Lake District 4th June - Day 3

 So we come to day 3 of our Jubilee weekend in the Lakes.

Day Three:
1. Campsite to Sticle Tran via Stickle Gill
2. Stickle Gill to High Raise
3. Sargeant Man
4. Beiles Knott
5. Tarn Crag
6. Calf Crag - Gibson Knott and Helm Crag
7. Grasmere
8. Chapel Style via Silver How
9. Back to the campsite along the Cumbria Way

Thankfully the shame of face planting on Day 2 quickly went away!
The next video is from the morning of Day 3 so I will let that set the scene,

This next one is not long into actually getting onto the hills,

The rock pool was so inviting!
What we did find on this day in particular is how busy the area got due to the extended bank holiday weekend. Getting up this first climb was more about weaving in and out of family groups and school kids. Not that it stopped JK from using his bionic legs to motor up the mountain.

Again it should be noted that none of us had any sign of injury that could prevent us doing the days graft.....we did openly suggest that we go to the pub before we even started- more of a pipe dream than anything else!

Once we got off the regular track we were able to stretch our legs and have a bit of a laugh. JK in these shots is showing off his posing and climbing skills...mainly his posing.

 He's really going for it in this one!! haha GRRRR!

I have made comment in an earlier post with reference to energy egging/dropping the kids off/taking a dump on a run - just so happens that it was Dave's turn this time around to bring the team scores up to;
Dave - 2
Nick - 2
JK - 1
Staff - 0


Disgusting boys aren't we!! I bet we'd have Paula Radcliffe as a fan though.
On long runs ALWAYS HAVE TOILET ROLL IN YOUR PACK!! haha
As my sense of humour is as it is, it was only right I capture this moment on video........ no no, it's not what you are thinking! Yet Dave is squatting in a hole on a mountain side haha

 So the antics where done for a little while after this whilst we concentrated on getting some good routes and mileage under our feet. Firstly Dave need to tell us where we were going. Captured quite well in this next shot.

Is it me or does he look a tad confused on this one??

 Here are some shots taken on our tea break. We were all so looking forward to our tea break, had the water heating up, the snacks ready and just reached for our cups........oh wait......we forgot the cups!! What a school boy error on our parts. There was a collective sigh and then the realisation that we could just drink from the kettle! First though it needed to be tested for temperature - enter Staff into the equation.... bit hot mate!? haha... wadda melt!

The running we had to do on Day 3 was relatively flat for long periods, no big peaks to get up just modest ones that gave us some good downhills to really get some speed up. There was one portion particular portion as we were heading to Grasmere that was so fast downhill that you had to give 100% concentration, otherwise you were going to be picking your body parts up after you fell!

Now I'm not the steadiest on my feet but the trips to Snowdonia and the Lakes have definitely improved my fell and down hill running. I flew down this one section! Absolutely loved it.

JK summed it up really well when he said 'the past two days and today have lead up to that section'

As we got to Grasmere we pretty much stopped with the running. We got a nice pint, a fresh pasty and enjoyed the atmosphere of the town.

After this 40 minute interlude we hiked over to Chapel Style via Silver How where there was another pub!

What we actually decided at this point was to grab our dinner for the night, relax for a couple of hours and then walk the '2 miles back'..........2 miles my arse! Dave's as the crow flies judgement was so far off! haha

It was more like five miles! truth be told though, it was a nice walk back to camp.

Have to say that the weekend was a cracker. As always we had a great laugh with good training. It's what 4 blokes and few hills is all about.

Right before I finish this blog I will add in a video that JK took whilst on the run. Shows a little about what we've been up to.

Lake District 3rd June - Day 2

Howdy!

 So day 2!! As I am terrible at knowing where it is we actually run, it is Dave that supplies me with the lists of our travels, so!

Day Two: Coniston Old Man and back
1. Campsite and then via Blea Tarn to Tilberthwaite
2. Tilberthaite Fell to Coniston Fell
3. Miners' Bridge to the Old Man of Coniston
4. Along the ridge to Great How Crag
5. Swirl How to Great Carrs and Little Carrs
6. Hell Gill Pike to Wrynose Pass
7. Wrynosr Bridge to Blea Tarn and back to the campsite

In the words of Dave Wax 'As the crow flies it is around the 18mile mark today chaps'.

When we woke up on the second day in Snowdonia all you heard from us was a chorus of aaaaaah...owwww...do we really have to run again?
This time how ever it was more the case of 'oh, not actually hurting'.......I know! confusing stuff.
Don't get me wrong, there was some gentle aches in the feet but all in all we were in pretty good nick.
Eye on the other hand ('eye' isn't a typo, just a clever pun) had a problem with my eye! I am unfortunate enough to have scars in the corneas of both eyes. This is a reason Jk came up with the new nickname of Popeye for me. Cheers mate.
So when the scars become irritated I am in big trouble to the point where I can't blink, tolerate sunlight, wind and just general movement of the eyeball..........it's the worst discomfort I have ever had and continue to have.
Just so happened that my right eye wasn't playing ball on day 2.
In this video you will notice I'm not my jolly self. Apart from the eye, my body felt really good!!

I was pretty quite for the first couple of hours. Again Dave loved that.

Although there wasn't as many peaks to go up and over on day 2 it was certainly a challenge in own right. The 'Old Man' is  a very long and steep pull that just seems to keep going. On our way up the weather began to change but as the side of the mountain we were on was shielded somewhat, it wasn't until we reached the ridge that it became a tad windy!!!

The wind was about a 35mph constant with at least 50-60mph gusts....epic fun....water eyes!

Just before this video I had the first of two good stacks to the ground. The lads will tell you that I don't do these things in half measures. Of all the rocks that we ran over you would've thought that the one that takes me down would be impressive....sadly this wasn't the case. This pebble albeit one that was firmly planted in the ground snuck up on me, attacked my big toe and send me into a full speed commando roll, leaving me on my back looking into the clouds. Jk's laughing did little to massage the ego - truth be told it was a very gracious decent into the floor.

The next set of pics show us at the top of the 'Old Man'.

As we plodded along Dave mentioned a event that occurred on these slopes during the Second World War. It quite a sombre tale of an American war plane that crashed into the mountain during bad visibility. Parts of the wreckage are still there as well as the memorial in the next pictures.

Lest we forget. x

The rest of the day went pretty much to plan for us all, covering good mileage, perfecting our down hill fell running and focussing on the job at hand.........then something happened. You guessed it! To me!

There are moments in your life that your friends would never let you forget and this is going to be one of those times.
Dave, JK and Staff have a little game they like to play called 'Lets Tell Nick run that way and we'll either hide or go somewhere else'..............knobs.

This particular time (yes, it's happened quite a bit - more fool me), as we were coming to the end of our day we happened to be in an area that had trees. I realised they were playing their 'game' when I could here them giggling like school girls in the woods.
'Right!' I thought, I'll show them this time!

I quickly shot off to see what I could come up with as they would catch up to me pretty quickly. There was a tree just off of the track that was perfect for hiding in. The plan was to wait until they were right next to it, jump out and make them jump......hahaha! I was laughing in my head before it had even happened...... oh how it back fired!

So picture me right in amongst this fern, being careful not to let my red pack show through. So up they come thinking that I have continued on my run up the track...right.....it's time!
JUMP!
As soon as I lept out I knew there was a problem....a branch that seemed to come out of nowhere just to spite me struck me across both of my shins. I am not kidding in saying that I put a lot of effort into my surprise jump attack on the boys and as such this momentum sent me into a superman dive a good five feet horizontally off of the floor, flying into the middle of the three of them, crashing face first onto the shingle path!


Now you can imagine what their reaction was! as I looked sheepishly up Staff was almost on the floor with laughter, tears in his eyes. As for the other two I didn't want to look but I'm sure the whole of the Lakes could hear the three of them.
I just uttered the words 'the shame of this'


It was hilarious but I just wanted to lie there for a little while to let the embarrassment wash over me.
Can safely say I didn't feel like this fella, 

What I did find out about Staff is this...If you jump out on him, flying through the air in a spot of bother he will go through the following steps.
1. look shocked and a little scared
2.realise that you're in a spot of bother
3. change his expression into one of laughter
4.side step himself out of the way
5.make a thinly veiled attempt to catch you and then realise it's better to push you to the floor quicker
6.laugh his head off

To be fair I would've done the same haha!

Day 2 pretty much ended there for me. Epic fail. :-)

Lake District Saturday 2nd June -Day 1

Hello!

So for what has been a busy time for myself since we have come back from the Lakes, it is about time I sat down and wrote about our tracks, trails, thoughts, mileage and adventures from the Jubilee weekend training.

The pictures above show the lads preparing for the first days training. As you can see, we were fortunate with the weather!! It was pretty much warm and sunny most of the time when we were there....well apart from a section during day 2 that shoved a good 60 mph wind at us!

Day One covered the following peaks, the route being known as the Langdale Horseshoe:

1. Campsite to Pike O'Blisco via Blake Rigg

2. Cold Pike

3. Great Knott

4. Crinkle Crags

5. Bowfell

6. Esk Hause

7. Pike O'Stickle

8. Harrison Stickle

9. Pavey Ark - and then down via Stickle Tarn and Stickle Gill to the campsite.

All in all it was around the 18 mile mark - out on our feet for 6 1/2 hours if memory serves. We also took in our now standard pot noodle break half way through! (actually done that all three days)

As the enthusiasm for all things blog related was at it's peak on day one, there are quite a few pics and video clips to put onto here so I had best start putting them on!!

Morning sports fans! 

 

As you can see straight away, the terrain certainly has a different look to the Snowdonia mountain range. The area is vast! Very open to the elements and I can only imagine what it's like when the weather comes in to add to the fun/drama!

Jk really does love those shorts. We are trying to locate them for all of us to use as some team colours but unfortunately....or fortunately they are only sold in New Zealand, which is where he bought them during the Rugby world cup.

If you read a previous post of mine you will know that I was the best man at a wedding recently. Prosho (as you will hear mentioned) has a song that I and a few mates like to remind him about..... R Kelly Track called Bump n Grind. I can't go into massive detail on this but suffice to say he may of serenaded his now wife to the opening lines to the song...as I will now sing in this next video (much against Dave's love of silence)

p.s Was Prosho's birthday as well this day so a perfect gift for him haha

   

My minds telling me no! but my bodyyyyyyy, my body's telling me yeaaaah..... smooth Prosho! 

So after those brief antics we carried on a short ways up to that peak where Dave's GPS system was having a tough time finding us....no joke, two seconds after I stopped filming this next video the altitude came up...typical! 2,400ft or something close to that.

JK the champion gurner  

The next slope we pulled ourselves up, turned out to be a body warmer!

 Good thing about meeting people on the slopes......group photo's!

The next picture and video explain in the easiest form what we're about when we go on our runs....oooooosh!

Either that or JK just likes to grab his crotch...... he does like a dance to some M.J every now again mind.

If you can't have a laugh, what's the point!

I do encourage a bit of team involvement on the videos, so I hand you over to another JK commentary, 

As you notice in this video, I get my back over a nice comfy rock. 

I was not enjoying myself at this point in time. My back had been hurting for a good hour, feelings of nerve impingement sending a horrible sensation into both calfs and generally thinking...are we done yet! The answer was no which sucked harder than a dyson vacuum.

I was going through what the group call my moaning (whining) phase...which to be fair is getting quieter and quieter. The lads tend to know when I'm struggling as I do quite abruptly shut up and just answer questions in as few words as possible........ I know Dave especially enjoys these moments of bliss.


I am finding that's it's in these times of hurting that you begin to understand and develop the skills and mindset to keep pushing yourself on. All runners will appreciate that there are times when you just want to stop but you can't.
So after getting up another two big climbs it came to our tea break where we thought it a good idea to try skimming stones on the lake...turns out I'm hopeless at it so instead I grabbed a heft rock and went for the biggest splash!

At this point we weren't far off from finishing the days training and to our joy there was a nice cold rock pool just sitting there with our names on it. After a long time on your legs there is something lovely about cold water.

That was day one done and dusted.