of Km from the house  (1.7km  212m (13%)). Much of my training will be based on doing reps of that. It is not really steep enough at 13% but it is much better than nothing and I know that doing 6 reps of it hurts like 'ell. Link to: Cobden Cross Strava Segment

The training plan below shows the results of my efforts. Basically it is build on blocks of 4 weeks. For 3 weeks each week builds up on the previous week while the fourth week is a rest week before building up to a higher  level over the next 3 weeks and then the next rest week. That pattern is repeated for 6 months.

This will be a guide - hopefully I will be doing the Long Tour of Pendle before Christmas and The Trigger after Christmas so I will be well ahead of the schedule come the middle of January. If anybody has any comments feel free to post below!

EDIT 09/09/2014
Had some feedback on the FRA Forum and this training plan is not enough. Basically I need to be achieving the 3000 m/wk 5 months before the BG attempt and keep doing that level of training for the next 4 months before beginning the taper.  The plans below for April and May are repeats of each other this will also need repeating for February and March which will mean bringing the earlier part of the plan forward by 2 months. This does not really matter as, said previously, I expected to be well ahead of the plan by the turn of the year anyway. What it does mean is that I underestimated the amount of work I will have to do in the spring - oops! Better to know now that to find out on the day I am not fit enough.

I will modify the plan and stick up a new "screen grab" of it. (done now!)

IMRA - West Dublin Peaks

Back in Ireland for a family visit when my brother informs me of the inaugural running of the Leinster Championship  "West Dublin Peaks" mountain race.  The race directory Ken Cowley was selling this race by stating that there was "almost no fire road". I assume from  that it must be an issue in Irish races:). Like many IMRA races it is basically an "out-and-back" race. With the tiny running community they must struggle to get the necessary volunteers so out-and-back routes are much easier to manage which is a very understandable consideration.  In my first IMRA race (this is the second) on Galteemore a couple of years ago a runner missed the left turn off Galtee Beag on the return leg to go very badly off course and overdue. The race organisers had to take on the responsibility to go and find her. The West Dublin Peaks race was been run on-trust due to the call for "non-running" volunteers failed to get the required bodies to man the summits.

West Dublin Peak "lay by"

Up at 7am for the 2 hr drive to South Dublin to get to some middle-of-nowhere lay-by on the edge of a forest. It was 9:30 with a race start at 11 but my twin brother John was on Laptop duty so he would be taking the runners details before heading off for a warm up himself. IMRA have a very successful Leinster League that runs on Wednesday nights over the summer months. They are even starting to get into the same issues as many FRA race organisers are only too familiar with  limiting numbers. No such issue exists with the Leinster Championship, John had a look at the previous races in the championship and reckoned 30 would be a good turn out.  It is a regular occurrence (that FRA race organisers should use more) in IMRA races - an early start. By 10:30 registration for the 26 runners was nearly complete and about half the field headed off. John had meant to go with them but laptop duties prevented it so at 11:am about 15 of us headed up the fire road through the commercial forest. I dropped into my customary last position as I forgot to set my watch going and I was holding my arm out to get a GPS lock! Very quickly we left the fire road to begin a climb on a reasonably path though the trees. After a couple of hundred metres we hit another fire road went  across it and straight into the trees. It was a bit different trashing though the dead branches with bodies heading in every direction trying to find a decent line. Broke out of the trees to hit an area of "felled trees for a 100 metres. This was hellish and a bit funny seeing people scattered all over the place trying to find a decent line through the stumps and abandoned branches. As I knew that we would be returning back the same way. I looked back over my shoulder  to identify something to aim for on the return leg, but it was all very "samey". I found a broken fence and and old stream bed which was ideal so followed that up to the first summit Seehan. This area is completely new to me I have only had the one outing in the Dublin Mountains which was the "Run the Line"  trail race  last year. I was told that this race would be a right "bog trot" but the weather had been very dry recently so I was reasonably confident that it would not be so bad. After the first summit we swung South to head to the second summit Corrig and then onto Seefingan.

 This was brilliant as  expected the ground was perfect for running on, pretty decent footpaths/trods that were quite spongy underfoot. After Seefingan we swung right for the 1.5 km out and back to the outlying summit Seefin. Between the early starters and leaders we were meeting loads of people coming in the other direction. I got to the summit and there was a massive pile of rocks. I stopped for a second to grab a quick photo, that I don't have along with many others that day because I did not know how to use the new camera app on my phone! A another runner arrived and said "have you ever been inside? but today is not the day". What was he on about? I went up for a closer look and there was a narrow opening. The pile of stones is in fact a 5000 year old neolithic tomb! Had a look then turned around for the return back to Seefingan.

Got back to Seefingan OK and now this was the key part of the race the 5 km over to the furthest point at Kippure. The col was a challenge it very heavy going and involved a lot of jumping and climbing back out of deep peaty holes. Eventually got to the Kippure trig point that was tucked away against the fence surrounding the TV transmitter station.

Kippure trig point

 I said to myself I need to find a different way back so I kept well to the east of the way I came up. It was not going so bad but I could only see a drop down to a valley in front of me. I veered left as I could see that I was too far east. I don't know what I was thinking but I kept contouring and ended up travelling about 3 times further that I needed to and ended up well west of the way I came out. I got the compass out and I could see that I was travelling 90 degrees to the the direction I need to be so another hard right to head down to the col.
A late course change removed Seefingan as a checkpoint on the return leg that allowed for an alternative to contour east around it. I knew I was heading straight back to the very area I was trying to avoid and it was my intention to bypass Seefingan so I steered off east again to try to get around the col. By sheer luck I found an old stream bed (we call them "gruffs" in the the UK), which was perfect.

An "Irish Gruff"

It had a lovely sandy and grassy floor and went around all of the difficult ground I passed through on the way out. I was not the only person to find it either as there was a single pair of running shoe tracks through it as well.  Before the race I had decided to follow the stream bed "Turrachawn" around Seefingan but on the day I decided to just gain a bit more height before starting the contour. It turned out to be a good move as the heather was pretty stunted so it was possible to keep running while circling around.

The "Sugarloaf" in the distance

Regained the main track and I could see three people scattered ahead of me I thought that maybe I could reel them in but they were a bit too far in front. Straight forward return to Corrig and then onto the final summit Seehan. I spotted the peat bank I identified on the way out and headed to it as I knew that would lead me to the stream bed. Down to the "felled" area and just had to be careful climbing over all of the branches. I actually found a much better route down through the trees to hit the fire road. I could not see the next track that I needed but I guessed it must be to my left and so it was. Down that and then the short run-in to finish in 12 place my highest ever finish! (2:46 for the 20Km - the winner was 1:57). Don't need to mention there were 26 runners. I actually overtook two of the people in front of me by returning down through the wood as they took a longer track back to the finish.

John & Annette - two happy campers!

Really enjoyable day out in perfect conditions. Hopefully I will be back in Ireland again for Galteemore.

Strava plot!

Kinder Trog 2014

I have been very quite on the blog over the past few months - there has been a reason. From about last September I have been struggling with an abdominal muscle pain. On the pain level it would have been about 4 out of 10. It did not stop me running but there was no great enjoyment to the running. It was not so bad climbing but really effected me on the faster sections. During that time I done the Stockport 10 road race (in a pretty good time actually) and January’s "Trigger" which did not go so well but that was mainly due to dodgy navigation over Kinder. Before each of those races I knocked back three ibuprofen to ensure I got through OK. I was hoping it would go away on its own but by January no joy so I had to go to the GP in case it was a hernia. That was discounted so I got a referral to a physio that I could use my work health insurance for.
Off to the physio, who seemed very young and my initial impressions were "how long has she been qualified?". Done the initial assessment and then spent ages on the phone to one of the senior partners and they decided the actual problem was  stiffness in my lower back was putting unnatural strains on the muscles in abdomen. Can't say I was totally shocked by this as I have had back issues on an off for years. I knew what this mean loads of exercises. I tried doing them at home but it is so easy to find an excuse to not do them so I ended up doing something I never expected I would do "I joined a gym!". PureGym is next door to work and I have been going each lunchtime for the past five months. I don't use the equipment very much mainly exercises on the mats. Shockingly enough it is not without enjoyment! As I improve I can get more aggressive with the exercises. I am even doing classes there now, spin, circuit training, etc. Now in June the abdominal pain is not so bad, the right hip flexor is  a bit sore but that is probably related to all of the stretching.

A few weeks ago I decided the Kinder Trog would be a good target for a come-back race. In the past three weeks  I have been around the entire route twice on the Pennine Thursday runs. I felt OK so I knew I was ready to do it. I ran this race twice before in 2:55 and 2:39, I though that I would probably get somewhere between those two times.  It is a very low key local race so just turn up on the morning and pay the £5. It was going to be a very hot day so I was glad they did not do a kit check so   I just stuck  a wind proof in my bag. No messing about with this race it is straight into the lantern pike climb. Most of this climb is on a minor road which is OK when climbing. I am a very slow starter, in the DazH race last summer I was in the bottom 10 for the first couple of Kilometres but ended up just missing the top half by the end. Likewise in this I was slow but slowly started to overtake load of people on that slog up the road to the first checkpoint. The marshal at lantern pike called out my number "47", I though I was 67 but he must be right! I had not realized it but my number was a bit low so the strap of my bag had gone over the bottom bit of the number. My number was 67. The marshals at the next couple of checkpoints at Kinder Downfall and Edale cross asked my to call out my number so I unknowingly  carried on the error and shouted  47.  I know this route so well so I slowly picked places up as we ran the long section from lantern pike to Mill hill. The weather has been dry so the climb from Chunel Junction to the flags was pretty straight forward instead of the heavy peat that it can often be. I overtook a woman in a Buxton top around this area, I was to see a lot of her during the race as she was faster than me on the flat and down hill but I was considerably faster on the climbs. The race was going pretty well personally I though the conditions on Kinder were not too bad it was a bit higher so a slight breeze helped to keep me cool. We have been over Kinder so many times on the Pennine Thursday runs that I now know the couple of little short cuts, Sandy Heys being the main one. Despite this I made a mistake at kinder low. There were two blokes in front of me and they were drifting to the left I was saying to myself why are the going over there? The flags are to the right. Despite that I started to follow them thankfully  I decided they had gone wrong  before it was too late to cut back right again to join the flags. When the two lads cut across on the trod from Edale rocks to the flags stones I had actually closed the gap on them. We passed a walker who called out 69,70,71, that was interesting I know what position I am in!
We now have the calm before the storm the great descent to the Upper Sett and then "that" climb. The Buxton woman shot past me on the descent. I am just so poor on the descents now, I suppose a lot of it is loss of confident due to the injury. I was been pushed on that descent by another runner so I actually went down it a lot faster that I would have chosen to but the Buxton woman was out of sight. It would be Big Stone before I caught her again.  The race was getting very difficult by this stage we had lost a lot of height now and as we went past midday the temperature got considerably warmer. It is a pig of a climb from the Sett but I have done it so many times now I am used to it. Somebody made a "Strava Segment" out of it and at the time of writing I am actually 15/68 (6:15). Today it took me 8:11 so well outside my PB! I was expecting the section from the flags to South Head to be reasonably good. Four of us had ran the entire route a couple of weeks previously and one of the lads gave his knee a bad wrench when he went down into the soft peat. The conditions has been very dry since then and so it turned out - it was pretty straight forward. I was getting very hot and thirsty by this stage, but I just had to keep a steady run going to the water station at Peep O Day. I took my time there had three full cups before I started my "Buxton Chase" up the track. One again I have done this many times so I was able to keep a steady run up it but I was not pulling her in quick enough. I would need to be well ahead of her at Big Stone to have any chance of keeping ahead of her on the long descent home.
Over the top at Big Stone and I was 3 or 4 metres behind her,  a look at my watch showed I had to do 4.5 Km in 15 minutes to match my 2:39 from two years ago - no chance I thought. Lets see how how close I can get. I shot off down the lovely descent to the wall crossing and then along the track that is now in a right mess because of the Dry Stone Walling work that is going on. She was pulling away from me but then stopped by the gate where we take the left turn. I shouted out LEFT HERE THEN KEEP RIGHT BY THE LITTLE HILL and that was the last I saw of her till the finish. I was pretty tired by this stage so not going very fast but I still passed a couple of blokes in the horrible section through the trees that were in an even worse state! I eventually got home in 2:49 (70/135 starters) so I had gained a whole one place since Edale Cross!. The issue about the number was still bugging me so I made sure I took off my bag in the finishing tunnel so the recorders could see it properly and "67".  Before the race I predicted I would spit my 2:39 and 2:55 and so it turned out. I found the race director and told him what happened and he thanked me as they did have double recording of number 47. It shows how easily things can go wrong. I made a mistake in positioning my number and from my understanding of the FRA rules the marshals should not have asked me to call my number they should read it themselves.
My family were there at the end as I piled into the Scout hut to start devouring the sandwiches (I got a tuna one!) and litres of cordial. My daughter came in to reprimand me for not coming out to them but my reply was the drink is in here.

I am a member of Pennine about 4 years now and we have had so many young runners join us in that time some of them had great runs finishing 20 minutes ahead of me, which is great for the club. I was actually well in the top half of all the Pennine finishers which I am well "chuffed" with! Once again a great race as 16 mile races go this would be on the easier end of the spectrum so a great introduction to somebody who wants to try out a longer fell race.

The Trigger 2014

Here we go again. Another early morning alarm call on a very cold morning to get to Hayfield for "The Trigger" bus. Bit different this year as I left my car at New Mills Station and then four of us continued onto Hayfield in Geoff's car. The Cricket club is such a nice start venue, great atmosphere in side and warm as well. Chatted to quite a few people then outside to drop off the bag. Chatting to IanW outside I find out about another route change so that we will not be going down the road but instead a little cut through directly from the start field.

Happy Campers

 The early stages of this race is pretty straight forward up along the side of the reservoirs to the Isle of Sky. The Black Hill flags were in typical "Trigger Condition" varying from being perfectly OK to lethal due to the ice cover. As informed before the race we have a slightly changed route down to Crowden Brook, it did not really effect the race.  A Km after Black Hill I though my race was over when I got a bad step and aggravated (yet again) an injury in the top of my right foot that I suffered a couple of months previously when running with Pennine near South Head. Straight down on to the ground in agony. Got up after a bit and started a very dodgy hobble. I have aggravated this injury a number of times and I know that I can run it off. So I kept going as loads of people streamed past me. over the next 10 minutes. By the time I got onto the track to Crowden I was doing a reasonable impression of a run. I was running well upto the fall so despite the injury I reached Crowden in a very similar time to last year.

It is funny in Crowden hardly anybody carries straight on past the decision point for Torside or Lawrence Edge/Wild boar. The latter two seem to have become the de facto route choices. IanW rumbled me on Facebook (as he tagged me in a photo on the climb to Lawrence Edge) there is a pretty impressive picture of me with a good smile and high knee as I run up the steep climb. His comment "It's funny how the sight of a camera can make people run." as if I would do such a thing, its slanderous.

Poser!

Did not get to pose for this one!

I was up Lawrence Edge a few weeks previously and had sorted a really nice line over to Wild boar. That got scuppered when I followed the line of people in front of me and they veered over to the right to ascend onto the plateau via the heather slope to the right instead of the little scramble. That scuppered my reccie as I had identified a feature that I could get to from the top of the scramble, but from where I came up I did not know where it was! As usual everybody starts to veer south west. I got the compass out and headed directly south. I picked up a nice grough with a number of fresh tracks in it that brought me straight to the style where we leave Wild Boar Clough. That was a result! Bleaklow was hard going surprising how much snow there was so it did make for more difficult going to the Snake Path. Once again my snake path split was similar to last year (5 minute slower - last year's finish time was 4:47)

Higher Shelf Stones (credit http://runningdelights.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/janathon-12-plus-trigger-race.html) Hard to imagine it is the same day to the photos above!

At the start some of us were chatting about the Snake to CP5 route options. My intention was to go along to Glead Hill and head south from there. Geoff had mentioned he was going to go down the east side of Within. With the likely icy flags I had decided that I would do the same as Geoff as the ice flags would not allow us to make up for the greater distance. I followed the flags for about a Km then struck south-west from there. The Strava plot is reasonable enough, fairly straight line. I have had a look at a couple of strava plots by other people with a similar time to me and I was about 5 minutes (48 minutes snake top to CP5) slower than the people that stayed on the flags. With the old checkpoint we climb up to the plateau 90 degrees to the contours, so while steep we get it done with quickly. The new checkpoint involves a long angled climb that goes on for ever and looses a lot of time.

Snake to CP5

Leaving CP5 felt like entering hell, the conditions has deteriorate considerably, with low clouds and a driving wind straight into our faces. It was to some considerable relief that I turned left down the river Kinder and some reprieve from the wind. My race went tits up at this stage. Followed the gruff system OK until forced to leave them then set my compass to join the next system. I had a guess at the bearing but it was not south enough and I did not following it properly anyway. I really started to suffer across here with yet more eye problems as they clouded over and cold hands, I needed to get some food down but it was such hard work trying to work the zip on the bum bag. I eventually hit the edge path about 50 metres north of Grindslow Knoll. Not realising this I turned left for another 50 metres until I got to a stream I recognised from the Edale Skyline and realised my mistake. About turn and headed back to Grindslow.

It's all gone 'orribly wrong!

 Around the Knoll and then followed some tracks down through the snow to the left of the footpath  with the intention of rejoining it again further down. I got to a style and I said to my self don't cross this find the proper gate that is on the foot path which was only 30 meters to my right. What did I do? I crossed it and just got further and further from the path until I had no idea where I was Fatique can you you to do silly things! Near the bottom of the hill, near Grindsbrook Clough, I was getting the map out to find out the best route to Edale when Duncan came along with another two blokes in tow. He knew where he was going so both of us bombed it back to Edale along the Tanky's finish to arrived home in 5:40. That was 50 minutes slower than last year and I reckon I lost 30 minutes of that in the last 5 Km.

Edit:
Just had a another look at the 2013 & 2014 strava plots. The split for the cairn after Kinder Gates was 4:00 in 2013 and 4:30 in 2014. So in reality I lost 20 minutes from there to the end. Not as bad as I thought!

"Peris Horseshoe" Mountain Race Snowdonia

"Peris Horseshoe" Mountain Race  Snowdonia

Category: AL
Distance: 28km / 17.5miles
Ascent: 2,600m / 8,500ft
"Peris Horseshoe" Race Details by Fell Running Routes.
Following on from Ian's great write-up of Snowdonia's Peris Horseshoe (Peris the thought), I thought I would add my tuppence worth. Part of the attraction to these long races is investigating the “sneaky routes”. Snowdonia is too far away so any investigation I could do would be by looking at maps, trolling the forums and blogs and chatting to people with “the knowledge” (Geoff a veteran with a whole one Peris Horseshoe to his name). The navigation would become more important in the second half as up to Pen Y Pas the field would still be close enough to play follow the leader. The research" proved to be mixed result with some successes and failures. The biggest failure, trying to cut the corner to the Snowdon Ranger path probably counteracted all the successes!
Peris Horseshoe Mountain Fell Race Snowdonia September Pennine Fell Runners
Less than optimum route choice!

I opted for the early start (1/2 hr before the main field, which is a great idea). The race started as it means to carry on - "brutally"! From Llanberis a 2700 ft climb through the disused quarry then continue up to Elidir Fawr. Scramble over a load of rocks then some contouring and another climb up to Foel goch. A nice descent than another climb up Y garn. Another long descent before a real slog up to Glyder Fawr. 
Peris Horseshoe Mountain Fell Race Snowdonia September Pennine Fell Runners
We gained height very quickly right from the start - looking back down to the start field.
Peris Horseshoe Mountain Fell Race Snowdonia September Pennine Fell Runners
Looking back down into the quarry we have just been through.
It is by the lake before starting this climb that the leaders started to overtake me. After that turn South-East to try and find a good line off Glyder Fawr down to Pen Y Pass. I took my time in the glorious sunshine in the first half and got to Pen Y Pass (which is the end of the Half Paris) in 2:30 where the "mars bar" man commented that I was looking very fresh.

The hardest bit was then then the run up the gradual climb of  the miners track to the turn off to Lliwedd, I could not be seen walking by the tourist so heart and lungs screaming I kept running up the slight incline! It was to some considerable relief that I cut off the main path and headed up the trail towards Y Lliwedd. I loved the “easyish” scrambling over Lliwedd and the east ridge and because of my early start I had loads of people around me. I would never have found/done the east ridge on my own as it was pretty claggy over the Lliwedd ridge and Snowdon.
Peris Horseshoe Mountain Fell Race Snowdonia September Pennine Fell Runners
Looking back at Lliwedd from the "East Ridge"
Once at the top of the East Ridge we are once again reunited with the masses. A lot of whom have gone up on the train and get in the way even more than the walkers.  Follow the train tracks down to the standing stone that marks the top of the Range path and then straight  down to the col before Moel Cynghorion. The dire warnings about the climb up (and decent from) did not materialize. I actually done too good a job of “keeping something back” so I found it was a nice steady climb up.
Peris Horseshoe Mountain Fell Race Snowdonia September Pennine Fell Runners
 About to leave the "Ranger Path" to start the last climb up Moel Cynghorion.
Peris Horseshoe Mountain Fell Race Snowdonia September Pennine Fell Runners
The summit of Moel Cynghorion is not the most exciting place in the world (but at least it is downhill from here)
Shouted out my number, over the style and then "that" decent where I got over-taken by a couple of people who gained a couple of hundred meters on me. They were off to my right and looked to have taken a better line as it looked less steep, something to lookout for next time! After the checkpoint I set my target to reel them in (more than likely pointless as I was probably half an hour behind them because of the early start!) I caught them and another woman with a dog who I did recognise because I nearly tripped over the bloody thing a number of times climbing Elidir Fawr. Crossed the railway line then join the road. As I was bombing down the hill a guy out side  the building (pub?) on the bend  having a fag shouts out the other runners went that way pointing to a gate behind the building. I could have kissed him I do not want to imagine how I would have felt if I went wrong a few hundred metres from the end of a 17 mile race. A bit of a windy track through the wood to arrive at a very low key finish line to meet a fellow Pennine Fell Runner who was hanging around to welcome us home.
I could have pushed it a bit more in the first half, with better lines and pacing I reckon I could easily have taken 15 minutes off my 5:31 time, but still pretty happy with it as I love Snowdonia and it was by far my biggest Mountain Races. The Peris Horseshoe is a fantastic race and I am at a loss to know why it is not more popular. I think sheep and lake land classics come to mind! In 2013 the Peris Horseshoe is a British Champship race so it will be considerably busier hopefully I will be there again!

Peris Horseshoe Mountain Fell Race Snowdonia September Pennine Fell Runners
Very early - climbing Elidir-Fawr Pic from "Picasawab Alastair Tye's Gallery"

The Ups and the Downs of Fell Running!

Now that road racing is behind me (for ever?) I have to seriously concentrate on "The Trigger". I had a window on Saturday morning until 09:30 to get a run in before the usually chauffeuring duties started. Six AM alarm call was followed by getting out at 06:20 to head over to Cobden Cross for a few reps. I had intended on doing six but time was against me so had to settle for five. Counting contour lines on the OS map reckons it is about 200 metres over about 1.75 Km. It is a bit of a brute of a climb as it is not constant with the  gradient at its steepest between 1 and 1.5 Km.

 I have created a Strava Segment for this climb  that puts it at 1.7 Km and (184 metres) The actual climb is a couple of minutes longer than the distance (and climb) covered by the segment. My PB for this segment is 12:38 with Marple's own Mr Iron-Man JohnE  holding the record at 10:47. When doing reps on it it tends to take about 31 minutes (17 minutes up and 14 down). I don't try very hard on the downhill! It would be considerably slower on a dark winter's morning with the soft ground and leaf cover. All my best times would be during the summer.

Got  out again on Sunday Morning at 6:15 for a 16ish Km run. I say "ish" as Strava said 18Km but it went mad 2 or 3 times and put in a few non-existent detoures. Got to see  a shooting star and a specular sunrise from "5 Ways" looking south-east towards Mount Famine. This is the best the rubbish camera on my phone could manage.