Today's Run

[Johnallan]

I started jogging a bit last week after around 12 months off.
9km today on my dinner break up to Huddersfield's Castle Hill and back. Windy, raining and perhaps even enjoyable.

22 mile fell/trail race booked for the end of Jan so I'll wring a few more weeks out of the running lark as a break from cycling (whilst still cycling most days, just not as far...)

[PaulB2]

4.4 miles in 40 minutes while taking it easy makes me realise how slow and relatively unfit I am

I'd dressed for cold rain and wind yesterday only for the rain to stop and the wind to die down just as I left the house so ended up being too warm and the legs didn't want to work - ended up doing a fairly glacial 6.1k in 40 minutes.

[PaulB2]

Only managed 24k last week so need to start ramping up the distance - probably one more week of 3 runs a week before moving up to 4 and see how the legs hold up.

[Bearlegged]

Somewhere in the Venn diagram of running and Stu's route setting, sits this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/64139029

[sean_iow]

I saw that earlier, the entrants there would think the BB200 (2014) was a bit too easy There's suffering and then there's running 200 miles in a tunnel!

[GregMay]

No way I'd touch that event. I'd go (more) mentally deranged. 100 miles in the mountains, no problem. 10 miles in a tunnel or a road - about my mental limit.

I have a mate who used to race 24 hour track running races. He was "special" in the most obvious way.

[PaulE]

Somewhere in the Venn diagram of running and Stu's route setting, sits this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/64139029

I saw your post, and figured it was about to be a Spine post... but that looks insane!

Spine challenger on the other hand looks tempting, and I've still got a place available for it when I want to use one, just need to stop making excuses and find the cash.

[GregMay]

I have to persuade the powers at be at work to give me the time off as it clashes with my job as a teacher. The Spine has been on my radar as a must do for a long time now.

[PaulB2]

Only managed 5k so far this week with the snow - do those who run in the snow regularly use anything for extra traction?

[PaulB2]

12.2k this morning over a combination of hard packed snow and country roads. It was a bit chilly starting off but once I got going was quite nice with no wind to speak of, just a foggy haze.

[sean_iow]

When conditions are bad I measured my runs in time rather than distance. In an hour slogging it out on a muddy hilly trail I might only cover 5 miles. An hour on flat tarmac in good conditions I could maybe cover 8+ miles, but the former would be much harder work.

It's the same with riding generally, on the singlespeed it's about time, choosing a route hilly enough to make it hard. If I wanted to just rack up miles I'd take the geared road bike out.

Do you wear a HRM? The Coros App calculates training load so I can get a direct comparison between runs despite the variable conditions.

On the subject of traction in snow, I'd love to live somewhere where it was worth it but for 1 run every 6 years buying micro spikes would be a bit excessive

[PaulB2]

That 12.2k took around 1hr 20 which was fairly brisk by my standards (my 3rd fastest 10k was in there somewhere apparently) . I do have a HRM on my watch but I don’t really trust it - it recorded an average HR of 170 for the run which is 2 above my theoretical max while I’d have put the run at 6-7/10 for effort, mostly due to the snow.

[GregMay]

Interesting week so far, temp hasn't crept above -2 in the valley, so the snow that we had has never thawed leaving a rather nice grippy crust to run on - assuming you're not running on the footpaths in town :)

I had a weekend with 3 orienteering races in two days planned (day + night Sat, day Sun) so I had to limit running during the week to shorter efforts to get some form of recovery in from last weekends two races!

Sat day was at a typical country park, but with sheet ice on the path network to make it interesting. Dobs were not optional if you wanted to run fast. Took it easy as I wanted to run hard at the night race at the same venue. Ended up 7th overall and first V40 so I must have been running ok. A few hours to kill before the night race, got family shop done, then sat in the car and did some marking for school and some reading!

Sat night at the same venue, except colder, so any ice that had melted had now frozen again, so dobs were even more so non optional! Short warm up then lined up and went out hard chasing an M21 who started ahead of me. Picked him up and then we alternated controls for a while. I was running above my starting effort but felt ok, until I went one way, he went the other and I second guessed my decision. I backtracked, messed up my relocation, then made poor decisions. Possibly one of the worst errors I've made in recent times. Cost me about 12 minutes. Recovered, then ran hard but knew I wasn't going to place well. Points I should have had in the bag for the night league well and truly thrown away.

Day race today. Feeling recovered. Legs up at the moment as it's an afternoon race. I'll get a warm up in with my daughter as she's on the easy course. Then do a child handover when my wife finishes and I plan to go full gas from start to finish.

[PaulE]

I have to persuade the powers at be at work to give me the time off as it clashes with my job as a teacher. The Spine has been on my radar as a must do for a long time now.

I'm a part time teacher - don't work Monday - so if I do the challenger then I should be able to get to work on Tuesday morning...

[GregMay]

Sounds perfect! What is the worst than can happen?

Schedule a load of revision/exam lessons and snooze your way through the day

[GregMay]

Another day, another two races. Or rather, one with my daughter (5) and one on my own.

Race 1 - nice area, not too icy, not too muddy. We were both in the mood and Úna wanted to run. So we did. Minimal help on the map reading, just making sure she oriented the map. Good to see her doing all the description reading. She ran quite hard, way more than I expected. 2.7km in 32 mins to take the win!

Race 2 - after a nice warm up it was my turn! Went out hard, really hard as I wanted a level of redemption after last night and a tough training session. Fluid until control 6 and then made an error I've not yet figured out. Irritated, but ran hard again. Next 9 controls flowed really, really well. I'm impressed with my splits. Finally able to run hard again after a year of post surgery meh. Then...then it went awry. Short version, control was not in correct location, but another was very close. Quite a few of us punched it, then ran on. I did, then punched the next one, then went to number 17...WTF I've already punched this! Mild panic. Reset. Go again, find 15, (misplaced by a lot) then run the next two in the correct order. FUMING now, run hard up the hill and flow the rest of the controls. Irritated, but I wanted a hard run, so I figure it's all good, I got some extra practice in :) 6th overall, 1st V40. Should have been 1st and 1st....

Legs are now screwed.

[ledburner]

I have to persuade the powers at be at work to give me the time off as it clashes with my job as a teacher. The Spine has been on my radar as a must do for a long time now.

I have an old mate who entered the Spine. 3 days later he finished by by-passing a lot of sleep and seeing pink elephants in the snow. The snow was real.he came 2nd, behind a international pro athlete. His reaction." I didn't enter to come 2nd."

[PaulB2]

Slowly increasing the distance of my long run - 14.7k around Stone in 1hr 43 with 137m of climbing. 33.4km for the week. I think I’ve got one more week of squeezing my Saturday run in my son’s playgroup time and then I’m going to have to start getting up early.

[Johnallan]

Local 22 (actually 21) mile fell/trail race in 3:35ish. Enjoyable!!

I kept a steady effort throughout, ran every hill and recovered on the downs. Felt way better than expected after a single 3 week block of running, following 12 months of purely cycling. The cycling must provide a solid base fitness.

200km Audax tomorrow so we'll see how the legs respond to that

[GregMay]

Good to see you back on two feet John

You doing the club MM champs in a few weeks?

[Johnallan]

Cheers Greg

I'll check the dates. It's been a very long time since I've spent a morning running around the moors, swearing, and muttering about re-entrants and stream junctions

[PaulB2]

Up fairly early this morning for a 15.5k loop of the northern side of town. Took me 1h51 with a very flat 105m of climbing. Running towards the dawn was quite nice even if the a-road wasn’t the most scenic. 35.4km for the week

[GregMay]

Felt off all week and have only done a few short easy runs around 30mins.

Felt a lot better today so was able to put some effort in at a local race. I'd planned to treat it as a training run and focus on some technique work (running on terrain, avoiding paths). Turns out I had no option as the planner decided to make the technical course more technical.... she'd remove all the paths that we're mapped from the map. Guess we're running the terrain then!

Race went well, I felt comfortable, navigated really well, punched in 1st, never changed as the others finished. Good times. One small error, more my map memory failing than a nav error.

[GregMay]

Easy run over the moors, just over an hour and a nice nearly 10km to boot. Weather was peachy, cold but not eye bitingly so.

[PaulE]

First run of the year on Friday at dusk - no real reason for the month off, just been more into riding the bike and hitting the climbing wall I guess. Gentle 5 mile trail run with a friend, pushed on a bit on a descent which felt great but otherwise steady.

Planning to race Teenager with Altitude in April, so should probably start getting some distance and (more importantly) elevation in now!