Exploring Aroun' th' Top Barn

Lead legs today meant another easy run with Ruby.  I didn't intend to go far, just to the barn and back but I found myself being a bit inquisitive and exploring down very short little paths I haven't been down before.

It's a bit hard to explain where they were really, so I have marked them as colours onto a screen print from my route...

First was the green path, which brought me out by the gate behind the top barn where I had to climb over the fence as there was no stile or gate.  Probably not actually a real path but has definitely been walked over a lot.

The second was the purple one, which was something of a trod through the field off the diagonal path which goes from the house on Sheephouse Lane to one of the roads up to the barn.

The last one was a little path off Rivington Road, which went up to a house but then skirted round it and came back out onto the road up to the barn.

Nothing exciting really but they're all little paths I pass all the time but never go along so it's nice to have a change of scenery, however short that may be.

Total distance - 4.25 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/201531750

Noon Hill and the Pike

A leisurely run with Ruby today.  

We set off down dog poo alley in the direction of Rivington School but, when we got to Green Lane, we ran up to Tiger's Clough instead.  After running up the Devil's Steps we took the short route which brings you out near the cattle grid on the concrete road up to the farm, which is part of the Pike Race route.  We then ran up through the farm where, despite previously thinking I had made progress with Ruby and her sheep fetish, she started dragging towards them so I spent the entire run through the field yelling at her and yanking her back.  When will she ever learn?  I think the answer to that is never. 

From the top of the field, we turned left onto George's Lane and headed towards the Pigeon Tower, then along to the stile up to Noon  Hill.  

Once at the top of Noon Hill, I stopped to take some pictures and, as I was doing so, Ruby pulled suddenly towards a load of sheep, taking me completely by surprise and almost dislocating my shoulder.  She really jerked me back and I dropped my camera (phone) onto a rock but luckily it appears to have survived.  My mood was not improving.  It should be fun to go out running with a dog but some days she really tries my patience.  

View from Noon Hill...

From Noon Hill we headed cross-country to the Pike, where we bumped into Josie and a runner who I don't know having a natter on the top.  After having a bit of a natter myself, we carried on off the Pike down to George's Lane, with Josie speeding off in the opposite direction.  I had thought about doing the curly route down because Ruby has a habit of tripping me when I go the steeper more fun route but I decided in for a penny, in for a pound and let her off the lead and ran down.  At one point I did feel my heel making contact with her.  Why does she run so close?  The dog's a menace... but a lovely one! 

Once back on George's Lane, we just headed along to the kennels and back down the Two Lads route to home.  

Total distance - 5 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/201158246

Thieveley Pike Fell Race

My first fell race of the year!

What a tough little race.  Only 4.3 miles but with one hell of a climb in it.

I learned a valuable lesson right at the start of this race - start further up the field.  I took my place on the start line near the back of the pack because I didn't want to get in anyone's way but this was a huge mistake because, once we got through the field and along the track, people started walking straight away at the climb.  I would have preferred to run as far as I could before walking but I couldn't get past most of the time so was stuck behind people even slower than me!  I managed to get past a couple of people but I feel that if I had started further up in the pack I would have been much better placed for the climb.

The climb itself was really steep and at one point I was pretty much crawling using my hands too.  I felt like my calves were going to explode!

Once it leveled out, I found it quite difficult to get running again, but I managed, although shuffle is probably a more appropriate word than run.  There was then another big climb and the pressure in my calves now worked its way all the way up my legs and they felt like lead.

It was such a relief when I finally got to the pike and started my decent.

Just after coming off the pike there were absolutely stunning far reaching views so I took a moment (not literally, I kept on running) to take it all in.  It would have been rude not to.

When I had reached the pike, there were quite a few people around me, but I left them all for dust on the descent.  Nobody passed me at all and I gained quite a distance between the others and overtook another runner.

Then came the sting in the tail, another climb.  I found this one a bit easier but it was still hard work.

Relief came at the top when I knew that the rest of the race was downhill.  Again, nobody passed me on the down but I passed another three runners.

I actually felt like I was descending quite badly because I felt like I had my brakes on a bit too much but seeing as nobody passed me and I passed quite a few, I must have done OK really.

I passed another bloke on the run back in but he started to gain on me again, however I managed to hold him off and out sprint him at the end but it's probably nothing to be proud of as he looked quite a bit older than me.

I haven't seen the results yet so I'm not sure how far up the field I was but I'm sure there were more than ten people behind me, which sounds a bit rubbish but I'm OK with that.  These are all serious athletes after all.

Despite the tough climb and the fact I felt like I was going to chunder, I really enjoyed the race and would do it again.  I'll just make sure I'm further up the pack at the start next time.

Photo by Steve Bateson

Total distance - 4.3 miles (+ 1.1 mile warm up).

http://www.strava.com/activities/200347689
http://www.strava.com/activities/200347686

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

Tonight's 'run' consisted of me trying to teach Ruby to stop chasing after things.  I'm sick of it now and really want to try harder to sort her out.  She has never really been treat motivated so it's quite difficult, however I have found a treat (from Lidl!) which she absolutely loves so I decided to take some out with me and use it to try to train her.

Professional trainers will tell you that you should treat the dog when ever she doesn't do the thing you are trying to stop her from doing.  The problem with that is that she NEVER doesn't pull after an animal she sees.

The tactic I therefore used was that whenever there was another dog that she was pulling to get towards, I would get the treat out and try to get her attention onto that instead, which did seem to work.  It's not ideal but it's a starting point! It worked on a couple of dogs we saw so I'm going to keep it up every time I take her out and hopefully try to get her to a point where she realises that she will get a treat if she doesn't run after the other dog.

Watch this space!

As for the run itself (if you can call it that - there were MANY stops in it), we just ran a loop around Rivington, nothing exciting.

Total Distance - 5.1 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/199364250

Ridgmont Run

Easy run with Ruby this evening and we set off up through Wilderswood onto George's Lane.  For the first time in a very long time, when we got to George's Lane, we turned right instead of left. I had no idea why really, I just wanted to go a different way.  After passing the top off Factory Hill and Foxholes, we turned off on the right and ran down to the fishing lodges and out onto Wallsuches.

From Wallsuches, we crossed Chorley Old Road and ran through to Ridgmont House, passing the house and turning left just after passing through into the cemetery.  This goes through some woods and comes out by a farm, where we then ran through the fields, eventually coming out onto Higher Barn.

We then ran back to Chorley Old Road and retraced our route back home along Wallsuches and George's Lane.

Quads and hamstrings were really tight today and a visit to Maria is long overdue so think I'll need to book myself in to keep on top of things.

Total Distance - 4.7 miles 

http://www.strava.com/activities/198947984

Two Runs Today, a Speed Session and an Easy One.

This morning I drove to Rivington for a one mile warm up before a speed session along The Street.  The intention was to do three sets of four quarter mile repeats with 30 seconds rest between each rep and two minutes rest between each set.  My main aim was to try to keep a good form and at least a 180 cadence for each set.

The results of each rep are shown below:

Rep	Time	Pace	Cadence
1	1.44	6.56	186
2	1.47	7.08	184
3	1.50	7.20	182
4	1.49	7.16	182
5	1.44	6.56	186
6	1.49	7.16	186
7	1.50	7.20	184
8	1.51	7.24	184
9	1.45	7.00	188
10	1.51	7.24	182
11	1.50	7.20	186
12	1.48	7.12	182
Average	1.48	7.06	184

As you can see, I managed on every rep to get over 180 cadence so I'm pretty pleased with that. I did feel that it was getting harder and harder to keep a good form towards the end though and I was really trying hard to not sink in at the hips.

I'm also quite pleased with my average pace for the reps and am hoping to get to a point where I can keep up that kind of pace for the whole three miles without the stops in between but I'm a good way off that yet.  My best 5k race pace to date has been 7.50 so it's going to take quite a bit of work to get 40 seconds per mile off that.

NB. on my second two minute rest, I had stopped my watch and, without warning, it went into key lock and when I turned the key lock off, it had lost the session I had set it to, which is why my Strava is in two halves as I had to reset it again.

Run 1 Distance - 5.15 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/198306416
http://www.strava.com/activities/198306429

Today's second run was just an easy one with Ruby to the top barn, up to George's Lane through the terraced gardens, along to the kennels and back home via Wylderswoode Stud.

When we set off it was absolutely hammering down with rain and Ruby was really funny.  As usual, she was excited to leave the house and ran out as soon as I opened the door but once she realised how bad the rain was she turned round and ran straight back in again.  I stood with her at the open front door for a while and she wouldn't go out, so I took her back in, closed the door and took off her harness.  She then started jumping on me in the way she does when she wants to go out, so I put the harness back on and opened the door again.  She ran to it wagging her tail and then stopped dead again and wouldn't go out.  She kept looking at me as if she wanted me to turn the rain off for her.

Eventually, I made her man up and we just went out.  We were soaked before we even got to the end of the drive but I love running in the rain so didn't mind.  Ruby didn't seem to mind after initially getting out either and we had a good run with her mostly off the lead because nobody else was around in the bad weather so no other dogs for her to chase.

Run 2 Distance - 4 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/198483434

Today's Total Distance - 9.15 miles

Back to Reality

Well, as the title says, it's back to reality and back to running the same old routes.  Not that I'm complaining, I quite enjoy some of my routes round here, especially the short five miler I did today.

I ran with Ruby up to two lads via the kennels, then cross-country up to the mast, cross-country to the Pike then home via George's Lane.

On reaching the turn off from George's Lane towards home, I noticed that Ruby was holding her left back paw up and wouldn't put it down.  I had a look at it but couldn't see anything so we just started to walk back.  She limped a bit and I thought I was going to have to carry her but after a few minutes she seemed to be fine again and started trotting off ahead of me.  Not sure what had happened but she doesn't seem to be limping at all now, although she is very down in the dumps as I think she knows that it's back to the norm tomorrow and she'll be left on her own all day, after having spent the last two weeks with us 24/7.  I feel really sad for her, she can't stand to be on her own and loves human company.  The company of Croker (the cat) just isn't enough for her.

Total distance - 5 miles (approx - accidentally stopped Garmin at top of Pike and didn't start it again until kennels so lost around half a mile)

http://www.strava.com/activities/197683877