1st big day out and what a day

Monday : rest

Tuesday : 4 miles fast on undulating muddy field

Wednesday : 1000ft and 2 miles of hill reps

Thursday : 2000ft and 3 miles of 4 *500ft hill reps

Friday : High intensity intervals

Saturday : 4 miles on flat reasonably fast (beach)

Sunday : 18 miles and 7000ft in Snowdonia

The early part of the week was OK, Friday and Saturday were too full and struggled to get time between being a taxi service. Sunday was one of the best days out in the hill I have had for a very long time. Starting and finishing in Llanberis, Y-Elin, Y-Garn, Glydar Fawr, Pen-y-pass, Miners track to Snowdon and down the railway. I was going follow the Peris Horseshoe route, but I there was a lot of water ice about and was unsure how her 4 pawed ladyship would manage on the north face of Snowdon. Average 3 miles an hour, water ice slowed things down a bit, as did carrying enough stuff to be safe on your own in winter. The ground was very hard, but a good 1st long day out of the campaign, hard but not too hard. Only regret was not taking a real camera and having to make do with a camera on the phone.

Need to get a few more miles and climb in the early part of the week, but still a good week of training.

Much of muchness

Whatever that really means, but an other slack week with some quality sessions. I was in Prague for 5 days and managed 2 good sessions on the stair stepping machine while there which don't half give your legs a good work out.

Saturday and Sunday had good runs of 11 miles/2500ft and 9 miles and 2000ft respectively. Saturdays run was from Nant-y-Moch, over Plumom to the source of the Severn and back following the fence. Sunday was a random run around various minor hill with the most stunning sunset. Not expecting such a sunset I left my camera at home. Both were good hard mountain runs over rough ground, Sunday especially.

I would guess at 23 miles and 7000ft equivalent, but this is just not good enough. I am still being cautious about my left foot which continues to not "feel right", but is not proving to be a problem. I used Fly-Roc's on Sunday and they seemed to give much better support and the foot/ankle bothered me less.

On the bright side it is enough output to be fitter at the end of the week than the start, but we need to step up a gear or 2 in terms of distance and climb and now is the time to do it.

Standing in a stream in your pants

Only about 15 miles, but lots of quality short sharp sessions. Using the gym has been a reasonable change, given the weather and wanting something different while my foot sorted it self out has worked quite well.

Foot appears to be on the mend, but taking it slowly.

Monday : warn up plus 20 minutes hard on stair climber. 1st time in Gym for a year or so, so some orientation required. Session cut short by need to pick up kids from school

Tuesday : Bike ride. Leg burner near Nant-y-Arian as fast as possible. Most out of breath I have ever been expect for ramp tests with Coach Jon.

Wednesday : 35 minutes hard on stair climber

Thursday : 35 minutes hard on stair climber plus 3K on tread mill to see if foot has recovered enough to run on

Friday : 4 miles easy local run

Saturday : 8 rough miles in hills north east of Aberystwyth. Blowing a gale on tops and very wet. Just under 2 hours out, lots of hill and some very rough ground. 1st real outing and foot was OK apart from a slight niggle.

Sunday : small boy birthday party and then some travel, so won't have a chance to write up, but expect to get some hill reps in late afternoon.

So not the week I would have wanted, but lots of useful training. Foot still has a niggle, but it is OK to keep running on it and I am going to gradually increase the miles. I think I learned this week that either a gym or bike once or twice a week is really useful. I had been struggling to run more than 5 days a week, but maybe a hour bike or gym cross training when the weather is crap would be a useful addition.

I have started using cold water to aid recovery after longer runs. Most of the places I run are quite remote, so you just find a stream, take your leg cover off and stand in a stream until you can't stand in it any more. The more remote parts of mid Wales the chances of someone passing as slim. So after the run on Saturday, post run, I wondered down to a stream by a bridge, took my tracksters off and waded into a stream. After a minute or so a Land Rover appears out of the forestry and stops on the bridge next to where I am stood in the stream. The old boy winds down his window

• Farmer : are you all right boy
• Clive : yes fine thanks, horrible day
• Farmer : What you doing standing in the stream in your pants, boy?
• Clive : It helps your legs recover after a long run, helps the micro-fibers repair more quickly.
• Farmer : You local then?
• Clive : Yes, 2 valleys over
• Farmer : I thought it was only people from away who stood in a river in their pants in winter

I came out of the stream, put my tracksters back on and we had a short chat about the farm I used to work on as a kid. Any farmer in North Ceredigion older than 55 knew or knew of (now late) Gatty Lewis who ran a agricultural machinery dealer in Aberystywth until about 1975 (unsure of this, must ask brother to be sure). He also ran a farm which I spend my formative years working on and he was a Dyfed County Counciler, including a term as chairman. There are 2 responses from hill farmers when you mention his name, either a change in the tone of voice to relative warmth or a slightly sheepish. The latter may be explained by a conversation I once had with Gatty about the difficulties of debt collecting from hill farmers who would run out of their farm yard into the hills when they saw him coming. In the end he hired 2 debt collectors from south London who he said looked like gangsters, even if they were more legitimate and they collected the full debt from every farm they visited. He did mention he had far fewer problems with bad debt after that, I guess the thought of a return visit by the Cray brother clones was not that attractive. I suspect either the sheepish farmer or his father had a visit from Ron and Ron.

Foot problems

I have hurt my foot. Think it was running on ice in mid to late December. Nothing serious and it goes away when I run, but Kevin the physio suggests it best to lay off running for a week, put it in ice water every day and call him if it does not recover.

So I have been on the bike for the later part of the week. I am not bike fit and the saddle has taken its toll getting my delicate little places are a bit sore. Still, better than sitting around. I can manage to keep my foot in ice water for about 20 seconds at a time before it gets too much, need to work up to a minute. Gaging to get running again. I was starting to enjoy doing the extra distance, but needs must and I am sure the time on the bike has done me good. Some extra time to focus on core stability and stretching has not been wasted.

Earlier in the week I did a short night run along part of The Ridgeway south of Swindon. The mist was very thick, like running through soup. I also think I ran through a car park which was holding the Wiltshire Winter dogging festival, not really my thing.

Start running again on Thursday and see how it goes. Really looking forward to getting a long day out.

On your bike

After 4 weeks of mild pain in my foot which cleared up after a few minutes running, I went to see Kevin the Physio this morning. Nothing serious and he thinks that the muscles between the bones in the foot got bruised and twisted. He hurt me for a while which made my foot feel much better. Suggested foot in ice water for a minute, then out for a minutes and back in, repeat a few times. One week with no running, so its the bike instead. He thought there was no point backing off for longer.

I was concerned that it was a little more serious, but this is good news and a week of going out on the bike instead of running won't be a waste at all. A tad cold to go aqua-running in Pendam Lake.

How did it happen? I don't normally run much on roads, which this is a common injury from. It may have been during the snow I was doing a few miles on the roads with a couple of inches of snow cover and some of the icy sections strained something in the foot that is not used to working that hard.

Niggles like this are part of Ultra/fell running and having access to a good sports physio has proved to be important.

I think I missed a week around xmas. Lots of snow plodding and some great night runs, but I neglected to account for them here.

The last week has been about doing a few more miles than I normally would, but various family stuff meant a big day out had to be canned. Still quite a good week for the 1st week of counting. Not a step was run in the light, thank you Hope Vision.

• Monday Rest
• Tuesday : 10 x 150ft of the steepest hill I could find. As good training for going down as up and a few miles before and after. 1500ft and 3 miles
• Wednesday : 5 * 350ft : 1500ft and 4 miles
• Thursday : Aber to Borth and back across the coast path. 10 miles and 2000ft.
• Friday : rest
• Saturday : 5 miles + 500ft
• Sunday : 7 miles + 1500ft

so 29 miles and 7,000ft is OK for the 1st real week of training. Both need to increase and a big day out a week should do that. This was the 1st week I forced myself to go out each of the 5 days and do more than a warm up and warm down. The ghost of Bob Graham present (otherwise known as Jim Mann) has kept on at me that I need to get more miles in and compared to last year's training where I would happily get 10,000ft of climb in 15 miles, we are heading in the right direction. If I can get a big day in as well in a week, then 40 miles and 10k of climb should be no problem and be nice to do some of it in the light.