Family training week in Troutbeck

Half term and a great idea from Dr. M was a family holiday in the Lakes where I could do some training as well as doing family stuff. Success on both counts with over 16k of climb and a wide range of Lakeland tourist venues ticked off, it was lots of fun.
Troutbeck Inn cottages get the thumbs up. Weather was a bit variable, but did not stop play of either type.

I got to know Blencathera a lot better with early or late outings on or around it and 2 trips up Skiddaw. Also did leg 2 with Jim Mann in quite horrible conditions and a shared desire to be able to navigate it without getting the map out.

Instructed by Uncle Jim to read "Born to Run" so I can learn how to enjoy pain! It probably explains this.

Still have unpacking and packing for a short work trip to do .......

Enjoying something you really should not have done

I did the Tarren Hendre race in mid Wales and had a blast. I really enjoyed it. Flat out for the 70 minutes and despite going up an extra hill which lost me about 3 minutes [much to the amusement of Mr Blake] felt I ran well. At 6m miles and 2000ft it was not a long race by any means, but I felt on form. I did a 2 miles and 500ft warm up in the hour before which probably helped a lot. Deciding to do this race and really going for it (even managed to fall over into mud on the descent through the upper forestry) meant I did not hit 10k of climb this week and my legs were stiff on Sunday in a way they were not from doing 3 times the distance 2 weeks earlier. I don't want to do many of these, but the change from plod training and the intensity did me a lot of good. Must recie it before next year, at least 5 minutes to come off the time easily.

Monday : 1500ft and 8 miles on Plummon in the dark

Tuesday : rest

Wednesday : 2000ft and 3.5 miles via 6 hill reps [ clockwise up the steep bit, down the more gentle slope ]

Wednesday : 2000ft and 3.5 miles via 6 hill reps [ anitclocksize and down the steep hill ]

Friday : rest

Saturday : Tarren Hendre race 2 miles and 500ft warm up and 2000ft and 6 miles of race

Sunday : 500ft of walking up hill with dog twice

So about 8k of climb and 23 miles this week. Short of target across both dimensions, but somehow I don't feel disappointed at all, it was just what I needed.

How many ways can you think of to say "nothing"

No training last week beyond a few good stretches. There are 2 types of colds which have different implications for training.

1. Which stays in the head and you keep on training through it
2. Which involves coughing up green stuff and you stop training.

My G.P. friend Dr. J. told me some time ago about this simple classification and that keeping on training hard with type 2 can develop into a pneumonia. I had type 1 till Monday and then we got green stuff. I found even walking the dog to the top of the hill behind the house a breathless experience. However, this morning I was fine, so its time to start training again. The weeks rest was probably not too bad a thing after the long day out on Sunday, still we had not real choice.

A series of weeks like this would make a real mess of BGR training plans, but the odd week is OK. Lets make this week a good hard week and keep poping the vitamin C tablets.