Week 3 - The Hebden

Monday, 15 January

Strength and conditioning workout today.

Tuesday, 16 January

Another slow plod with Ruby after work today.  We went up the ‘rocky road behind the school’ again then just ran along George’s Lane and down through Wilderswood.  Nothing exciting to report. 

Distance – 3.1 miles

Wednesday, 17 January

Altitude spin session tonight.  Really tough session although a bit of decent rock music saw me through. 

Friday, 19 January

I was on a half day at work today so I went straight to the gym on my way home for my strength and conditioning workout.

Afterwards, I took Ruby for a nice afternoon walk up to Two Lads. 

Distance – 3 miles

Saturday, 20 January – The Hebden

Today I took part in The Hebden, an LDWA challenge event in, you guessed it, Hebden Bridge.  Last year I did the full 21 mile route but this year I had to do the shorter, 15 miles route due to logistical issues.  I got a lift there with Mark S and we discussed the Red Rose 50 we had both done in September last year.  At the time of hobbling to the finish together, we had made a pact that we would definitely not enter this year’s event due to the fact that we were very unhappy at the end of it.  However, we have both already forgotten the pain and both said that we were going to enter again this year.  Perhaps this is a bit like how women say you forget the pain of childbirth?

Due to icy roads and an accident on the M60, we only just arrived in Mytholmroyd in time for the start.  Seconds after I got out of the car, I slipped on some black ice and let out a girly yelp, threw my water bottle into the air and it narrowly missed a car coming along the road.  Not a good start!  

The route itself turned out not to be that slippery though.  Well, not in an icy way, however it was a complete mud bath so it was slippery in that respect and the main goal of the day was to remain upright which I’m glad to say I achieved.  About seven or eight miles in a lady started walking with me as she had been deserted by her partner who was doing the long route and was running.  She was only walking the short route and had no directions so was relying on me to get her around.  We kept coming across other people who were hanging back waiting for me because I was the ‘lady with the directions’ and it got me thinking about how bizarre it is that so many people take part in these events without having a clue where they’re actually going and not taking any directions or maps with them.  One of them even seemed really surprised as to where I had got the directions from, even though it’s standard for all LDWA challenge events to have a directions sheet and that they’re not marshalled. 

The checkpoint where you decided whether to do the long route or the short route is about 14 miles in on the Hebden so if you choose to do the short route you only have about 1.5 miles to go to the finish which is quite nice as, quite often on these events, the decision has to be made only six or seven miles in, by which point you may not know which route you want to take as you’re still feeling really fresh.  Unfortunately, I was still feeling fresh and wanted to continue on the long route but as I was being picked up by Duncan and my brother, who had to get across to south Manchester before 4pm to pick up a new bike for my brother, I had to stay on the short route and head back.  Annoyingly though, I arrived back at around 1pm and didn’t get picked up until around 3pm, meaning I could have done the long route after all!

Distance – 15.2 miles

Sunday, 21 January

I had a very cold walk this morning with Ruby.  We again went up ‘the rocky road behind the school’ then headed up to the Pike.  It was bitterly cold up there and Ruby was not a happy bunny.  I decided that I’d have a bit of a run back down to try to keep her warm but because I had rubbish un-grippy shoes on, we ran down the ‘curly’ route instead of going straight down. 

Distance – 4 miles

Stats:

Week’s total running distance:               3.1 miles

Week’s total walking distance:               22.2 (plus daily standard Ruby walks)

Week’s total cycling  distance:               21km on spin bike  

Week’s total swimming distance:           0

Total number of S&C sessions:              2