5th-11th May Run notes

Monday

The start of a two-week taper and one final session of downhill focus. It’s a bank holiday and I run in the evening after a cooler day. I just find my familiar route on the ridge line in Sissons wood and repeat, repeat, repeat. There are more people about in the woods than in the morning and I get more encouragement than usual. It may not have been entirely sincere, but I take it. I ran the day before but my legs feel pretty good, chasing it downhill is lots of fun and I could definitely do a couple more repeats.

Wednesday

I’ve convinced myself I need to do a power hiking session on a treadmill to familiarise myself with continuous climbing. It’s not something I’ve had a lot of practise with given the lack of a nearby long hill. I run from the station with my pack to a nearby gym and proceed to spend a long time faffing with the guy on the counter who needs my email for him to send me a payment link. I spell out my email, write it down in caps but eventually just come round the counter to type it out myself. I pay and am on the treadmill, quick warm up then crank the incline up to max (15%) and hike it for 15 minutes before a quick cool down and jog to the office. It all felt good and I was pleased not to get any burning in my calves, hopefully this sort of thing scales all the way up Yr Wyddfa right?

Thursday

I skip the planned speed session because my hamstings are still slightly sore from Monday. I take it real easy through Sissons wood. The ferns are stark green among the ashes where the fires have been from previous weeks and unravel marvelously.

Friday

Another easy day just getting time on feet. This time I do the Middleton lap, heading into the park follow the track at the very edge of the wood until I come up by Gipsy lane and up out by the Ring Road. I follow Bodmin road a little before taking the gate down into Sissons wood and complete my lap running down Thorpe Lane and home. This whole thing felt super and I was buzzing by the end of it.

Sunday

Nothing spectacular as it's taper week. Just a nice steady one hour thirty or so down the Leeds Liverpool Canal from Burscough. It's gotten warm towards the end of the week and temperatures are already climbing this morning but the course is flat as a pancake and it's easy to keep it steady. The sunshine has brought everyone out and I pass people fishing, dog walkers, bike riders, walk-and-talkers, and plenty of runners. I get to Parbold and go a bit further and am passed by someone wearing a Lakeland 100 t-shirt which gives me an extra shot of inspiration. I can see himalayan balsam growing back with a vengeance along swathes of the towpath and hope the balsam-bashers will be out soon to try and contain it. In the end I do chase the distance slightly aiming to hit 16km/10miles mark, I make it within the time which makes me feel pretty happy and don't feel like I pushed further than 6 in relative effort terms. Looking at my stats gives the impression it was harder than it felt and I can see as the temperature picked up so does my heart rate. This is the one thing I'm slightly nervous about next week, a hot day, as I haven't had a lot of exposure to the warmer weather and likely will find it harder. You can't pick your weather though so it will be what it'll be!