A weekend of contrasts both climbing and weather wise. I actually managed to get out climbing both days for once, it's only taken all summer!
Saturday saw Simon and myself umming and ahhing before heading to another recently developed crag, this time it was Comb Hill which is in the dry valley above and behind Malham Cove. I'd run past this several times on my training for the Bob Graham and had given it a quick once over but hadn't really thought about it. Times and tastes change and after parking at the top of the Cove road we headed down to the crag, maybe ten minutes walk tops.
The place was Baltic!! The thin north wind was whipping down the valley rather than over the top of the crag. Still while we were here might as well get some routes done. Two F6a+s and a F6b later and we decide that we'd be better off out of the wind so it was down to Giggleswick South.
Two groups of friends were already there so it was quite sociable. In the sun it was warm but there was still a distinct lack of heat once the sun went behind a cloud. Another six routes and we've had enough as it's getting towards evening and cooling down.
The following day I have the car so it's plan A for Gaz and myself, down to the Peak and gritstone at Burbage. I hadn't climbed in the Peak since my accident so the first few routes solo (deja vu!) were a bit tense and I was definitely happier once the ropes went on. By the time we'd done half a dozen routes including some delightful gritstone HVS cracks with all they entail :-) it was getting time to go given it's a two hour drive.
This week has been a bit topsy turvy - the cleats on my road cycling shoes were wearing thin so time for a new pair. One trip to the local bike shop and they were fitted Monday evening. Tuesday morning and the weather is fine so I head off to work on the bike. Or rather tried to. My feet were flying out of the pedals so it's the car again. Asking around at work it seems that Look changed their pedal style, or at least the size of them, around three years ago! Brilliant! One web order later and I've the original style heading my way.
With the lack of exercise on Tuesday I actually went for a run on Wednesday evening, only two miles and very slowly but it was a run. My knees haven't felt too bad over the last couple of days though there is a bit of delayed muscle soreness. Today has been fine weather so I went to work on the bike, at least the cleats fit.
Showing posts with label running. Show all posts
Showing posts with label running. Show all posts
Thursday, 30 September 2010
Thursday, 1 July 2010
And the Heat Goes On
Having recovered from a full week of effort up in Scotland it was back to local stuff and splitting up the weekend into climbing and non-climbing days.
Sunday was the climbing day and we decided to go to Hoghton Quarry. This is only open for a couple of months each year so, on the basis of get to the crags with minimal access while you can we agreed to meet there. This being the day of the England - Germany football match the roads were rather quiet and it was just 45mins to the parking. Mike hadn't arrived so I walked in to the crag to find a couple just leaving. "Turn round and go elsewhere!" was their first advice. Looking at the crag it was obvious why - it was filthy and would have taken all day to clean a single route - and that was just the clean bits! Mike turned up and we decided to head down to Wilton. By the time we got there it was nearly 4pm! Last time I'd been in the quarries, I'd struggled. This time things were much easier so it seems as if I'm getting my trad head back leading an E1 OK and finding an E2 very easy when seconding. Half a dozen routes later, only one of which I'd done before and it was time to go. There seemed to be a strange lack of cars with cheap St George flags on display on the drive home.
I'd got my HRM back the other week but hadn't used it much on local runs so Saturday I headed up the local hill and sweltered in the heat. Still I got round in just over 56 minutes which isn't bad considering the lack of racing I've been doing. My PB on a slightly different route is just under 50mins - the reason for the route change is the prescence of a herd of cows with calves, one of which attacked me last year so I'm erring on the cautious side. I reckon that the new line is somewhere between 90secs and 2mins quicker. By the time I got back I was suffering, I really don't like running in hot weather. Monday night I went out again and logged under 52mins, the only difference I can think of to account for the speed up is that it was about 8C cooler.
Running from home might be a bit awkward for a week or two as the spring supplying the house water has dried up! In a way it's quite interesting to see just how little water you actually need. We are helped by the fact that we have a large bowser connected to one of our gutter downpipes that we normally use for the garden that we can use to flush the toilet.
Coming up are two weekends supporting on long distance rounds. This weekend is another trip to Scotland to help Bill Williamson out on his Ramsay Round attempt. I'm on the Mamores section again so more sitting around at Loch Eilde Mor in the early hours. Then the following weekend is Andy Kitts' Bob Graham round, I've got leg one (Skiddaw) which I've not paced/supported before. Might be quick as he's looking at either a 6pm or 7pm start so it will all be in daylight.
Sunday was the climbing day and we decided to go to Hoghton Quarry. This is only open for a couple of months each year so, on the basis of get to the crags with minimal access while you can we agreed to meet there. This being the day of the England - Germany football match the roads were rather quiet and it was just 45mins to the parking. Mike hadn't arrived so I walked in to the crag to find a couple just leaving. "Turn round and go elsewhere!" was their first advice. Looking at the crag it was obvious why - it was filthy and would have taken all day to clean a single route - and that was just the clean bits! Mike turned up and we decided to head down to Wilton. By the time we got there it was nearly 4pm! Last time I'd been in the quarries, I'd struggled. This time things were much easier so it seems as if I'm getting my trad head back leading an E1 OK and finding an E2 very easy when seconding. Half a dozen routes later, only one of which I'd done before and it was time to go. There seemed to be a strange lack of cars with cheap St George flags on display on the drive home.
I'd got my HRM back the other week but hadn't used it much on local runs so Saturday I headed up the local hill and sweltered in the heat. Still I got round in just over 56 minutes which isn't bad considering the lack of racing I've been doing. My PB on a slightly different route is just under 50mins - the reason for the route change is the prescence of a herd of cows with calves, one of which attacked me last year so I'm erring on the cautious side. I reckon that the new line is somewhere between 90secs and 2mins quicker. By the time I got back I was suffering, I really don't like running in hot weather. Monday night I went out again and logged under 52mins, the only difference I can think of to account for the speed up is that it was about 8C cooler.
Running from home might be a bit awkward for a week or two as the spring supplying the house water has dried up! In a way it's quite interesting to see just how little water you actually need. We are helped by the fact that we have a large bowser connected to one of our gutter downpipes that we normally use for the garden that we can use to flush the toilet.
Coming up are two weekends supporting on long distance rounds. This weekend is another trip to Scotland to help Bill Williamson out on his Ramsay Round attempt. I'm on the Mamores section again so more sitting around at Loch Eilde Mor in the early hours. Then the following weekend is Andy Kitts' Bob Graham round, I've got leg one (Skiddaw) which I've not paced/supported before. Might be quick as he's looking at either a 6pm or 7pm start so it will all be in daylight.
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Summer's here!
Finally all the sprains seem to be going! A run up the local fell on Monday evening resulted in no after effects, well apart from the copious amounts of sweat now that summer seems to have arrived. Hopefully no more need of thermals. Even better was the fact that my time was quite reasonable without pushing too hard - not helped by the fact that I came across the cow (bovine variety) that attacked me last year and had to make a small detour.
Headed out for a longer run this evening along the Pennine Way. Everything felt much easier though there are still one or two tight spots. What's remarkable though is just how dry the ground is, there must have been a total of 5 metres of damp ground in 11 miles! Mind you it did mean that normally springy peaty ground is now like concrete - you can't have everything.
Climbing wise, I was out both days of the weekend - one day in the Lakes and the other on bolted limestone. Climbing quite well both days though I probably should have had another redpoint attempt on the 6C on Sunday.
We had intended to go to Stonestar Crag in the Duddon but on getting there we discovered there was a bird ban. A quick discussion and we went for Troutal Gorge - we only had the current guide and hadn't got any printouts of the newer developments so were slightly limited. I'd done quite a few of the routes shortly after the place had been developed but hadn't been back since nor I suspected had many other people. I was a bit dubious about how clean/dry things would be but since it's only 5 minutes from the car park there wasn't much to lose.
As it turned out, it was pretty dry, it was however fairly dirty. One HVS then we top-roped an E2, neither of which I'd done before - Mike hadn't been there before so it was all new to him. Mike then did (top-roped) an E3 before we decided that there wasn't much else we could do without a complete cleaning kit. Since there was now bright sunshine we headed across the valley to White How Crag where there's a reasonable selection of routes from VS to E1. I'd done everything, again just after the initial development, and again Mike had never been there before.
After slight detours to avoid dead sheep(!) we got to the crag and it was my lead. A HVS at the left seemed like a good idea so once I'd kitted up I set off and soon came to a halt - I hadn't read the guide and had just headed upwards! A bit of sideways shuffling and I scuttled back to the deck. After reading the description I set off up the right line and didn't have too much trouble with it. Next to this are a couple of E1s so Mike headed up one of these, Natural Progression, all went well until the last couple of metres when his foot slipped. Fortunately he didn't fall but there was more gear in the route from that point than in the the previous 20 metres! Amazing that even after 30 years of climbing we still don't trust ourselves placing gear.
Since Mike had to be away early we just had time for one more route so I headed up a VS. Not in any way difficult, it's just good to be climbing away from gear, especially when it's not bolts. Even though the gear will hold, it is just somehow different being above a wire than a bolt.
Which is ironic since the following day I was back on bolted routes. Sunshine, showers and a thin wind drove us to Giggleswick North again. A couple of warm-ups and we decided to have a look at one of the F6Cs at the left end of the crag. I went first and ground to a halt at the second bolt. After several attempts at leaping for the holds it was Simon's turn - he managed the move statically but then couldn't figure out the following bit. After a bit of faffing he got to the lower off. First redpoint attempt and I got the holds I'd failed to grasp earlier but fell off just as I was getting my feet sorted, back on the rock I figured an easy way through the next section. Simon succeeded on his first redpoint. I wasn't too bothered about another go since it was hard on the fingers so we headed off for some footage on slightly easier stuff. My fingers definitely felt the extra effort the day after but it's over a year since I last attempted an F6C so pretty pleased with how I got on.
Now looking forward to helping Nicky with her Bob Graham attempt, though not the 2am start!
Headed out for a longer run this evening along the Pennine Way. Everything felt much easier though there are still one or two tight spots. What's remarkable though is just how dry the ground is, there must have been a total of 5 metres of damp ground in 11 miles! Mind you it did mean that normally springy peaty ground is now like concrete - you can't have everything.
Climbing wise, I was out both days of the weekend - one day in the Lakes and the other on bolted limestone. Climbing quite well both days though I probably should have had another redpoint attempt on the 6C on Sunday.
We had intended to go to Stonestar Crag in the Duddon but on getting there we discovered there was a bird ban. A quick discussion and we went for Troutal Gorge - we only had the current guide and hadn't got any printouts of the newer developments so were slightly limited. I'd done quite a few of the routes shortly after the place had been developed but hadn't been back since nor I suspected had many other people. I was a bit dubious about how clean/dry things would be but since it's only 5 minutes from the car park there wasn't much to lose.
As it turned out, it was pretty dry, it was however fairly dirty. One HVS then we top-roped an E2, neither of which I'd done before - Mike hadn't been there before so it was all new to him. Mike then did (top-roped) an E3 before we decided that there wasn't much else we could do without a complete cleaning kit. Since there was now bright sunshine we headed across the valley to White How Crag where there's a reasonable selection of routes from VS to E1. I'd done everything, again just after the initial development, and again Mike had never been there before.
After slight detours to avoid dead sheep(!) we got to the crag and it was my lead. A HVS at the left seemed like a good idea so once I'd kitted up I set off and soon came to a halt - I hadn't read the guide and had just headed upwards! A bit of sideways shuffling and I scuttled back to the deck. After reading the description I set off up the right line and didn't have too much trouble with it. Next to this are a couple of E1s so Mike headed up one of these, Natural Progression, all went well until the last couple of metres when his foot slipped. Fortunately he didn't fall but there was more gear in the route from that point than in the the previous 20 metres! Amazing that even after 30 years of climbing we still don't trust ourselves placing gear.
Since Mike had to be away early we just had time for one more route so I headed up a VS. Not in any way difficult, it's just good to be climbing away from gear, especially when it's not bolts. Even though the gear will hold, it is just somehow different being above a wire than a bolt.
Which is ironic since the following day I was back on bolted routes. Sunshine, showers and a thin wind drove us to Giggleswick North again. A couple of warm-ups and we decided to have a look at one of the F6Cs at the left end of the crag. I went first and ground to a halt at the second bolt. After several attempts at leaping for the holds it was Simon's turn - he managed the move statically but then couldn't figure out the following bit. After a bit of faffing he got to the lower off. First redpoint attempt and I got the holds I'd failed to grasp earlier but fell off just as I was getting my feet sorted, back on the rock I figured an easy way through the next section. Simon succeeded on his first redpoint. I wasn't too bothered about another go since it was hard on the fingers so we headed off for some footage on slightly easier stuff. My fingers definitely felt the extra effort the day after but it's over a year since I last attempted an F6C so pretty pleased with how I got on.
Now looking forward to helping Nicky with her Bob Graham attempt, though not the 2am start!
Friday, 12 March 2010
Slowly Slowly
For various reasons it's been nearly two months since my last post, so there's a lot to report!
For quite a while, since before Christmas really, my arm has been unable to straighten out the last 20 degrees. Despite the best efforts of the physio and lots of exercise on my part, it simply refused to move past this point. Some days it would feel like an absolute stop as if bone was the issue then on other days there seemed to be a bit of spring at the end of the travel. In the last few weeks however it has improved to around 15 degrees left to go. Maybe it's just going to take a long time to get it fully straightened.
A visit to the specialist in Sheffield got cancelled and put back to the end of April so I'll have to wait a bit longer to see what he reckons to my progress or lack thereof.
None of this has stopped me climbing however. One trip to Stockport Wall in February was the start then with the winter conditions receding I've been getting out on the crags! First call was Almscliff - not one of my favourite crags but always one that it likely to be dry, or at least drying. I stuck resolutely to the low grade routes on Low Man. It was surprising just how clunky everything felt, probably nerves as much as anything but I didn't get moving freely until the fourth or fifth route.
Last weekend saw a trip to Widdop boulders. Unfortunately the thaw meant that many problems were damp, probably because the snow on top of the boulders had melted. This meant that I had limited things to do, but even Mike and Gaz had soon run out of harder problems so we headed down the valley to Scout Hut Crag and some super steep traversing. The rock here is very rough so it wasn't long before holes started appearing in my soft hands! Fortunately this happened about the same time as my shoulders and arms gave up.
The following day was back to Yorkshire Limestone and the usual suspect of Robin Proctor's Scar. Again I was really awkward in my movements on the first couple of routes, both F5+, but by the third route, an F6a, I was moving much more smoothly. Steve fancied the F7a+ at the right hand end so he led The Marshall Plan a F6b+ to get to the shared belay so he could get the quickdraws in and have a work of the moves on a rope. I followed and again my lack of stamina showed and I struggled, not with the moves which weren't too hard but with linking them together. Still, things will improve. Then it was over to Crummackdale to grab one of the brilliant HVS slab routes - Olympus - in the setting sun.
Monday and Tuesday I certainly knew I'd been out climbing! My shoulders and arms were quite sore.
As for running, I've done very little this year. The deep snow around us has made things awkward plus all the back lanes were icy (and actually harder to run on than off-road) so for most of January I hardly did any running. In fact I nearly doubled my mileage with just one race! The Wadsworth Trog in early Feb was perhaps a little ambitious given the lack of miles in my legs. And so it proved, I got to the halfway stage then really began to struggle. This wasn't helped by slipping Bambi style on ice and picking up a groin strain. Thus I lost about half an hour on the second half. In the end I finished in 73rd out of around 120.
Having done the Trog, the following morning I was on a plane to Atlanta for work! Nine hours in an airline seat is not the best recovery regimen. On my return from Atlanta - a bit of a nightmare in that it took 48hrs due to cancelled and delayed flights following about a centimetre of snow at the airport, plus my bag took a different route to me so only got back home 60hrs after I did - I picked up a cold. So that stopped me from running for a couple of weeks. Currently I don't have much enthusiasm for running and when I do go for a run as I did on Wednesday evening, lovely sunset and just perfect conditions, the groin strain flares up and I struggle to even walk the following day. I suppose I'll just have to take my time with it. Very frustrating though.
Hopefully this year will be better both weather and luck wise - last year nothing seemed to go to plan.
For quite a while, since before Christmas really, my arm has been unable to straighten out the last 20 degrees. Despite the best efforts of the physio and lots of exercise on my part, it simply refused to move past this point. Some days it would feel like an absolute stop as if bone was the issue then on other days there seemed to be a bit of spring at the end of the travel. In the last few weeks however it has improved to around 15 degrees left to go. Maybe it's just going to take a long time to get it fully straightened.
A visit to the specialist in Sheffield got cancelled and put back to the end of April so I'll have to wait a bit longer to see what he reckons to my progress or lack thereof.
None of this has stopped me climbing however. One trip to Stockport Wall in February was the start then with the winter conditions receding I've been getting out on the crags! First call was Almscliff - not one of my favourite crags but always one that it likely to be dry, or at least drying. I stuck resolutely to the low grade routes on Low Man. It was surprising just how clunky everything felt, probably nerves as much as anything but I didn't get moving freely until the fourth or fifth route.
Last weekend saw a trip to Widdop boulders. Unfortunately the thaw meant that many problems were damp, probably because the snow on top of the boulders had melted. This meant that I had limited things to do, but even Mike and Gaz had soon run out of harder problems so we headed down the valley to Scout Hut Crag and some super steep traversing. The rock here is very rough so it wasn't long before holes started appearing in my soft hands! Fortunately this happened about the same time as my shoulders and arms gave up.
The following day was back to Yorkshire Limestone and the usual suspect of Robin Proctor's Scar. Again I was really awkward in my movements on the first couple of routes, both F5+, but by the third route, an F6a, I was moving much more smoothly. Steve fancied the F7a+ at the right hand end so he led The Marshall Plan a F6b+ to get to the shared belay so he could get the quickdraws in and have a work of the moves on a rope. I followed and again my lack of stamina showed and I struggled, not with the moves which weren't too hard but with linking them together. Still, things will improve. Then it was over to Crummackdale to grab one of the brilliant HVS slab routes - Olympus - in the setting sun.
Monday and Tuesday I certainly knew I'd been out climbing! My shoulders and arms were quite sore.
As for running, I've done very little this year. The deep snow around us has made things awkward plus all the back lanes were icy (and actually harder to run on than off-road) so for most of January I hardly did any running. In fact I nearly doubled my mileage with just one race! The Wadsworth Trog in early Feb was perhaps a little ambitious given the lack of miles in my legs. And so it proved, I got to the halfway stage then really began to struggle. This wasn't helped by slipping Bambi style on ice and picking up a groin strain. Thus I lost about half an hour on the second half. In the end I finished in 73rd out of around 120.
Having done the Trog, the following morning I was on a plane to Atlanta for work! Nine hours in an airline seat is not the best recovery regimen. On my return from Atlanta - a bit of a nightmare in that it took 48hrs due to cancelled and delayed flights following about a centimetre of snow at the airport, plus my bag took a different route to me so only got back home 60hrs after I did - I picked up a cold. So that stopped me from running for a couple of weeks. Currently I don't have much enthusiasm for running and when I do go for a run as I did on Wednesday evening, lovely sunset and just perfect conditions, the groin strain flares up and I struggle to even walk the following day. I suppose I'll just have to take my time with it. Very frustrating though.
Hopefully this year will be better both weather and luck wise - last year nothing seemed to go to plan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)