Kentmere to Coniston 24/06/2012

With only 5 weeks to go, we decided that it was about time we got over to the Lakes and ran some of the actual route. As we'll finish the course in the dark (hopefully), it made sense to familiarise ourselves with the second half of the course; we may be a tad tired after 10 hours running leading to a higher chance of a navigational cock up & related sense of humour failure!

We got to Consiton a little later than planned thanks to a screw in one of my car tyres and called the pre arranged Mr Taxi driver to pick us up and drop us at our start point in Kentmere. We started running at around 1045 in the torrential rain and climbed up and over to Ambleside. This was our first introduction to what we'd actually bitten off. We knew it would be hilly (obviously) but our plan was that we'd walk up the steep hills and run the down hills and flats. What we didn't know was how rocky the paths would be, which shouldn't change the uphill speed but does mean that you pretty much come down the other side at not much quicker than walking speed for fear of breaking your ankle/neck, especially if wet with studded trail shoes on! The other observation is that ther isn't much flat. it's mostly up or down.

Frank & Gaz making hard work of a little hill :o)

A rocky downhill path, typical of those across most of route  

Pause for a quick product review from Frank:

Karrimor Trail shoes, bought from Sports Direct for £35 and a bargain at half price:

"Probably a perfectly good item for use in the dry. In the wet, however, these trainers have the potential to perform as well as Bambi on ice!" Thankfully Frank bounces quite well! 

By the time we got to Ambleside, around 1215, we were ready for a fuel stop and dived into the nearest cafe, avoiding the fifth or sixth downpour of the day (the sun did come out later, long enough to give me a red neck - a typical 'can't make your mind up' British summers day). Pints of tea and jam crumpets were the prefered choice of champions! Half an hour later and a quick pint in the Queens (wishful thinking!) we were off again, up and over, in the direction of Skelwith Bridge.

A cup of tea and a slice of cake - proper job!

No pub stop = sad faces

From Skelwith Bridge it was the very indirect route through to Coniston via the middle of nowhere. See map below. It tooks us about 6hrs 40 mins and as such we are looking at a predicted full course time of approximately 16 hours (give or take an hour or 4).

On the way up to

the top of the world

Here's a link to the route of the full 50 miles, which is split over 2

seperate pages for some reason? http://goo.gl/maps/sjsm

So what did we learn:

* Most of our kit (with the exception of Franks trainers) is good for the job

* We are of an acceptable level fitness and none of us had too many niggles at the finish

* It's going to be hard

* We're all going to really ache the day after

* We're not going to sign up for the 100 mile event next year - definately!

* The next 4 weeks of training is going to focus on running up & down from Pots and Pans (very steep hill in Saddleworth)

* Gaz is pretty good at map reading

* & it's going to be hard - again!

If you like what you read, please spread the word & remember it's all for charity, please give a couple of quid!

Cheers

Mick

Fletchers Mill and sore nipples! 17/06/2012

It was just me and Tom who managed to get out on Sunday afternoon. We kept off the tops because of all the rain that's fallen over the last few days - another lovely wash out summer!

We set off at around 2pm in the direction of Dove Stones but with no particular route in mind. The aim was to get a minimum of 10 miles in.

From about half way up Church rd in Uppermill we cut through on a footpath to Gellfield/Knowl Top Ln and followed the road till the dirt track peels off left (just before the road drops down into Greenfield). We then followed this in the direction of Dove Stones and it brings you out on the A635 at Binn Green car park where you can cut down some steps to the Res. From there we ran up past Yoeman hey and Greenfield Res with a view to crossing the stepping stones and running back down the other side but neither me or Tom relished the prospect of getting wet through in the rapids, so we ran up to the dead end at Greenfield Brook (photo taken) before re tracing our tracks back to Dove Stone.

Tom & the view looking back down the valley from Greenfield Brook

After running around Dove Stone we dropped back through the drive of what was Fletchers paper mill (see below) and along to the Royal George pub and back through to Uppermill on the bridal path. Approximately 11.2 miles in a little over 2 hours. The leg felt ok and I'm sure I'll be fit and ready in 5 weeks!

http://goo.gl/maps/UZ71

Tom had a minor issue (he may not have thought it minor) from Saturday's run when he got wet though and developed a nice dose if 'nipple rub'! It sounds ridiculous but if you've ever had it you know exactly how painful it can be. If you wear a loose fitting/rough material top and it gets wet/or you run for long enough the material rubs a layer of skin off the end of your nipples. You don't always know about it until you get into the bath/shower and then you very nearly go through the roof with the meeting of water on skinless nipple! I've only had it a couple of times and now generally wear fitted tops that don't move about as much to avoid the problem. So well done Tom for battling on, at least you didn't get to this stage:

Ouch!

Fletchers Paper Mill - a bit of local history
If you're interested, over looked by Dove Stones, is the former Fletchers paper mill (in red on the map above) where i worked back in 1993 for 2 years. My job was to work at the end of one of the paper making machines and look after the big reel's of paper; the 'reel end' - a very appropriate job title!

Anyway without boring you to tears about the factory, i googled it for some info and came across the site below. It would appear that people like to visit these kind of places and take photo's etc and then publish them for others to see. To be fair, although not my cup of tea, they've produced some cracking pictures of the place (which doesn't seem to have changed much :o) along with some local history. There are quite a few different posts on Fletcher's, I've just linked to one of them:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=60044
(for some reason when you follow this link it comes up with a 'Database error' when it does just click the 'refresh link'. Alternatively copy and paste the link above into your browser and it should work fine).

By all means have a look at the you tube clip also but it's a bit Blair Witch with dodgy music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gWZGI2LT3I


If you like the Blog, spread the word and i may just hit my target of £1000 for Dr. Kershaw's hospice!

Off to the lakes on Suday for a proper test run with Gaz & Frank!

Cheers
Mick

Mad Sunday Run

Apologies for not posting sooner but with injury leading to short runs, a busy work schedule and a quick trip to the Isle of Man to watch the TT, I've either not had much to say or not had the time to write it. So I've tried to compensate by writing a decent post for you below:

I was away watching the TT for 5 days last week. It was my first time to the Isle of Man and it was a great experience, I would definitely recommend it for anyone who has the slightest interest in bikes. I've watched World Superbikes/Moto GP/British Superbikes etc but they really are nothing compared to the TT. If you were aloud to get any closer to the action, you'd be sat on the bikes with the riders! Although the course (public roads) is closed, you can get right up to the action on the roadside. There is, of course, an element of risk in sitting on the side of the road as bikes come whizzing past at speeds in the region of 170 mph but viewing spots are relatively well thought out to limit the danger.

I've uploaded a couple of short (30 seconds ish) video's which I took, to You Tube if you're interested in getting a feel for it. It looks as though the clips have been speeded up (even to me) but if you look at the people on the side of the road, you can tell they haven't been. There's also a couple of pictures to show just how close you can get:

Bray Hill: 160 mph speeds through a 30mph speed limit,

traffic light junction on a bend. Only the brave!

A straight section on the run into Ballacraine

Rider Gary Johnson on the straight after Bray hill (I've got my arm stuck out

over the wall, just in case you think I'm stupid enough to stand on the pavement!)

The shutter speed on my phone's camera isn't quick enough (surprisingly)

and as such I've some weird distorted images of bikes 

So while I was out in the Isle of Man we spent Saturday afternoon with some friends in a place on the south of the Island called Port Erin. A lovely little village/town, very scenic, great beach, even better pub! As we'd gone there in the car and the beer was too good to stop drinking, we decided to leave the car and collect it the next day. We hadn't decided how exactly we were going to get it but I'd taken my trainers and figured I could always run down from our hotel in Douglas so long as I wasn't too dehydrated. As it happens I was fine in the morning after calling it a night at a reasonable time and because it was throwing it down there wasn't much else to do. So I donned trainers and waterproof jacket, grabbed a bottle of lucazade and set off.

It's the longest run I'd done in a while and I felt it. Not so much on the fitness but more on the legs. Most of the route was on tarmac and I was running in a pair of race trainers which provide less cushioning. I'd bought them for casual use rather than running, however when your running trainers are in the boot of the bloody car that you're on the way to collect (slight oversight), there isn't much choice!

It was a pleasant enough run and I always enjoy running in one direction, rather than doing a loop, for the constant scenery change. There was one section of road though, for about a mile, between Newtown and Ballasalla that had no pavement and there were a few moments when I feared for my life. A combination of overhanging tree's, blind bends and fast flowing traffic; mostly Vallentino Rossi style bikers, didn't make for a relaxing section. The Isle of Man is a fast, busy and dangerous enough place during the TT fortnight, without throwing into the mix a runner wearing a camouflaged outfit of black shorts and tarmac grey t-shirt!

Anyway I survived and although the run clocks up about 15.5 miles on google earth I probably did at least an extra mile thanks to the locals at Ballasalla who sent me off road down some track towards Castletown. They said it would keep me off the road and out of the traffic, what they didn't say is that the path splits several times and disappears completely in a couple of places - you can always trust the locals! I also took a wrong turn when I got to Castletown; funny how sometimes, for no reason at all, you are convinced that it's left not right. In this instance I knew I'd gone wrong when I got to the Sea!

I took my phone to use as a sat nav but only used it when lost because of the extortionate data charges. As such I've plotted the route from memory on google earth below:

http://goo.gl/maps/O2w9

The beautiful bay of Port Erin on the Isle of Man

Just in case you're wondering about the title of this post; Mad Sunday is so named because it's traditionally the day that the race course (37 miles in total) is open for the public to ride/drive around. Over the mountain section of the course (10 miles ish) it's one way with no speed limits - a free for all; as you can imagine, the day usually lives up to its name - MAD!

Me, Gaz and Frank are only six weeks away from the big day now. We've still got a lot of preparation and hard work to come and it's all for a good cause. So, if you like the post, and I can tug at your heart strings, please make a contribution to Dr. Kershaw's hospice by clicking on the Just Giving link above - thank you!

Cheers
Mick