The Young Feller

Following on from yesterday's race round up, I did mention that I'd dramatically increased my racing experience in the Lake District as of late.  The main reason behind this was due to the fact that I don't really consider myself a strong enough runner to run a time I would desire, or more importantly, I don't feel strong enough to take on a lot of the races.  Obviously everybody has differing standards in terms of what they class as being acceptable, in every walk of life, but for me I want to be able to push myself to the limit, which in turn, makes it an enjoyable experience, while at the same time running a somewhat respectable race time.  Like some of us, I get the most out of myself when I am pushing beyond my comfort zone, obviously only to a certain extent...I won't be going for a Bob Graham round next month or attempting Wasdale fell race any time soon, but never say never! After giving Kentmere Horseshoe a go last year, along with Scafell Pike & L...

Since my last update, I have been busy working & racing - nothing new, I guess!  Although I now represent Calder Valley on the fells, as well as continuing to represent the Dashers at road, trail & cross-country events.  I have also since had my birthday and what better way to celebrate than doing a classic up & down fell race in the Lakes?  More on that one later... Bleasdale Circle was the first on my list after Windy Hill and that put us all to the test.  The weather was possibly the worst I have raced in to date (touch wood there won't be much worse any time soon!).  At the start it was the typical four seasons of conditions & very wet underfoot from the previous days downpours.  I dabbled with my waterproof on and off, decided against racing with it on as I get warm very quickly, especially when running uphill.  95 hardy souls were bouncing up and down on their tip-toes, ready for the starters orders.  We held a perfectly...

The title is one of the things that bugs me about the new year starting.  I love the thought of people wanting to make positive changes, but a new calendar year shouldn't be used as such a hang up for making these changes.  If you feel like a change is needed, go through the steps to make those straight away, after all, if you feel a need for change, there is probably something you are unhappy about... You might be asking yourself why I open the blog with a paragraph like that, but once my planned 5-6 week low mileage "break" was over, following the Tour of Pendle, I had next level training planned, changes to be made.  My return to what I call proper training, began on the week of Christmas, what a week to choose eh? haha!  Monday December 21st I got my mileage up to 20 miles again after only running 10 miles a week previously to recover from a heavy year of running & racing.  Since then I have hit a minimum of 30 miles a week, normally 40, depending o...

I joined Darwen Dashers at the back end of November in 2014.  I had toyed with the idea for a few months but wanted to have a crack at playing football at a higher level than I had done previously.  My expectations of it seemed much higher than I found and my interest in playing the game was fading fast.  I just didn't have the drive or motivation to play the way I used to on a regular basis.  It wasn't anything to do with the team/manager or anything like that, just on a personal level, I felt like I didn't have the same desire anymore.  Even when I scored, I didn't feel that same buzz and I had dabbled with 2 or 3 runs per week for a couple of months, only 10 miles max in total to be honest. When I joined the Dashers, I heard about a trophy that was given to the runner who'd done the most races over a season.  I knew about the club championships on the roads & fells, but being so fresh to the running scene (knocking on a 20 year absence), I knew ...

The title says it all on this occasion. We often choose to challenge ourselves and enter in to battle against the hills and mountains, after all, that's a major part of fell running, arguably that's what fell running is! So, I thought, well if I'm going to climb England's highest mountain for the first time, why not race it?  Why not do the fell race that takes in the mountain itself and climbs all the way to the summit of England.  Well, I found the race on the FRA calendar and posted off my entry form & entry fee and there we had it, I was up on the pre-entered athletes list on the CFRA website. My biggest amount of race ascent was on the Kentmere Horseshoe, around 3,300 feet, but Scafell Pike fell race is touching on 3,000 feet...not much difference you may think, but, Kentmere is over double the distance of the Scafell race & a lot of other factors come in to play.  Scafell gives you around 1 mile at the start which is runnable, before you h...

I've yet to title a blog post after a specific race, but, I thought this one deserved it.  What used to be famously and formerly known as the Half Tour of Pendle, was rightly renamed in honour of Clayton Le Moors and fell running legend Stan Bradshaw.  The route was also slightly adjusted to reduce erosion, but the name of the race is the topic to start with in this post. A little about Stan... Stan sadly passed away at the age of 97 in 2010, leaving behind a wonderful legacy in the sport of fell running.  He became only the second man to break the 28 year old record of Bob Graham, who in his famous "Bob Graham round", climbed 42 lakeland peaks in 24 hours.  He ran his first fell race at Rivington Pike in 1930 and due to being the eldest member of the Fell Runners Assocation (FRA) he was officially the worlds oldest fell runner.  To somewhat maybe top all those feats, he finished second in the inaugural Three Peaks fell race in 1954, which he went on ...