Wolf's Pit Fell Race

Ran the Wolf's Pit Fell Race on Sunday, which was pretty fun. I'm meant to be training on the bike at the moment for the Majorca 312km ride in late April, so I thought I'd cycle there and back too. This turned out to be a good idea as I was nice and warmed up when I got there and met a couple of friends also running.

I found the running ok actually, the bike fitness must do some good. After the initial steep climb I toddled along the moorland paths, just keeping pace with the people around me. I should have pushed harder in this section as it's flat but the excuse of 'i should be bike training' was enough to stop me trying too hard.

Good thing too really as the second half is the harder part, with a couple of ups and downs, which were pretty muddy and therefore quite sapping. You feel like you're not making very good progress although the people around you also seem to suffer which is helpful! By the end of the final ascent I was glad I'd taken it easier earlier and managed to pull away from a few around me towards the top. However as is usual on the last descent they all came whistling back past me. The added problem of an untying shoelace meant I lost a few seconds. No bother though as I came in at a reasonable 71/286 in 51:55 minutes.

The cycle back was very cold as I'd cooled down a lot in the chilly wind after the race, but a slow grind up winnats pass soon warmed me back up and gave me the warm glow of thinking I'd actually done some bike training! I then buggered up all the good work by drinking too much beer watching the Milan san Remo and then visiting the pub, which meant I suffered the next couple of days with the nasty 'fighting off a cold' feeling. Seem to be better now after a rest day on wednesday though so back to training.. By training of course I mean cycling to work and maybe doing a slow longer ride at the weekend. Watch out wiggo!

Here's the GPS of the run:

Monday Evening Run

Numbingly cold on Monday, with temperatures just below zero and a howling wind. Perfect for some nice piccies from my new camera though. Sorry there is loads but hey, I like stopping.


Flurry moving across Chapel.

For the full experience look at this photo while sticking your head out the car window on a frosty commute.

Cowering from the wind produces a nice angle.

Taken in between South Head and Mount Famine, feckin freezing!

Some peakenglow for Kev.

Downfall doesn't look in (not surprisingly), hope these key words point loads of climbers from ukclimbing to my blog.

Kinder Low and other bits like Sandy Heys.

Sun setting over chinley churnish kind of area.

These clouds have almost exhausted their supply of snow, thought they looked a bit like jellyfish.

Bonus picture illustrating how I can survive arctic conditions without losing my flair for style.

Week off/mountain biking

So I just had a week off to look after Ffin, and have decided it's a rest week from road biking so have been doing a bit of mountain biking. Went out a few times, below are some photos from wednesdays ride.. not very spectacular but wanted to try out the new camera.


Kinder resevoir.. misty and dull.

Looking towards Hayfield, wish camera had arrived on Monday, the views were sponktacular.

The sun making a lame effort to break through.

Twenty trees. At this stage i had a made a small error of letting most of the air out of my front suspension in a quest for more squishyness. Not being the sort to carry a shock pump around with me meant the bike rode not entirely well all the way home.

New camera AND DOG

So I splashed out and got the middle of the range Olympus Tough TG-820 camera, which seems to be jolly good and all that. Just in time to take millions of photos of our new puppy- Ffin, who is currently on a campaign to destroy household and persons via teethy doom.


Perhaps i will poo in front of the telly next then eat it.

Destroying heather on a typicial rampage.

Need a new camera

So on the last day of the NZ holiday I snorkeled to such immense depths the camera imploded and now is more composed of salt than electronics. If I am ever to start my blog up again.. which i want to as we have a new puppy who will hopefully want to come running with me... then I need a new camera.

Am thinking about getting one of the Olympus ones like this TG-1... unfortunately they're a bit expensive...


I should probably just splash out as time is a wasting.. Unfortunately the other thing which the NZ holiday cost me was all my money so I need to find some way to finance this investment...

In other news.. I have nearly captioned all the NZ photos we took.. will post up the link here when I've done it (probably sometime mid-June)

The darkness approaches

Went out for a quick local run on Wednesday night with Steve. Stunning sunset, alpenglow and everything on Brown Knoll (well peakenglow maybe.)


It's now pretty dark on my cycle in, and getting dark early in the evening.

I find commuting by bike helps alleviate the usual depression associated with it though. Maybe its because spending more time outside you get to see all the little nice phenonemon. Such as today when it rained all the way home whilst also being bright sunshine. It created beautiful lighting effects, that if i'd been in a car would have been totally missed. Saying that my shoes would be be a bit drier if i'd driven..

Anyway..slightly blurtastic brown knoll.

Our destination South Head in the background.

Lovely.

Alport Castles

Went for a longish run at the weekend around Alport Castles. never been there before, very nice. Really wild on the moors behind it - nearly stood on two separate hares. The weather was super hot which made the last bit rather hard.

A view from above the castles. Think it's fairbrook naze and seal edge in the background.

Frank the sheep admiring one of the castles (some wierdos say they are a landslip but clearly they are castles)

I said to Steve "pretend to run" for the photo, I think he needs to work on his pretending to run pose.