Not much running going on

Not sure what has been up with my calf muscles since I've come back from the Cairngorms but they have not been happy bunnies.

A short get back into it run last Thursday was enjoyable, I expected possibly a little bit of soreness but my calves were very stiff on the Friday. I ended up doing some lunchtime hill reps on the bike on Friday due to car faff and working from home meant I had access to some hills.

The reps were about 1.4 miles long but not massively steep, more of a gradual climb interspersed with steeper bits. It wasn't ideal but I didn't have time to really get anywhere properly steep so decided to make sure I worked hard all the way up and resist the temptation to take it easy on the easier bits and push on over the top of the steepish sections.

I have to say, at least mentally, proper steep is easier, its just "get to the top". Making myself push where I wanted to back off was hard. They took about seven minutes each and I got slightly quicker each one but there is lots of room for improvement. I only had time to get three in before heading back home. Since I found them so difficult I should probably do them again.

A lot of stretching afterwards and I thought my calves would be fine, nope. Saturday I woke up and could barely put my heels on the floor. My calves and achilles were just solid, from my heels to just below the back of my knees. I wasn't 100% sure if it was the running or the hill reps but the pattern of tightness was slightly different on each leg which made me suspect running, my foot strike is slightly different on each leg. Maybe something to do with doing lots of walking as opposed to running?

An easy day of fubbing about on the shopping bike due to no car and an easy afternoon ride on the MTB did nothing to help but at least my calves didn't hurt when pedalling. It was too sore to stretch or bear the foam roller. They didn't hurt like that after the marathon so I rested on the Sunday completely.

They felt much better on the Monday, I could walk properly so decided to celebrate by going out for a run. I got less than quarter of a mile before my calves felt solid again, a bit of stretching and I decided to carry on taking it easy for a couple of miles to loosen them up.

They did loosen up a bit eventually but I was having to stretch them a lot at road crossings, or at the top of inclines, I should have taken the hint and cut it short but I carried on and did over 7 miles. I was hobbling for the rest of the night and the next morning so it was a bit of a stupid thing to do.

An easy spin out on the road bike on the flat on Tuesday, a fantastic dry trails and spring temperature night ride on Wednesday (so glad I made myself go) and a fantastic session at the Velodrome last night and I think, touch wood, things are heading back towards normal.

The Cairngorms

I've been back from the Cairngorms for almost a week now, a bit of a sniffle and post holiday blahs this week and it all seems a world away now.

I could write loads about the experience but I won't, it was just utterly fantastic. The snow was simply amazing. We had a pretty painless drive up on the Sunday, avoiding the worst section of the A9 it would seem by coming up from the Edinburgh side. Managed to drive past the turn off for Glenmore Lodge as the sign was totally obscured by snow. Heading up the ski road was entertaining, the road hadn't been ploughed, it had had to have a snow blower to cut through it. There is a four metre high wall of snow near the Coire Cas car park.

Days 1 -4 had pretty much no wind, which is quite frankly rare in the Cairngorms. We also had lots of sunshine and blue skies, again rare. I just hope I haven't had my lifetime's quota of good Scottish winter weather in one week. Soft snow meant slow moving progress particularly being the shortest member of the group, with the shortest stride. It wasn't always easy following others footsteps and as I took a lot of photos I spent a lot of time as the tail end Charlie.

On the Tuesday we were accompanied for the day by cameraman from the Adventure Show, they are doing a piece on people beginning to venture out into the Scottish hills in winter. It was quite odd doing stuff and then having a camera watching or being asked questions. Its only shown in Scotland and probably won't be out til the autumn so I'll have forgotten all about it by then. I will no doubt look and sound like a complete plank!

Ice axe arrest practice was hilarious, crampons and ice axes were seriously confidence inspiring though there wasn't always a massive need for them due to the soft snow. Snow shelter digging was interesting but quite frankly I think I'd rather bust a gut to get off the hill. A snow hole on the other hand might be fun for a night. Avalanche awareness was a hot topic for obvious reasons, lots of attention to the forecasts, looking for wind scoured slopes etc, learning new words for snow....loaded:

Sastrugi, my favourite word for snow:

A good walk around the Northern Corries on the Wednesday with visibility for miles in every direction, not sure if I'll see it like that ever again:

Lots more photos on Flickr if you want to trawl through them.

Just to redress the balance the normal weather closed in on Friday. We wanted some experience of trying to navigate in white out conditions and we got it. Snow shoes and following the pistes up made for fast progress up to Cairn Gorm summit. Sheltering in the Ptarmigan ski station for some food and layer rearrange it was then up to the summit, walking on bearings in pairs using dark patches in the snow to sight off - it was the only detail and using hand signals to correct the lead (voice signals drowned out by the wind). The view from Cairn Gorm summit, the little grey "sighting" patches visible at the bottom:

From the summit over to another feature on a bearing taken and measured by me (gulp) but it worked. I was the lead of our pair, we managed to stay on bearing and I managed to keep counting paces. I found it was a good way of blocking out thinking about the conditions. I had my only real "I'm not liking this" moment across here as everytime I had to turn back to check I was still on bearing I got a load of icy snow driven into my eyeballs, not pleasant.

Still, we found the little tor we were looking for, walking round it I got blown off my feet three times due to the combination of 40mph winds, soft, deep snow and snow shoes. Hiding behind the tor on quite frankly, dodgy windslab (just as well it was flat) I managed to get my ski goggles on and what a difference. Eyes protected, hood up, in my own bright yellow bubble it made a huge difference to things.

We set off back to the Ptarmigan with more bearing walking and pace counting and I was by then really enjoying the challenge. The only slight annoyance was having to carry my walking poles to use the compass and they kept icing to my gloves and making whatever hand was holding them freezing. The compass base plate was ice, all toggles etc were covered in rime ice, jacket hoods etc. It was a good reminder of exactly how serious things can get up there.

Packing....

Heading up to my folks tomorrow then onto Glenmore Lodge on Sunday to do 5 days of winter hillwalking skills (or how not to get swept away in an avalanche!). Already had mum on the phone with the "are you sure it's a good idea" conversation (after the Glencoe avalanche). I'm not sure my assurances of being with some of the finest mountain instructors around reassured her...

Currently in the process of assembling every single hat, pair of gloves/mitts, buff, socks, baselayer, waterproof, down/merino garment etc I own.......maybe we should just pack all our clothes and take them with us.

Finger crossed the Highlands have finally been reopened by the time we have to drive up there on Sunday afternoon, can snow us in if it likes after that, I won't care then but don't want to have to spend a night in the car on the A9 on the way up.

Catching Up

After tweaking my left backside slipping about in the dunes on the 12th I was hobbling the next day. The "next day" was the Mid Lancs XC at Hyndburn. The Chorley Harrier ladies were hoping for promotion and to get as many out as possible to help, I had said I would run (help make up some numbers rather than actually count for the team). On Saturday morning I did lots of stretching but it didn't help, a bit annoyed as the Hyndburn course is really enjoyable.

At about noon when it wasn't getting any better I did the sensible thing and necked a load of ibuprofen and went anyway. Once I warmed up a bit it only bothered me when my left leg slid sideways...which happened a lot on the stodgy course. I was over two minutes quicker than the year before but getting out of my car at home was not very dignified! I wouldn't have done it for a longer race (probably).

It seemed fine for cycling thankfully so got some road miles in on the Sunday....for some reason decided to go chevron bagging around Belmont way and got my backside kicked, even with a 30 * 27 lowest gear. I found the hills mentally hard too which wasn't good, I'm no climber but I normally just get on and grind them out without too much thought. 44 miles, 3800 ft of up and an embarrassing average speed of 13.9....more work needed.

I did some short runs in the week as bum was still tight, it started to ease off after a trip to the climbing wall meant some serious stretching of various tight muscles.

On Saturday I headed out to check out snow conditions around the moors. I was only intending to do about six miles but it was so lovely I ended up doing over 9. Lots of snow:

I ended up on the turbo on Sunday afternoon but probably should have gotten the MTB out really.

This week I've managed to get back to some better running, a quick 4 miles after work on Monday saw me set off with leaden turbo legs. Last time I did that after about two miles my legs were fine and sure enough I managed to up the pace each mile, really enjoyed it and no problems the next day.

Tuesday was some turbo intervals, hard but bearable now I have invested in a fan. It meant I was able to work harder without boiling myself or having to open the door and freeze the house out.

Yesterday was another set of intervals, running this time. Possibly not the most sensible decision but I wondered how my legs would cope. A little leaden at the start but changed into running mode after about a mile. I did 3 x 1200 metres as slowly building the interval distance back up to three miles. They went well, not having fresh legs meant I paced things more evenly and didn't tear off at the start though on the last interval I had to push hard to keep the pace as I got stopped at the one road crossing. First and second interval had the same time, third was two seconds slower which I thought wasn't too bad. Run back to work was fine after the first half mile.

Yesterday was finished off with a trip to the wall again, which was really good fun.

Today I'm taking it very easy, I did think of cycling into work but couldn't get myself out of bed. The cycling gods punished me for my laziness by having me sit on the M6 for ages, eventually took 1 3/4 hours to get to work as opposed to 30 minutes.

Tweak!

I felt a bit lifeless last weekend, not sure why but got a couple of easy rides in. One short MTB ride with new front brake pads that were binding hard and had to be worn in. Did I moan? Nope, just treated it as extra resistance (could have done without the slipping seat post though), it needed to be done. The wheel was spinning much better by the end.

Monday, I was much more lively and got some 800m intervals out. I managed to pick the wrong direction and run them straight into a strong wind which meant the pace was well off but the effort level was there.

Tuesday was a good ride to work, really enjoyed both journeys though had to tell Jez to go off on his own after about a mile in the morning as there was no way I was going to keep up with him on his road bike when I was on the shopping bike.

Wednesday was a rest day due to neither of us getting home from work early enough to contemplate riding anywhere. Thursday was an interval session on the turbo where I attempted to boil my head again and nearly succeeded...thinking of moving it outside onto the patio to entertain the neighbours.

Friday was a run but with no plan, just for fun so headed to the beach to play in the dunes. The sun was out over Blackpool:

The sand was dry and really loose and after clambering up the third steep dune I thought maybe I shouldn't be hammering my calves and achilles like this as I had said I would turn up at the XC on Saturday. My glutes were also notcieably tight from the turbo session the day before. Just around then my left leg slipped in the sand down and away from me with a tweak sensation in the bum. A definite ooof! moment. Not great timing.

Onto the flat beach and seems no harm done so head way out towards the sea faffing about taking some pictures as the cloud rolled in for some dramatic sky moments:

Had a bit of a run in the lower dunes which are a lot more packed down then I could feel things starting to niggle, bit of a stretch and head back to work with my left butt cheek and hip trying to cramp up completely. Oops, needless to say an afternoon sat down at a desk did nothing for it. I got into my car like a 90 year old.