November 27, 2011

wood stacking vs running

Monday : rest
Tuesday : 8 laps of field outside house quite quick
Wednesday : 3 * 500ft hill reps [ 1st hill reps since July ! ]
Thursday : circuits
Friday : rest
Saturday : speed session on the track while waiting for small man in football
Sunday : Stacking 3 years worth of firewood in the shed, enough exercise for any man

Plans for the Pumlumon round are coming together in terms of the route. Hard to get out at this time of year without sacrificing part of the day to recie the bits I don't know how to join up.

Nice to see Mark Smith has a brand new plan. He has both ambition and ability and is a very nice chap.

Cardington Cracker next week which is one of my favorite races of the year. Had a stomach bug coming on last year, so had a really slow time and until about 12 hours later no idea why. Looking to beat my 2009 time of around 1.42 and then some.


November 20, 2011

Nothing special


  • Monday : rest
  • Tuesday : Now't
  • Wednesday : 3 miles in dark somewhere between Reading and Aberystwyth. Had big hill in it and a firing range!
  • Thursday : 10 x 400m reps
  • Friday : bug, thanks kids
  • Saturday : bug
  • Sunday : 8 local mountain miles, quite fast and very rough ground. Very nice.
Not great amount of work, but I do feel as if I am ramping up again.

The way I am feeling at the moment I have no plans to do an other 24 hour round next year, the Paddy and friends can wait. I am putting together a route with a working title of "Pumlumon Round" which would be a 12 hours solo supported round of about 50 miles and maybe 10k of climb and I doubt anyone else would ever do it. Other than that fell races and pacing are my running goals for 2012. Next race, Cardington Cracker.

November 16, 2011

Ras Rhobbel Fawr with no shirt in November !


Ran Ras Rhobbel Fawr ( 6 miles and 2000ft) on Sunday, a glorious day. 29th out of 62 in a time of 1.12:25. Ran the last part of the ascent and all the descent without a shirt, it was that hot or I was sweating that much.

Great race, very well organized, 1 minute silence for the fallen at the start it being remembrance day as very appropriate I thought. Cracking soup at the end.

The race followed the usual competitive profile


  • Gentle ascent for the 1st 1.5 miles I was slowly passed by people
  • Steeper leg pumping climbs I would pass the odd runner
  • Passed 7 or 8 folk on the descent on the mountain
  • Kept my place on the gentle descent to the finish despite some thundering footsteps just behind me at the end

So I am relatively poor at running on the flat and gentle uphill, but OK at steep climbs and technical descent, so no news there. I think I could have improved by at least 3 minutes (6 places plus) with a slight improvement on the 1st 1/4 of the race. So will have to put some training focus on being able to run flat and gentle slopes a lot faster, between now and the Cardington Cracker.


November 6, 2011

Rhobell Fawr Recie


Rhobell Fawr  race next week, so we had a recie late on friday afternoon. No wind and the top of Rhobell Fawr was nearly poking out of the cloud. The navigation for the race looks straightforward following the wall until nearly at the summit, provided you don't get the wrong summit. A good hill to do at night given the large stone handrail on the 2nd half and the big wide paths on the 1st half.



School in Llanfachreth which you park next to has only 16 pupils left (had a quick chat with the head teacher who was heading home and asked if I was spying the route of next weeks race) and is on the threatened list. I predict an outcome similar to the primary school in our village, it will be a private house or houses within 5 years, matter what local people think or want.

Earlier in the week did 2 laps of the Dragons Back near Nant-Y-Arian, Saturday spent putting up scaffolding (very good upper body and core training, tired after) and 5 miles over local hills on Sunday.

Only 2 more races planned this year, next weeks Raw Rhobell Fawr and the Cardington Cracker. After a poor showing last year at the Cracker on my part due to a stomach bug. 1.52.12 compared to 1.42.30 in 2009, I need to do some hard work before then and should be able to get under 1.40 this year.

November 2, 2011

Clive vs Mr Naismith




Looking north from Sron A'Choire Ghairbh toward Loch Ness : its a wee bit windy !


Naismith's rule gives an estimate of how long it may take to cover ground on the ascent of a hill.
Allow 1 hour for every 3 miles (5 km) forward, plus 1 hour for every 2000 feet (600 metres) of ascent.
My copy of 1992 "The Munros" uses a slightly different similar calculation of 
4.5km per hour plus 10m per minute for climbing
but the results turn out to be similar.


A week in a cottage north of Fort William on a King family holiday spent most of the time doing jigsaws, child friendly walks and bike rides and trying to get motivated to go out an do a few hills. On the last day I set out a 3pm to do Sron a'Choire Ghairbh and Meall na Teanga which are just west of Loch Lochy. The time given by the book to the 1st summit was 3 hours 40 minutes and to the second was 4 hours and 40 minutes. The 1st half is on good path or forestry roads and the second part of the walk in is on rough track or no track with some peat bog hopping. I took the direct approach from the west up the steep nose, rather than from Carn Bhealach which was much rougher, but a fraction shorter.

Post Bob Graham I have been in a bit of a motivational lull [ I set out on the Tuesday morning at 7am and ended up driving 2 miles up the road before deciding I could not be arsed, turned round and went back to bed ], so not been full of motivation and fight on the running front of late, so was not really pushing myself to my limit on this outing which maybe was no bad thing, this was a family holiday.

Got to the summit of Sron a'Choire Ghairbh in 2 hours dead, a 100 minutes quicker than the book schedule and Meall na Teanga in 2 hour 40 mins so that gains another 20 mins on the book times. Carrying an appropriate amount of kit no doubt slows things down a bit, and I was no where near race speed. Suspect I have lost some of my hill climbing spark in the last 10 weeks.

Only took 1 photo, the wind on the top made us both struggle to run into it. Hounds ears and cheeks were flapping around in the wind a bit. On a clear day this must be one of the best hills for a view in Scotland. Ben Nevis to the south, looking up the great Glen from above to the north, but a cracking view in each direction. Some interesting ridges which are worthy of further exploration, but time did not allow on this visit. These are hills I must visit again.

It got dark while I was on top of the ridge, but had no problem hitting one of the streams and following it down to the entrance to the Forestry and the path. all done in just over 4 hours, could have taken 30 minutes off this time with some application. I would have guessed 4 years ago it would have taken 7 hours-ish as a walker. Without the experience of wondering around the Lakes at night I would not even have set out at 3pm in the certain knowledge I was be doing a fair part of the outing on remote and unfamiliar ground in the dark. 

In no way does this suggest Mr Naismith was slow, but using 2/3 of his figures should be a safe guide for a slow late afternoon outing.


On the training front I have done a little running, but have started going to Circuits in Aberystwyth Sports centre to contract the observation that I may have legs like a bullock, but my arms and core are in serious need of some work. Finding it hard, but that is no bad thing. It a good way of getting my enthusiasm back for exercise, I am sure the running bug will follow in its own time.