Kinder Trial Race Report

The only picture of me

The long and short of it is, good race, snowy, did some really good navving, and then screwed it up by not following the cardinal rule of nav events. Don't follow someone else.

It was snowing quite a lot last night, big floaty flakes, and the hills were whiting over quite nicely. There was a minor concern that we wouldn't get to the race, but had it been that bad, we could have just run over to Hayfield anyway.

The girls are off

As it was, the day dawned beautifully clear, and the roads were fine, soon enough we were at Hayfield scout hut getting out dibber tags, and engaging in general pre-race banter. Although it was cold, I knew I was going to warm up soon enough as we left, so opted to wear a thermal, arm warmers, gloves and shorts, unfortunately it just wasn't bad enough weather to break out the new spektr smock. Ah well, its time will surely come!

This being Lynne's second race, and first one of the year, she wangled her way to getting a couple of partners from the club and went around as a gaggle of glossopdalers, which was nice, they went off early, and went the other way around from me, so I saw them once, about halfway around the course.
I decided that I'd take a camera round, as it was such a gorgeous day, it would be a shame to let it go to waste. Because of this decision I figured that I wasn't exactly going to be competitive in my time, but at least I could make up for it with a decent bit of navigation.

Ian on the way up to Mount Famine

Time for the off, and after looking at the map and pondering it for a while, I decided that I was going to to head around anti-clockwise. The route up Mount Famine, Dimpus Clough is bad enough when you've done a short race, at the end of a long race, in the snow, would be a killer. I caught up with a Pennine runner, and we tag teamed up to the first check point, and then up to the top of Mount Famine. A quick discussion about whether to contour round to hit the next before going into the clough was had, and I had pretty much already decided that a down and up approach was the best.

Down the hill, half running, half sliding, we faffed for a fair while looking for the right clough, but staying relatively high. There were a load of runners who were doing the same thing, but had been sucked down into the bottom of the clough. After a bit of investigation, we headed up the hill, he went to look at another clough, and I continued up the same one, and got the flag. Whistling at him, I carried on. The next part was a slog uphill, and then, a delightful bash across some fields, staying well ahead of the runners that I had unintentionally guided into that previous checkpoint. I took a stonkingly good line, hit the check point, and then following a single line of footprints, instead of the majority which had gone off in what I thought wasn't the best direction, I came up around the corner of Swines Back and dropped into the clough with the next Check point. Fantastic.

Just then, a load of runners came storming down the hill, so I stopped for a moment to take a few pictures,  and carried on. This was obviously the area where I was going to be passing people in the opposite direction, Chris went past, then Charlie, then John Hewitt (who shouted at me for taking photos when I should have been getting on with the more serious task of running), Dave Hogg, Sikobe, Lynne, Alison, Beccy, Carl and Beryl. I had also caught up with Sue who was going in the same direction as me.

Chris

SBRT with Sue descending behind him

SBRT was also there, and we took a moment for a bit of mutual photo taking.
Down into the next clough and clipped the checkpoint, stopped to take a picture of Ian of DarkPeak. It was at this point that Julien caught me up and overtook. Ah well, I'm not going all out today, and anyway, its a delightful day to be out in the hills.

Carl and Beryl

Carrying onto the next checkpoint, a racer was stopping to have some jelly babies and very generously offered one to me, which was very nice (thankyou Mr Springfield Strider!) and on through some pretty gnarly terrain around Cluther rocks down to hit the next checkpoint.

Julien

IDP

Clip and away, and down, and whats this? Julien coming back up towards me?! He had missed the checkpoint by a distance and was doubling back. Ah well, he had started 20 mins after me and was 20 mins up on me anyway. Not a problem. So then on up towards Sandy Heys with this horrible climb that seemed to go on for quite a while. I consoled myself that it wasn't going up Mount Famine. To the top, clip, and Julien comes past again, I'm not entirely sure how to get to the next one, so I tag along behind him.
At this point I was well aware that I was breaking the 1st absolute rule of not following someone else on a nav event, however, it was a nice day, he knows this hill like the back of his hand, and, yes, he went pretty much straight to the point.

Fantastic, now to the next one, he set off down the hill like a rocket, and I was in close pursuit, deciding to take pictures of him descending. So caught up in the brilliant fun of running downhill fast with a friend, taking photos, and just enjoying the day out I didn't look at the map.
We got to the bottom, and surged up the other side of the valley, following Jude, who we had just caught up with. At the top of the valley, Julien turned around. We've missed a checkpoint.
D'oh. That'll teach me to follow anyone blindly every again. I was running faster than I could map read, and I wasn't concentrating. Now we were 3km from home with a 2km round trip to get a Checkpoint that we missed.

The fateful photos!

All the time that I had built up with good choices and intelligent navigation blown away by following another person. Ah well. Entirely my fault, caught up in the moment.
So back to the Checkpoint watching others that I had passed, pass me, damn.

Then the run back down the hill, and up to White cabin, I was getting tired and the line just didn't appear under my feet for ages. It felt like it took a long long time to get up there, and as the cabin came into sight, Julien was shooting off into the distance, with 4 runners that I should have been in front of.
Clip the paper, and off down the hill. I was a little unsure of the path as I'd never been along it before, but it was a wide scar through snow covered fields. I no longer cared about the puddles with ice in them, splashing though them with complete disregard for the water in my shoes.
Down, down down into Hayfield, overtaking 2 or 3 people on the way back in.
I finished in 2:43 ish, no idea, but probably well down the pecking order.
I'd be disappointed, but, I had such a cracking day out, it really doesn't matter!

Glossopdale also won a fair amount of prizes as well, despite his various detours, Julien won V50, Susan, Jude and Beryl all won their respective age catagories as well.

Well done Lynne!

Lynne came in and had quite amazing leg cramps, which surprised her quite a lot. At least she now knows what they feel like!
Now at home, sipping a Rescue Ale, courtesy of IDP and Woodhead mountain rescue, writing my blog so that Beryl doesn't get disappointed when she see me down the pub later on today!
Taking the camera around was a vrilliant success, and I might end up taking around an SLR if I can work out how to carry it without breaking it.

As a bit of amusement, here is my track in garmin, have a butchers and see where you thing we may have gone slightly wrong

I have only one slight disappointment about the day. Nick Barber didn't wear his flat cap for the duration of the race. Next time maybe?

A terribly cheesy photo of baba

Out over Bleaklow and Kinder

I was there.

Went for a bit of a run today, the plan was to go up from Glossop onto Bleaklow, across the plateau to Grinah, then down south to Kinder and back along either the top or bottom depending on how I felt.
The vast majority of the run was going to be on bog, peat, marsh and generally squishy ground, so a perfect day out for the Inov8 Baregrips. I've been out in them on shorter runs, and a couple of races, but nothing really over 6-7 miles, so this could be an interesting day.

The weather was lovely this morning, so I just took a small backpack (osprey 5.5) with 2 litres of water (with a tab of High 5 Zero), 3 geobars, a mule bar (that I managed to blag, to see what it tasted like), the Montane H2O jacket, and an extra pair of gloves. (along with the normal bits and pieces that normally get taken)
The idea was to visit a few aircraft wrecks, some of which I've been to before, some which I haven't, check out some trods across the moor, and to test my legs out on a slightly longer run. I haven't done any long stuff since the 15 trigs back in July.

Skytrain

Lancaster plaque

Out from Glossop at about 10, slightly blowy, but I went on up Doctors gate at a speed that was a little ill-advised- perhaps remembering the Shelf moor race. I carried on up past where the route hangs a left up James Thorn, up, then down to the river, and up to the Skytrain in Ashton clough, which I hadn't been to before.

Then, a really vicious climb up to the Lancaster and plaque for both the wrecks. I didn't take a bearing, and just went for it, and came out bang on the wreck, which was pretty good going.

From there, I took the mildly circuitous route over to the Trig, (after the climb I really didn't want to peat bash immediately), then to Overexposed.

Herne stones

So far I had encountered 1 person with a dog on Shire hill, and 1 on a mountain bike coming down Doctors Gate.
Cross country to Herne Stones, then Bleaklow head. From here, I broke off East, following a trod that theoretically should have taken me straight across and over to Grinah (eventually). However, pretty soon I noticed that the path was trending somewhat northerly, and I ended up in the middle of Bleaklow with not much to see in any direction, going in the wrong direction. Nothing for it but to turn East and bash across the moor until I could see something useful.

The anvil/ Bike saddle

Eventually I saw the Anvil (sometimes called the saddle- it depends on your physical viewpoint, and whether you are a biker or not), and, at much the same time, found a trod that went in the right direction which became more and then less distinct as I ran along it. It was a nice change from stumbling around in groughs.

Lovely trod across to Grinah

The Anvil at Bleaklow stones is quite a landmark, and from there a fantastically fast and delightful trod took me direct to Grinah stones.
From here things got a little less easy. There appeared to be no trod directly south, so I tucked into my Mule bar- tastes a little more chewy than a geobar, but not much difference that I can see apart from the price- took a sighting across to Fairbrook naze on Kinder which I could see in the distance and made a beeline.

Over the moor- lots of heather- not so fun to run through, then down a clough and back up the other side, across, and then down into Alport clough and back up once more. The ups were very steep, and I think I need to get more of them into my legs- it just feels like a lot of one legged body weight squats for endurance.

The Path across the moor

The correct colour for Baregrips

Still, I wasn't feeling too bad by the time I got to the top, and again sighted for Fairbrook naze and went for it. Slow going over across the bog and heather, and at one point I thought I was going in a little off, so I hung up a little more southwesterly, hit the top of the rise and down into a clough that I was looking for that took me bang into Lady Clough. Perfect.

 The Well

Getting a little tired going through the trees, and down to the bottom, then across the river and up onto Kinder. That was naaaaasty. I was stumbling up the hill, and really knackered. The idea was to hit the landrover track that we saw yesterday on our shroom walk. The going was pretty tough and I was not going fast. Eventually after a lot of heather bashing I found the track and went off West. It wasn't the best track to follow and at one point I went up to beyond my knee in a peat bog. It was a bit of a run/shuffle thing going on. By now I had eaten all my food and was running out of water- and bizarrely, craving haribo. Followed a trod across the bottom of the hill, and by chance came across a Well, with some beautifully clear water, and eventually, the Sabre wrecks. I figured that would happen. Its pretty flat down there, and wrecks of 2 planes are probably going to be obvious.

Sabre Wreck

Liberator

It took a long while to get up out of the valley, but I got to Mill Hill, down past the Liberator, across to Harry Hut and down into Glossop. The worst bit of the whole run was running along the Pennine way in Baregrips. Not a whole lot of fun.
Just about 20 miles in the end, all good fun, my feet held up in the Baregrips, very comfortable for the most part- except on rocky and rough terrain, navigation wasn't too bad. Just need to remember some haribo next time, and I'll be set!

Cold bath to relax out the legs, a smoothie with 2 bananas, chocolate milkshake powder, protein powder, milk and 2 teaspoons of crabapple jelly, and a huge feed this evening hopefully should see me right for not aching too much tomorrow...
I'd stick a link in with the garmin track, but the site is down at the moment.... have to do it some other time...

out with the harriers

Quick burn with the Harriers last night as a try out and see if my legs were recovering as well as I thought. Only a few hours after the Burpee Breathing ladder, which began the frying of my legs, the charge up to Kinder Downfall certain killed them off.

Pace was set rather fast on the first part, I wasn't sure if it was my legs still being knackered, or if it was just a really fast pace. I'd like to think it was the former, but am a bit worried that it might be the latter! An overall pace of 8mins per km, which includes all the stops for catch ups etc, means that a decent pace was kept up for pretty much the entire circuit, which was good- although my legs felt heavy, I could still generally keep the pace up, which was encouraging. As I've had to consign my Roclites to the bin, the Baregrips came out with a vengeance. They were perfect for the long peaty descent, and were a dream even scrambling up the river to Kinder Downfall. I'm still getting used to the remarkable thinness of the soles on sharp rocky ground though...

Today is a day of rest- though I'm going over to Rockover for work (and a bit of climbing) later on, so thats my recovery for the day- Tomorrow is another recovery day, but focussing on unweighted movements, which should be fun.
In the meantime, the Garmin track for yesterday can be found here

Training- out with the Harriers again

Yesterday with the Harriers was a bit of a rare one apparently. We had about 20 people out- whether this was because we were scheduled to head to the pub afterward, there is a race on Sat and all the really fast runners were staying at home to rest their legs, or just because it was a lovely route, I don't really know.We headed out from the Carpark just below Kinder, up past the reservoir, and up to the Mermaids pool. (just beyond there we crossed paths- quite literally with the Pennine guys- and almost acquired a rather nice Collie which got confused as to which group of runners it should be following.
On we went, keeping a nice slow and steady pace over to the Downfall, and a variety of lines were taken up to the top. I favoured the short and steep scrambling, whilst others preferred the less steep, (but not leisurely at all) walk up the side.
By this time it had taken us a fair old while to get where we did- waiting for some of the slower runners, which, to be fair, wasnt a problem really.
My legs were feeling like lead, and Charlie was hammering out in front in a way that I just couldnt keep up with.

After re grouping around the top of the fall, a general consensus was made to head along the B route and back down to the pub. Although the A route would have been nice, it would have been another couple of hours or so in the running, and people had to get back for trains etc.

The run along the top was good fun- practicing my speed on rough ground work- I still need to get out and do 1km/100m ascent hill practice... - but this was neither the time nor the place. And the final downhill section was glorious- thrashing through peaty paths, and down over deep heather. It seems that my downhill speed is fine for a short amount of time, and then I have to reign it in again- I think it must be the CP system kicking in for about 15 seconds before it runs out of Creatine Phosphate, and I have to slow back down again in order to use Aerobic capacity.
Halfway down the hill we (or rather someone else... I was down the hill and had to run back up it to see) found a stone which had been carved- but it was upside down- so the carving was face down on the floor on a 1/2 ton rock.
Luckily there were some strong people in the group- who managed to lever it up so we could have a quick look at the carving.
So I took a picture of it.
Then we hammered down the hill and over a meadow and down through the wood back to the cars. In the long tradition of fellrunners everywhere, we went to the pub.
It was great to have a bit of a social run, out with 20 other people, talking and relaxing, and even better to have some time at the end in the pub.
I wouldnt want to do that every week, but it was great to do it this time.
Still dont know everyones names though....

and here is a link to the garmin connect page- if it works, and if youre interested.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86704778