Progression

I headed out onto Kinder on Friday with Tim...first run with him of any distance for quite a while and I was looking forward to it. The weather on Thursday was horrendous, thunder, hail, lightening, even reports of snow in places! Friday was better, still blustery and low cloud clinging to the top of Kinder and Bleaklow so I opted for ron hills, icebreaker long sleeved and gilet to keep the wind off me. The route was just short of 11km, pretty much uphill the whole way to the turning point, then back the same route....so a nice downhill stretch for 5km. I found I was able to keep up a fairly steady pace on the way out, running the uphill bits without getting too much out of breath once the lungs had settled down from their initial shock of being used. we just had one steep push to get up onto Kinder which required walking, but having seen a fell race go up this way I know that most people walk it anyway. On the way down I turned my attention to making my brain stop working, something I hear fell runners saying about down hill technique - brain off, brakes off. It's not all that easy for me, but I'm practicing and allowing gravity to take hold a little more on each run. The one thing that is annoying is that I could probably let go a little more, but with the wind in my eyes and tears streaming down my face it could be quite dangerous...having to blink lots and constantly wipe my eyes takes momentary focus off the foot placement, or at least monitoring what ground is coming up. It wasn't really a day for sunglasses, though knowing they might help I wonder if running in clear or yellow glasses should be considered. Before I knew it we're back at the car...I'm slightly disappointed the run is over so quickly. It didn't feel like 1.5hrs of running but I'm determined to continue the slow build up of distance over time, rather than rushing a longer run and breaking myself. One thing I have learnt from the run is that I shall do my best to avoid running on paved paths from now on. They are not pleasant. Not at all. Wrong spacing of paving blocks, lumpy bits, slippery and no option other than to run on them in places since I do respect the reason for them being there, i.e. conservation. Best to plan them out of runs in future where possible.