First Morning swim

Ponds Forge closed.  Hillsborough swim which makes me feel sick but made it to 1km. (woo hoo)

Over the hill to work.

Biggest result of the week: Discovering the canteen does porridge in the mornings.

So much for the recovery ride.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/233802952

Newsome School Huddersfield

Second place.  A right rum battle & an unlucky de-chaining for the woman in third.

I didn't feel like it to start with and I didn't feel like I was going particularly fast but I was pretty happy with my performance.

Time for a rest day.

Ahhh.

Cheeky Run

It was one of those days where I'm supposed to want to go out. Impeccable sunshine, clear air.

I did a bit more planning for The Race training, packed my bag for running and ticked one item off my to do list - digging out wheels from the basement for my first attempt at building a wheel - the golden standard for bike mechanics.

By that time I had to get to mum's for lunch so I reluctantly drove over the hill non-stop.

On the way home through Glossop I made a split second decision to go running at Crowden reservoir because that's the way the sun was shining.

I parked up, tried to figure out what time the car park gets locked - if at all.  I didn't have a bag other than my shoe bag so I packed phone, garmin, car key, a nut selection and a fleece.  No waterproof, no compass, no map.

After 2 minutes I had to put the fleece on it was so lovely and crisp. My hands seared in the cold but my skin bristled with excitement.

I was out on my own. It was a little bit reckless but the sky was beautiful and the quarry looked spectacular in the twilight sky. I ran and ran until my lungs hurt then run-walked until I started to get near my turn-around & go back time, 15 minutes in.

Just-on-time some trees appeared and I resolved to take a peek & look for a obvious path down to the trail on the other side of the valley. It was clear that there was a route down and in the spirit of everything outdoorsy, I turned right at the dead sheep.

The path was steep and tiny and very deep streams crossed it in all directions, luring me like the proverbial rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland to break my leg and fall, lonely into that scary and trippy place that is hyperthermia.

I hissed in a breath as I ran through the inevitable almost freezing marsh but I emerged the otherside unscathed, though wetter.  The grasses before me were sodden from earlier rain but I held out my hands as I ran and enjoyed them whipping against my hands and soalking my leggings.

Now I was on the track down I could relax.  Bouncing down the hillside my mind turned to the carpark closing and the headlights just arriving.  I have to get home to feed TSK who was 3/4 through a 200km AUDAX.

So absorbed was I that I ended up at the Youth hostel & not the car park. There was a Mountain Rescue team seminar in progress & as I ran past the window I became acutely aware. a) that their dinner smelled amazing b) that I was out fell running without a map,compass, whistle, waterproof or friend.

I started nonchalantly running up the path behind the hostel, JUST so I didn't have to run past their window again.  I then realised that was silly. I was heading back to my original path just because of a bit of pride. So, I made like a cat and pretended I'd gone up there to take a picture of the building from above before going back past their window.

Investigating another "shortcut" down I found myself on private property & my bail-out path took me through a patch of sludgy black muck which did a great impression of solid ground but actually sucked me in beyond my socks & threatened to rip my shoes off.  At least by this point I had done everything I could to avoid the mountain rescue team passing one more time and I ran off in the opposite direction to join the path to the campsite & ultimately the car park.

Arriving at the car I realised just how dark it had become.  I took this picture of my steaming feet to show just how cold the air was & how dirty I was.  4 degrees according to Maurice. We headed back to Sheffield to pre race dinner & tsk and feeling smug & a little bit lucky.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/233802968

First swim of the year

I rode to work this morning. I wanted to do an early swim but someone wanted an 8.30 meeting so I had a lie-in till 6.15 instead.

Andrew wanted to do Sheffield Friday night ride. TBH so did I but I wanted to swim more. A long strength session to work hauling a large gear and swim kit, laptop & lock then a full day of panic.

That feeling that when the day is over, doing one more thing will save you getting into trouble because you wont forget it Monday morning. Well, I had three things. All done I wobbled to the pool hungry and churned our nothing more than 30 lengths on a bottle of dubiously weak protein drink from a machine. Still, I felt like a fish, swam at a decent pace and really really enjoyed myself. 6.30pm on a Friday night would be THE TIME to go for a swim for me. With everyone else going down the pub. Perfect.

I was brave about the ride home. Went straight up through town and up to Walkey. No mincing about in the Hillbsborough valley. Even with the laptop and now soggy swimwear on the back.

This is one Friday night out I might be repeating.

A race

There’s a race.  I want to do it.

It’s a big race, it’s a long race, it’s a hard race.  It’s one of those “…est in the country” kind of races.  I want to do it.

It breaks all preconceptions of what I feel I am able to do and yet it has got under my skin and so I think am going to do it.*

There are rules to me writing about this race.  I'm not discussing it with anyone.  I've told only certain people that I am thinking about doing this race.  Those are the only people I want to talk about it with.  No one else knows about this race or if they do (because they've read about it here) they don’t need to talk about it with me.  They can ask how fit I am or what I'm doing on Friday, or Saturday, or Wednesday, but not how my preparations for the race are going.

I could start a new blog so that no one knows about the race but then it wouldn’t be Trepid Explorer and me and this blog are so intertwined now there’s no leaving this race out of this blog or leaving this blog out of the race.

I don’t want to fail.  I don’t want to have to tell anyone I’ve failed.  That said, I won’t fail just because I’ve told no one that I’m doing it.  I will fail through pure failure, if I fail.

If I don’t fail… I might just tell everyone that it was a success.

*  One of my friends at work who I respect a lot said that if you think about a race then you have to do it and that is the law.  I am tempted to believe her.

Castle Eden Run

A quick 8km run in the middle of the day.

"Every leaf on every tree says live each day as if it were your last" - just as I was starting to feel guilty about taking my lunch at 11am and using it to go running.

They really love their Yew Trees at Castle Eden

Great graffiti art

The hard-to-find Castle Eden Castle