This week I learnt a valuable lesson about randomly inserting long hikes into my training plan.

Two weeks ago I over trained. I didn’t really realise this at the time as I was looking at my hikes and runs as separate beings. The week after (last week) I started to notice my hip flexors were very tight. I cut back on running a little and tried to stretch out key muscles as much as possible. This week I started to notice other twinges. A small ooh in my Achilles, another ow in my IT band. So I cut back on the running some more. In fact I dropped from an average of 6 hours running a week to just 1.5 hours.

Before fully working out the issue, I went on two lovely hikes this week. Pretty decent hilly hikes too. The first one was a short but lovely climb of Chinley Churn from Chinley train station. I went with my son to spend some quality time together. The climb was steep and gravelly in places but it was fun. Once at the top we enjoyed beautiful views followed by a gentle descent down to the lovely Sett Valley Cafe for some early lunch. From there it’s a short walk to New Mills Station where we caught the train home. It was only 10km in total but I’d highly recommend it as a good hilly walk with great views. We were also blessed with the weather although it was incredibly windy.

For my second hike of the week I camped over in Edale with my husband on Thursday night and walked home again the next day. It’s been a while since we’ve been camping. I do love it, but it was a ‘tad’ cold. I borrowed Chris’s sleeping bag as mine only has a comfort rating down to 4 degrees and it was going to be just 2 or 3 degrees at night. Having said that; his only went down to 2. It’s generally not great if you reach the minimum comfort rating for your bag. You will be warm enough (just) but its not ideal. I kept all my clothes on including my coat all night. I slept ok but my feet were very cold in the morning and I really didn’t want to get out of my bag and go outside when I woke up.

The first 20 minutes in the morning were not the most pleasant. I went to the ladies to take off my socks, try and warm up my feet and put on clean socks. This helped a bit but two of my toes were still white. Chris and I both have one man tents so he retreated to his cocoon to warm his stove and coffee and I did the same in mine. I generally heat the stove in the gap between my inner and outer tent. It’s a decent one by three feet space so quite safe for my tiny stove. Once my beloved latte was heated up I sat warming my hands around the metal cup and tucked my feet back into my sleeping bag.

This was followed by a porridge pot. It was ok but I prefer the golden syrup ones to the plain ones. Something to remember next time. Chris enjoyed some Soba noodles over in his abode.

It was time to get a move on, despite the cold so we started packing up our sleeping bags, mats and other bits and pieces. Tents were dismantled last and finally everything was stuffed into our rucksacks in that specific order that makes sense to the individual. For me its tent at the bottom, spare clothes at the top. Snacks in outer pockets.

The hike itself was well known to us. Its’s 27km with all the uphill from the off. We started at the beginning of the pennine way and followed it up over Jacobs Ladder before coming off the way and heading down over stony tracks into Hayfield. From there we set off down the Sett Valley trail and found ourselves at the Sett Valley Cafe (for me, the second time in one week).

Normally I would have the cinnamon toast (which again I have to recommend), but on this occasion I was hungrier, so opted for a veggie sausage butty instead.

The rest of the walk was 13km but it’s all flat. The difficulty of flat walking is in how boring it can get but we tend to amuse ourselves talking to sheep and singing songs. We also had a small section where the path was cut off by a fence. The workman said he couldn’t think of any good reason for this and that we could go around it if we wished. This involved a one minute emulation of the Barkley marathon i.e. a scrabble up a thorny bank and climbing over a low wall.

In the last section, we had a much needed second coffee stop, which was a good opportunity for me to change clothes (see last weeks sweaty runner blog).

Other than that the rest of the week I managed two strength sessions and unusually one swim. This was instead of a run to help give my hips a longer rest. The tightness is easing already (as of today) but I’ve now booked into see the sports masseur tomorrow to ensure I stay on top of these things when they arise.

The main lesson learnt this week was that whilst my running schedule is highly structured and well thought out, my hikes have been all over the place. I’ve done 2 hours one week then 6 hours the next with tons of climbing. I realise this is why I’ve had some issues. Hiking counts as training for the ultra runs. Particularly for the one across Scotland as I’m likely to walk 20% of the time. So when I increase my hiking I need to cut my running down and vice versa. I’ve now amended my plan with this in mind and hope to avoid anymore pre injury ‘alerts’. Fingers crossed.