Saturday, May 31, 2008
Changing the Forerunner 305 Strap.
May: Longest Mileage Month!
I'm not sure what I'm going to do mileage wise for the next two months but I don't think it will be as high as am aiming to do long runs of up to 10 miles max and bring the bike miles back up instead as they are paltry this year.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Tuesday 27th May: Short Road Run
Forecast not looking great for tomorrow but hopefully will get out on the MTB after work, would pack it all up tonight but car is going into the garage tomorrow so will have to come home first before heading out again. Resting Thursday and Friday.
Monday 26th May: 4 Mile Trail Run
I had been dithering all day about where to run as quite frankly I'd had enough of tarmac with the road race yesterday but I didn't want to run any real hills and all the trails I run on are hilly. I had decided to myself that once Garburn was out the way and I no longer had to do very long runs I would do some more exploratory runs and find new trails so in that spirit I got the map out. There are some footpaths out of White Coppice that stay low level, I also wanted to run round Healey Nab as I'm sure there are lots of little trails in there that we don't ride on. I have found that trail running is a really god way of spotting and investigating potential bike trails, on the bike I'm usually moving too fast or concentrating on the trail itself to notice peripheral detail.
So I parked up at White Coppice, opened the car door and nearly stepped into a bunch of nettles, that would not have been pleasant. Got my kit on, including bike arm warmers as the temperature had really dropped and dug my trail shoes out. I had obviously just chucked them in the plastic bag at the end of my last run and not let them dry out, I need to run some clean water through them and let them dry properly me thinks as they were rather ripe. I had a quick scan of the map for the key paths in the general direction I was heading, I didn't bother taking it with me as even if all else failed I knew how to get back on road.
So I set of along a footpath that followed the base of Stronstrey Bank, the surface was hard packed as it had been dry so much but it would be good going even in the wet. This is one of those footpaths that as far as I'm concerned should be a bridleway, it is wide enough and strong enough to handle bikes and horses but for some reason its no go, doesn't stop people riding it and I can see why, there are a few paths like that round this area. I pop out at the road near the Waterman's Cottage at the north end of Anglezarke Reservoir, have a quick look at the steep road hill just to confirm it is in fact steep (yep, still steep) and have a quick look down a footpath that follows the east back of the reservoir. It is a woodland type path and is bone dry but looks like it could get very boggy when wet, I'm not going that way but will investigate it soon, would be a good fairly flat trail run to run all the way round Anglezarke. I head along the road for a bit to the very start of the West bank of the reservoir, I've got a choice of two paths, I can either go up the steep steps which I've noticed before whizzing past on a bike or go along the track that hugs the reservoir (which I've never noticed when whizzing past on a bike). I opt for the latter. It is a fantastic running trail, undulating, rooty and runnable. In its present bone dry condition it is probably pretty bikeable as well, may try it one dry evening. The track pops out at Heapey Fold Lane which is the bridleway they "restored" (i.e annihiliated) so I follow that for a bit and run on the normal biking route into the Nab area. I drop down the drops and as I turn to head down the wide track I notice two steep paths dropping down from the main one, so I stopped the Garmin and headed down one for a look. It is steep and rooty but will make an interesting bike descent as long as there is a sensible way back up. It drops to another wide track and I look around for a rideable way up, I pick another steep track which is not rideable up but would make a good down and get back to the top of the drops. I restart the Garmin and continue on my way. I follow the main bridleway to the the sharp right hander before the gate, at this point I notice that the wide track the steep descents dropped to joins the main bridleway here (result!), I have never really appreciated this when on a bike. I also noticed two other short sections of track that are worth looking at....I continued on the normal route back to Heapey Fold Lane, there were a couple of other likely looking tacks but my stomach was really rumbling by this point. I followed a footpath sign that brought me out by the steep steps on the west bank of the reservoir then I retraced my steps back to the car.
4 miles in about 40 minutes and lots of exploring though not the easy recovery run it was supposed to be. After finding those new trails I spent a lot of time looking at the 25,000 scale map tonight to start identifying some new tracks to run and ride, got some plans...
Sunday, May 25, 2008
This Weeks Planned Training
Monday: Short recovery run, 4 miles max
Tuesday: Short run: 3 miles max
Wednesday: MTB - will suggest short route this week
Thursday: nada - stretching
Friday : nada - stretching
The weather forecast for tomorrow is rubbish so that should stop the temptation to go out for a ride or do anything long.
My legs felt very good on the 10 miler this morning with two days rest in them so that is the plan for next week too.
Sunday 25th May: Chorley Harriers 10 Mile Road Race
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Summary
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Distance: 9.97m
Time taken: 01:26:47
Average/Max Speed : 6.89mph / 10.12mph
Average/Min Pace : 00:08:42 / 00:05:55
Average/Max heart rate: 173/188
Calories used: 1086
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Splits
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10:59:50 1.00m 00:08:36 6.97mph 9.18mph 166bpm 174bpm
11:08:28 1.00m 00:08:33 7.01mph 8.94mph 171bpm 176bpm
11:17:05 1.00m 00:08:19 7.21mph 9.54mph 169bpm 175bpm
11:25:29 1.00m 00:08:52 6.76mph 7.52mph 173bpm 176bpm
11:34:21 1.00m 00:09:10 6.54mph 7.85mph 173bpm 176bpm
11:43:43 1.00m 00:08:52 6.76mph 9.53mph 173bpm 180bpm
11:52:56 1.00m 00:08:42 6.89mph 8.30mph 169bpm 175bpm
12:01:43 1.00m 00:08:53 6.75mph 7.95mph 175bpm 177bpm
12:10:37 1.00m 00:08:48 6.81mph 8.20mph 180bpm 182bpm
12:19:25 0.97m 00:07:59 7.28mph 10.12mph 182bpm 188bpm
I think it was a negative split but just. I think I can go a bit faster, without the section into the wind and not hanging back quite so much, particularly after mile 5 but I would need to keep a check on my tendency to try to speed up too much.
So an easy week planned prior to Garburn trail race.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Lazy Day today
My big 15 mile trail race over garburn is a week today, I have just sent the e-mail off to confirm that I am doing the challenge event rather than the race event. There is a 2 3/4 hour time limit to complete the race and they have a tight time cutoff after 10K as well, if I didn't make the cut off I would be absolutely gutted after all the work I've put in so I've decided to go for the Challenge event which has 4 1/2 hours to get round which I'm sure I can manage. I've never raced 15 miles before so its yet another unknown quantity but even if I have a complete 'mare I can slow right down and still enjoy the event without worrying about getting disqualified.
I didn't do as well as I hoped at the Hawkshead event as my legs just seemed to give up half way round, I think I did too much the week before with extra cycling. I'm planning on doing very little next week in the lead up to Garburn to have some hopefully fresher legs.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Thursday 22nd May: Short Road Run
It was quite warm, with a noticeable wind and it looked like it was threatening rain. Decided to do four miles and as I'm not sure of a loop onto the tramway that is four miles I decided to do out and back. Set off running too fast (yay some speed is coming back) but wasn't too bothered about pace, so fast one minute, slower the next.
The trees and other greenery are now in full leaf which is lovely, what is not so lovely however are the insects. I got at least three in my eye and almost swallowed one, bliddy things. I had to stop at least twice to get the little beggars out of my eye and one of them only came out this morning, little sod. I was debating with myself whether to take a bike out (road or off) or to do another short run tonight to keep me occupied as I'll be by myself but my right hamstring feels niggly so am leaning towards resting and stretching tonight.
So 4 miles and an all over the place pace - was fun though and the rain held off.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
21st May Wednesday Evening Ride: Worsthorne
So after a flurry of e-mails on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning it ended up just being Stu and I who were up for it and I suggested a loop out of Worsthorne (cos I know how to get there!). Conditions were warmish and I was wearing summer kit but as usual it was a couple of degree colder at Worsthorne and the arm warmers made an immediate appearance. There was a pretty strong Easterly headwind blowing which made things unecessarily hard as we set off up the Gorple Road. My hamstrings are still feeling it a bit from Mondays long trail run and the pummelling Alan gave them at my sports massage session on Tuesday but they settled down. After climbing against the wind for the three miles (much more fun heading the other direction) to the top of the descent to Widdop reservoir we then started the drop into Widdop. As the trails were so dry all the loose stones and boulders at the top of the descent were very entertaining to ride on. I feel my bike handling skills have fallen off a little due to my lack of bike time and I was skating around all over the place at the top of this descent, it felt like riding on ball bearings and I just had to let the bike go where it wanted, which was everywhere. A couple of tight sketchy switchbacks later and the descent opens up and I catch up with Stu. Stu then proceeds to tell me about how he nearly lost it on the top of the descent so it wasn't just me!
The rest of the ride passed without such problems, the dry conditions making for fast progress. On reaching the road we got blown back to the Long Causeway which was great. The windmills were whirring round with gay abandon due to all the wind, I still feel a little worried passing windmills in case one of the propellers shears off.... All that remained was to head back to the car. The only problem with doing the loop in this direction is that whilst you gain by not having to do the climb up from Widdop you lose out on the three mile descent of the Gorple road back to the car, however I think with the Easterly wind and the very dry trail condtions the Gorple road descent would be so fast as to be frightening.
In short, this is a good loop but it is more challenging in the anti-clockwise direction. Its a good one to head out on of an evening for a bit of variety. I took the Garmin with me and just left it in the Camelbak, it lost the heart rate trace at some point but has logged the route ok.
Length: 17.45 miles Ride Time: 2:15 Faff Time: 15 minutes (not bad, not bad).