w/c 28th May - the last big day is done

It's June now, which means that the big day is this month!

The round has seemed ages away for, well, ages. Now it's almost here. Soon, it'll be time to taper, sort out the details and start scanning the long term weather forecast.

But not just yet. This week has had no air of winding down to it by any means. After last week's BGR support over legs 2 (overnight) and 3, another big day was still due to further build up my training. Once that's done though, that's about it, save a few shorter outings and some quality work on the Tattenhall railway.

I had planned to finish off the really big days by going up to the Lakes to do two days out of Wasdale on legs 3 and 4. However, having done 3 again last week, and with a date with Nick to do 4 on the 13th April, I changed my mind and decided a single, huge day was in order.

I had unfinished business in the shape of the Welsh 3000's traverse. I'd never done it; a notable gap in my CV having spent nigh on 20 years amongst the British hills. Paul, Pete and I had an abortive attempt in February in foul and worsening weather and I was now keen to have another go.

Back in February, i was nervous when we set out for the 3000ers having never had such a long day out before. This time, with days like the Fellsman and some long BGR days (3 days doing 2 legs or more) it was going to be interesting to see if i was any more assured. I was accompanied by 2 much stronger runners in the form of Ian Lancaster and Pete Taylor and was also keen to see if I could hold my own with these two.

As has been the pattern with my preparation for this round, things went swimmingly and we completed the round in reasonable conditions in 7 hours and 50 mins. We weren't after a time, we just wanted a long day and so the time was actually unimportant. We spent a total of 10 hours and 15 mins out on the hills as the 7:50 was the summit-to-summit time. In all we covered 32 miles and about 13,000' ascent.

I always try and look back at the training runs and races i do and consider honestly what the postives and negatives were which is a good way of extracting any lessons. I can honestly say that this run yielded no negatives at all. I felt fine all day and felt like i was holding my own with two exceptionally strong lads. I don't deny that if we were pushing mega-hard then i would have had a job keeping up, esp with Pete but we weren't hanging about and it felt fine. Perhaps most reassuringly of all, i felt pretty good at the end - a little heavy legged but certainly not like i was hanging on. The prospect of another big climb was not at all frightening. I sure hope i feel that way when i arrive at Wasdale during the round...

Early in the run, whilst running off the side of Bwlch Coch, my rucksack pocket came open whilst i was descending and i lost most of my food way up the hill. I'd kept hold of some which hadn;t fallen out, and Ian and Pete gave me some odds and ends, but i ate less than i would have liked, and still felt OK. I think the trick was to keep drinking the copious amounts of stream water we were knocking back. Plain old water seems to revive more than energy drinks and i'll have to make sure i do that on the day.

It's clear to me now after this run, which covers such a variety of terrain, where i should try and make up time and where i should relax and do what i can. The simple truth is that I can climb well on just about any terrain, but i'm a mediocre runner on really rough, bouldery ground. Ian and Pete zoomed ahead on Crib Goch even though i'm very confident on the exposed stuff; those two just dance across ground like that whereas i probably think too much about it. So i don;t expect to make much time up between Bowfell and Scafell, but hopefully i'll be a bit up by then anyway. The big climbs seem to be going very well; Yewbarrow holds less fear for me now that it did.

This run has added to my already growing confidence, but no run no matter how good it feels has done anything to diminish my perception of the size of the task i know i have before me.

My last big day out before the BGR has left me feeling increasingly confident and no less daunted - which is what makes the prospect of doing this round so exciting.

Week summary

Mon - Rest
Tues - Moel Famau - 5M, 1600'
Weds - Moel Famau with Ian - 8.5M, 2500' - brisk
Thur - Easy run with club, inc 1 railway climb (ran up all the way up) - 7M 1000'
Fri - Rest
Sat - Welsh 3000's - 32M, 13000' - 10hrs

Total - 53.5M, 18,100'

Plan for BGR taper = mon;tue;wed;thurs;fri;weekend

w/c 4 June - Rest; MF 1500' easy; 10*railways (3300'); easy club run; rest; Welsh Castles leg
w/c 11 June - Rest; Rest; walking in Wasdale; leg 4 run (13M, 6200'); rest, easy MF 3100'/8M
w/c 18 June - Rest; MF 2500'; Physio; easy club run; rest; MF 3000'/8.5M
w/c 25 June -Rest; MF 1500' easy; rest; rest; rest - BGR