2018 planning

Well after my mass of running at the tail end of 2017, 2018 hasn’t exactly set on fire in it’s first 2 weeks!

A planned break

I’d always planned to have a little bit of downtime after the #REDBED Challenge. I knew that putting together so many miles would be a great base to build from. However, there is a matter of ‘too much of a good thing’ which I’ve fallen prey to before.

That said, I’d not anticipated to have done no running aside from leading a #LymeRunners session on Tuesday. Saturday mornings are usually ones of group runs. However, most are training for marathons and as such the mileage count is rising more rapidly than I need for my 2018.

Return to the trails

In fact I didn’t wake up this morning until after their planned 18 mile training run would have completed. I’m thinking my lethargy is down to my body recovering from this winter cold virus that’s doing the rounds. Although I’ve not felt ‘ill’ for over a week, it still feels like my head is crammed full with cotton wool. Except not the fluffy sort. More the stuff that makes you a sniffly mess!

However, part of the lethargy is that I’ve just not done a decent aerobic session in 2 weeks. So having covered off my work commitments this morning, I dug out my running gear and headed out of the door. I had intended to take the HR strap with me, except I couldn’t find it. That said, today was all about going out for a run. I had zero interest in the numbers, which for me is unusual. Sometimes it is good to be free from that. In fact I’ve set my watch to being completely silent on training runs. It doesn’t tell me mile splits or nag me about my pace. It just sits there quietly recording the route so I’ve got the data to chew over afterwards.

The plan was a roughly 12-13 mile route, mostly off-road, so the Inov-8 Roclites were dragged out of their muddy state from Wormstones. Running from home normally means a good mile or so before I can escape the tarmac, but the Roclites are OK with that. In fairness, they’re getting a little long in the tooth, but still holding their own.

So here’s the route:

Recce and a bit more tarmac

The route started out along the main road but as I approach Poynton Pool there’s a trail which runs along the lake rather than chugging along the dual carriageway, which is infinitely nicer! Although there’s a brief revisit of the traffic-jam that is Poynton, a quick left takes me onto Princes Incline which leads all the way to the canal. Upon which I rescued some walkers who couldn’t get their thermos open! I commented that they had managed to crack open the hip-flask which they informed me contained amaretto! High living indeed!

Crossing the canal (bridge, not walking on water) took me to a trail which brought me out at the admissions hut at Lyme Park. Rather than going up into Lyme, I carried straight on. I wanted to recce a new route for a #LymeRunners Tuesday Run Group, a section of which I’ve run before with the Saturday group. However there was a lot of snow on the ground at the time and I prefer to know the route for definite before I’m being a responsible adult with a running club!

I continued through some extremely muddy fields to go around the two reservoirs before rejoining the Gritstone Trail to the East of Lyme Park.

I did think about doing a full-on trail route, but then had to remind myself I’d not run in 2 weeks due to lurgy. So instead I followed the East Drive right through Lyme Park until I popped out at the Knott. From there it was a run downhill back to the Canal.

It was a choice between a couple of roads interspersed with about a mile of trail, or going along the Middlewood Way and then having 2.5 miles of road at the end. I decided on the latter for reasons beyond comprehension. However, at least most of the road section is a steady downhill!

2018 Planning

Having put together the race series for #LymeRunners I thought I ought to plan some races myself. I’ve already got 4 road half-marathons and 2 trail ultra marathons in the diary. However my intention for 2018 was to try a few more of the local fell races in the area.

My difficulty is that work tends to be at it’s busiest in June and August. Most of the race activity seems to be in May & June. So I figured if I put some of the races in my diary, I’d at least be aware of them when adding work commitments. Hopefully that way I’ll manage to turn up to a few more races. The plus side is they’re predominantly local, so they should fit in easily enough. The down side is that work would have to be done first to avoid traipsing the mud of Dark Peak around work premises!

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