I took my usual day off from training on Monday. On Tuesday and Friday I did gym sessions, including resistance and core stability work.
On Wednesday I did a 7 mile interval session on a trail. This week I did 2 mins at pace, then 3 mins recovery, but I'll be switching that to 3 mins pace and 2 mins recovery permanently from now on. The route did include some climbing which isn't normally a part of true interval training, but since I don't have a 400M track on my doorstep it's the best I can manage.
On Thursday I did an hour long trail run, at a nice slow and steady pace. I set out to enjoy this one and not mind about the clock, deliberately going slow and steady down the hills etc to keep my time under 10 minute miles. It ended up being about 9:45. Sometimes it's hard to run this slow when your instinct is to go faster, but I read it's a common mistake that many people make to do all their training at moderate, or fast pace. To build endurance it has got to be slow and steady, even though it feels too easy. Well, I won't complain about those sessions, very enjoyable.
On Saturday I had a busy day with one thing and another and so the only time I could get a run is was by getting up at 6:30am! This was a bit of a shock to the system, since I usually run much later. Still I enjoyed it. Being a recovery week it was only an hours run. I'd forgotten how wet the fields are, soaked in morning dew, plus it was a little foggy. Visibility was about 200 metres. I went to bed early that evening, not used to such an early start.
I took Sunday as my day off instead of Monday so I could take my son out for the day. So today, Monday I planned a route that I hoped would be no more than 3 hours. 3 hours I guess sounds like a long time, but it's like a walk in the park to me these days. It's funny me saying that. My mouth would have hit the floor 18 months ago if I heard myself say that! I packed 6kg, just a little lighter than usual for this recovery week.
I drove the few miles up to Mow Cop (335m), a local folly built in 1754. I've run from, and up to this place a few times now. I parked up on the (very busy) small car park. Being a Bank Holiday it seems lots of people were taking advantage of the dry (though not sunny) weather. My route is shown below, along with the hill profile, my speed and heart rate profiles for the effort too.
The planned half way point in my route was another local peak called 'The Cloud'. It is of course the peak shown on the elevation profile above. I took this photo from near to the start point. Sweeping views over Cheshire and Staffordshire.
My route would follow a well established footpath, the Gritstone Trail for most of the approach to The Cloud. The Cloud is the hill in the centre of this shot, with the brown top.
The Gritstone trail more than lives up to its name. The first few miles were this terrain; rough boulders litter the paths. The paths for much of the test were quite testing. Mostly narrow with exposed rocks, boulders or tree routes. Full concentration required for every footfall to avoid turning an ankle. That's what trail running is all about!
A few miles in the slight bump in the overall descent is a short climb and run along the length of Congleton Edge. It's a steep sided footpath; very steep on one side as seen below!
After the descent from Congleton Edge the Gritstone Trail turns right with the Staffordshire way and heads towards The Cloud, which can be seen from a distance of a couple of miles in this photo.
Other than stopping to hope over stiles (all too frequent) or check by bearings, I made it up to the top of The Cloud with no problems. I took the back way around and up, so I could descend a different a in fact slightly steeper route. I took this decision because longer slightly less steep ascents I find more challenging than short sharp ones. This turned out to be a good decision I noted later because the descent paths was much 'picker' and would have been slower going as an ascent. Before I reached the summit though, I took the opportunity to take this shot of where I had come from, which was the highest point in this photo; Mow Cop.
I took this shot almost at the trig point at the top of the Cloud. I remember as a child I would see hang gliders buzzing around this peak, but I passed a sign on the ascent "No Hang Gliders". I suspect too many came to grief off the top (I just did a quick Google search, and there were a number of crashes apparently!).
I stood on the trig point for 20 seconds and clicked off these two shots of the panorama.
If you have good eyesight, in the very centre of the picturebelow, just before the horizon you can make out the World famous Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope. It was facing the wrong way today; otherwise it would have stood out very well in the photo.
I descended the 'picky' path and wound my way down to join the Cheshire Ring Canal Walk, and there enjoyed 40 minutes of almost elevation free running. Of course this did not last forever, and there is a wicked 700ft ascent in little more than a mile at the very end. Certainly a challenging note to end on. I did have to walk a short section in between the running effort, but overall I was very pleased with my effort on the ascent. Just before I got back to the car I took this photo of the 'Old Man of Mow'. I think I caught this just at the right angle. He looks quite creepy doesn't he? Head tilted to one side, and pointy nose.
Finally, my start and finish, Mow Cop.
The route was 14 miles and 2000ft of ascent, completed in 2 hours 50; about 4.7mph average speed. It's been a long time since I took my heart rate monitor along. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had a nice average heart rate of 136 for the effort. This shows I am well adapted to my endurance pace. Of course I can run quicker, but this pace is the most economical for me, and the heart rate is a fair reflection of that.
So, a successful week. I will post my next months training plan in the next couple of days. I have a heavy schedule for 2 weeks now. The 40 mile Coventry Way is this coming Sunday, with the 22 mile Hills and Dales 6 days after on the Saturday. Including my normal training I expect to cover around 120 miles in the next 2 weeks. I'll post more thoughts on the next few months with the training plan update in a day or two.
Until then.
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