Tag Archive: Training
I remember my first fell race, the Chevy Chase on the first Saturday of July 2017. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done, harder than the road marathons I’d been doing around the time, and for about three days afterwards I’d have to steady myself on things while my quads twitched and groaned at random. For the years after that progress was fairly linear, each year I chose bigger challenges and got generally fitter. Lockdown was an opportunity to push hard and while I couldn’t get into the hills, I got quicker on the flat and ran higher volumes. At the back of my mind was a little voice that said I had to maintain my fitness and keep building until I’d ticked everything off the list; I knew how hard it was to get there, I didn’t want to face doing it again. And that held up until... View Article
For a below average gardener, I’m quite obsessed with my clematis. I bought it the year I moved in and every winter it dies back so thoroughly that I assume it is finished. Surely nothing good can come back from the spindly dry sticks I’m left with? And every spring, around about Easter, it surprises me with a resurrection. It’s in raging bloom at the moment, assaulting the dullness of the shed with bright purple flowers. What I love about it is that it doesn’t bloom based on just one season. It’s established itself in the soil. It’s grown a big root network. So every year is more than just a bit of sunshine and water, its the cumulative affect of years of growth. And this gives me hope. Specifically, this gives me hope for the Bob Graham Round. I’ve had one of those seasons where things don’t necessarily go... View Article
There’s a saying, often attributed to Disraeli, that there’s three types of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics. I can’t tell you if Disraeli ever said such a thing, but I can tell you it’s been true in my running. After being frustrated on my Bob Graham attempt in May, I wasted no time getting running again. I was back out within a couple of days. That next weekend I set a target to take a Strava crown on a four mile segment I’d been eyeing up and did so comfortably. The weekend after that was the Trail Pursuit half marathon, which last minute route changes had turned into a 15 mile technical fell run. Bad news for people who paid in good faith for an accessible trail, good news for gluttons for punishment like myself. All seemed to be going to plan until a frustrating outing at Blencathra Fell... View Article
February 8, 2022,
by Pete
When I was very young, just an infant really, my mother dipped me in the shuddering waters of the River Styx. Holding me by my heels she submerged me in the inky flow to ensure I was invulnerable. And — in fairness to her — it almost worked. Almost. But those heels, the only area not to be dipped, would inevitably become my weakness. Okay. Not quite. I may have appropriated Achilles’ story a little. But I have a surprising degree of empathy for the lad at the moment. We both found ourselves engaged in quests of epic proportions. He took his ships to Troy, I took my S/Labs to Troutbeck. And both of us were let down by our weak spot. All of this to say, I hurt my heels. “Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier;I have seen worse sights than this.” -Homer, The Illiad One... View Article
One of the things I miss most about lockdown is getting out onto trails and mountains. As an introvert I’m wired pretty well to cope with the lack of socialising but lack of mountains? That’s cruel and unusual punishment. I crave the sense of wonder found driving along winding roads, carved like glaciers through the majesty of tree lined slopes. The first sight of Sharp Edge, hovering over the shoulder of Blencathra on the drive to Keswick. The anticipation you get looking at the way the arête sweeps upwards, beckoning you to attempt it. I miss the first few hurried paces up a fell, before settling into a slower and more sustainable rhythm. The moment you spot the cairn and surge towards it with a sense of achievement. The feeling when the rays of the sun break through the cloud to bathe some corner of a valley in their light.... View Article
December 4, 2019,
by Pete
They were definitely naked. Sin ropa. Starkers. I couldn’t say for certain whether they were doing yoga or tai-chi but it involved stretching. A surprising start to the morning, but apparently La Caleta is a hippy commune as well as a beach. I’d arrived at just the wrong moment. I was staying in the village of Maro, lured by the towering Pico del Cielo rising 1,508 metre above the white washed Andalusian houses. I could well have started at my apartment, but there’s a special attraction to going from sea to summit. Plus, where better to calibrate an altimeter than with your feet in the waves? So I headed the kilometre down to the beach in the morning sun. It was obvious I was out of place. I wasn’t the only one in clothes, but I suspect I was the only one who didn’t live there and the residents looked... View Article
There are few things as exhilarating as pushing yourself to your limits. As T.S Eliot wrote, “if you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” For me, fell running is a great way to test those limits. Plan a route that’s going to test you in a way that you’ve not been tested before and go for it. I love the feeling of locking the car door, looking up at the mountains, and getting a healthy sense of awe at the size of the challenge ahead. When I was first getting interested in fell running a friend bought me the classic Feet in the clouds by Richard Askwith. It’s like reading of myths and legends. Giants stride across the landscape with names like Iron Joss, and the challenges those giants rise to are the great rounds. Giants stride across the landscape with names like Iron Joss…... View Article
7th July 2018. 14:05:13 hours. I can still remember the elated feeling, glancing at my watch on the way out of Carey Burn and realising I was almost bang on target. After over three and a half hours of racing in the sweltering sun I was within thirteen seconds of my pre-race goal. It wasn’t the first time I’d been on target in a big race, but it was the first time it owed as much to a spreadsheet as to training. It was the Chevy Chase last year and my first attempt at making data work for me in a race. Most fell races follow a simple format; you run to one or more checkpoints, in order, before the cut-off times. If you ignore the fact checkpoints are often on hill/mountain summits, you could even consider it fun. What racing provides you with, as well as dull and persistent pain in... View Article
On Sunday morning, at about 9:59, I’ll take a moment to remember JFK. It’s not his birthday or the anniversary of his assassination or anything like that; it’s the start of the Edinburgh Marathon. Toe-ing the line, as close to the front of my pen as I can be, I’ll invariably think of his 1962 speech at Rice University. And no, contrary to what recent performances suggest, I’m not old enough to have heard it live. Addressing the American people, he spoke about the need to do things that test our abilities and take all our energies and skills. He spoke, essentially, about doing hard things. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge... View Article
Well, I thought, eyeing the other patients in accident and emergency, that escalated quickly. One day I’d been entering my first relays with the club and relieved to find I’ve not lost all my pace, the next I’d noticed a mild discolouration on my calf, and then the next I somehow end up sat in A&E wondering how I got there. Marathon training has been tough this time out. I’ve been fighting a battle to keep my calves in vaguely usable condition. They’ve been bad but not too bad, painful but not too painful: I can always push through, and I figure that learning to push through pain is going to help in those last six miles. For the past few weeks things seemed to be improving. I had went from signing up just to improve fitness to entering that hazy, golden, stage of training where you start to believe... View Article
