Where to start? Of all the challenges/races I’ve done this is definitely up there as one of the hardest and most rewarding.

Before we began our race hike, I did wonder how I would cope with the no jogging/running rule. Any jogging could lead to instant disqualification. Walking was going to take longer and so might be mentally more demanding even if theoretically its physically easier. Having now completed the race I can definitely say it’s not easier on the body but more on that later.

After a lovely warm up with a lady who took us through some basic aerobic class style moves we all set off on our hike, starting in the Bakewell show ground.

The best way to deal with any race is to break it down into parts and only think about the next bit you have to cope with. Most races have feed stations and so it’s easiest to just think about the next stop where you will get food/drink and a sit down if you are so inclined.

We had to do the challenge within 24 hours to get the medal and felt that we could meet this deadline.

In the beginning there was a lot of slow walking. We set off with people doing different challenges at the same time. There were some doing a 25km run, some doing the 100km continuous race (where you are allowed to run if you so wish – although they all appeared to be walking), some doing the first half of the race etc. We actually lost count of how many different coloured bibs we saw indicating different methods/types of races.

All of this alongside some narrow paths for the first 10km led to an easy beginning with perhaps a tad of frustration at not being able to move a little faster. If we could get past we needed to speed up the walking pace and find away around together.

After the first 11km we came into the first feed station. We agreed to get in and out SAS style. Looking at the results I think we achieved this stopping only for a few minutes and managing to refill water bottles, get food and visit facilities.

Before the race I’d been very concerned about the weather forecast. It was supposed to be incredibly hot all day and I know how much I suffer in this kind of heat. It’s not just energy levels but the inevitable impact on my sweat levels and subsequent chafing that results. Thankfully there was a strong breeze and although unbeknownst to be at the time I was still chafing badly, I couldn’t feel it and we both felt comfortable.

We passed a lot of people in the first half of the race. Hiking at speed with poles clicking on the ground on the ascents, we both feel strong going uphill. On reflection (after the race) we went too fast and paid the price of this later on. This is a useful lesson for the upcoming Race Across Scotland though. I enjoy striding uphill but need to curtail this urge and the desire to maximise my energy resources so early on.

This can ultimately impact your speed later down the line.

We stopped a little longer at the next aid station, having a sit down and some much needed sandwiches. We both prefer savoury to sweet and found that a lot of the food stops included a lot of sugary treats. Despite this we did both enjoy some cans of cola. This always helps with endurance. It’s an easy way to digest calories for energy.

Somewhere around this time I looked at the live trail app and saw that we were 12th/13th and I was 3rd female in the race. I was suffering quite early on with pain in my right hand from overuse of the hiking pole and tight glutes but reading this gave me a massive lift. It turns out there were only 12 women in that race but I didnt know that at the time and I felt this sudden determination to find and pass numbers 1 and 2. Chris was more sensibly saying lets just finish. I wish I’d listened.

Shortly after I saw two women wearing our coloured bibs and passed them as they were taking a selfie. It occurred to me that overtaking them would mean I was first. That would be amazing! For about 10-15km I threw the gauntlet down and went at full tilt through this very hot valley. Chris later said it had probably added to his foot pain. Sorry hun. It almost certainly made my later IT band pain worse too. You live and learn. At least I hope I do.

Finally we found ourselves nearing the Bakewell show ground after 53km, the half (ish) point of the race. We had already decided to take more time here and do a complete change of clothes, have the free dinner offered there and check feet.

Mentally I found myself on a real downer just before coming into the showground. If Chris had said I don’t feel like going on, I think I would of happily stopped. I’m normally extremely motivated. Giving up is simply not an option, so I was very surprised at myself and how I was feeling. Thankfully he had no intention of giving up and this motivated me also to continue on. He was always supporting me. This was my time/turn to pull out the stops and support him.

After some fries and veggie chilli we changed at the car and treated each others feet. Eek – not a pretty site. Multiple blisters and white trench foot like appearance on the heels. A few blisters were popped, some were simply covered in plasters and we taped everything else up as best we could. I changed into my hiking boots and new socks (big mistake as this made my feet too hot later on). Chris stayed in his hiking boots. Unbeknownst to us his insoles were wearing thin. This contributed to his foot pain in the last 30km. Again another lesson for us!

The second half should ‘only’ be 47km and would go through the night with an expected finishing time early on Sunday morning.

Setting off, we knew the first feed station was just 9km away so this motivated us onwards. As the evening wore on the breeze dropped and it got surprisingly muggier. None the less I donned a long sleeved top as by now I was feeling the deep welts under my arms where my sports bra had not only dug in but cut into me. The downside of being a salty sweater. Think sandpaper and skin and you’ll get the idea.

The second half saw me slow down considerably. Chris continued doing well but I started to hold him up on the downhills. My right IT band had now completely locked up and I can only describe trying to descend a hill as eye wateringly painful.

In endurance you get used to pain and suffering. It sounds mad but its true. Your feet will hurt. You may get chafing. You will almost certainly get blisters and possibly lose some toenails. Everything can hurt a fair amount but it’s usually manageable as a 5/10 kind of existence you try to park at the back of your mind.

The sharp pains in the side of my knee caused by above mentioned tendon tightening would be a 9, then a 5 then a 9.5 and so on. This made me quite vocal. It must of also been difficult for Chris to listen to. I would gasp in pain or just try to breathe in and out slowly through it. I ended up taking ibuprofen even though I hate the stuff and it’s an incredibly bad idea when you are doing long distance races.

Despite all the difficulties, there was still some joy. Walking through the night was really special. It never got too dark although we were wearing head torches and the organisers put out glow sticks everywhere so that helped a lot obviously. The people at the feed stations were all going through the same thing. You kind of bond in the experience and end up chatting and supporting each other.

It was the first long race that Chris and I have done together. I’d never walked or run further than 60km and Chris never more than 30km. Hats off to him as thats quite some jump up in distance.

In the last 9km we found ourselves thankfully on flat ground but we had lost a few places due to my downhill hobbling and we saw a number of people with our coloured bibs move ahead of us (including 4 women). I didn’t have the ability to pass them again. It would of been too painful. At this point we were both just happy to finish within the 24 hour cut off. In fact we completed in 23 hours and surprisingly 4 hours of that was downtime at feed stations. I thought we were being quite efficient but turns out we obviously did stop a little too long after all. Another lesson for me for RAS.

Its now exactly one week later. Chris has recovered 95%. He had some major issues with his feet and had to see a podiatrist. He is now a lot better and managed a short walk today (without the hobble he’d had all week).

I’m getting there still. My IT band is still slightly tight but its significantly better and I have tendinitis on top of my left foot (extensor tendinitis). I managed a walk yesterday but am not sure if it made it worse. Today was swimming which was fine. I’ll get there but I’m realising that 100km is a big deal and recovery takes a while. Only 5 weeks to RAS so not optimal but I’ll try and get back to running by the end of this week.

Now for some more resting. There has been a lot of sleeping this week and I’m now thinking I’ll sleep for a solid month after RAS 😂.

How time flies. I’ve just looked back at my last blog and realised it was written some time ago, before the Ultra. I’ll write a separate blog on that race and upload later.

Since the Ultra there was a short period of recovery (mainly to deal with a broken big toe nail/underlying blister situation), then an intense period of increased running, hiking and gym time.

This week I’ve reduced the efforts again and am taking it a easier before the upcoming crazy walking weekend.

Chris and I signed up some time ago to this 100km march. Running/jogging are forbidden. This would result in disqualification. It starts and finishes in Bakewell (just like the Ultra) so I expect to recognise some of the route, although not all. The elevation is decent enough to provide interest and some views but less (relatively speaking) than the Ultra and what we are used to in general.

I had originally thought I would maybe drop out at 75km. The course appeared to be 4 loops of 25km each finishing and then restarting in Bakewell. I need to ensure my muscles and toes are all still good for RAS (race across Scotland) which is now only 6 weeks away (eek). However, it turns out that the 100km route is two different loops of 50km instead of the 25km loops I was expecting. I will therefore, attempt to finish the whole thing with Chris who is aiming and will no doubt carry on till the end.

Recovery from the Ultra only took a few days so I’m hoping that this will be the same. It’s longer but should be less intense obviously being a walk.

I’m really looking forward to the nighttime part. It’s the main reason for signing up to this particular race. I’ve run at nighttime on my own before but only over Werneth Low, which I know like the back of my hand. It will be different carrying on hour after hour following a route card and the purple lines on our watches in unfamiliar territory.

Will the kilometres seem to go faster or slower at night? Will it cool down much? The forecast is for hot weather (too hot for me honestly). Will we be able to see really well with the headtorches? So many questions to be answered. A true adventure – woohoo.

Best of all; if I can keep up with Chris in the latter half, we will finish a race together. This will be a first and I’m looking forward to sharing that feeling of elation you get when you cross the line with my other half.

The en route picnic is also very appealing honestly. There are food stations every 15km or so but also a hot meal is provided 2-3 times throughout finishing with breakfast near the end. Nom.

Apparently I can put a link up for people to follow us via tracking if they wish. I haven’t yet managed to work out how to do this on the app I’ve downloaded so I’ll keep you posted. It may only be possible once I register tomorrow and can speak to someone about it. If I get the link I’ll put it up on Lorna runs on facebook.

I finally got in one longer run of 30km the week before last and although slow I managed to include some decent elevation and had no hip flexor or knee pain. Hurrah. See link below for my first attempt at videoing whilst running. (It’s a w.i.p.).

https://youtu.be/C4XiWUPUv8U?si=IRYRkwCAS8sBOsBv

This last week I’ve been taking it easier (sort of). I’ve only done 10 hours of training this week compared to 13 last week and 15 the week before that.

Hiking:

On the one hand my hiking mileage has been crazy for weeks so I wanted to reduce that:

Running:

My running has been sliding off the planet over the last month as I was resting my hip flexor / this co-incided with our hiking holiday so I didn’t want to do too much of both.

Strength:

I’ve been fairly consistent about this. The main change was adding in lots of specialised single leg/ single arm work to help balance out weaknesses and work on stability around the pelvis when running. I’m really enjoying this type of gym work and spend ages on instagram scrolling for ideas of new and crazier things to do. It keeps it interesting.

I’ve also started to work on being able to do a pull up. I’m not sure I will ever be able to do this at my current weight. The women I see doing this are generally pretty tiny but its fun working on the process of trying to get there. These are the steps I’ve seen on instagram to build up the strength for this:

I) Practice ‘hangs’. Find a high bar that is taller than you. Hang on to it with your hands (palms forward). You have to try and build up to hang for 30 seconds x 3 times. I’m currently up to 21 seconds (lol).

2) Start doing scapula pull ups. Basically you are hanging on the bar but now you are doing a mini ‘shrug’. It’s a tiny movement (like the start of a pull up).

3) Pull ups lying on the ground. Lie on your back and find a bar at knee height or a bit higher. Lift yourself up whilst holding onto the bar. Initially you keep most of the body on the ground. Build up to lifting your bum off (kind of like an inverted plank).

4) Hang a long band in a loop around the high bar and put your knees into it. Use this for assistance to do your pull up.

5) Do pull ups!

I’m currently doing 1, 2 and 3 at different times. I’m a long way from 4 though.

Here was my weight training schedule recently.

The Ultra:

I’ve already worked out I could be the last person in next week’s Ultra. My average pace on the last 30km is the same as the person who was last in the Ultra last year. Oops lol. I was also intending to video a lot of the run (for people who like to see a course before signing up – I do this). This will make me a little slower also. So I’m a bit torn between the need to speed up ever so slightly as I kind of don’t want to be last in and not overdo it as I don’t want to actually race at all. In fact the Ultra is just a training run for me. During a training run you should keep your heart rate low. My ultimate goal is RAS and everything else is just training towards it. So I need to be calm and collected and not do anything stupid to risk injury or burnout. Fingers crossed also that its not too hot. I think I’ve written enough on that by now you all know how much that disagrees with me.

The Peak Challenge 100km:

I’m going to be real here. I am already thinking I may not do the whole 100km. Chris fully intends to finish. I have the opportunity to duck out at 50km or 75km as its done in 25km loops. The problem I have, is that longgggg distance is a mental game. You will inevitably reach a point where everything aches and you are exhausted and you want to stop. If this was my last race for the foreseeable future; I could push myself through the pain and finish. The difficulty I have. is that it isn’t my final race and its also not my ‘A’ race. Again it’s a training hike. I picked it as we will be walking through the night – something I wanted to practice.

I therefore, have to be sure I finish it with the ability to get back to training a week later without any injuries.

When I’m out there in the night after 65km and everything hurts…how will I know if I should go on because its just ‘a bit of aching and tiredness’ or if I should stop because ‘there is potential to ruin training for the next few weeks’. I’m already thinking I won’t know the difference. So I think Chris and I have in mind that I might stop before 100km already. However, we will see. Either way I’ll be there at the end to clap my husband through the finish line.

RAS:

Ah RAS. I’m excited by this but also very nervous that I’ll be undertrained. I know it must seem like I’m always doing ‘loads’ but when I look at online training plans I do far far less than the recommended amount. I also read Ultra groups posts on Facebook and do about half the mileage they do. So sometimes I wonder if I’m undercooking it. That said. I can only do what I can do and it’s better to get to the starting line than miss it due to overtraining. Still its scary not knowing how my body will cope with the continuous style of event where you go from day to night over and over with barely any sleep. How will I cope running/hiking 80-100km a day? It’s a complete unknown how my body will react and if I’m even capable and thats nerve wracking. It’s also very exciting. I guess doing events you ‘know’ you can do is no longer as thrilling. There needs to be an element of ‘can I?’.

In other news I really need to nail my nutrition. I seem to be gaining weight monthly and although I know why, I find it hard to curb my bad habits (multiple lattes, cake, booze on the weekends etc). One of these days I’ll get the same willpower for eating healthily that I possess for training. It would really make those pull ups easier…

Wow. I’m bushed. Last week I started the week painting the kitchen a rather lovely shade of pale yellow (well it says lemon squash on the tin).

During the week I was training hard albeit doing cross training as I was trying to rest my left hip flexor, which had continued to play up. I also continued to work on strength (in particular my left gluteus medius (our main ‘bum’ muscles are split into maximus, medius and minimus – the medius part sits to the upper/slightly outside) to improve the stability in the pelvis.

After spending a few weeks working on ‘medius’ strengthening exercises, let’s just say I’m starting to get better at cone touches….

On Friday last week, we set off for Uttoxeter to begin our holiday hike of the Limestone Way on the Saturday. The way is 46miles long plus 6 miles to get to the “start”. Technically it starts in Castleton and finishes in Rocester but we walked it the other way around. We took our rucksacks full of camping gear and intended to cover the length of the way in 3 days.

Although I’m an ueber light camper/backpacker (think total weight nerd who weighs all components I have to carry and you’ll start to get the picture); I none the less struggled on this occasion with the heaviness of the backpack over the distance and with the heat. More on the walk below.

By the end of last week (Sunday) we had walked two days of the Way and totalled 17 hours of exercise (none of which included running!).

This week began with a 24km hike on the Monday to finish our walk of the route to Castleton. Normally I have a rest day on a Monday and will admit I felt every bit of this walk. On Tuesday (having stayed over in Castleton) we walked just 8km over Mam Hill to Edale and stopped at the penny pot cafe (an old favourite). The idea had been to walk back over the tops down into Castleton via Hollins Cross but I pleaded with Chris to get a train to Hope instead where we could walk a nice easy flat 3km back to the YHA. My feet were really sore and the heat was wiping me out.

On Wednesday we had originally planned to do a longer walk home but instead headed for Hope station and took the train home, needing only to cover the 3km back to the station. This felt like the right choice. I guess sometimes you know the body needs a rest.

Once home although taking a rest day from sport, the work on the house began. Having decided to put it on the market, we wanted to make it photo ready. The indoor pictures will be taken tomorrow so we spent the rest of Wednesday and Thursday – Saturday doing DIY touch ups, decluttering and cleaning. It’s not that the place looked bad at all but it now looks really great. So much so, its tempting not to go (ha ha). But we are downsizing and getting ready for the next stage of our life in a smaller home. Early retirement with a good dose of running, hiking, cycling and general sportery thrown in for good measure.

Before the start of each days activities of cleaning, glossing, we did our beloved sports. Time at the gym, a run, a swim. By 9pm each evening we have both felt utterly shattered. Thankfully, despite all the crazy walking mileage and general busyness I managed a 2 hour run today and felt surprisingly good. No hip flexor twinges at all. Hazaah and phew.

So back to the Limestone way…

Day 1:

We set off from our “lovely” Premier Inn in Uttoxeter on the Staffordshire Way to Rocester. It was an easy and pretty walk, although we found ourselves knee deep in grassy fields for a lot of it. After a decent vedgy sausage butty in the pretty village of Rocester, we continued onto the Limestone Way until our first stop for the evening at Callow Top campsite west of Ashbourne. The weather was ‘extremely’ kind i.e. a bit too hot. For both of us this meant lots of suncream and for me this also meant lots of Vaseline on my toes, armpits and back to reduce chafing. I should of taken talc for my feet but forgot this little nugget of knowledge. I used it throughout JOGLE so not sure why I forgot. My feet did indeed pay the price for this later with blisters. Despite all this, the day was only 22km so we got to our stop for the night mid afternoon with plenty of time to relax.

The campsite at Callow Top is a holiday park so facilities were excellent. We had our own mini pitch for the two tents, with hedges to the left and right of our area (we carry a single man tent each).

There was a swimming pool which I had been keen to get in but upon arriving realised it was full of ankle biter dwellings so decided to give it a miss. There was a lovely pub offering yummy food, so we had showers, washed some clothes and went in to hide from the sun with a pint of cider and pie n chips.

Day 2:

This was a hard hard day. We started off on the Limestone Way and continued on this until Parwich, where we were hoping for a cafe stop. My bad. There is no cafe there and the pub wasn’t opening until 11am. We arrived at 10am so waiting was not an option. This was particularly annoying as it was incredibly hot and our bladders only carry 2litres each. We knew there would be no further stop until 3km before Moneyash. This would mean a total hiking of 25km through the day (5 hours) on just 2 litres of water. Not only that, but we would need to cook a dehydrated meal en route and use some of the water for that. We decided to keep it slow and take small sips of water here and there, trying to keep it going for as long as possible.

After Parwich I should add that we diverted onto the Peak District Boundary Walk and then the Midshires Way (otherwise known as Pennine Bridleway). This was due to the Limestone way taking a sharp turn east before heading back North west adding another 10km to the day compared to the route we took. This was originally an administrative planning error on my end but on the day it proved absolutely necessary. 28km was more than enough in that heat carrying backpacks.

Midway we stopped to share a pack of rehydrated chilli and rice and take a rest.

The Pennine Bridleway turned out to be a blessing. Not only is it stunning (You are up high with views for miles all around you) but we realised this would be an excellent place to go for a days mountain biking at some point.

Despite the beauty of it all, I admit to suffering to the point of not enjoying the last 8km. This is inevitable in long races or on a mad solo adventure. In these cases you are mentally prepared for the low points where it gets ‘hard’. But my mind was not ready for so much discomfort on a “holiday” and I struggled to get my head around this.

I was so tired and overly hot, that I resorted to mind games to keep myself going (typically the ones I would use on an Ultra). Don’t look at your watch until you get around this next bend. Then the next bend or wait until you’ve gone around two or more maybe. Chris said that I actually sped up during this time although I really don’t remember. I was fixated ahead, on each ‘next’ corner and the swift click click of my walking sticks. Anything to not think about the sore back and hot feet.

3km before Moneyash we came across the Blueberry kiosk cafe at Parsley Hay. I can’t describe how blissful this was! It was like spotting an oasis in a desert. Vedgy pies, coca colas and coffees were had by all.

There were toilets and an outdoor tap to top up water bottles. What else could a person need. Considerably happier we set off for our campsite for the night – Lathkill Dale.

The campsite was brilliant. I’ve been there before so was looking forward to staying again. You get your own ‘field’ per person or group of you. This was of considerable size and we had four tables to ourselves. The facilities were good and best of all, the pub was only 10 minutes down the road. Perfect. We finished off the day with another stodgy pub meal and plenty of cider.

Day 3:

It was another hot day and it was with some relief we were on our last day of the way. This sounds very wrong when you consider how utterly beautiful it was for the entire route. None the less this is how I felt. I guess the heat was just wearing on energy levels.

This was probably the prettiest day for me. We hiked up and up, then down (for what seemed like forever) into Millers Dale, where we stopped for food and drinks. After that we headed towards Hay Dale. This was gorgeous. Fields with millions of flowers and hills on either side.

There was more climbing through the day until we crested our final hill, which overlooked Castleton. The long descent to our final stop was stunning but slower going as we came to a long rocky and more technical downhill bit. With my feet on fire this seemed to take me ages but it always helps the views are beautiful (see below).

Once down into the village we stopped for coffee and cake before making the final mile to our YHA for the night.

I can highly recommend the Limestone Way and indeed the Limestone/Pennine Bridleway combo, which we did.

Now for a well earned rest this evening. I’m also looking forward to a rest day tomorrow. Yes!

I know, I know. If I complain about being able to take early retirement that would make me the worst human. So go ahead and tut, shake your heads in disgust.

The thing is though. I didn’t leave my job in a particularly positive frame of mind and it wasn’t intentional to leave that soon. I left because of stress, which mentally left me in a bad place. Initially the relief at not working kicked in. I was hyper, happy and giddy all at once. Then the realisation sinks in that you can do your beloved sports training whenever you want, go on longer walks and even take up yoga. It’s all great.

Shortly after this phase another feeling started to kick in. I couldn’t quite place it at first. It felt like – sadness. This week it really hit me. I have no current intellectual purpose. My life is full of sport, friends and in general selfish enterprises. At some point this doesn’t feel quite so fulfilling. What am I useful for? Am I needed for anything? Where did my brain go?

Funnily enough this new phase of mental and emotional indulgence has co-incided with some really tight hip flexors (muscles in your hip that enable you to pick up the leg towards the body – providing strength and flexibility in your hip area). It’s not uncommon for me to get tight hip flexors so I kind of know the score. Take a day or two of rest; cross train for a while and start (or rather restart) looking at hip flexor stretches and strengthening exercises. Also increase the glute strength work as this helps (buttock muscles).

At the beginning of the week I went swimming for the first time in many months. It was great and I loved it. The only downside was that I didn’t realise what time they closed the lanes so only swam for 35 minutes before I was thrown out unceremoniously by someone who looked about 14. She must of been older. It’s a sign of age isn’t it, when everyone looks so young.

The next day I went out on my mountain bike. This brought on my usual bike anxiety (even though I find mountain biking a lot less scary than road biking). I’m glad I made myself go though with it. As always I felt so much better for pushing myself out of the door and conquering my mini fear (well for that occasion anyway).

Outside of the above, there were some strength workouts (including with my PT; although this was a workout together as mates). I managed two runs including one with hubs. We ran well and covered a decent amount of elevation even though the run was much shorter than I had on the dreaded ‘training plan’. Finally today I went out on a short but beautiful walk. It involved taking a train to Chinley and then another back from New Mills so it was quite time costly, despite it only being a 10km walk. I wanted to do this route, however, as its not only very steep at the beginning (which weirdly I love) but has stunning vistas at the top of the third hill (its one of those walks where you keep thinking you’ve hit the top only to see another brow ahead).

So back to the ‘blues’. I was in a proper funk when I woke up this morning (as I have been on and off all this week). Following the climb to the crest of the hill, I felt joyous again. It’s amazing how uplifting just being outdoors is.

In the longer term, however, I need to find something else to occupy my mind. I’m not sure what it will be yet. Maybe a paid job, maybe voluntary work. Maybe something else. I’d always thought I would take most of this year off, whatever happened. So we will see. Yes I know this makes me incredibly lucky and I’m massively aware of how blessed I am. Still. The need to rewake the brain and have a sense of purpose is there. I think it’s natural and instinctive. Until I can come up with something better, I’ve decided to redecorate our kitchen. 🤔

It’s been a funny few weeks of achieving a lot in training combined with periods of backing off……..

Following last weeks ‘recovery’ week, I’ve had a busy 7 days in every sense.

The beginning of the week started with me visiting my sister and her husband. It was lovely to see them, especially as its been a long time since I’ve travelled South to visit. We did a lot of walking and chatting and naturally made time for a lovely pub meal. The weather was kind. It wasn’t hot but it didn’t rain at least.

On Thursday I spent the day on a beginners map reading course in the peaks. It was brilliant and I’m very interested in going back to do further courses. Although I feel I should practice the initial skills I’ve learned first. I remember in the girl guides we were taught some of the basic symbols on the map. Car park/Church/River etc. However, I haven’t truly tried to read a map for navigation in a long time.

These days I plan all my running including the JOGLE run I did (from John o Groats to Lands End) using my Garmin watch. It’s brilliant, so why not? The problem with the watch of course is that it could run out of battery/break down. Imagine if that happened in the middle of nowhere. The other issue is that I feel very wary when I’m running through multiple fields and relying only on the purple line and what it tells me. At times I doubt the line. I think a map would give me confidence and a sense of backup on this terrain.

The course gave me exactly what I was after. We were each taught some basics in a classroom before setting off on a 10km walk up onto Shatton Moor. We stopped often and would be taught many different aspects of map reading on our stops. The first interesting point was time. The leader had a stop watch which he kept resetting. The average group of people hike 4km an hour which is 100 metres every 1.5 minutes. Of course you need to find your own average speed and modify this for hills. But this initial timing suggestion was very accurate for our group as a whole. This can help confirm your belief that this turn is the correct one to take. We learnt about boundaries (hedgerows, fences etc), different types of public paths, accessible land and the absolute clincher; contours. It’s amazing what these little fellas can tell you when you really start to analyse them. All in all, I highly recommend the course to anyone interested in map reading.

For my next adventure I’ll plan a walk/run using a map and follow that without the handy Garmin route to navigate. It should be fun and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll keep you posted.

I was supposed to run on Friday but I was feeling incredibly tired so decided to rest up instead. It’s rare I do this but it’s important to listen to your body and establish that fine line between ‘this wont be good for me today and I’m just being a bit lazy’.

On Sunday I dragged myself out onto my long run. I’m pleased I’ve now got this up to 30km and was more than prepared to do some intermittent walking in true ‘Ultra race style’. Typically you can walk the uphills and run the most of the rest or some people follow a stricter regime of walk 1 mile out of every 6th for example. I tend to go by feel. It was beautiful weather on Sunday and the route was all hills for the first half. Thankfully I felt great and was enjoying the ups, the downs and some of the technical in betweens.

In the second half I was reminded that running directly after a peanut butter wrap can lead to a bit of tummy discomfort so slowed down accordingly (all practice for Ultras – you cant stop for an hour after eating so practicing different types of nutrition combined with different paces is paramount).

The gripes soon passed and I picked up the pace. Out of nowhere, I started to notice a niggle in my left knee. I should add that I never get knee problems when running. I’m more of a sore hip kind of gal. But hey it’s all linked I guess and my left thigh muscles have been very tight of late. For the last 3km I had to slow down and walk occasionally, especially on the downhill. I’ve now read up on this and have to self conclude its a low dose of ‘runners knee’. The advice appears to be rest for a few days, ice, elevate etc blah. After that keep on running but make the runs shorter and less hilly. Sitting around will not help it so you need to keep moving without aggravating it too much. In the meantime I need to add some hip flexor strengthening exercises to my routine. My quadriceps (thighs) are already very strong but my hips are not and I expect this causes issues. So exercises with bands and wotnot will kick off in a few days. The excitement is palpable 😆.

In the meantime I am looking forward to swimming tomorrow and cycling on Wednesday. Some good old cross training and a chance to give my running legs a rest.

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.

I’m sitting here on a Sunday evening with my legs up in a recliner chair. I’m resting my tired/tight hip flexors.

I’ve been pretty good at creating my own training programme this year, that is both slowly progressive and yet has built in sufficient recovery that I don’t get over tired or injured.

This week, however, I made an error in my calculations. I calculate running volume (so number of hours run) by week. My week is Monday to Sunday. In theory this method works. Last week I ran for 6 hours and this week I ran for 6.5 hours (in total). So far so good.

My mistake was in forgetting that I changed the running days around last week. In fact I’d changed my long run from Friday to Sunday last week and then done it this week on Friday as normal. Thus the following statements are both true. From Monday-Sunday this week I’ve run 6.5 hours (which is fine). From Sunday last week to this Saturday however, I’ve run 8.5 hours (not so good).

I forgot that you need to look at the week on a rolling basis. For now, I have a rest day tomorrow and will remember this little ‘rolling’ issue going forwards. Hopefully a day resting and stretching will put me to rights.

Yes I know. This is all quite boring training maths. But it’s a thing I do look at and have to think about. Perhaps some people are more robust but I need to ensure I don’t overtrain.

Outside the above, I’m very happy with where I’m at. This week I’ve covered 51km of running, 6km of walking (this fell short this week), done two yoga sessions and 3 very hard gym sessions (probably also the reason for my current John Wayne walk).

Typically in training for multi-day races people will reach up to 60-70 miles (96-110km) of running miles a week. So I’m away off that yet but I’m on my way there and doing ok – so hurrah. 🎉