Impetus

It's a new month and as promised I'm reviewing my Aspirations for the year.

Weekly - final week of Jan only as goals in my Excellence blog were only set on 25th Jan.

3 runs: complete: 7.21km on 24th, 19.25km on 28th and 5.5km on 31st. The week was slightly skewed from my usual routine because of the Kinder Trial on 28th.

2 low-carb eating days: this was a tough one to fit in because of the Kinder Trial, no way was I going to be lacking energy from carbohydrates for that one. I did manage one really clean eating day - Monday - where I pretty much devoured a whole chicken and drank lots of water (I ate other stuff too). 

1 new recipe: I didn't exactly do a new recipe but I did vary what went in a beef stew the other day. Not very exciting I know, but it was a rather tasty sweet potato and beef stew seasoned with paprika and cayenne.

Monthly

2 Glossopdale Harriers club runs: complete - 11km on 10th and 11.63km on 17th. Both were night runs out of Glossop. I didn't run with the club on 24th as I wanted an easier run prior to Kinder Trial and on 31st I was just too tired to run at all....the KT has dominated the last few weeks of the month for me. Something to bear in mind for the time around future races.

2 full days on the hill: on 13th we did a night nav walk Into the Darkness lasting about 5.5hrs. I didn't manage another full day.

2 half days on the hill: did 4 short nav walks plus one at nearly 4hrs around Kinder's western flanks.

1 weekend away: not managed, goals only set on 25th and was racing on 28th.

1 bivvy night on the hill: this was almost managed, with goals set on 25th the only date we could have managed was Sunday 29th...the coldest night of the winter pretty much with snow laying on the ground and a weather warning out for siberian temperatures....we gave it a miss unsurprisingly. I'd like our first bivvy to be one we complete, rather than bailing at 2am because we're getting hypothermic.

Progress on 2012 Aspirations

#1 - 24 GDH runs: 2 complete, on target.

#2 - run 3 fell races: 1 complete, on target.

#3 - cover 25km in one go: max distance 19.25km. Very pleased I could run that far, in fact beyond happy so easily on target for this one in a few months I think.

#4 - 10 body weight chin ups: on Monday I did 12 chin ups over 4 sets: 3, 3, 2+1, 2+1. Good progress. Would like to be doing 4 sets of 4 by the end of this 4 week training programme which I started on Monday.

Overall I've had a really good month. I pushed myself in the race, got a really decent night on the hill, been out with the club twice (at night) and feel really positive. This quote has been popping up on the status of a few of my friend's social network "Obsessed is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated". I like it.

Into the darkness

It's last Friday night. Some will think I'm strange. Some will admire me. Which are you?

7pm on a freezing (literally) January Friday evening and we're collected by a friend, driven to the Snake Summit and hop out of the car. It's dark. As you would expect at this time of year. The cold is going to permeate every inch of us if we don't get moving. Our task for the night is to find a dozen or so features on Kinder and Bleaklow. We are out for a night navigation session.

And what a night. The sky is brimming with crystal clear stars. The ground is crunchy under foot - something of a new experience as we hike over the pathless moors usually more like boggy swamps than hard-packed tufts. There are zillions of ice crystals on the grass and as head torch beams flash over them it all glistens like diamonds. Beautiful. I'm now regretting I don't have a camera with us. That'll teach me. But it would just distract us from the task at hand....navigation practice.

Our walk goes very well...we wander over Featherbed Moss, down Ashop Clough, across the A57, up Urchin Clough, find 3 or 4 spot heights, a pond, a cabin, many grouse butts, a weather station and other features. Navigation goes really well...we're rewarded for our time out in the cold by stars to navigate by. What a treat.

icicles at the entrance to a cabin

Other rewards were sightings of several mountain hares, numerous grouse, and a fleeting glimpse of a short eared owl as it took flight. The moon rose as we climbed up onto Bleaklow, a glorious orange waning gibbous moon inching upwards into the frosty night sky. If only I'd had my camera, and a tripod, and more warm clothes to stand and admire it longer. Alas, that wasn't the aim of the night. By 2am we'd walked about 14km and my feet were ready for a sit down. As it was so cold we'd hardly stopped, pausing only to check map, take bearings and quickly forge onwards before Jack Frost could grab us.

I'll be out on the hills again at night soon, they're there to be enjoyed come rain, shine, day or night.