Ideal race preparation

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

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

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

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

17 miles, jackdaw kindling and French macarons

On Saturday, I decided I needed to work on my stamina. So I set off to do the famous 4 trigs gritstone challenge. "4 trigs?" I hear you say, "don't you mean 5 trigs?" Well, actually it is supposed to be the 5 trigs - running to the trig point on 5 hills that are local to my house. The challenge traditionally starts from the Cat and Fiddle pub and takes in the peaks of Shining Tor, Burgage Edge, Axe Edge, The Roaches and Shutlingsloe.

I knew my legs wouldn't be up for 20 miles, so I had to shorten it a bit, and miss out Roaches. This still meant it was about 17 miles, which is a long way for me. I was very pleased to finish it in a reasonable state. Not like a stumbling fool, which is how I normally look after long fell races.

Then we were amused to find the jackdaws had built a 5-foot high pile of kindling in the barn. Normally you can see that it resembles a nest, but this didn't at all. This is probably for the best, as it's level with a raise floor that the cat can get to.

Today, because it was quite windy and rainy, we took the opportunity to stay in and make some French biscuits from a packet recipe. We brought this back from France thinking they were biscuits, but it turned out we had to make them ourselves first. I think you'll agree, they are completely indistinguishable from how they should look. Thankfully, they taste nice.

Weather-adjusted improvement: Kinder Downfall

In most of the races I do, one of my main objectives is to perform better than I have previously at the same race. I knew this would be a tricky at Kinder Downfall as I've done it about 5 times already and was pretty happy with my time from the last time I ran it, in 2010.

As usual, everyone set off pretty fast - all trying to keep up with the person in front. This works fine unless you've got someone much faster than you at the front of the line. Evenually the line breaks and people find their own speed. By this time I could start to work my way up through the field of runners and was feeling strong by the top.

After slowing up on the start of the descent, I eventually found my rhythm and fell strong to the end. I'd finished in a time of 1:17:39. This is 39 seconds slower than 2010.

At this point, a focused and driven athlete would increase the intensity and specificity of their training. I prefer to bend the rules in these situations. It was very muddy today, which always makes for a slower time. This can affect times by a couple of minutes. Luckily, someone reminded me it had been quite dry for the previous few years' races.

So I'm claiming a weather-adjusted victory. Hurray for me.

Jura training camp

I had a few days working in Geneva and my hotel was just to the north, in France. So I took the opportunity to run up a very small bit of the Jura range one evening.
Here's my start point

Here are the hills I am aiming for. The town in the foreground is Thoiry. It's hard for me to judge how big these hills are.

The answer is "pretty big". I was running/walking uphill for about an hour before I got worried about the time and turned round. I think there was still a lot of uphill to go. Here's my high-point with some snow on the ground to make it feel even higher.

It had been quite a claggy day, but it cleared to give me a nice view. My hotel is down there somewhere.

For those of you who know the Jura, apparently I was part way up towards the summit of Le Reculet. I think it would have been too snowy to get there, as well as too dark by the time I reached it.

I've not explored around Geneva before. I was surprised by how accessible the Jura is from Geneva.

I'm hoping my small foray will prove to be the ideal training for Kinder Downfall race, this Sunday. Fingers crossed.

French cartoons and castles

We've just spent a week's holiday in the North Loire Valley, and here are the things we will now add to the list of "things that France is great for".

We were already aware of: nicer weather, more rock to climb on (see photo below from our day bouldering at Franchard), lovely pastries.

However, we are now also aware of:

1. The kids' cartoon "Linus and Boom". Sadly this is a French phenomenon and is yet to appear in the UK. Even the wikipedia page is in French.

2. The castle Guédelon. This is a castle that is being built using techniques from the middle ages. It's situated on a site of an abandoned quarry, in a forest, near some clay deposits, so they use all local materials, and process it on-site. This includes a blacksmith, stone masons, rope maker, tile makers, carpenters, etc. It's been going about 15 years and it be be fully built in about another ten years. There were loads of school kids there, learning about how things were done in the 13th century.

Note the two wheels that are part of the crane in the picture above. This is for people to get inside and use like hamster wheels to lift stuff up to the castle. Here's a shot of two blokes in it, providing the manpower. 

Lad's Leap fell race

Here's another video for you. I couldn't get to the same place to film the men's field, so it's mainly the ladies.

Mrs Noel was very pleased to finish fifth in her age category.

Starting again - Wolf's Pit Fell Race

Not training through the winter means I have to put up with the first few races of the year being a bit disappointing. I try to temper this disappointment and ready myself to be slower than the people I normally compete against. But it's hard.

In the future, I can see myself coming back from a winter off training and saying "I'm so far behind, I can't see how I can get back to where I was".

At Wolf's Pit fell race today. I went off a bit fast, so lost a few places in the second half of the race. However, I now see where I need to be, and I have the experience of past years to help me get there. The main question is "do I have the desire to put the training in?" The answer is a definite "Yes".

Mrs Noel continued where she left off last year, taking over three minutes of her previous time at this race.