Round up

Busy few days ...did an hours recovery on the turbo on 25th, then caving in Bagshaw Cavern on 26th - just a walk in with a couple of short crawls for a few hours. Got a nice bruise on my left forearm now. Rest day on 27th.

Sat 28th run up Shelf Benches with a friend. Extended the route on last time by running all way towards Doctors Gate to the FB then left and up the steep ground towards James Thorn - then contouring round to Shelf Benches higher up than last time, and a wonderfully enjoyable trot down the track to Shire Hill. I felt good on the rougher ground on the top, keeping a slow pace where we were running as the friend I was out with normally runs on roads so was breaking her INOV8 shoes in for the first time off road. Interestingly, she stumbled a few times and I can see why fellrunners have to pick up their feet a lot more than road runners - having to constantly avoid the tuffs of grass and heather when off the path certainly adds a different element to the run which I must work on more. It was very windy on top of Shelf Benches so we didn't hang around, heading back down and retracing our steps on the hard packed/grassy track. I was deliberately keeping my line on the most difficult part of the path to build up my experience on rougher ground. Along the track over the fields, past the farm, we were on a 5:30/km pace which I was really pleased with having already done 8.5km. Back home and 10km done. Nice.  My INOV8s were comfy as, no issues whatsoever.

Total distance 10.01km; overall time 01:32:21, actual moving time 01:19:46. Stops just navigation and showing my friend various features of the route the boys were taking (they were reccying the Shelf Moor Fell Race route). Elevation gained 315m.

Its interesting running with someone else, it adds an element I'm unsure I like in some ways, particularly as this is my back garden. I was constantly wondering whether I was running too fast, too slow, if the conditions were too much for her, if the distance would be too much, or the terrain too difficult. As it was, she did fabulously, and I can see she'd make a good off road runner with some improvement in ankle strength. I already feel that my ankles are improving, just need to get my quads stronger and get out running more. I think a lot of my concerns about running with someone else are more about whether I come up to their standards, and if you run with someone often enough those thoughts would just disappear because you'd know what each other was capable of - or at least how far you can push them.

Moving on...later that day we all walked up to Wormstones (3.5km each way) and did some climbing - even me! I did 2.5 routes - giving in to my headspace on the attempt of one route but then going back to finish it off and show myself I can do it.

Sunday we hiked up to Kinder Downfall via William Clough and down next to Red Brook Clough...total time 2:59:29 (moving time 2:33:29), distance 11.94km, elevation gain 437m. Lungs kicked off on the ascent and took ages to settle. Must remember to take my inhaler before getting on to the hill as that certainly helped on my last run. Weather stayed dry which was lovely after the heavy downpour in the morning, but it was very windy on top. Great to see the downfall being blown back up!!