3 Peaks Training

Started doing some properish training for the 3 Peaks. Went to Salisbury for 21st/22nd and went out do to a 3 hour run - underestimated how much ground you can cover in the absence of real hills and nearly fell off the map somewhere east of Figsbury Rings. Anyway, pieced together a mostly off road kind of there and back route that took me over the magical 3 hour mark, Tracklogs says it was the best part of 19 miles. Didn't feel too bad afterwards, although a couple of rubbish nights sleep left me feeling pretty lousy for the rest of the week. Ho hum. Really must try some mountain biking down there.

Last weekend I went up to Bentham to do an actual recce of the actual 3 Peaks. Walked up Pen y gent with Pippa on saturday and did a nordic walk / run of the Race route minus Pen y Gent on Sunday in a steady 5 hours. Quite pleased to be feeling OK after that :)

Ras Moel Wnion

I did Ras Moel Wnion (4m, 1500’) on Saturday, which was also Matt’s first fell race. So I wasn’t too happy that new boy had the temerity to pass me on the steep climb up Moel Wnion when I was feeling fairly rubbish. I decided that it was a useful training run even if I wasn’t going so well and it was a nice day to be out anyway so I kept going and felt better as the race went on. Luckily for me, Matt didn’t yet own a pair of fell shoes and was consequently struggling a bit on the steeper descents – and this race has about 3 descents which get progressively more technical, so I was able to catch him coming down off Gyrn. I think I passed a couple of others on the final descent from Moel Faban and finished in an unconfirmed 44m50 – quicker than last year, but the start/finish had moved so there was less ascent this time.

Went for a lovely ride up Drum the next day – IN THE SUN! It was great :)