I very much enjoyed doing the interviews this last week or two. If you’ve missed these you can find them in the menu under fitness interviews (https://lornatri.com/category/fitness-interviews/). Thanks so much again to Chris, Maria, Tom, Cath, Emma and Christine. Christines will appear in the next few days. Watch out for her interesting story on walking the Inca Trail.

This week I managed only one bike ride but it was a beautiful ride in glorious sunshine up Windgather through Goyt Valley up to the Cat and Fiddle. We stopped there for “second breakfast” (cycling turns you into a hobbit!) at the fabulous Peak View Tea Rooms, where you can sit outside and drink in 360 degree views of the Cheshire Plain and Manchester.

On the return leg we cycled up Ewrin Road (known to locals as Dead Mans Hill). There is a stone marking the place where a man was found dead in 1755, with the footprint of a woman’s shoe next to where he lay. The weather was fantastic and the ride was a hilly 75k.

Today we took the train to New Mills and ran home via Hayfield and Cown Edge, mostly off road and some off off road (i.e. no path and with an inkling to rough direction). The run was 17km and 1,200ft of ascent.

We set off early on the 8.01 train and it was a beautiful sunny morning even at that hour.

The run took us down the Sett Valley Trail towards Hayfield in beautiful sunshine. From there we ran up towards Lantern Pike and along the spectacular Pennine Way. On the way to Cown Edge we suddenly found ourselves facing a full on face wind and struggled to run at any kind of speed. Stopping at Cown Edge to take in the views I was reminded of the many times I’d run over the Edge with my friend Kay and the one time we’d done it in just about every weather you could think of including hail. For now we stopped off for a snack and a drink ready for the downhills to get home.

The next few miles included some narrow footpaths, some glorious technical downhill running and a bit of road running and finally navigating the aforementioned ‘off off’ road through Forrest, jogging through brambles and dodging trees. We finally came out on a recognisable path which descended nicely into Etherow Park.

Safely in the park and keen to get to the cafe for my latte, I managed a spectacular skidding face plant 100metres from the end of our run just before the cafe. It’s amazing how despite Covid times peoples natural instinct is simply to lean in to help you up. That’s a wonderful thing about human nature. People are kind and forget themselves due to this kindness. I ended up with multiple minor cuts but nothing more. Thankfully the Latte and carrot cake tasted all the better for it.