Mountains and courgettes

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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".