SportsShoes Blog

After torrential rain Friday night, Saturday was almost perfect running conditions for the Langdale race.

I had a good run round making third counter for the Bingley team with Rob Jebb (race winner) and my 3 Peaks Yacht Race partner Robin in 12th. Not sure of my position yet as results aren’t up and I was too interested in getting a pie and a pint at the finish to worry about the leaderboard.

The course was very wet underfoot and some of the bogs were genuine people swallowers - ask my pal Martin Peace who literally dissappeared up to his chest. I asked him if, as he was sinking, he was thinking about what Ray Mears would do - he replied that he did exactly what Ray Mears would have done - ‘panicked and kicked like f**k!!’ Ha ha ha ha….

Anyway, in my opinion the day didn’t belong to us seasoned (read old) fell runners who’ve done this sort of thing before but to our Bingley teammates who were tackling Langdale as their 1st ever A-long lakeland race. As Mary commented before and after the race this was a BIG step up from anything she’d done before but she faced it head on and nailed it - well done to her Steve Firth and all the other Bingley gang that got round. For those that didn’t make it, remember it’ll be on again next year so you’ve a full year to get ready for it!!!

Another pal of mine Steve ‘Carnage’ slipped after about 3 miles and jarred his back, got going again only to fall, bang his head on a rock and almost knock himself out then stagger round to about 1/2 mile from home where he fell again and was told to lie still as he was in shock by a marshal. Anyway, he made it to the finish, got some treatment by the medics then managed to stay out on the beer til 4 in the morning - a true endurance athlete!!!

After the fun and games of Saturday, I managed an hour on the roadie Sunday and pedalled to work and back today.

Well, it has almost been a week now i have been off training with a niggling cold. Really wanna go hard but feel like i am jinxed now!!!

I joined the gym, after one week i did my back, came back from that for one session then got a really bad cold… DOH!!!

Oh well, gunna try and balance it a bit better now so i don’t run myself down.

j.

Langdale Fell Race tomorrow - 14 miles and 4000 feet of climb - it’s a hard ‘A-Long’ lakeland race and it’s likely to be a tad damp on them there ‘ills….

This week I did a speed session on Tuesday - a tough ‘half pyramid’ where we did three laps - rest (jog recovery) - two laps - rest - one lap - rest - all at race pace. It sounds easy but the laps were about 2 min 45 secs in length so it was a real lung buster. I used my new Nike Zoom Air Waffle XC spikes - what a difference they make - the traction from those few tiny spikes is amazing compared to fell shoes.

Wednesday I went to work on my bike then dropped my wife’s car off at the garage and cycled home.

Thursday I did a very steady 45 min jog with 3 other pals who are racing at Langdale tomorrow.

Today I’ve been to work on my bike again - this time ’singlespeed’ after I converted my Kona during the week - my how the old legs were spinning!! -see earlier post.

last week i played 2 events. the first was the leinster open. here i lost in the last 16 to scott handly. not a day to remember and unfortuneatly playing infront of a home crowd couldnt help me turn a poor performance into a result!

next i played the irish Grand Prix tour event 1. bounced back well from the previous event by winning it. semi made up for poor performance in leinster..

the world open starts on the weekend so looking forward to that and feeling optimistic i can go well there!

got back from chicago last week.. took a few days off with some light hitting work and practise. some interval work yesterday, some circuits tonight,. squash and conditioning tomorrow and some match practise before my next tournament next week in dublin - the leinster open. looking forward and hopefully a home crowd can spur me on to cause a few upsets!!

An old friend of mine called me today and said two weeks ago she went to the doctors complaining of indigestion only to find out she had cancer.

She not old enough to have cancer, then again nobody is.

I sometimes think I’m tough doing the races and physical challenges that I do but that’s not being really tough - yes I push myself and yes it hurts sometimes but in truth I could stop whenever I wanted and within a few minutes or hours in the worst case I could be warm and dry in cafe with a brew and a piece of cake in front of me. Really tough is what my friend needs to be now - she hasn’t got the soft option of the cafe - she has to see this challenge through to the end and make sure she collects the winners medal.

Calls like this put everything in to perspective. Twisted ankles, rain, dark nights, broken central heating, the dog peeing on my carrymat - these things simply don’t matter do they.

When we arrive in this world we’ve no idea how long we’ve got so whilst we’re here we might as well enJoy ourselves. Don’t put things off - get on with them, don’t dream - do. Send that marathon application form, enter your first fell race or try and swim the channel - time waits for nobody!!!

Both kids were at cub camp this weekend so did a 3 hour mountain bike ride this morning instead of watching junior footy. Not done a long MTB ride for a while and I really enjoyed the change.

The conditions were VERY wet after all the rain we had last night but the day itself was nice. Managed to keep up with my pals who are all regular MTB riders even though I’d trained all week so felt pretty good about myself.

By the way, I’ve ordered a singlespeed conversion kit for my old Kona rigid moutain bike. For those of you who’ve no idea what I’m talking about, after all the years of bike development, resulting in fantastic uber lightweight carbon fibre full suspension 27 geared mega bikes that hoover up rough tracks like you’re riding a magic carpet, there’s currently a real retro movement going on in mountain biking and folk are switching back to hardtail frames especially ones made from steel. There’s also a cult of ultra hardcore nutters known as singlespeeders who go even further often shunning any form of suspension  (other than the tyres) and stripping off all the gears leaving just a single cog at the front and one at the rear - usually 32 up front and 16 on the back. I’ve been intrigued by this idea and have decided to give it a try. The idea is that you get back to the real grass roots of riding (like when you were a kid) and have nothing else to think about but what’s going on around you. It also lightens up the bike, makes maintenance almost non existant and makes you spin like a washing machine on the downs and work really hard on the hills developing good technique and leg strength (something I need!!) - I’ll let you know how I get on…….

Bring on that global warming stuff that’s what I say (I notice they call it climate change now to try and keep folk interested). I’m only joking, I do care about our planet really, but our weather just seems to be getting wetter, colder and more miserable. I have to try really hard to remember a nice stretch of sunny days this year.

Anyway, enough of the moaning - we need to remember the old saying - ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes’. I quite like that one and think it’s pretty true. So I guess we’re all diving into our kit bags and boxes to dig out the winter training gear - gone are the shorts and vests to be replaced by tights and base layers.

My ride in the peaks last week has really fired me up for a solid winter of training and racing. As I enter my 40th year next year I intend to do all I can to improve my fitness and prove that age is no barrier in the sports I’ve chosen. Who knows, if I choose my races carefully I might pick up a prize or two next year (in the old buggers category!!!)

This week, I rested Monday but did 2 decent dog ’strides’ - my new dog exercise grading system = walking, striding, jogging and running. Tuesday I took my eldest son to Bingley Harriers for the first time and ran with him. He loved it, did really well and wants to go with the longer distance group next week. Wednesday - 2 dog strides. Thursday ran with the harriers in the evening - 9.67 miles in 1hr 3 mins (Martin had a Garmin with him) which was a reasonably hot pace as we did quite a bit of climbing. Friday rode to work and back on the bike. Saturday 1hr 15 on the fells this morning. The old legs felt a bit tired on the hills but otherwise it was nice to get out in the daylight.

Tomorrow depends on the weather - if by chance it’s nice I want to get out on the roadie for a longish ride. If it’s rubbish (more likely) I’ll go for a long run or mountain bike ride.