Ideal race preparation

I was planning to do a fell race in Lancashire called Pendle Cloughs on Saturday. I got to the point of saying "bye" to the kids and walking to the door. At this point, it hit me how much of my day I would be dedicating to one race. Including driving there and back, it would be about 7 hours. So I decided to go for a long run near my house instead.

After last weekend's four trigs, I went the whole hog this weekend. This involves running from my house to the trig points of Shutlingsloe, Shining Tor, Burbage Edge, Axe Edge then Roaches. This is about 20 miles, with 3500 feet of ascent. I was pleased to do it without running out of steam, and finished in 4 hours 9 minutes.

Then on Sunday I had a day off, before racing today (Monday) at James' Thorn fell race in Glossop. This is a great short and steep race at 5 miles and 1600 feet. I was pretty surprised to feel good on the long ascent up to James' Thorn on the Kinder plateau. I had assumed that the mileage from Saturday would still be in my legs. Normally I would do a recovery run after a long day like this, but it seems a rest day was the ideal thing for me.

I was third at the summit and was praying that the guy who was in second wasn't a super fast descender. Luckily, he wasn't. So I could (very slowly) reel him in, and I managed to sneak past a few hundred yards before the end. I don't finish many races in the top three, so I'm definitely savouring this one.