Happy New Year!

Wishing you all the very best for the year ahead. 

My recovery from surgery has had a minor setback, but making good progress considering – more details at Outandabout.  Getting out every day and feeling stronger some pics from this week. Looking forward to seeing you all soon

Enjoying the snow on Saturday Pre-fracture!

 

 

 

 

and then after the slip!

 

 

Rubik's Cube

Nothing to do with running, other than I'm currently having to find less energetic ways of spending my time, but one of the girls passed me a cube recently saying "Here Dad, you can do this, can't you." - I can't.

But, did you know that there are world records for completing it one handed!, with your feet!! and blindfold!!! (not all at the same time) I'll not bore you with the details, Google it if you're interested - or if you're recovering from surgery, or from alcohol abuse.

Season's Greetings

The Lord of Brentford would like to wish all his fiends at WFDBWGUA a very happy and holy Christmas, and he hopes to see you in Settle in 2015.

Can Anybody...

...bring a copy of 'Tubthumping' (aka 'I Get Knocked Down But I Get Up Again') on CD to the pub on Friday night.

A Christmas Walk

If anyone fancies a change from the normal Saturday routine a walk has been arranged. SN, Nico and I are to meet this coming Saturday at 9 o’clock at the lower end of the drive that leads from the Lower Barn area to the Top Barn. The plan is to have about two hours either on the fells or at a lower level finishing with refreshments in the Lower Barn. SN says that Santa hats are optional but I won’t bother with that as, I am sure some would agree, I look daft enough anyway.

The Good News...

...is that my recovery from surgery is progressing well; in fact, significantly faster than I had been led to believe. I was able to abandon pain relief after day two, and today, after practising several static 'emergency stops' I was given the all clear to drive by my insurers. The next step, as soon as the wound heals, is swimming - reminds me of the old toupee joke - you'll be able to swim and ride a bike wearing it - that's great, I've been trying to learn to swim for years!

The bad news is that the blood test results for magnesium levels came back 'normal', so no quick fix for my loss of form there. Further research on my part is required.

One For the Ladies!

Come on guys, we can't be having this:-

http://www.ukresults.net/2014/langpud.html

I've never seen a mixed race with such a high proportion of women - any thoughts?

Moving to Triathlon

You'll probably be aware that I have toyed with triathlon and plan to continue to dabble.

In my January (already!) copy of 'Triathlon' magazine there is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses that athletes approaching from each of the three disciplines bring with them. This is a distillation of their view on the runner, with my added comments:-

Cardiovascular - VO2max highest of the three.

Thermoregulation - being light and lean, runners have the best thermoregulation. I'm not convinced by this conclusion; surely swimming in cold water or cycling in cold air and possibly rain, requires the athlete to be able to keep warm, rather than merely be able to shed heat.

Technique - if good, good. If poor, not good! Nothing very positive here then.

Calf Muscles - Should be good, but long term runners may have already 'squished' them with over-use - is this a technical term?

Upper Body Strength - Not good.

Flexibility - Not good and in particular the hunched position that many runners fall into doesn't lend itself to the slightly concave back recommended for freestyle swimming.

Perception - Runners perceive a greater level of discomfort compared with cyclists when exercising at submaximal workload. - I protest, they must not have taken fell runners into account!

Although from the above, it would seem that runners are not particularly suited to triathlon, the conclusion in the article is that swimmers carry too much upper body weight, have too little leg strength and, due to the non-impact nature of their specialism, too little resilience. Cyclists have little upper body strength and similar to the swimmers, too little resilience. So runners rule, OK!

Just another thought that I've always propounded, because the cycle tends to be the longest time duration in any triathlon, a cyclist who is 10% faster than a runner over the bike ride, who is 10% faster in his discipline, will gain more absolute time and will cross the line in front.

Perhaps the final decider will always be that it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

Don't make me laugh

Just a brief note (brief because I don't want to pull out any stitches typing) to report that the operation to correct the deformity to my right shoulder has been completed and I am now home after two nights in hospital.  Apart from a few minor set-backs I feel I am making progress and hope to be back running in January.

Best wishes to the  other two victims of the surgeon's knife.

Nine Outa' Thirteen Ain't Bad...

...it's terrible, but at least we didn't need the headtorches!

A small, select group set off on this expedition, with TK (Tungsten Knees), KLM and Jim having declared that they were not planning to stay the full course and TM saying she'd see how it went. KLM left us after Two Lads, saving himself for a night-time orienteering event

All was going well until the approach to Whimberry Hill, when the support team showed their inexperience by allowing me to choose my own route - you need to understand, folks, that the first rule of an EtU support is that you don't let me loose on my own, I need close supervision at all times - ask YJ.  Anyway, some time was lost, but not so much as to constitute a disaster.

We managed not to get lost between Whimberry Hill and Egg Hillock and thence we chose the Shaly Dingle route to Counting Hill.  A messy climb back up to the ridge took us some distance to the south of the top. When I'm out and about again I'll try it following a bearing of 260 degs from the bottom and see if that keeps me clear of the bracken. I'll also try it in reverse, from our 'cairn' down to the Dingle. Approaching the ridge, Jim and TK disappeared into the mist whilst TM held back and kept me company. There was no sign of the leading pair at the trig point, so we assumed they had headed for home. We descended to Hordern Stoops, reached in 2 hours 59 minutes to find that some small animal had interfered with the 'stash', leaving it mostly, however undamaged.

As soon as we set off again I suggested to TM that we abandon the Darwen Tower plan and she agreed. This was soon followed, as the weather got wetter, windier and colder, by my proposal to omit Old Adam Hill, also agreed by my companion. Conditions worsened further as we approached Great Hill, so we grabbed the stash and headed down without sampling it. The decision then was to head directly for home via White Coppice without passing go or collecting £200 or anything.

Conditions subsequently improved and we had a pleasant run in, finishing in 5 hours 34 minutes and clocking up all but a whisker of 16 1/2 miles.

What went wrong? Mostly a combination of poor conditions, both atmospheric and underfoot coupled with a lack of vigour on my part.

Thanks go to all my companions, especially to TM for staying the distance and seeing me safely back to the barn.

In anticipation of being 'Out of Action'

There are three of the squad awaiting surgery; mine is scheduled for Monday 8th December and, I am told, will sideline me for several weeks.

In anticipation of this, and in an attempt to delay the onset of endorphin withdrawal symptoms, I am planning to 'run' the Baker's Dozen, this Saturday 6th December. As you may know, this particular round is simply a Coope's with a trek out to Darwen Tower and back thrown in between Spitler's and Great Hill.  It's a good (!) 24 miles.

I'm going to do the UTUP and then transfer to the Top Barn for a 9:00 start. In June this year TM and YJ were kind enough to keep me company for the duration of 8 hours and one minute - so if you think you've seen me run slowly, you ain't seen nothing yet!

Grateful for company for all or part.

I will leave the other two waiting-listers to update you on their dealings with the medical profession. Saturdays may be a bit lean for the next few weeks, but I'm sure you will keep the ball rolling. 

Also, any more for the 'do' on the 19th?