Noel's training and random other stuff blog

Pooh hats

2012-01-23T14:04:00.000-08:00

I've invented a new game that is ideal for children who live in windy places, or who are unable to play pooh sticks from bridges over rivers.
Step 1: Wait until it's very windy
Step 2: Go to a local monument (eg, Solomon's Temple near Buxton)
Step 3: Climb to the top and throw your hats into the wind
Step 4: Get Mrs Noel to chase them across a field, all the while cursing you for doing something so stupid with the children's hats.

In hindsight, I think it was a bit too windy. It very quickly turned from something a bit funny to amuse the kids into something a bit worrying with that feeling in the back of my mind that I would probably get shouted at. Luckily Mrs Noel did very well pursuing the hats, and we didn't lose any.

Oh, and... my hat won. In your face, kids :)

P.S. Having added the link to the Wikipedia entry for Pooh sticks, I am now aware that there is an annual world championships. When Pooh hats becomes as popular, I would like to propose Solomon's Temple, Buxton as one of the venues.

Date and cardamom chutney

2012-01-08T03:46:00.000-08:00

We had a few apples left over from autumn, so I decided to make a chutney. I've been toying with the idea of using cardamoms for a while and I think it worked well. The apples were a mixture of cookers and eaters, so I guess you could use either. Here's the recipe:

1.7kg apples (cored and peeled weight)
0.5kg onions - chopped
600g sultanas
850ml malt vinegar
2 tsp salt
800g granulated sugar
500g dates (stoned and chopped)
2tbsp garam masala
20 green cardamoms (finely ground and the pods removed)
4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 tsp hot pepper sauce (tabasco sauce would do)

Chop and cook the apples in a little water until they're pulpy, then add the other ingredients.
Cook for about 5 hours on a low heat stirring every once in a while to stop it burning to the bottom of pan.
Once it looks like chutney, jar it. If it's taking too long, turn it off, and leave it overnight, then you can finish it off the following day - I often make chutneys over a few days as they need cooking for a long time. I managed to fill about 12 medium jam jars with this recipe.

Chutneys normally get better after about 4-6 weeks, as the vinegary taste subsides a bit.

On first tasting, I'm quite pleased by the results. The taste of cardamom is present but not overpowering. I could have ground the cardamom seeds finer, as the taste gets stronger in some mouthfuls - presumable as I chew on the larger lumps of cardamom seed. Personally, I quite like this, but it might not be to everyone's taste.

Enjoy!

Henry Moore reclining figure in snow

2011-12-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

The kids have moved on from snowmen. I thought it best to capture this creative phase.

Here's the Moore original for comparison:

I think I preferred the dinosaur and men period of last winter. I'm looking forward to their surrealist offerings.

Famous Grouse

2011-11-27T08:38:00.001-08:00

This race was the final Pennine championship counter of the year, so there were scores of Pennine runners. Mrs Noel's was due to do the race, but she felt a little ill on the day, so decided not to. It was lovely and sunny - as it always is on this side of the Peak District. Unfortunately, my camera didn't deal too well with the conditions, so everyone looks like they're glowing.

Dunnerdale Fell Race

2011-11-13T12:03:00.001-08:00

Dunnerdale Fell Race was a Pennine club championship race again this year. This race is during my off-season, so it was great chance to watch the race, heckle, and video it. Can you spot yourself?

Shepherd's skyline video

2011-11-06T01:47:00.001-07:00

Here's a video of yesterday's Shepherd Skyline fell race. Enjoy.

Screes and Great Whernside

2011-10-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

"We should probably check if there are any fell races near where we are going on holiday," said Mrs Noel on the Friday before we were due to go to Nether Wasdale for a week. After a quick inspection of the race calendar, we found there was a race starting from the pub just around the corner from where we were staying on the day we arrived. Very bizarre!

Mrs Noel managed to finish first lady and win a meal for two at the pub - which was very pleasant. Thanks to the management of the Screes Inn.

Then on the way back from our week in the Lakes, we also called in on the lovely Kettlewell to do the Great Whernside fell race. This was the Yorkshire championship race, so a lot of good fell runners had turned up. Here they are not far into the race.

It was a good race to watch. Ian Holmes was chasing Carl Bell down the final descent. He was slowly, slowly gaining with every step. Unfortunately, they went out of my sight before the end. Apparently, Ian Holmes slipped and fell in the last hundred metres, otherwise it would have been very close. I had a quick chat with Carl while he was warming down and he sounded pretty relieved to have won.

Mrs Noel finished 5th, but was pleased to be ahead of some quality runners in a pretty high-profile race like this.

Last race of 2011

2011-10-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

It was a great way to end 2011. The British fell relays will be my last race of the year, and I loved every minute of it.

If you discount all those fell runners who ran in other legs of the relays, and those who weren't there, and those who are better than me but couldn't get into their teams... bear with me here... then I'm the 22nd fastest fell runner in Britain.

Although in my rationale mind, I realise that this is like scoring a goal in a game of park football and imagining I'm Lionel Messi. I'm fairly sure I'm not in the top 500 fell runners in the country. But partly because of that "boyhood dream comes true" part of the mind that everyone keeps well hidden, it was great to be in an event like this and feel justified in pushing myself really hard like I assume the top runners do.

My teammates were great and dragged the team up to 21st place overall. We also had a ladies, v40 and v50 team out, who also did very well. I enjoyed having done the first leg and then being able to watch the drama unfold. My only regret was that in the mens' open race, there was very little "drama" around who would win. Dark Peak won it by a street in very unexciting fashion.

Will I be good enough to get into our team next year? My goal is to be better and be part of better team. Who knows what we could achieve. I shouldn't limit my ambitions. Where would today's champions be if they didn't have the drive and ambition to take them to the pinnacle of the sport. I'm hoping for 18th next year.

Things to do on a rainy weekend

2011-10-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

1. Set up a rope across a river.
This was mainly for the kids. Here is my youngest midway across:

But the grown-ups couldn't help getting involved. We tried it hanging below the rope - this resulted in the lowest few inches of us getting wet. We also tried it above the rope. This was our friend Jason's idea and here he is demonstrating how it should be done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kblfXFh7JYA.
I was surprised by how reliable a method this was, as it looks very precarious.

2. Play with the kids' toys.
This was the best magnetix model that was made. Note the two-shell design utilising squares and triangles.

3. Run a fell race.
Mrs Noel did Windgather fell race today. She wasn't mad keen on doing a long race (13 miles). But she needed to do it to complete the Goyt Valley series, which she won to retain her trophy. It was also a counter in the Gritstone series, which she finished in second place.

Ian Hodgson relays

2011-10-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

Last year's Ian Hodgson relays were a highlight of our year. This year, the Pennine mixed team was even stronger, but we had some serious competition. Both Borrowdale and Bingley had put out strong teams. Presumably they'd seen our success last year and thought "we could have beaten that lot".

Last year I remember there had been some discussion about whether Daz Holloway or I should be in the mixed team. I got the nod that time, but Daz has since transformed himself beyond recognition, so I was happy that Daz was running our longest and hardest leg in the mixed team. He was partnered by Adam, who is also running fantastically well at the moment.

While the battle for mixed team success was going on, I was running as part of the open (mens') team along with Nic, who normally beats me but only just. Unfortunately, we made a navigational error on leg 2, so lost about 10 minutes for our leg 3 and 4 runners to try to make up. I could take 10 minutes off our time and say "we would have finished there", but navigation is all part of it. Plus that would assume all the other teams didn't make errors of their own. Luckily, the lads on legs 3 and 4 ran well and didn't repeat our navigational errors, so we finished in a respectable time.

Anyway, back to the mixed team. After two storming runs by the girls on leg 1 and the lads on leg 2, Mrs Noel and her partner ran the fastest female leg 3 of the day to hand over to our leg 4 runners well ahead of Borrowdale and about 50 seconds ahead of Bingley.

And who were running for Bingley on their anchor leg? Multiple fell running champion Ian Holmes, and three peaks fell race record holder Andy Peace. This pair are getting on a bit, but they're still winning good races. Although the Pennine boys ran a near-perfect race, they were pipped by 7 seconds. Apparently our lads had been closing the gap all the way down the final hill. It's amazing that after 4 hours and twenty minutes of running, only 7 seconds separated the two teams.

We'll definitely be back next year. It must be such a palava to organise this race, but it's definitely worth it.

Lantern Pike and barefoot training

2011-09-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Hayfield Country Day, which means Lantern Pike Fell Race. I've only done this once, as Mrs Noel normally bagsies it, leaving me holding the children. This year we had a few offers of people to watch the kids, so we could both run. We both did fairly well. I was 6th, behind only one of the excellent trio of pacers/markers: Nick, Mark and Steve. Mrs Noel was second ahead of some fairly strong competition. Unfortunately, Mrs Noel missed the prize-giving, so I decided she would have wanted three bottles of strong ale.

Then today (Sunday) we went to Trentham Gardens and I started my barefoot training in earnest. Lots of runners sing the praises of barefoot running and it's become quite an "in" thing to do. There are even barefoot shoes, which are much more expensive than normal running shoes as it takes time for them to remove all the padding at the factory.

So when I saw that Trentham Gardens was home to Britain's "first and only" barefoot walk, I jumped at the chance. Here are a selection of the various surfaces we stood on. These are the feet of me and my mum. I say this in case there are any foot double talent scouts out there wanting to sign us up.

Not bad:

Urggh:

Ow:

Nice to gritty transition:

I feel sure my feet and whole body and now invigorated in a life-enhancing way that I can't quite describe. If you're ever visiting Trenham Hall - it's worth a go, and there are foot showers at the end.

Barrels of plums

2011-09-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

What an action-packed weekend! First, we went over to visit some friends and laugh at my mate Dave, who had once again been roped into taking part in the Great Edale Beer Barrel Race. This is where a group of apparently sane blokes (or women - there was a ladies' team this year) run about 5 miles with a full beer barrel. I think it weighs about 45kg.

We watched most of the teams come past, and they all had pain etched on their faces. They also seemed to be going very slowly, which showed how difficult it was as they were clearly trying very hard.

Then on Sunday morning there was a double-header. At 10:30 it was Coombes Tor - a new race which I did and was very pleased to finish 5th, just behind teammate Nick. After a bit of post-race banter we headed over to Padfield for their excellent Plum Fair. We all ate delicious plum pie and Mrs Noel defended her first lady crown successfully in the Plum Fair Scamper fell race.

Then on this morning, the crysalis on the right developed into a small tortoiseshell butterfly. The kids and I watched as it slowly pumped up its wings before we set off for school. I felt a bit mean putting it outside as it's blowing a hooley today. Maybe the one on the left had a better idea in waiting a few more days.

It's all about cogs

2011-09-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

My roadbike must have been made by someone who lived in a solely downhill country. I'm not a great expert on gear ratios, but here's what I've picked up so far. The bigger your front cog, the harder it is to pedal. Whereas the smaller your back cog, the easier [edit: I meant harder - thank for pointing this out Darren] is it to pedal. My bike was made with 2 front cogs. One huge, one enormous. It was also made with 8 back cogs, all of which were tiny.

So last week I had this changed. My local bike shop fitted a smaller, much more sensible front cog and a range of 8 back cogs, some of which are quite large. I was unsure how much difference it would make. The answer was "lots". Now, without getting out of my seat, I can cycle up here:

and here:

and even here:

I was hoping my new-found bike keenness might translate to improvements at Shelf Moor fell race on Sunday. Last year, Shelf Moor was the race at which I announced my English Championship intentions. None of the top 48 runners would fail to notice my glorious finish just behind them. Indeed, I was rewarded with 2 championship points.

This year I managed to run 5 seconds slower than last year, but beat my placing my 41 positions. For a much better account of the race, with pictures, see Steve's excellent blog. He introduced himself after the race and seemed a thoroughly nice chap.

In the presence of greatness

2011-08-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Mrs Noel wanted to defend her second place at Grasmere, so we were back in the Lakes this weekend. I found a race to do on Saturday - Dufton Show - which meant I was happy to watch the kids for Grasmere on Sunday.

Dufton Show race was organised by elite fellrunner Morgan Donnelly. It was great to see what a nice bloke he is as he organised the kids' races (along with his equally nice wife). Mrs Noel was eyeing up the ladies' field, to see if she would have won anything if she weren't running the following day. We both spotted a lass who looked fairly athletic, but it's hard to tell until they start running. We all set off and this lass led the other runners out of the showground and was in the front three as they sped out of my sight.

We later found out this was Lizzie Adams, who is very talented, so it wasn't a total surprise. She finished 6th in the end. A long way ahead of me in 10th.

I was pleased that my descending seems to be improving. I lost one place from the summit, but managed to stick with the guy until he beat me in a sprint finish. I wasn't too bothered about this, as he'd helped me set a good time for the whole second half of the race - everyone needs a pacer.

Then on Sunday at Grasmere we got to watch Morgan Donnelly win the men's race by a fair way. Record holder Pippa Maddams was also there to destroy the ladies' field - again.

I was watching from the showground, so couldn't tell what was going on. The guy on the tannoy announced that Melanie Hyder was in second place at the summit. This was to be expected as Mrs Noel had only just beated Mel the previous year in a sprint finish. Perhaps this year, Mrs Noel would have to settle for 3rd place. However, as the runners slowly came close enough to recognise, there was Mrs Noel in 2nd place. No sprint finish needed this year, and 27 seconds faster than last year. She must be doing something right.

Burnsall classic and scarecrows

2011-08-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

On Saturday it was Burnsall Classic - a short hard fell race with a very difficult initial descent which is made from heather covering mud and gritstone boulders. We've done this for a few years now so knew it pretty well. My race went as well as could be expected, and I took 5 seconds off last year's time to finish in 14th.

In contrast Mrs Noel was 10 seconds faster than last year and was first lady. This is a fantastic result for Mrs Noel and ensures she'll be printed in the Burnsall Sport Feast booklet for many years to come. She was realistic enough to point out that many of the top runners had stayed away this year - presumably because there was a English championship counter the following day. But, as I said, "they have to turn you beat you". I think this ranks as Mrs Noel's finest acheivement in fell running.

Then on Sunday, we went with the kids to Kettlewell scarecrow festival. This was one of the best organised small village events I've ever seen. There were literally hundreds of scarecrows, and organised parking (with marshals). One display was about 20 rugby player scarecrows, complete with pitch and rugby posts. As you can see, they even provided silly hats so people could be the scarecrow's face for pictures. Note the absence of crows - I think I might be good at this.

Mountains and courgettes

2011-08-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

We went to the French Alps for two weeks on holiday, which was great. I'm hoping the slight altitude will have worked as altitude training.

We've arrived back to find that our three courgette plants have run riot. So we're eating courgettes and marrows for the next week. Although I can't find anything on the internet on the training benefits of this, it should make for an interesting week as I exhaust my current repertoire of courgette recipes. Courgette cake anyone?

The Bob bug - did I catch it?

2011-07-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

I've not previously understood the attraction of doing the Bob Graham round.

For those not aware of this, it's an endurance event which you can undertake at any time, where you run up and down 42 Lake District peaks. It starts and finishes in Keswick and the challenge is to do it in a 24-hour period.

Many people have told me that once I support someone on a Bob Graham, I'll understand it all and it won't be long until I too am putting in the ridiculous training sessions that are needed before trying one.

So last weekend I supported Lisa's Bob Graham attempt. She was going for an anti-clockwise round starting at 8 in the morning. I was supporting leg 2, which included 9 summits and took about 5 hours.

For those who can't remember, last weekend was exceptionally rainy. In the end it was the conditions that led to Lisa falling behind schedule and eventually taking the sensible decision to abandon the attempt after about 20 hours (20 hours!!). All credit to Lisa for getting so far in such horrendous conditions - I have no doubt she would have done it if hadn't have been such a shocker of a day.

So do I now understand it? Well I think I do. From what I got out of the day, it's a lot to do with the sense of cameraderie. I cetainly enjoyed it, despite the conditions on our leg. And I can appreciate that the sense of achievement must be massive.

But having said all this, I'm very happy to support the odd Bob Graham rather than do one myself. For a start I'd have to train a lot more, and I'm rubbish without sleep. So come on Lisa, pick another date, and we'll pray for a clear day this time.

Cat and Fiddle down-and-up fell relay

2011-07-09T00:49:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night it was my fell race - the Cat and Fiddle down-and-up fell relay. This is the first fell race I've ever organised and I was a bit nervous that something would go wrong. In hindsight, I guess that organising a relay was a bit more complicated than a normal fell race.

On the night most things seemed to go well. I had a great team of marshals and helpers and I think the people who took part enjoyed themselves. The weather wasn't very nice, so I'll try to improve that for next year. I'll also remember to take some pictures.

I'm already thinking about what eco-batons I can use. It was carrots this year. It was funny watching the look on people's faces at registration when they were handed two race numbers and a carrot.

I was pleased to see some very good runners turn up. It was also nice to see how many couples and family partners turned up. It made for a nice atmosphere in the pub when I was giving out the prizes.

The results are here. I reckon the men's open, mixed open, male V90 and Mixed V90 will be hard to beat next year.

Conditions, conditions, conditions

2011-06-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

In fell races, every race is different. So you can't compare your times from one race to the next, as a roadrunner might compare a time for a 10k race. So one of the ways to judge yourself is against your times from previous years.

Two years ago I ran Hope Wakes fell race in the wet and was pleased with how I did on the night. Last night I ran Hope Wakes in hard, dry conditions and took over 2 minutes off my previous time.

I can hear some of you saying "but Noel, that 2 minutes is probably down to the different conditions, and not any improvement on your part". At which point I am putting my fingers in my ears and I'm saying "I can't hear you. La, la, la, la".

Some of you might also ask how I did against the runners I am normally close to. These 'markers' provide another good way of telling me how I did in any given race. They represent my peer group, and between them, show me how well I should be doing. Well on this occasion, I'm once again ear-fingered "la, la, la, la" -ing.

2 minutes! If I keep up this level of improvement, I'll be in the national team in the next 5 years. Glory days here we come!

Back to form - Edale

2011-06-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

It was Edale Country Day today, which means Edale fell race. At 5 miles and about 1300 feet of ascent it's my kind of race - quite steep and nice and short.

I remember being pleased with my time last year, so I was very pleased today to take about 25 seconds off it. And the key to my success? Well, it's a number of things.

Firstly, I've now got enough weeks of decent mileage under my belt. It normally takes about 6 to 8 weeks of training before the full benefits come through.

But I reckon what also helped was the exercise bike in the hotel gym while I was away on business last week. It was one of those where there's a screen in front of the bike and you try to keep up with your virtual pacer. Check out their website: http://www.expresso.net/. You can set how fit the pacer is, and there are loads of different courses. I did a few 10-12 mile "hilly" courses and a one reps session on a virtual track.

My pacer

It's funny how even virtual competition makes me try harder. I'd never cycle for 45 minutes on an exercise bike without having "someone" to aim for. Even if it's a yellow-jerseyed man with a big "P" on his back. And the fact that I know it's just a load of pixels doesn't stop me from trying to beat "him".

Does this mean I'd be better if I trained with someone else? Personally, I like the simplicity of running or biking whenever I want to, rather than having to arrange times, wait for people, and travel to somewhere convenient. But perhaps my competitive nature would drive me to train harder.

Victory at Wildboarclough

2011-05-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

It's a great feeling when you've trained for weeks for something and then it all comes together on the day and you take first place. That's what it must have felt like for my brother-in-law, who was victorious with his very first throw in the welly wanging competition at Wildboarclough fete. Here he is proudly holding his prize - the whisky, not the welly.

Mrs Noel and I were also competing in the Shutlingsloe fell race, hoping to retain our first local and first lady trophies. In the past I've been third in this race, but this year I was scanning the people at the fete before the race, and there were about 6 or 7 people who I knew would definitely beat me. Once the race started, it became apparent that there were also some people I hadn't spotted who would also beat me.

I've been fell running for about 8 years now, and I think this is the first time I've ever used navigational ability or local knowledge to my advantage. Near the summit I broke slightly right to overtake about 2 or 3 runners, and managed to stay clear of them to the finish. I finished 7th and retained the Frank Hooley Memorial Trophy for first local. Mrs Noel also retained her larger and more impressive first lady trophy, in fine style despite not having trained much due to her creaky knee.

I also picked up a coconut (from the shy) and a jar of orange curd from the excellent cake and conserve stall. Once I had a pint in my hand and the sun came out, I couldn't think of anywhere I'd rather be.

Carneddau and Vanessa Chapel

2011-05-27T00:29:00.000-07:00

These two races are at two ends of my fell running scale.

On Saturday, I did Carneddau, which runs up the 3rd and 4th highest mountains in Wales. It was blowing a "hooley" at the summit and I was very lucky to have a Dark Peak runner in front of me who knew where he was going.

It took me over 2 hours, and I was pretty broken for the last half hour. In the end I lost about 5 minutes on the Dark Peaker who I was with at the summits. It also has about 2000 feet of descending in one go. I can't really train for this in the Peak District, so my thighs were trashed by the time I reached the flat section at the end.

I was 9th out of about only 50 runners. A disappointing turn-out for such a great race. Especially one that demands so much time and enthusiasm from the numerous marshalls who sat on the summits in the dreadful weather. Here's me looking wet and tired after only about 40 minutes. This pici is from the Al Tye's excellent photo site.

Then on Wednesday night, I did Vanessa Chapel fell race. This is a classic Peak District fell race, relatively short and mainly on footpaths. There are also many more fell runners in and around the Peak, so there were about 180 runners in this race. I was pleased to finish 16th, two places behind my Pennine team-mate Steve, who is getting better despite his advancing age (only joking Steve).

Although I'm much better and the short and less steep stuff, this is only because this is what I train. Towards the end of the Carneddau fell race, I asked myself "am I a mountain man?" The answer was a defnite "No".

Crawling at Cressbrook, running at Rainow...

2011-05-14T03:29:00.000-07:00

I think I'm improving, after my long winter off racing.

I did Cressbrook Crawl last Saturday and was about 2 or 3 minutes down on where I think I could have been. Then on Wednesday night I did Rainow fell race. This race includes quite a bit of my lunchtime run when I go out from work, and includes the landmark White Nancy - an old summer house that is built on the summit of one of the Bollington hills. At Rainow, I was much closer to where I think I could have finished.

I have another chance to run past White Nancy today when I do Bollington Festival fell race. I'm hoping to beat my time from last year, but only because I got lost in last year's race.

Moor fires

2011-05-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

I suspect there are lots of downsides to long dry spells. One of them is the moor fires that rampage across the country fuelled by strong winds and young kids with nothing better to do.

We met up with my parents near Crowden on Sunday, but what started as a small plume of smoke in the distance had soon developed into a grey cloud that was blocking out the sun. By the time we'd packed up and were driving home the police had closed the roads to the area and fire engines were pouring in from about ten different towns.

So when it's raining and nasty in a week's time, I'll try to remember that we wanted a bit more rain.

Can you spot a good runner?

2011-04-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

I'm often intrigued by the biomechanics that define someone as a good runner. Things like leg strength, cadence and stride length are obvious determinants of speed. So if this is the case, we should be able to tell who are good runners and who are not, simply by looking at their running style.

There are, however, exceptions. I am often overtaken in fell races by someone who looks like they were designed based on a drawing done by a 5-year-old. Conversely, I very occasionally overtake someone who looks like a proper athlete.

So how good are you at spotting who is fast and who is not. Here is a collection of short videos showing club runners in the Kinder Downfall race. From my memory, these runners were not consecutively placed - so you have a fair spread of finishing times. I should also tell you that this is after about 8.5 miles, so the runners are probably quite tired now.

Can you place them in the correct order?

Runner A:

Runner B:

Runner C:

Runner D:

Runner E:

So how did you do? The answers are shown here. I'd be interested to hear how many you got right. Before anyone points it out, I realise it's hard to spot how much training someone has put in (ie, fitness).

What do tadpoles eat?

2011-04-02T02:42:00.000-07:00

We're growing frogs in a washing up bowl. They've hatched from frogspawn and are developing nicely as tadpoles.

Wildlife pond!

We don't want to be bad parents, so we've been researching on the internet what they eat. Apparently you can buy tadpole food or fish food, but we're not that keen, so we were looking for another alternative. Some websites say they'll eat lettuce. We put a few small bits in with them and they completely ignored it.

Luckily, Mrs Noel found another website that says they like dog food (the dried stuff). And hey presto - they love it.

Yum yum. Thanks Noel.

Was I ever a runner?

2011-03-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to be in the thick of training at this time of year, but I've been fighting off some 'general feeling a bit rubbish' cold-viral-thing for the last few weeks. I haven't even felt like jogging, let alone running.

I realised I had to attempt to get out of this lethargy yesterday when I got a funny sort of muscle cramp thing walking across a park in Buxton. Walking!! Slowly!! So yesterday afternoon I went out for the slowest 5 miles I've done in a few years. Today I followed this up with another 2.5 miles.

At times like this, it's like my body is trying to convince me it's never been a runner. It's like it's saying "no, you must have me confused with some other body - wouldn't you rather be sitting down?" Fortunately, I know that after 3 or 4 runs, my body will be saying "wheeee, this is so much fun - see if you can go any faster".

I think this is why a lot of people don't go running regularly, even though they might go to the gym or something similar. It takes 3 or 4 outings before you get anything back from running. And for many people, they don't reach that point before deciding it's not enjoyable.

I'm hoping my next blog entry will be something like "the joy of running" and not "lung infection finally takes hold". Watch this space.

Every young girl's dream?

2011-03-07T14:10:00.000-08:00

I notice I'm writing a lot of blog entries reminiscing about childhood.

It seems one of my mum's childhood dreams was to drive a train. Here she is posing in the cab of one of the steam engines on the Worth Valley Railway, which runs from Keighley to Haworth. I always thought it was supposed to a boy's aspiration - I'm told she was a tomboy as a young lass.

Mum was also impressed by the firebox, and even took a picture of it. We've all spent a fair amount of time trying to work out what "file to retrieve" means. Smug points to anyone who can work it out.

The Rhine to James' Thorn

2011-02-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

I was in Basel, Switzerland, for work on Friday and I managed to get a nice run along the banks of the Rhine before flying home. There was some lovely architecture to look at as I ran through the city before running alongside one of Europe's great rivers.

This is the bridge I ran across:

Then on Sunday morning, we drove out to Glossop to do James' Thorn. A great fell race, organised by the ever-friendly Des. Here is the view as we drove through Flash (Note the sleet, and mist).

Thankfully, it had stopped sleeting by the time we started the race. At about 4.5 miles and 1600 feet - it's steep and unrelenting. I was fourth Pennine finisher and 11th overall. Not quite up to my best I guess, but I haven't been back training long after my winter lay-off. So I was pleased with it.

And did I want to be back jogging along the banks of the Rhine at any point during the race? Not at all. The only place I would rather have been was about 5 places higher up the field.

Oh, to be a kid again

2011-02-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

I remember being a kid and wishing I was older so that I could do cool stuff like staying out late, driving a car, and putting on my shoes without undoing the laces.

Well, now I'm a grown-up (in age at least), and I don't often wish I was a child again. I'm now quite happy that I can drive my Czech-made hatchback to work, come home late, and ruin the backs on my shoes. It truly is a wonderful life being an adult.

However, occasionally there are some things that make me envious of children today. Lego is one of those things. On Sunday, my youngest got a lego camper van from his great grandpa, and it's... in a word: fantastic! That thing on the left of the picture is a barbecue, with a lego fish cooking on it!!

Thinking about it, I realise it's a strange sort of envy, because I could buy myself one of these and play with it all night if I wanted. I think what I'm actually wanting is some sort of childlike appreciation of seeing something like this for the first time, but mixed with a grown-up sense of nostalgia about lego and the inherent sense of freedom associated with a camper van and a surfboard.

Do I sound old when I say that I hope my youngest plays with it as a camper van for a few days instead of turning it into an aeroplane?

Intervals - time machine

2011-02-16T11:44:00.000-08:00

I've now got a few weeks worth of miles under my belt, so today I did some intervals. Me and another bloke where I work went out at lunchtime and did six lots of fast running for 2 minutes, separated by jogging for another 2 minutes.

Einstein's theory of relativity states that objects going close to the speed of light experience time differently to those that are not. I'm not an expert on relativity or travelling quickly, but time was certainly altered today.

Every time we started running the fast bits, the 2 minutes seemed to take ages. Whereas when we were running a lot more slowly, each 2 minutes was up before we'd even started to get our breath back.

On returning to work, I sent an email to the journal Science, so that others could benefit from my groundbreaking discovery. I'm hopeful that time travel can be developed based around the same concept.

For the rest of the afternoon, I had a lot to do, so stayed in my running kit and ran round the office, trying to slow my time so that I would have more time to complete the report I was working on. Unfortunately, I had to nip back to the computer every few minutes to type another word.

By home time, imagine my surprise when I realised I'd only done about 20 words. I was also very tired. I can only conclude that the time machine effect doesn't work inside buildings. I will let Science know about this first thing in the morning. Actually, it will have to be at 10am tomorrow, as I notice I've got a meeting with my boss and the head of HR first thing. Perhaps they're interested in getting more people to try my experiment, or maybe moving me to an outside office.

Albert Einstein relaxing after a hard set of 12x400m

Navigation - where it's at

2011-02-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

This was my first chance to sample some of the delights of my club's winter navigation challenges. This one started in Hayfield and went for a very nice meander around the local area taking in four wall/fence junctions and the like. In total, it was about 9 miles.

I've not got a great sense of direction so thought it would be a good chance to develop my navigational ability. I was set off as one of the last runners, on account of my fairly good running ability - when I'm fit and I know where I'm going. Unfortunately, today I wasn't and didn't. I was also telling as many people as would listen, that I did some more cycling hill reps yesterday, so I wasn't going to be setting a good pace.

I was set off with a team-mate Darren, who seems to be running well after missing some of last year's races for a variety of reasons. For the first mile, it was easy enough to follow Darren and not really worry about navigation. I was thinking that this was kind of cheating. So it was lucky that he then ran off into the distance and I had to do some proper map reading.

In the end (1 hour and 36 minutes later), I completed the event and was rewarded with soup and cake from various Pennine members. I'd really enjoyed it, but hadn't done very well. In handicap terms, I think I was dead last. Even looking at time taken, I was a long way off the leaders and those who I should be close to. Darren beat me by over 20 minutes - nice one Darren. I'm hoping this will serve as a baseline from which I'll work up in future navigational events.

My main learning from today is this:

Make navigational decisions while running uphill, even if they are a fair way ahead. I can read a map running uphill without having to slow down, but I can't do this downhill.

Flash! Aaaaarrgh

2011-02-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

I'm now getting back into a sort of training plan, having spent most of the winter doing the odd jog here and there. I've been out running 3 times this week, and I fancied something a bit different today. So I tested my new cross-training technique - cycling hill reps.

The good thing about cycling is that it's not an impact activity, so you can do it when your joints are sore from running or as a recovery activity. It also isolates your big thigh muscles so is good training for uphill running. The bad thing about cycling is that it takes a long time and there are often long bits between the hills.

So, why not do hill reps on a bike? There are many answers - such as "because it's dull". Still, I've not grown tired of it yet. I'm quite lucky in that I live within a few miles of Flash - Britain's highest village. Old Flash road deserves more than the 1 arrow it gets on the OS map. The steepest bit has over 100 metres of ascent in not very much distance and I'm pleasingly tired by the end of it. I can just do it on my road bike, but the gear ratios are not really designed for hills, so I prefer it on Mrs Noel's heavier mountain bike.

Today I did four reps of it and my thighs are now pleasingly achy, despite the rest of me not feeling too tired. Hopefully I can get out for a run tomorrow. I'm sure I could do a lot more ascent if I went out for a proper bike ride. However, that would take 2-3 hours. Today's reps took less than an hour, including the time taken to get there and back.

Here's the profile from my mapping software.

I await comments:

(a) from proper cyclists, saying how I should be doing more reps, harder hills, and using my road bike, and

(b) from fell runners, saying how this type of training won't help.

Statistics for ladies

2011-02-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

Normally I try to get into the top 20% of fell race fields. In the last year or so, I've even managed to sneak into the top 10% of some race fields. This is possible if there are 150 people. It's harder if there are 15!

The number of ladies entering fell races doesn't often lend itself to such analysis. There might be 10 women in a field, and one or two of them are normally disproportionately fast.

Last Sunday's Tigger Tor race was one of the few exceptions. Mrs Noel did it for the first time, and there were loads of ladies there. So I felt very helpful doing the maths and pointing out that she was in the top 10% of the ladies' field (5th out of 67) and of the lady-vets' field (2nd out of 27).

I stayed at home as our youngest was a bit ill, so I have no photos of the day. However, I can show the marmalade that was part of the prize. I realise I've done quite a few photos of jars of conserves, so am trying to make them more interesting with unusual camera angles. What do you think?

The future of running vests?

2011-01-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

Would the colours of the club vest have an influence over which club you joined? I don't think it would for me. It also seems not to for any members of Dark Peak Fell Runners as their shirt is brown and purple!!

So if you could design your favourite fell running vest, what would it look like? Here are a few examples that have been designed by some of ever-young members of Pennine - note the tassles on the first one.

I'd like to apologise in advance to any clubs who find their best fell runners leaving in order to design their own vests to rival these ones. They probably feel, like I do, that 60s-inspired flower power designs are sadly lacking in amateur and professional sport.

For those who would like to see what other club's vests are like currently, there's a handy guide here as part of the Durham Fell Runners site. You'll notice there is a startling lack of love-hearts and tassles.

Exciting kitchen utensil news

2011-01-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

I realise it's been a while since I last posted, but it's all been a bit dull in the world of Noel. Mrs Noel has of course been doing well with her running and was first lady at Famous Grouse fell race, which was more than a month ago now.

So why have I posted now after such a long period of inactivity? Well, Santa brought me something that I felt I had to share with the world. It's an apple peeler and corer. I'd seen one of these at a friends house a few years ago, and was delighted to get one for Christmas - thanks Mum. However, when I describe it to people, it's a bit hard to visualise (even with arm movements and analogies to other kitchen utensils).

To fully bring it to life, I've had to step into the 21 century and video the proceedings. Interestingly, once I'd uploaded this onto YouTube, I noticed there were several other videos of exactly the same thing. Anyway, this one is mine. Enjoy!

October means ...pumpkins

2010-10-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

I'm not a great fan of Halloween, but have become more interested in it once I found a good recipe for pumpkin curd. 'PUMPKIN CURD?' I hear you say. I agree it does sound a bit strange, but it's largely like lemon curd but with a slight pumpkin taste.

The good thing about pumpkin curd is that you can scrape out the pumpkin you're going to make your children's lanterns out of. Because of this, I've almost convinced myself it's free. Although I have got three pumpkins this year and not just one as normal.

The recipe goes something like: scrape out a medium/large pumpkin (which gives about 4lb of pumpkin flesh). Cook this in a pan with about 25ml of water until it's soft. Then handblend it. Add about 3.5lb of sugar, the rind and juice of 6 lemons, and 300g of butter or marg. Cook it on a low heat so it only just boils (apparently it can curdle, but I've never seen this). After about 15 minutes, turn off the heat and add 3 beaten eggs. Unless you strain your eggs (which is a hassle) you'll get stringy white bits in it, no matter how well you stir it. So... hand blend it again until it's nice and smooth. Jar it and eat it before the end of the year.

So far I've only tried it on toast and in sandwiches, but I've had the idea of making halloween pumkin curd tarts. I'll report back on this if I do.

For those of you who read this blog due to an interest in fell running. I'm afraid this is my 3 month off-season. Luckily, Mrs Noel will continue racing through the winter. She's been doing some short hill reps this week to build up her leg strength. No races to report for a few weeks.

Windgather - trophy wife

2010-10-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, Mrs Noel does a race where all her Christmases come at once. Windgather was one of these. It was the final race in the Gritstone Series, the final race in the Goyt Valley Series, and had category prizes for the race as well.

Mrs Noel was pretty apprehensive about doing a long race, as she's never done one before. She's also been put off the idea by my abject performances in most of the long races I've ever done. This has made her think that she too will not be able to do long races unless she trains up to that distance.

Fortunately, the reality was nothing like her fears, as she romped through the field to finish second lady, some way behind the clearly very talented lady who finished 3rd overall (!!)

Among Mrs Noel's various prizes, the most notable was the excellent Goyt Valley Series first lady trophy (pictured here). Races and race series somehow seem to have more gravitas when the organisers go the extra mile with the trophies.

Ian Hodgson Relay - Victory for Pennine

2010-10-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

After Stanage Struggle two weeks ago I was considering winding down my running for the year. I had no more target races and there were four better runners than me who made up the men's half of the 8-person mixed team for the Ian Hodgson relays. But then disaster struck the Pennine mixed relay team camp, as one of our runners came down with a respiratory infection and they had to turn to first male reserve - me.

This was great news for me, as I really like the idea of competing as a team. It also meant that Mrs Noel and I would be part of the same team. We thought we were in with a fair chance of doing well, as our lady's half of the team is strong, and despite also having a Vet40 team, and a late-entry open (men's) team, we put a lot of our better men in the mixed team.

For those who don't know it, the Ian Hodgson Mountain relay is a 4-leg fell relay race where pairs of runners do each leg and then hand over to the next pair. Overall, it takes about 4-6 hours for the whole race. The rules state that you have to run together. This means if you're with a runner who's faster than you, you have to do your best not to slow them down.

I was given the first leg, along with my teammate Muir, who is faster than I am, but not embarrassingly so. Our leg was about 4.5 miles and had about 2800 feet of ascent in it. This is really very steep compared with most of the fell races I do around the Peak. However, I've done races such as Scafell Pike in the past which are similarly steep.

The good thing, for me, was that it finished in a higher place than the start, so there was more climbing than descending on the route. Luckily, we managed to find ourselves behind a few pairs of runners who obviously knew the route very well, so we could pick the best lines and follow a good pace. After a terrifying descent down some screes, we finished our leg 9th out of about 60 teams. I guess I would have kept up with Muir a bit better on the final descent if I hadn't stopped to take a photo on the way down. Only joking - this was taken on my reccie the day before. Note how much it resembles an 'aerial' photo.

We then handed over to Mrs Noel and her partner Lucy, who proceeded to run the 3rd fastest lady's time on their leg. After some great runs from the other 4 team members, we won by about 10 minutes. I think this is the first time Pennine have won anything at this event, and it's definitely the first time I've won anything. We should probably have taken a team photo, but we were too busy being grinning and patting each other on the back.

I can now wind down for the season on a high.

A trip down memory lane

2010-09-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

Up until this year I have belonged to the Fat Boys running club. This has meant I've not been allowed to run the Stanage Struggle (which the Fat Boys organise), as it's a club unwritten rule that club members help out with marshalling, registration, etc instead of running the race. This is a very good idea, as it makes the Stanage Struggle one of the best organised fell races in the Peak District.

Now that I'm a member of Pennine, I'm allowed to run it again. Mrs Noel is in the same boat (former Fat Boy, now Pennine) so we agreed that one of us would marsall, out of good will towards the Fat Boys, and one of us would run it.

Mrs Noel ran yesterday at Lantern Pike, and took 1 minute of last year's time to finish 3rd lady. I've just finished a slice of the lovely date and walnut loaf that she won. This all meant I got to run the Stanage Struggle today.

Last time I ran the Struggle, in 2003, I was just getting into fell running and felt good enough to end with a sprint finish. This ended in tears, however, as I then collapsed after the finishing line and was sick. I was hoping to pace myself a bit better today.

In the end I managed to overtake a few people on the long and fast descent to finish in 8th place (20 places better than 2003) and about 3 minutes faster. It's nice to know my seven years of fell running have helped. If I'm another 3 minutes faster than today in 2017, I'll buy you all a pint.

Motorcycle plum mayhem

2010-09-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

We've done two races in the last week. Longnor races and Padfield Plum Fair Scamper.

Longnor races mainly involves motorcycles and horses, but they also have a fell race at the end of the day. I've not done this race before and I was eyeing up a possible victory when I was told there were only 13 runners.

The race goes twice round the track so it was very good of Dark Peak's Mick Stenton to warn me to avoid the motorcycle ruts as they can be very muddy. After the lap of the track, we were directed off through fields onto a small course that we were to do two laps of. Just as we were leaving the track, I was thinking about when I should time my challenge on the lead of the race.

It was then that Jason Burgess of Staffordshire Moorlands went past us all like a speeding train, and went on to take first place by a street. I managed to edge into second, and was very pleased to win a nice lead crystal vase.

Padfield Plum Fair Scamper is one that we've both done on previous occasions, but it was Mrs Noel's turn this year. She was as quietly competitive as always while checking out whether any of the elite ladies were there. In the end she improved on her time from last year and won first place and a nice bottle of fizzy. There was a good Pennine turnout, but unfortunately our men's team were pipped to the team prize by Helsby.

I should mention our Pennine team-mate Steve, who completed his first top-3 finish (of many - I feel sure).

Grasmere and Shelf Moor - fame and fortune

2010-09-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

I'm studiously avoiding turning this blog into the Mrs Noel blog, but there are times when I have to blow her trumpet. We were in the Lakes a few weeks ago and it allowed us to attend the Grasmere Guides race. This is steeped in history from the days when it was run by local shepherds (who set fantastic times).

Neither of us had done this race before, but we were aware of how special a race it is. I was slightly ill on the day, so agreed to look after the kids while Mrs Noel gave it her all. We watched the field of runners storm off and slowly plod up the very steep hillside opposite the showground. The good thing about some of these short races is that you can see nearly all the race from the showground (the race is about a mile a half long). There is also a commentator, who tells you where the lead runners are relative to the records of yesteryear.

In the end, Rob Hope won it in a sprint finish after chasing Rob Jebb all the way down the hill. Then Mrs Noel and another lady were involved in a similar sprint finish to see who would be 2nd lady. Mrs Noel managed to hold off the other lass, to claim 2nd spot in this very prestigious race. The prestigiousness (if that's a word) was underlined by the fact that they had a podium and a proper photographer.

Mrs Noel was then amazed to find that, partly due to the historical fact that Grasmere guides used to be a professional race, she won £100. Fantastic eh! The first £15 was shamelessly wasted by me on a bottle of fizzy that we drank in the campsite.

So, back to Shelf Moor and my moment of fame. I was aiming for top 50 in this English champs race, as that would mean I'd get points in the English fell running championship. In the end, I was very pleased to finish 49th. This means I'll get 2 points (I think). It's not quite a podium or £100, but it meant a lot to me. Here's me saying hello to the photographer (Fell Donkey).

Burnsall - not a classic for me!

2010-09-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

I lost this race in the days leading up to it. Not that I would have beaten Rob Hope, Ian Holmes or the other good runners who turned up. But I was 15 seconds slower than last year and 3 places lower down the field. I even got sprint finished on the road section, which is not something that normally happens.

The problem was that I had convinced myself that it's so hard to overtake down the bit just after the summit, that I'd be better getting a good place at the summit and then trying to stay there. I'm a better climber than a descender so I figured that this race strategy played to my strengths.

So like an idiot, I went off like a train and was then too knackered to run downhill quickly. It was a schoolboy error really, and one that I'll try not to make again. Hopefully, publishing this will remind me in future races (and the days before them) that if I'm going to race well, I need to be running quickly at the end of the race.

Mrs Noel continued her steady improvement to finish 2nd lady and 1st LV40. She was also about 30 seconds faster than last year.

After Burnsall we went to the Lakes for a week which ended in Mrs Noel doing well at the Grasmere guides race. Unfortunately I was ill, so will have to wait another year to do this one - it looks fantastic. I won't write a report yet as I'm waiting for the times to be published. I'm also hopeful of finding some photos so I can make it a bit more interesting.

Meanwhile, it's a big race weekend for us. Mrs Noel has another race in the Gritstone series tomorrow, and I'm doing Shelf Moor on Sunday. This is an English championship counter, so it'll be a chance for me to marvel at how many minutes per miles I am behind the elite of the sport.

Eccles Pike and jam

2010-08-20T05:38:00.000-07:00

I've mainly been training this week. Mrs Noel did well at Ecces Pike on Wednesday night, but was initially disappointed to be 4th lady. Fortunately, she was only one place behind British Championship LV40 hopeful Judith Jepson, so this put it into context somewhat.

We've both been gearing up our training to Burnsall Classic which is tomorrow. It will probably be quite wet and slippy so I'm not sure whether to aim to beat last year's time or last year's placing (I was 10th). I'll let you what once I've completed the race.

In jam news, the summer stockpiling is going well. So far I've made about 8 jars (each)of :
raspberry and bilberry
raspberry, pear and blackcurrant
blackberry, apple and pineapple (I've called this 'Hawaiian bramble')

I also notice it's nearly pear and plum season, so that should allow me to add another 20 jars to this. I plan to hand jars out as part of the prizes in a fell race I'm planning to organise next year. For those fans of jam - watch this space. For those who don't like jam - don't worry, I'm planning on giving out other prizes too.

An eventful race - Ricky's race

2010-08-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

I've not done this one before but the usual suspects were talking me through the route before the event. It's fast and pretty short with no let-up.

I got a good start and was hoping to finish in the top 5. Stuart Bond set off like a steam train as always and behind him there were two runners who were well ahead of me. I also knew my old teammate Jonny was behind me and he always beats me on the final descent. So I was hoping for a top 5 finish.

The first 'event' was when I nipped through a narrow stile and managed to tear my quite new shorts down one side. They are bit baggier than my other shorts but I didn't think it would be an issue. Then in the final stages of the race, I jumped through another stile only to rip my shorts on the other side. They are obviously a poor design!!

I was pleased to stay ahead of Jonny until the final field when he nipped past me and beat me in a sprint finish to the line. I was very happy to finish 5th, but then was told that I'd actually finished 3rd. Apparently the two who were ahead of me had gone the wrong way.

This is the only time I've won a prize in a race that didn't relate to me being a local, (or there only being 12 in the race). So I'm very proud, even though it was due to someone getting lost.

Mrs Noel was first lady, again. And Daz from Pennine was first Vet40.

Sheep - Teggs Nose fell race

2010-08-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

We got there early to this race so the kids could have some lunch at the sheepdog trials and we could take in some of the stalls. I've always been pretty impressed by rounding up sheep with sheepdogs, and this year my respect for these guys (and dogs) has been increased further.

Local lad and former One man and his dog TV star, James Gilman (pictured), was doing the two dogs round where he had to collect his sheep, take them through a few gates, then split the pack into two lots of three sheep. This looked like the hard bit and none of the other competitors managed it. He then had to pen three in a three-sided pen and leave one dog guarding the sheep. Then he had to also pen the other three using the remaining dog. All this while the stopwatch is going. Apparently, he had also won the championship trials the day before.

Next to all that, my race sounds pretty tame.

We had the usual race round the fields before being on the course proper. As usual, most people seemed to be running too quickly towards the start of the race, and for once I wasn't with them. I was wondering whether Cracken Edge was still in my legs, so I took it steady, hoping to make up places as the race went on.

In the end I steadily worked up to 7th, which is where I finished up. I normally aim for the lady's record, as it's a good indicator for me. Olivia's course record (of last year) was 59.23, and I managed to run it in 59.20. I was very pleased with this until Mrs Noel told me she had been talking to one of the organisers, who said the course was 100 metres shorter this year.

We also introduced Mrs Noel's sister, Sam, to fell racing. She has been nursing an injured back for a while, so well done to her on giving this one a go and still having a smile on her face at the end (or maybe a bit after the end). Well done Sam.

I know how the fox feels - Cracken Edge

2010-08-05T03:47:00.003-07:00

Generally in fell races I aim to overtake the person in front. This is very good for my mental state during the race as I feel more like the 'predator'.

Last night at Cracken Edge, I was definitely the prey.

The night started well. I turned up early so sat in my car for a while and listened to the radio about a man who had won a £1000 bet from his local bookies about whether he could lose 5 stone in 6 months. Here's the story: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/08/03/fat-reward-for-groom-115875-22460074/

I was then chatting to fellow Pennine runner, Joe, who continued this theme by explaining to me how he's lost 8 stone by only eating on Thursdays and how this should make him faster. To be fair to Joe, I might have forgotten the actual details, but it was something like this.

Joe's slimming plan is partly driven by a competitive desire to beat me in fell races, and partly by the desire to stay ahead of Steve (another Pennine runner). Steve is going well and is getting better over the season. One of Steve's aims is to beat Joe in fell races.

Once the race started, it became apparent that there was no-one for me to chase down, as the gap was too big between me and the guy in front (Jonny, my old Fat Boy team-mate). However, whenever I glanced behind me, I saw the pack of panting, salivating beasts that included Joe and Steve.

With no obvious holes to hide in, I decided the only sensible option was to stay ahead of them. Thankfully, Joe swapped places with me with about a mile to go, so I could enjoy the feeling of biding my time before striking and regaining the lead. In the end I finished 1 second ahead of Joe, who was 10 seconds ahead of Steve.

With this fierce level of competition, I'll have to start putting more training in. Joe and Steve, if you're reading this, I'd like to recommend the new super training food: bacon, ham, mushroom, tomato and mashed potato pancakes, covered in cheese.

Shining Tor - hurray for short races

2010-07-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

After the long slow torture that was Holme Moss, it was great to get back to some fast runnable stuff. Shining Tor is another one of those "this is one of my favourite races" races. It's got loads of hills but it's never too steep.

It was good to be back in the top 10% of the race field, and to yet again beat my time from the last time I ran this race (2 years ago).

I was also very pleased to have the new experience of being in a winning team. I guess this is more likely now I'm part of a proper club, and one that has good runners like Simon Coldrick in it. Simon was 3rd, and because us Pennine boys were also 14th, 18th and 19th, we had a higher average over our top 4 than anyone else. I'm currently sipping from a bottle of Stella that was my share of the multipack prize.

Mrs Noel was also first, ahead of her Pennine teammate, Lucy. They also won the lady's team prize along with Mary.

Bring on more short races. I love 'em.

Holme Moss - it went to plan

2010-07-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

In my last blog entry I was planning out how my Holme Moss race would go. Obviously, this was partly tongue-in-cheek. Let's revisit that plan and see how much of it came true.

1. Set off too quickly - No. I think I set off a bit too slowly.

2. Still feeling fresh after about 5 miles - Yes.

3. Get cocky and overdo it - Yes.

4. Lose the person in front - No. But there were a lot of them.

5. Head towards Scotland by mistake - No, but only because there were lots of flags showing me the way.

6. Finish in a crumpled heap - Yes, definitely.

I said I'd probably finish about 150th, but I was hoping for top 100 and I finished in 97th.

I was aiming for 3 hours 15 minutes and I beat that to finish in 3:11:34 (here are the results).

So on the face of it, I should be pleased with my performance. But I am not. I think it was the style of my race that leads me to not be pleased. Relative to previous years, when I've trained for long races, I have done:
- more long, slow runs
- a greater run-in period of long, slow runs
- more overall mileage.

But the last 3 miles of this race were like the last 45 minutes of every endurance event I've ever tried: my muscles saying "that's your lot" and me having to jog back while streams of people overtake me.

I don't like to turn my back on things that I haven't got the hang of, but I'm erring towards Mrs Noel's advice on the subject of long races - "what's the point?"

However, these pained musings are demonstrating to me what the point is. It's a challenge. And despite the fact that I would like to turn my back on long races, the more I do of them, the more I want to do them well.

So, whenever I pluck up the courage to enter another long race, here are the main points I've learnt from doing this race:

1. Train more, in terms of overall mileage per week and distance per outing.
2. Train up to the race distance. I need to know I can do the distance, and not mis-pace it because I'm used to running 2 miles shorter.
3. Do a few long races during the run-up to my target race.

Three days to my first ever championship race

2010-07-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

It's Holme Moss this Sunday, and it's an English championship counter. That means all the proper athletes will be there. So instead of being 15th, like I sometimes am at the normal low-key races I do, I'll probably be 150th.

I was planning to have done lots of recces of the course so I would have been prepared, but I haven't got round to it. So instead, I'm hoping to follow people in front of me. I was also hoping to have done lots of stamina training, as the race is 17 miles. I've done a fair bit, but as always, not as much as I would have wanted.

My plan is to do a few more championship counters in the coming years, so this is like a warm up for next year. I only hope I don't end up as the stumbling mess I have been at the end of my previous long race attempts.

My target time is about 3 hours 15 minutes. Last year that would have put me 12th (because it wasn't a champs counter last year). I'm hoping that stating my target time to the world (or at least the 7 people who read my blog) will spur me on towards the end of the race. Watch this space...

In Mrs Noel news, she was looking forward to doing Black Rocks Fell Race, but I googlemapped [it's a verb now, honest] the wrong address so she didn't get to the race in time. Luckily she had a 45-minute drive home to calm down so didn't then hack me to death with a spoon. We spent a few minutes tonight seeing where we think she would have finished.

Glory at Hathersage

2010-07-07T10:03:00.001-07:00

There have been two important races in the Noel household over the last few days. At the weekend it was Hathersage junior fun run. Mrs Noel competitively accompanied our eldest who was coached with advice about how to pace a race and when to attack, etc. I accompanied our youngest and we stopped at various points to look at ants and talk to the 'martians' (marshalls) who were showing us the way.

After then losing in the tug of war, we headed off home before the prize-giving to be in time for the kids' tea. However, we later found out that my eldest won the fantastically large Hathersage Gala Shield for first non-local. Here it is, dwarfing my first local's trophy from Shutlingsloe.

This trophy now has pride of place on our trophy cupboard-top, and Mrs Noel is already planning how to train up our eldest to improve on this year's time.

The second important race was of course Hathersage gala fell race on Monday night. I got lots of justified heckling from the Fat Boys for turning up in my Pennine vest. After being 8th at the summit, I finished in 10th. Although this was a place down on last year, this means I've done a better time each year for the last 4 years at this fell race. One of these years I'll manage to stay ahead of Jonny Wilson on the descent. I think for me to do this, I'll need to be ahead of him by about 2 minutes at the summit. That or find a bike for the road sections.

Whaley waltz

2010-07-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

As triathlons go, this one suits me down the ground. It's a 5.5 mile fell race with a 5 metre river section where you can touch the bottom, and there's no biking involved.

You could almost argue that it would be better without the river section. Except that it makes for great photographs and gives the race a character of its own. Here's me hovering above the water. I was hoping to look a bit more Action Man than this - I think my eldest summed it up well by saying, "you look like a rabbit, Daddy". Despite this, I was pleased with my race, as I finished just behind my Pennine teammate, Nat, who I've yet to beat.

Mrs Noel is famous for this race. A few years ago she appeared in Runners World in a similar pose. She also holds the race record as she won it last year and it was a new course relative to the year before. Here she is showing me how it should be done. This was on course to setting a new lady's course record. She was also part of the first lady's team along with Pennine ladies Lucy and Elaine.

Isn't Borrowdale great?

2010-06-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

It was my youngest's birthday last week, so we went camping to Borrowdale for a treat. The kids like gill scrambling and we managed to find the best gill we've ever scrambled up - Sour Milk Gill. I then went for a lovely run which was never contrived, and followed great natural lines to give me 4300 feet of ascent in 10.5 miles.

This was probably one of the nicest Lakes runs I've ever done. This was while Mrs Noel and the kids had lovely ice creams in a cafe which also sells sorbets (my youngest is intolerant to cows milk so can't have ice cream).

Then the following day we hired a canadian canoe on Derwent Water, which was very reasonable and quieter than it would have been on Windermere. I'm also slowly eyeing up getting back into rock climbing and couldn't help but notice that there are lots of good-looking crags in the Borrowdale valley.

To cap it all, my eldest found a dragonfly that had just emerged and was drying its wings in the sun. Borrowdale is quickly becoming my favourite place.

Edale Country Day

2010-06-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

I've lost count of the number of times I've said 'this is one of my favourite fell races'. But, I'd be lying if I said otherwise. Edale is short enough to be enjoyable and steep enough to be challenging. It also has a fun boulder hopping bit in the middle where you can pick your speed up.

I'm not one to drop names (apart from when I do), but occasionally I'm genuinely amazed by who I end up running next to. I was chatting to Simon Patton before the race. He was saying he's been doing loads of training for the Bob Graham round (72 miles, and 42 Lakes summits in 24 hours!) So consequently he has lots of stamina but no leg speed. And for a while I was ahead of him. Then after about 3 miles, he warmed up and left me in a cloud of dust.

Here's me looking like I'm jogging down the fields towards the end of the race. I thought I was going pretty quickly here, but the camera doesn't lie. It could explain why I lose places on descents.

I now have a new watch, so although the results aren't out yet, I can tell you that I beat last year's time and finished in about 38 minutes 33 seconds. Mrs Noel also did well and got a prize from the nice people at Accelerate, who sponsor this event and the others that make up the Gritstone Series.

Boar's Head fell race

2010-06-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first fell race in the colours of my new club - Pennine. Although I ran Shutlingsloe as a Pennine runner, I didn't have a vest, and I had pre-entered Wincle so ran it as a Fat Boy.

Fat Boys are my previous club, but they don't run many of the same races as I do (because I live the other side of the Peak). I would like to thank the Fat Boys for being so welcoming to Me and Mrs Noel over the years.

It seems I'm not big-chested enough to fit into a male medium vest, and there are too few scrawny men in Pennine to justify getting a batch of smalls. So we eventually decided on a lady's medium (thanks to Margaret and John for sorting that out). I was pleased that it didn't have any tassles or anything like that. It was also great to get people shouting "come on Pennine". Thanks to everyone giving encouragement on the course.

I've not run Boar's Head before as it clashes with Calver, which I've done a few times. I was delighted to find that it largely followed one of my old training runs from when I lived in Stockport. It was like a frantic, exhausted trip down memory lane with dozens of people chasing me.

The race is more fun than some races in that there are alternative lines to take. At one point, the field of runners in front of me split, leaving us with a confusing choice of who to follow. I followed the person directly in front of me (as I nearly always do) and I think I got it about right.

I'd tell you what time I finished in, but I'm watchless at the moment, so am waiting for the results to come out. I can then obsess over them, looking at who I would have beaten last year and who I should try to beat next year. Ah, the joys of fell running.

All for the love of fish - Wincle Trout

2010-06-07T00:51:00.000-07:00

Wincle Trout is a very popular race - it seems to appeal to a wider group of people than most fell races do. Perhaps it's the excellent fete, perhaps it's undulating course on good tracks, perhaps it's the free trout for all finishers. This year they limited it to 350 runners and it was full about a month before the race day.

Wincle Trout is also an interesting race, because the fete (and the start and finish of the fell race) alternates between three different fields in Wincle. So to beat your PB, you really have to compare your time from three years ago. I hadn't done this race three years ago, so I could only compare what position I came in the field.

Lining up at the start of the race, it was pretty obvious we were missing a few big names who normally win the race. Local world-class fell runner Simon Bailey wasn't there, and neither was Stuart Maycock who wins it when Simon Bailey doesn't turn up. So that left Simon Harding to lead out a group of about 3 or 5 of us, each trying to stick with the guy infront. In the end, Simon won it by a long way.

I was in fifth place for most of the race. At one point, I had aspirations of pushing into the top three or four, but in the end was pushed down to sixth. I was still very pleased with this position, as it beats my PB of ninth from two years ago.

Sixth was also high enough to retain my first local's trophy, and win a three pack of local beer. I was glowing with pride when I stepped up to receive my trophy having watched the male and female winners in each category receive their trophies before me. After they had shaken hands with the former MP Nicholas Winterton, each one was prompted to turn to the race photographer and have their picture taken with the trophy. 'Great!' I thought. 'I've finally reached the big time.' However, when I turned to face the crowd, I realised the photographer wasn't there any more. I guess first local doesn't cut it.

I can report that the trout was delicious, barbecued that evening and washed down with a bottle of Sir Philip. Another great day out. We also successfully imported egg throwing, which raised about 15 quid for the local church and school. This is something we had seen last year at Burnsall Sports Feast. Here's a top tip: remove any rings from your fingers before trying to catch an egg thrown by someone more than 10 feet away.

Bigger quads

2010-06-04T01:10:00.000-07:00

Quads are the big leg muscles that help you run up hills. I have noticed that most of the better fell runners than me have bigger quads than I do.

It seems there are many schools of thought on how to get bigger quads. One of my training books tells me I should do plyometric exercises, or 'bounding'. The main drawback of this (apart from the injury risk) is that you look like an idiot when you're doing them. So on Wednesday night I went for a run on one of my normal routes and tried to find quiet bits where no-one would see me.

Basically, you have to bound and far and as high as you can after landing each stride. I usually describe it as running like Penelope Pitstop used to do when running from the Hooded Claw. Unfortunately, I can't find any images of this, so for those who didn't watch the same cartoons as me, here's Jonathan Edwards showing how it should be done. I don't think I'm quite there yet.

I have also noticed that people who cycle a lot tend to have big quads. So on Thursday night, I went to Manchester Velodrome for a 2-hour taster track session organised by a mate (who also has big quads).
This is one of those banked tracks so you can go quickly round the corners. The angle is 42 degrees at its steepest, but it seems a bit steeper when you're on it the first time, and you don't really want to cycle round the top.

We did individual pursuit, team riding and a timed lap and it was great fun. I'm not sure how this will relate to me improving at fell running. The test will be at Wincle Trout race on Saturday.

I've taken a picture of my quads and I think they might be improving. What do you think?

Shutlingsloe - trophy envy

2010-06-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

Mrs Noel has been coveting my first local trophy for Shutlingsloe fell race for the last few years. This was made worse last year when she was second local, so would have been the first female winner of the trophy if I hadn't turned up.

This year I was keen to beat last year's time (of course) and retain the much coveted (mainly by Mrs Noel) Frank Hooley Memorial Trophy. Despite managing to fall twice during the race, I finished 4th in 18 minutes and 11 seconds.

Mrs Noel was 33rd overall and again was second local. She also did very well and finished as the first lady, so now has a trophy of her own. However, it was handed to her in two pieces, with a screw in the cup part where it had been badly bodged together (I'm making no comments about women and DIY here).

Despite this trophy being in two parts, Mrs Noel has wasted no time in telling me that her trophy is bigger than mine. My trophy envy will be increased after we've had it mended.

This is an artist's impression of how Mrs Noel would have looked if she were a bloke.

Glaramara fell race - my birthday treat

2010-05-24T04:06:00.000-07:00

We had a free weekend so decided to go camping in the Lakes with my family. This allowed Mrs Noel to check out a new campsite that looked nice. It also let me sneak in another race. Glaramara is 5 miles and 2100 feet of ascent (and descent).

This was the hottest weekend of the year so far and it felt very unpleasant as about 65 runners set off down the road towards the mountain (or hill, I'm not sure where the cut-off is). It quickly became obvious that I wasn't in tip-top condition as I fell further and further behind a small group of runners that I had started near. I would probably put that down to dehydration, general tiredness, a beer the night before, etc. It is also very clear to me that I don't train on big hills like this, and I'm not much good at them.

I was 6th at the summit after a brief scrambly section (see picture), but decided I should amble a bit so that I could follow someone down the mountain and see where the best lines were. Unfortunately, as soon as I got into ambling pace, my body seemed to say "that's me done, I'll warm down now, thanks". So it was almost impossible for me to get back into racing mode.

With this in mind, I was going to go for a gentle finish, but found myself unable to resist a sprint finish to secure 14th place (I think). All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend my birthday.

Goyt's Moss

2010-05-21T00:35:00.000-07:00

This is another one of my favourite races. I like the fact that there is a long uphill section in the last third of the race. I normally try to gain a few places on this bit.

The race is set in the picturesque Errwood valley, formerly home of the Grimshaw family. The valley is now flooded to form the reservoir which covers the old village where the servants used to live. The house used to look like this:

It now looks like this, and the fell race runs past it.

I was again hoping to beat my previous best time for this race. So I got in with some of the runners who I know do times slightly faster than I normally do, and I tried to keep up with them. I lost a few, but managed to hang on to some of them.

The end of this race is on a stony track that is about 3/4 of a mile long. It starts to go downhill at the very end. This year I mistook a slight gradient for the point where I should do a sprint finish. This almost went very wrong as the guy I was racing then caught me and we were neck and neck for about half a mile. Luckily, he's one of the few fell runners who doesn't descend as well as me, so I managed to sneak in front of him at the very end.

I think it was partly this last mile of racing that helped me beat my previous best for this race. I'm starting to realise that next year is going to be tricky - how will I maintain this level of improvement? I think I'll need some good excuses lined up.

Mount Famine - this is fell running

2010-05-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favourite fell races. I've probably done it four or five times now, so I've put a bit of pressure on myself to do a better time each year.

It's a very sudden and pretty daft uphill start. You run up a grassy and tree-filled bank which is to the right of a valley-bottom footpath. So instead of jossling for places, everyone takes their own line for the first 200 metres. Here's a shot of the 2008 race, which sums it up pretty well.

I'm always quite a fast starter and am a better climber than descender so I normally try to get into a good position after the first climb. This time I was just ahead of Tom Brunt at the top of the first climb. Tom is a proper fell runner and wins races, so maybe I went off a bit too fast (again!!).

There were lots of steep climbing bits and I've found a new technique which seems to work. When the bits are too steep to run, most runners take large steps and put their hands on their knees to help them up the hills. I find that this works but I find the transition from slow steps to fast cadence running is quite hard. So today, I tried fast cadence walking and it seemed to work well. I certainly gained a few places by doing this.

Here's a shot of me looking dazed but happy about a third of the way into the race. I was pleased to finish tenth and to take about 1 minute 20 seconds off my time from last year. This now means there's more pressure on next year's time. There's probably a fine line between focus and obsession.

Mrs Noel was due to do this race as well but has a throat infection so has lost her voice. I should probably avoid making comments about the relative merits of this.

Photos courtesy of FRA forum members "Rudolph Hooker" and "finniganjones", respectively.

Rainow fell race - fast and hard

2010-05-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

I don't normally target races that don't have loads of ascent in them, but this one is a local race and I've not done it before so I gave it a go. It covered a lot of the same ground as Sunday's race - Bollington - except in the opposite direction.

I managed not to get lost this time, and was pleased to finish 10th in 35 minutes 37 seconds. I think it's also the first time I've ever beaten Olivia Walwyn who is currently leading the ladies English fell running championships.

I'm slightly drained today and certainly needed my recovery run. I now need to focus again for the third race in 7 days: Mount Famine on Saturday. That's a proper fell race with lots of ascent. If we don't get any more rain before then I might run it in road shoes. Everything is the dryest I've seen it in about 4 years of living where I do.

Mrs Noel News:
Mrs Noel was third lady and 2nd lady vet-40 at Burbage Skyline on Tuesday night. She's waiting for the results, but should have taken loads of time off her previous best for this race. Last time she ran it was about 3 years ago and she was 11th lady.

Bollington - Where's Wally

2010-05-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

It's common knowledge that you should do a reccie of the course before you race it - especially if you live near the course. This means you can pick the best lines and you know where the hills are. It also means you don't get lost.

I didn't reccie this course (despite living pretty close) and I made the mistake of assuming the four runners in front of me knew where they were going. Unfortunately, three of them were making a similar assumption and the one at the front was a bit uncertain. Anyway, it was a lovely detour and made the race slightly more challenging. We got back on to the right course after a while, but found we were joining the group of runners that we had left behind.

In the end I think I finished about 8th. Those who beat me included: the four who were ahead of me when we went wrong, Simon Bailey - who didn't go wrong and was too far ahead of everyone for us to follow him - and a few people that I couldn't catch after our extra loop.

Using similar statistics to those being applied by our politicians to describe their party's performance in the election: if I assume our detour was about 3 miles, I would probably have won had I not gone wrong. I told Simon Bailey this at the end, and got a laugh.

Crowden Horseshoe - am I suddenly really good?

2010-05-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

Races that fall the day after an English Championship counter are great. Not only are they slightly less busy, but the people who generally don't turn up are the top 20% of people in any age category.

Today's race had about 180 starters (I think), and for about 400 metres I was leading the field! This was again due to my normal fast start, but it's not like I was flat-out sprinting. By the summit I was fourth and eventually finished fifth after a bout of exchanging places with the guy who then finished 6th. Here's me trying to maintain my lead on the final descent.

So, have I suddenly become a great runner who can finish 5th in a relatively high-profile fell race? I was pondering this, so checked what my place would have been if I had run this time a few years ago (when there wasn't a championship counter the day before). And the answer is... I would have been about 55th.

I should either start training a lot more, or stop putting these good results into context.

5 seconds from my target

2010-04-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

I was turning the corner of the field with the finish in sight and looked at my watch to see I had 10 seconds to run the last 100 metres in order to get my target time. I did my best but sadly my olympic standard sprinting is not up to much after nearly 10 miles. Still, my finishing time of 1 hour 17 and 5 seconds was very pleasing. That's more than two minutes off my PB.

I stuck to my normal race plan off setting off like an idiot and then dying on the second half of the race. I was 12th at the summit and finished 17th. I suspect if I had been 15th at the summit I might have finished in 15th, but as I'm a better climber than a descender, it always seems foolish not getting the advantage when I can.

That completes another 30-mile week for me. Another 3 or 4 of these and I'll be properly in the swing of things. It's starting to get a bit hectic now. I think I've got about 10 races in May! However, three of these are over 3 days. May will be interesting - it's hard to plan in a steady 10-miler in the two days between races.

NEWS UPDATE: I've just looked at the results for Kinder downfall, and despite me hearing them say "1,17,05" my official time is dead on 1 hour 17 minutes. I'm glad I tried to do a sprint finish now.

Onion holder

2010-04-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

That's right. It lets you chop an onion without getting onion juice on your hands. Here it is being demonstrated by my mum. For those who read my previous blog and doubted that there were more kitchen utensils than there are famous people, here is your evidence - onion holder!!!

I should probably add something about fell running too. It's Kinder Downfall this Sunday, so I'm hoping to finish in about 1 hour 17 minutes. That would be a new personal best for me, but it's very dry at the moment and that normally makes for fast times. Also, I seem to be going OK at the moment, so I should aim high.

I'm a kitchen utensil

2010-04-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

For those not aware of this game, it's like twenty questions. But instead of being a famous person or a type of animal, you have to pick kitchen utensils. This version of the game became a favourite of mine after I realised that there are more types of kitchen utensils than there are famous people in the world or types of animal (that people know about).

Anyway, I was at my parents' house over the weekend and spotted a new type of kitchen utensil. I realise a blog is not the best medium for a game that's essentially twenty questions, so I've also included a picture. Can you guess what it is? Even with seeing it, I was none the wiser. It hasn't got any moving parts it is just a lot of spikes in a row on a handle.

I suppose I should also post something about my fell running training. Here's what I've done over the last few weeks:

Saturday: 9 miles

Sunday: 4 miles hill reps

Monday: 4 miles steady

Tuesday: No running (Mrs Noel at Bjorn Again!)

Wednesday: No running (Mrs Noel's fell race - Herod Farm - 3rd lady and 1st LV40)

Thursday: 10 miles

Friday: 3 miles

Weekly total: 30 miles

Saturday: 5 miles

Sunday: 8.5 miles

Monday: 3 miles (hill sprint reps)

Tonight: 6 miles

Here's a picture from one of my runs. It's the steaming slurry heap from one of the local farms amid Saturday's early-morning frost. It's a glamorous life this fell running.

Cross training

2010-04-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

When athletes reach their peak fitness level and want to make new improvements they turn to cross training. I am not an athlete, and have not reached my peak fitness level. So here is my cross training over the last 2 weeks, which have largely been spent in Mallorca

Cross training 1: building sand castles
If I am ever in a fell race where I have to run up a long sandy incline, I now think I will be better at judging how steep it gets before it starts to slip down hill under its own weight. We also briefly tried to build sand bridges, but I can see why this idea never really took off.
Usefulness for fell running: 2/10

Cross training 2: road running
Although there are lots of mountains in Mallorca, most are too far to drive from the villa when the kids are asleep. So we did a fair bit of nice road runs.
Usefulness for fell running: 7/10 (but it's probably not really cross training)

Cross training 3: snorkeling
If I ever see some small fish on a fell race...
Usefulness for fell running: 1/10

Cross training 4: mountaing running
We did get one day without the kids to run up Massanella which is Mallorca's highest accessible peak (the highest one has a military base on it). It was good training running up but very sharp and stony to run down. We were also a bit lost with navigating from a walking guide without a map.
Usefulness for fell running: 8/10

Cross training 5: road biking
I hired a road bike made out of expensivium and carbon and we headed off for what seemed like an ambitious but feasible 85 miles. However, after 60 miles, I remembered that biking stamina does not rely on memory, and I should have done some biking in the last 6 months. This sort of training probably would be useful, except I can't think of any training programme that tells you to completely deplete your legs' supply of glycogen and then do another 30 miles.
Usefulness for fell running: 7/10

Cross training 6: drinking beer and eating chorizo
I could probably argue that alcohol is a carbohydrate and therefore I was 'carbo loading', or that chorizo is an excellent protein source to build bigger muscles. Again, I can't find any training programmes based around this.
Usefulness for fell running: -2/10

I'm now feeling slightly behind schedule, so might have to concentrate on some training rather than cross training.

Dry season

2010-03-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

It's been amazingly dry for the last few weeks. Although there is still snow on the ground in places, the bits that have drained are as dry as they normally are in the summer months. One of the local farmers even took the chance to burn some gorse and bracken off his land (I assume that's why they do it - feel free to correct me if not).

Then today we finally had some rain. I took this opportunity to run to the summit of Axe Edge. This hill is long and pretty flat and is the source of about 5 rivers. So it's no surprise that it was very boggy. In fact many of the wetter patches had their own mallards! Here's the trig point at the summit.

The route was just under 11 miles, and will probably be a welcome addition to my set of routes once I work out the details a bit better. As it was it satisfied my need for longer slow runs, as it took me about 2 hours.

Tomorrow, I plan to cheer on the runners taking part in the Edale Skyline fell race. There are a few Fat Boys (the running club I am in) running it. I think the ascent of Lose Hill is probably the best place to watch it. Otherwise they go past too quickly. This way, I should have a chance to heckle and they'll be too tired to answer.

Wolf Spit

2010-03-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

I have been counting down the weeks and days until my first fell race of the year. It was today, and I hoped I had got my training right in the final few days before the race. I went for a hard and hilly 8-miler on Thursday, followed by two gentle recovery runs on Friday and Saturday.

Wolf's Pit is 5.8 miles with 1600 feet of ascent (and descent), so is among the steeper of the Peak District fell races. It runs up the hill behind Mrs Noel in the photograph, which is, of course, steeper than it looks here. I had been looking at last year's results and thought I could do faster than 49 minutes. Mrs Noel was sagely pointing out that I haven't done that much training so should be taking it easy! Imagine - taking it easy in a fell race!

There was also the added spice that I knew my long-time training partner Dave would be trying to beat me up the first hill. While I tried to put such things out of my mind, it was quite tricky. Especially after his demolition of my hill climbing ability 4 weeks ago on a training run.

We set off quickly and I was feeling confident until we turned for the first climb. I heard a "Come on Noel!" from the spectators - thanks whoever it was. This shout was followed a few seconds later by "Come on Dave!" My fears were confirmed when Dave smoothly accelerated past me up the first climb. I was full of friendly advice befitting such a situation, "Take is easy" and "It's a marathon not a sprint", but these thinly veiled taunts were dismissed as they should have been. Luckily my hilly training seemed to have paid off and I managed to sneak a slender lead by the top of the first climb, which I managed to hold on to for the remainder of the race.

Surprisingly, my descending seems to have improved. I actually made up a few places on the downhill sections, which is not my normal form. I managed to finish in 48 minutes 40 seconds. So was very pleased to be ahead of my target time.

Mrs Noel was also pleased with her day. She was third lady, for which she got a prize. She was also first lady vet40, for which she got another prize. She was very pleased that one of the prizes was garden centre vouchers. It's as if the organisers knew her.

Once we'd had our free soup and roll (thanks to the organisers), we all huddled round the boards showing the results. Stuart Bond won it by a street. A mere 14 places and over 8 minutes (!!) ahead of me. I can only imagine how fast that must feel.

Mrs Noel's birthday run

2010-03-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

It was Mrs Noel's birthday over the weekend. So we decided she needed a more special run than our usual circuits. So we ran from Bingley (where my parents live) via Saltaire, to Ilkley. I think it was about 7 miles. It's amazing how much ground you can cover when you're only running in one direction. My parents had very kindly agreed to take the kids over to meet us.

Our imagination was somewhat fired by the idea that we would be running past the twelve apostles stone circle.

We had high hopes of something wondrous (like the picture). But instead, what we actually got was quite small and it seemed some of the apostles were lying down.

It was also pretty murky as you can see in the photograph. It's not a complicated route but we had to check a few times using my compass. We eventually got to Ilkley and had a nice pub lunch and a pint. Birthdays are made for this. We tried our best to get Mrs Noel to buy something. But despite being led into her favourite clothes shops and even the running shop, she was uninspired. Feel free to make suggestions as to what she might like, as I was hoping to get an extra something for her in Ilkley.

Then after Saturday's murk, it was glorious on Sunday (but I didn't take my camera out - sorry). I was trying one of my local loops at race pace. I always do this when it's early season and convince myself I'm running really quickly and have somehow changed into some sort of fell running god in a kind of boyhood superhero style. Then comes the first race and I realise (a) I have not been bitten by a radioactive fell running spider without knowing it, or hit by a strange comet-like thing from the planet Fell Running, and (b) those people who I used to be close to in races, but who have trained over the winter, are now a bit faster than I am. The first race is this weekend, all being well, so I'm looking forward to going through this cycle of naivety and mild disappointment all over again during the race.

Running the wild boar

2010-02-27T12:00:00.001-08:00

I was reminded how Wildboarclough got its name on today's run. When I first moved near this Cheshire hamlet, I read on a website that it was the place where the last wild boar in England was shot. However, I subsequently worked with an expert on wild boar in England. He told me that in the olden days, people didn't call wild boars by that name, so the place name couldn't be related to them.

The most likely reason that Wildboarclough has this name is that it's related to the bore of water that from time to time races down the narrow Clough Brook. The last time this happened was on 24 May, 1989, when the sudden flood destroyed the road bridge. The rebuilt bridge now bears a plaque to commemorate this event, and the local vicar blesses the bridge once a year.

Anyway, enough history - back to my run. It was pretty wet and there was lots of snow just on the point of melting. Here's Clough Brook looking pretty high, but hopefully not on the brink of a flash flood. I continued up one of the three valleys that feed Clough Brook to see quite a lot of snow just waiting to melt all at the same time.

I also encountered what must be the main rabbit and hare high street. Because of the snow, all their tracks were very visible. I considered following a hare track to see where it went, but I've seen hares run rings around my dog (literally) so didn't fancy my chances of even seeing one.

My fitness seems to be getting better slowly. 8 miles today. I plan to do some speed work tomorrow. I also did about 3 or 4 miles midweek from work. It's getting very close to being able to go out in the evenings, which should be when my training really takes off.

10 miles and dinosaurs

2010-02-22T11:11:00.000-08:00

I think this was a pretty perfect weekend. First I went for a nice 10-mile run on Saturday morning. Mrs Noel had already been out for about an hour running and when she came back, she informed me 'it's not cold'. Luckily I know she's made of sterner stuff than me so I took my hat, gloves, thermals and fleecy buff. I needed them all, as the picture shows. This is the back of Shutlingsloe.

Luckily the sun came out, and despite the ankle-deep snow I got some beautiful views from Wetstone Ridge. You can really feel like you're out in the wilderness from up here. I have just realised how daft that statement is, given that I was running on a bridleway next to a fence. But you see what I mean. Note how the frost on the fence has detached from the fence and made a frost fence just next to it.

Then on Sunday, we awoke to even more snow. This was an excuse to rope my parents in to helping me (ahem... I mean the kids) make more snow sculptures. This time we went for a dinosaur theme. Here is the T. Rex. Unfortunately, his teeth kept thawing out and he later collapsed. I've realised it's hard making animals that rely on counterbalance to stay upright.

The stegosaurus, however, is still standing a day later. I think in future, I would advise against two-legged snow dinosaurs. I was contemplating a sauropod, but the long neck was too tricky to think about.

After all this exertion, we also built a large snow chair. It was pretty comfy, but slightly on the cold side. I was planning another training run, but instead had to make do with a new form of hill reps. This involved sledging down a slope and then running back up carrying my youngest. He seemed to like the idea too.

The best thing about this 4 inches of snow was that it melted from the roads in a day. This meant we could get out to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain who were playing at Buxton Opera House. For those who haven't seen them, here is one of the songs they played: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW0ACEOEq6w&feature=related

More chasing Dave

2010-02-14T11:07:00.000-08:00

I made the mistake of going out for another training run with Dave. This is another small installment of my attempt to get back to running fitness (Wolf Spit is 4 weeks away). I thought this run would serve as a gauge to where I am.

I should explain something about the peculiarities of going for training runs with Dave. Most runners run more slowly uphill than they do on the flat, and run more quickly downhill. However, Dave seems to fly up hills, only to then run a sensible speed on the flat and run downhill at recovery pace (although he's getting better at this). Unfortunately, the run largely involved running up to Stanage Edge from Hathersage, so it was mainly uphill for the first two miles.

Once again, here's a picture of Dave leaving me behind. He's the small black dot in the middle.

It's strange getting running fit again. My legs don't get tired - it's all lungs. I get that aching "my lungs aren't big enough" feeling which I used to get when I first started fell running. I'm hoping my lungs catch up soon, so I can start giving my legs some hard work.

After yesterday's exertions, today, I did a slow recovery run. This was also intended to keep up my mileage a bit. I think it was about 6 miles. It follows most of a course that would be my best attempt at what would constitute a good fell race. It even has all the sensible bits, like facilities at the start, no major road crossings, doesn't share any ground with other fell races, etc. Here's the incongruous chimney (I think??) in the middle of the moors at the far point of the 'race'.

Pretty cold weather

2010-01-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

It was very cold and also very picturesque today. Ideal running conditions, if you've got nice warm kit - which I have.

The snow has nearly all gone now. I can't remember a time when snow has lasted for a month. Normally it's gone in a week. Here's me obeying all the rules of photographic composition while taking a photo of the snow.

The nights are getting longer which augurs well for evening runs in the not-too-distant future. I was out at 4:30 today and it was fine. The longer evenings should also allow me to get some road bike miles in - I'm planning another 90-miler in about 2 months' time.

For those not aware of the winking man. Here's a link: http://www.winkingman.com/pages/where.php

I found another slightly winking could-be-a-man-if-you-have-a-good-imagination, and the sun was behind it which made for a nice photo and an excuse to stop again. Looking at it again I think the man would have to be wearing a very elaborate hat.

This blog is probably playing havoc with my training as I keep stopping to take photos. I'll try to get serious and just post GPS traces in the summer.

On the way back I found these icicles, which also amused me. I thought they looked like the top of some monster's mouth about to bite down.

Two days - two runs

2010-01-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

This feat might seem trivial, but it's a big step in the recovery from my seasonal malaise. After running yesterday, I wasn't sure if I was going to go out today as well. But this was decided in Buxton's excellent art cafe in the Pavillion Gardens. After ordering two veggie breakfast for the kids to share with me, it became apparent that they only wanted the egg. So I was forced to eat my own weight in hash browns, veggie sausages, beans, toast and tomatoes. In fact there was so much, we had to give the ducks and pigeons the rest of the toast.

So after this feast, I felt I better do something energetic so went out for a 5 mile run. As you can see, there are still some large dollops of snow about. Especially on footpaths sheltered by walls. It might be gone in a week or so.

Also [news flash] after proudly announcing in my last blog entry that Cloud Nine will be my comeback race, this now clashes with something. So it'll be Wolf Spit (really called Wolf's pit - but that's not as funny) instead; which is the week after.

The long road back to fitness

2010-01-16T10:45:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago the idea of doing a fell race seemed completely alien to me. However, yesterday the FRA yearbook (that shows the calendar of fell races for the year) was delivered. This always gives me a bit of a lift, as I plan which ones I'd like to do.

My first race back will probably be Cloud Nine. This is at the beginning of March, so I've about 6 weeks to get running fit again. So today was my first run of the year. To be fair it was more of a jog, although I can partly blame the snow for that. Here's a photo of Max nagivating one section of snowdrifts.

I plan to work up slowly, but hope to be at about 20-25 miles per week by early March. Fingers crossed I can keep up some sort of momentum now I have a training goal.

Snow fun

2010-01-03T00:52:00.000-08:00

The good thing about having kids is that you can spend hours making snowmen and going sledging without people calling you childish. Yesterday "the kids" made two 6-foot snowmen, a snow dog and a snow doorway.

We've also spent about 3 hours sledging in the last few days. If I get to the top of the slope before the kids, I can "test" it for them. I'm hoping the snow persists until a sudden thaw tomorrow, because Mrs Noel needs to get to work on Monday.

Jack and the beanstalk

2009-12-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

We were visiting a relative in Oxford and all took the kids to see the pantomime. They loved it, and even the grown-ups enjoyed it. It was directed by Peter "spare me the madness" Duncan from Blue Peter. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I'll try to paint a mental image that captures the whole thing. Imagine a ten-foot tall, demonic, green cyclops singing a duet with a man in drag, while 300 children scream at them. Actually, the more I think about pantomime, the more I realise what a bizarre artform it is.

Meanwhile, as I was sunning myself in Oxford, and escaping from the world's largest hedge maze that's shaped like a cannon, my mate Dave was setting a new me-or-him record in the Percy Pud (10km race near Sheffield). "Oh no he wasn't" I hear you shout. But he was. Had I have run as quickly as I did two years ago I would have been confident that people would have shouted "he's behind you". But they would have been wrong.

Despite Dave's V40 status, he put in his best Peter Pan performance to show there was still Aladdin him. It was very wet (unlike a few years ago when it was snow white on the day), but Dave didn't want to make a fuss in boots, so wore his normal running shoes. He'd left his wife and babes in the wood, but went to see them again afterwards. With this result, I'm quite sure he'll have thought, after waking from sleeping, "beauty!"

The master of disguise !!

2009-11-29T11:26:00.000-08:00

"I aint gettin' on no plane you crazy fool!"

It was some friends' joint 40th birthday party, and it was an 80s fancy dress theme. Last time I went to one of these I decided I would go as BA Baracus (Mr T), but Mrs Noel vetoed it and I went as Karate Kid. But instead of looking like the Karate Kid, I looked like a man wearing a woman's dressing gown, perhaps because it was.

So this time I put my foot down, after asking Mrs Noel if this was OK, and got a Mr T dressing-up kit off tinterweb. This was good fun, although it took a while to cover all the bits of skin with brown face paint. Once at the party, it took me a while to realise that some people weren't just being off with me, and that the reason they weren't saying hello was that they didn't recognise me. At least I hope that was the reason. As you can see, my physique is more Peewee Herman than Mr T - I was hoping this would add to the humour.

The best custume of the night was Matt's (aka Snow White), who turned up dressed as a 6ft wide section of the Berlin wall, complete with barbed wire on the top. This was great but it was a bit tricky on the dance floor!

Then on Sunday, Mrs Noel did Famous Grouse. She ran this race last year, 4 months before her 40th birthday. If she had already been 40 at the time, she would have won a bottle of whisky. This was therefore the race that made us both realise Mrs Noel had real potential.

Despite staying up until 1:30 the night before (watching some drunken buffoon try to maintain conversations while starting every sentence with "I pity the fool..."), Mrs Noel managed to finish 5th lady and 1st FV40. So I'm now sipping some of the excellent Pinot Grigio that was the prize.

Famous Grouse is quite a low key race, and is not in the FRA year book. However, it's well worth doing and there's very nice soup and stew in the pub afterwards. It's the last Sunday in November again next year - so add it to your diary.

It's a mud mud mud mud world

2009-11-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

My eldest decided we should try to find the wettest, muddiest parts when we went for a walk yesterday. We did pretty well as you can see from the photo.

Then today, Dave came round to test out his road shoes on similar terraine. To be fair, it wasn't that he thought his road shoes were the best bet, but his fell shoes had been hurting and he was up for a run. He's normally a bit lower down the field than I am but he's going well at the moment and I'm not training enough to maintain any kind of fitness.

So, to hinder him slightly I decided to go for the muddiest route possible. This worked well on the slimy grass sections and in the slurry pits that had gathered around the field gates. However, on the rocky tracks he was away. That small spec in the distance is Dave on the deceptive rising track from Three Shires Head.

In future I either need to train more, or persuade him to run barefoot. That way I could also keep up on the stony tracks.

A river runs through it

2009-11-15T01:25:00.000-08:00

Continuing my run of film-titled blog entries, I thought this might be fitting for the run up through Back Forest towards Hangingstone. As you can see the 'path' looks more like a stream. This is actually its usual state, but it's a bit worse than normal so worked well for the photos. I was running pretty slowly for this one, as I was still a bit worried that I wasn't over my illness. It was nice to be out, and I don't think I overdid it.
My mate Foz was visiting and walked the same route in the opposite direction. He also took the dog, as Max enjoys walks (even at Foz' fast pace) more than runs (even at my slow pace).

48 hours

2009-11-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

That's how long I was ill after a gentle lunchtime swim on Wednesday. It was a shame as I was starting to get the hang of things. My breathing was OK, my stroke length was OK (when I concentrated on it). Then I was hit by the urge to stop after about 30 lengths and a splitting headache. This turned into a sickness feeling which didn't any better when I was back at work. So I went home to bed fearing swine flu. Luckily I was only out of it for about 2 days. I guess I was fighting off a virus and the swim gave it some assistance.

Mrs doubts fire

2009-11-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

We were over visiting my parents (and doing Shepherd's Skyline - see previous post). It was the Myrtle Park bonfire and fireworks display on Saturday night, but Mrs Noel wasn't keen on keeping the kids up that late. Do you see where I'm going with this tenuous film title link?

Anyway, instead we had a small fire in my parents' garden which was great.

The day after, I went for a very pleasant run in St Ives park (a park in Bingley, West Yorkshire - nowhere near St Ives). Here I saw another two deer. Maybe roe deer (??) but definitely wild this time. Although the deer managed to elude my expert wildlife photography, I did manage to capture an image of this wood elf sheltering in the beard of a forest spirit. Feel free to correct me on this.

Mrs Noel does Shepherd's Skyline

2009-11-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

Mrs Noel has been building up her expectations of winning something at every race. This is because she has had a run of about 8 races where this has been proved true. However, we were in no doubt that Shepherd's Skyline was a race where she was unlikely to win anything.

It had been very wet the days before the race and it was predictably cold and windswept as the runners set off. Mrs Noel was a bit nervous about doing a race of this length. I know it's not a long race (only 6 miles), but Mrs Noel doesn't really do races above about 5 miles. She also does no long slow runs in training, so has never build up her stamina. We're two peas in a pod in this respect.

In the end Mrs Noel finished 13th out of 76 lady runners, and was third LV40. She's slowly warming to the idea of doing a bit more stamina work, so watch out for next year!

3 miles, 2 stags and a lake

2009-11-04T11:59:00.001-08:00

Another lunchtime run today. I was out for 30 minutes, which I guess is about 3 or 3.5 miles. It's building up slowly after my start-of-autumn blues.

There were two big stags with full pointy antlers in the middle of the path. When I was in Scotland I was really pleased to see red deer from about half a mile away through binoculars. Today I had to run round them in the path and was less pleased to see them.

This disparity is because they are not wild and are kept in Tatton Park just like the sheep are. This makes me think they're less good to see, which is a bit weird. Surely they should either be nice to see or not. It's funny how perceptions can play with our sense of aesthetics to such an extent.

I've just noticed, I'd added the lake in the title. This was a poor attempt to make a 4 weddings and a funeral style title. There was actually no reason to include it other than I also ran past the lake.

Note to self: Run with camera. Stags would be great for blog photos.

P.S. Mrs Noel has just suggested I plan future runs (and blog entries about them) around other film titles. I'll have a go...

Yet more swimming revelations

2009-11-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

After my 'pretend to be superman' revelation a few months ago, I've been doing very little swimming. This has mainly been due to running a lot, but I haven't got that excuse any more. So... back to the pool for me.

I went once last week and was mainly rubbish, then I went yesterday. One thing I notice when swimming is that I get very bad trapped wind for a few hours after swimming. At first I thought this was probably a reaction to using muscles I wasn't used to. However, after a bit of trawling through swimming forums for similar complaints, I'm convinced it's because I'm overbreathing. Instead of just taking in enough air on every third stroke, I am gulping down to much air too quickly. It can't all go into my lungs, so the excess goes into my stomach. Hence trapped wind.

Yesterday I remembered something my total immersion swimming instructor said: "If you breath out enough, you won't need to worry about breathing in, it will just happen." So I tried this, and it worked. Instead of going huh [breathe out] arrrrhh [breath in] every time I stick my face out of the water. I now just go [huh] and forget about breathing in. Obviously, I must be breathing in enough, since I don't go blue and sink to the bottom and die. I also get less tired, which is great.

Having said that, you must be reading this and imagining me like some sort of half-decent swimmer. Just to put it into perspective, there was a lady in the lane next to me doing bad front crawl (even I could tell this). Her arms were dragging the water while they were coming over, and her stroke length was quite short. Despite this, she kept going and looked like she was doing a lot of lengths over the lunchtime period. On one of my lengths (in a set of 8) we were swimming next to each other and it became clear she was faster than I was.

I think I need a few more revelations, and a lot more hard work before I can pretend to be a proper swimmer. I'm idly thinking about an olympic distance triathlon next year, so that can be my training goal. Luckily, I can only get better.

Driving rain - but fun

2009-11-01T05:21:00.000-08:00

"...and now the weather. It'll be very wet and windy, especially in the morning around Wincle". Forewarned in forearmed, so I put on all my warm running kit (including my new Aldi leggings, which are great) and set off with the dog.

Max, the dog, is getting old, so is pretty stiff most of the time, and doesn't normally want to come running with me. However, when he gets too stiff, we give him some magic dog drugs, and he turns into a young dog again. He's just been dosed up so should have been raring to go. But he's not stupid and he could see it was horrible weather. He was doing his best to hide from me.

I eventually got him out of the house and ran to Danebridge via Hangingstone. It was great to be out running as long as I kept going. I think it was about 6 miles and about 1000 feet. The long bath when I got home felt like heaven, and to quote that Blur song [add cockney accent] "then I'm happy for the rest of the day".

First 'run' in about a month

2009-10-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

I finally decided I should go for a gentle lunchtime run yesterday. It's been about a month since my last run, which was Scafell Pike Fell Race. Jogging for twenty minutes around a town and a nice park couldn't have been more different to my previous outing.

Having said that, it made all the difference to how I was feeling. My recent lack of running and the shorter days has been really getting to me. And although I can't count my gentle jog as any form of training, it sorted me out for the day.

I think Noel's training blog is going to become Noel's lunchtime jogs and occasional leisurely lunchtime swims. I'll have to work hard in the Spring to get my viewing figures back up to the heady heights of this summer ;)

Scafell Pike - a different league

2009-09-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

I like steep fell races. I generally avoid ones that don't have a sufficient amount of height. And I've done some good steep ones in my time. Ones like Buckden Pike, Mount Famine and even Shutlingsloe.

However, nothing could prepare me for Scafell Pike fell race. It was steep, but never steeper than other things I've done. But it was the length of ascent (and more worryingly descent) that I couldn't cope with. No amount of reps could prepare me for 3000 feet of downhill in one go. I've never before done a race where my legs hurt for two days after the race.

The race went reasonably well, I was in a good position at the top, but lost about 40 seconds after reaching the summit as I couldn't tell which way to go in the thin mist. I was asking myself "how can I get lost in a there-and-back race?" Well, there seemed to have been a gap of about a minute between me and the guys behind, and there was a gap of about a minute in the stream of runners coming up the summit. These two gaps somehow managed to coincide. Add my natural inability to remember which way I've run, and I was temporarily lost.

Luckily I then saw the stream of runners coming up and could slowly boulder-hop down the way they were coming up. After a minute or so of this, Fleeter shot past me and I said "that's what I need - a pacer. Go on Fleeter". Unfortunately, Fleeter's downhill pace was way too fast for me, and I lost another few places on the long descent. I finished in 1:06:30 (ish), which was faster than my target time of 1:07:00.

Despite me beating my target time, I have mixed feelings about this race. I would like to return and do it justice. I feel like I could have been a few places higher if I had trained a bit harder. But the real killer was not having the stamina or technique to descend a mountain (as opposed to the hills we have in the Peaks). I would get genuine satisfaction from being able to say I ran this race well.

Next year? I'll have to see how things work out. It is a long way to travel for a 4.5 mile fell race. I certainly feel I have unfinished business with this mountain. And I'm slowly coming round to the idea that the best way to train for Lakes races, is to do more of them. Is this a statement of intent, or a pipe dream? Time will tell...

Ready for Scafell?

2009-09-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I haven't run enough in the last few weeks to consider myself ready for Scafell Pike fell race. It's because the days are so short. If I work over a bit, or if Mrs Noel fancies a run, there's no daylight left. I should probably get into this headtorch running nonsense, otherwise this blog will rapidly deteriorate (if that's possible). I did one tempo run this week, and one recovery run. That's a fair way short of the 30 miles I should be doing.

Lantern Pike and Stanage Struggle

2009-09-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hayfield country show had birds of prey, kite flying, archery, and a decent fell race - Lantern Pike. It was Mrs Noel's turn to do this one, so I was largely being mithered about going on slides and bouncy castles.

Sometimes I wonder 'if I set off really quickly, how long could I keep up with the proper runners at the front?' It seems someone else had this idea today. This guy normally finishes about where I do in fell races, but today seems to have decided to have a quick sprint at the beginning - note the look of effort on his face. Sadly I couldn't watch the race to see how long he stayed first.

Mrs Noel was also first was a while, but finished third lady to secure a very nice jar of lemon curd. Full results are here: http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/temples-bin/hc.pl?a=list&d=hc&f=lantern-pike-2009

I made do with a longish run (about 9 miles perhaps) when we got home. Doing slightly longer runs at weekends to make sure I have some stamina is part of my training I often neglect. This probably explains why I have no stamina and prefer short races. It might also amaze some people that I consider a 9 mile run to be a longer run. I have mates who do 4 hour sessions at the weekends.

On Sunday, my 'club' the Fat Boys, organised the Stanage Struggle. Again I wasn't running, as Fat Boys are encouraged to marshall. I pointed about 280 runners (a record turn-out) left along the track. My youngest briefly thought it funny to say 'go back the way you've come'. Luckily no-one believed him. The conditions were very dry, which made for a fast course and a new course record. Stuart Bond beat his old record for the new course, which was set last year. Full results: http://www.stanagestruggle.co.uk/

Late summer sun

2009-09-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

For the past few nights I haven't been bothered to go out running. Tonight, I couldn't refuse a run - it was such a beautiful evening. I took a few photos to share the best bits with you. As always, the shots I thought that would be good, weren't, and vice versa.

Here goes:

Tree growing through barn

Happy to be here

Three Shire's Head looking downstream from the bridge

Sunset through dead thistles. Everything looks pretty in this light!

And finally, sunset.

If days were always like this, everyone would go out running.

Compare and contrast - the real Tour of Britain

2009-09-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

Mrs Noel went out to watch the real Tour of Britain today. This is stage 5 of the tour and it follows the same course as my charity tour ride of two weekends ago.

Sadly I wasn't there to experience it for myself but Mrs Noel was good enough to show me a few pictures. It made me think 'how different is the proper tour from what we did?' After giving it some consideration, I think the two events are pretty similar.

If you take away the support cars and all the state-of-the-art bikes, take away a few of our food, drink and toilet stops (well, all of them in fact), and take away the tour riders' ability, including the years of training and dedication to reach that level, then I think what we did was pretty similar.

Obviously, you'd also have to factor in that these guys have been doing this every day for the previous 5 days, and you'd need to account for my usual level of tactical naivety. But when you've taken all this into account, and the degree of mental pressure that the tour riders are under, I think the two events are largely similar.

Perhaps when making such a comparison you might also need to consider the average speed that the tour guys are going - approximately twice what we were. But, to get back to my original point, apart from the support, the bikes, the ability, the dedication, the lack of rests, the day-on-day fatigue, the tactical acumen, the mental pressure, and the overall speed, what we did a few weekends ago was pretty similar to what Mrs Noel witnessed today.

Speed work

2009-09-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

After last week's hill reps, I'm now confident I can run (or rather walk, slowly) up Scafell. However, I'm less confident that I can keep my legs moving fast enough to descend quickly. This was highlighted in the race on Sunday when I lost ground on the flat and lost loads of ground on the descent.

So tonight, instead of hill reps, it was sprint reps. This is even more tiring. I think my flat course is about 250 metres, but it's through a sheep field, so it's not exactly perfect track training. I did 8 reps flat out before feeling completely broken. It did feel good to be running quickly again.

Whenever I do sprint sessions I am reminded how good proper runners are. I probably was close to averaging about 4:10 minute/mile pace for 250 metres. At the end of each rep, my heart rate was 165 (from 140 at the start). And yet there are guys who can run this pace for quite a few miles. Amazing.

Plums

2009-09-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

Again, it was a day of recovery followed by a full-on session. This time it was a race – Padfield Plum Fair Scamper. I did this last year and was reasonably confident of beating last year's time, but wasn't sure if my monster hill rep session would be still in my legs.

Mrs Noel was also keen to do better in this year's race after she got a stitch in last year's race and had to stop for about a minute at the summit. She also was keen to maintain her record, of about the past 7 races, of winning something in every race.

Although I should be sensible and run my own race. It's always nice to be higher in the field. Before every race, I look round to see who will beat me. My hope is that one day all the good runners will not turn up and I'll win. The law of averages tells me that this is unlikely, but I'm still hoping. Yesterday I didn't have to worry for long about what I would do when I crossed the line in first place - Andi Jones winner of the Snowdon race for the last three years turned up.

For about ten yards I was third. I joked with the guy who was second that he should catch up with 'that guy' ahead (Andi Jones), but he was having none of it. This race has a very clear course, that seems to get slightly steeper as you near the summit. The good thing about this is that you can see everyone in-front of you. It's rare that I'll do a race where I can say I could see Andi Jones at the summit. Mrs Noel was in the same boat and later commented to me "you looked like you were just jogging".

I was seventh at the summit but had designs on sixth. Unfortunately, Mark Ollerenshaw, of Glossopdale Harriers, had other ideas and left me for dead on the descent. I think, in hindsight, it might have been my hard Friday night session catching up with me. Either that or I'm rubbish at descending, which is also quite likely. I managed to keep seventh place, 25 seconds slower than last year (maybe my legs hadn't recovered). Mrs Noel was third lady and received a nice running top and an energy bar.

We didn't stay long enough to take part in the coal race. This entails carrying a 25kg bag of coal and running up a hill. I toyed with the idea of showing an interest, but I think I'll wait until I'm a big, strapping, 13 stone farmer-type before I try this one.

Recover - then even more reps

2009-09-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday night was a gentle recovery run. Then I decided to give it some more pasty tonight on my hill reps. This time I did 12. My garmin tells me I did about 2,800 feet of ascent. I think I pushed myself a bit harder too - all of my reps were faster than 2 minutes 30, whereas on Wednesday night, most of them were slower than this. So I'll be recovering tomorrow prior to Padfield Plum Fair Scamper on Sunday.

Hill reps - not quite Scafell Pike

2009-09-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

My local steepest hill is good and steep for about 190 feet of ascent in about 250 metres. I guess this makes it about 1 in 4. I did ten reps of it tonight. Including the hill to get to it and to get back, that's about 2500 feet of ascent in about 4 miles. My target training goal (Scafell Pike) is 300o feet in 4. 5 miles. Maybe I should do 15 reps next time.

My trace shows it was getting harder after the first four or five reps (red line = heart rate), so I hope it's good training. Although some people swear by hill reps, I think a lot of the really top runners don't use them. Also they're pretty dull. I was hoping to have the company of Max (our dog), but he's getting old enough and wise enough to wait at the mid-point.

Charity 'pro' tour ride

2009-09-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here I am the day after - still alive and with only slightly sore thighs. The event was a great introduction to organised road cycling. There were drinks stations, food stations with loads of free stuff, mechanics and support vehicles. There was even a free pasta meal at the finish. I'm not sure I'd do it again, but I'm proud I was able to.

We set off from the Britannia Stadium (home of the now-mighty Stoke City), at about 8:30 in the morning. Here's a pici of us getting ready to set off.

We'd never cycled together as a team before, so decided the best approach was to set a pace of about 22mph for the first hour. While most of us agreed that this was stupid, it was also quite fun and we were swept along with the early ride fervour. I was jokingly adamant that the ride should involve some sort of ordeal with one rider ending up being broken.

After about 2 hours, when we reached the first big steady hill, it became apparent that the early pace might not have been such a good idea. James was starting to flag and at one point was struggling to such an extent that I was worried he might retire. This hadn't been helped by the fact that one of his brakes had been rubbing for about the first 30 miles. He had been wondering why it was feeling so hard. Luckily, he made it to Tittesworth Reservoir where there was a food station. I'm not sure what he ate there, but from then on, he was a man transformed. No longer showing any signs of fatigue, he seemed to get stronger as the ride went on.

Apparently there were three category climbs on the ride, but they weren't really marked, so the only one we could race up was Gun Hill. This is one of my local hills, so I was keen to get to the top first of our team. We had been very grown up when discussing our strategy of trying to beat each other up this hill. "We shouldn't really race, as there are 35 miles to go after it", and "it would be silly to race each other". Having said all that, Dave and I were very slowly edging faster and faster until we were pretty much flat out (which isn't very fast up Gun Hill, but it still felt hard).

For most of the rest of the ride, which included another pretty steep hill, I was feeling pretty confident. Although I was ruing putting so much into being 'king' of my local 'mountain', when the rest of the team went for a sprint finish, and I had nothing left. I pretended I was being mature of course, but that's not really in my nature. It seems my earlier assertion that the day should end up with someone being broken, had been proven correct - and it had been me. I was later told Richard had won a fiercely contested affair from Rob. Here's a photo of us after the ride - tired but very pleased with ourselves.

I'd like to thank Mrs Richard for on-ride support, all the organisers, and the many people who sponsored us. Between the team, we raised about £1,000 for the Prostate Cancer Charity.

Mrs Noel in Longshaw success

2009-09-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

Today was Mrs Noel's race day - Longshaw sheepdog trials. She continued her recent run of winning something at every race she does by being first LV40, and 4th lady overall. She was actually 2nd LV40, but got a prize because first LV40 got a prize for being second lady (are you following this?). Mrs Noel's prize was a nice jar of greengage jam. As you can imagine, we were both very impressed and tried it once we got home. I've not tried this variety before - it's somewhere between plum and gooseberry.

Tapering? Surely running doesn't count. I got a bit bored of this whole tapering thing, so went for a run on Friday night. 5 miles, 1000 feet. I was quite good though. At no point did I do any quick bits, and I deliberately avoided my normal detour which takes in a good hill.

I'm eating pasta for England tonight ('and pear and chocolate pudding', says Mrs Noel, proudly). Did I mention I'm doing a long bike ride tomorrow?