Back to the grind, building the miles again for the summer. Hoping to be in a bit better shape for a June event, all being well.
New shoe review... Really impressed with the Nnormal Cadi, did a slow 28km and no hotspots or signs of any areas for potential blisters so far. Compared to the Tomir 2 (admittedly not a totally fair comparison) which are rugged and grippy, but feel less stable, slightly narrower and have a tendency for movement and toe slamming on descents, hopefully they'll take some of the lacing design across from the Cadi, as it is clearly much better. The Cadi feels closer to the Hoka Speedgoat, which is exactly the kind of summer trail shoe for dryer rockier terrain.
An official pic from early on in last weekends 50km traverse across Dartmoor.
Looking very glad that I set off in full waterproofs, as I saw quite a few folks in shorts land into the first aid station, aving been through 20km of cold wind/drizzle and knee deep rivers and bog, struggling to get their waterproofs on.
Have managed a couple of short treadmill runs this week and recovered quicker than I thought, some consistency and avoiding injury over winter seems to have paid off (obviously I've just jinxed it by saying that now)!
Well that was a very soggy run from the southern point to northern point of Dartmoor. 50km and about 1000m of hills.
I was seriously questioning my life choices when the alarm went off at 4:30am and had to catch a coach from the finish in Meldon, down to the start in South Brent.
Apparently it has rained since Jan 1st to Feb 15th here, a record number of consecutive days. And you can tell by how saturated the ground and rivers are.
Today was a nice little addition to it. Sideways drizzle across the moors, coupled with shoe sucking mud. Not a lot of visibility and not a lot of features to navigate with. Had to keep my wits about me and follow the GPS route on my watch, only took one wrong turn and added half a km on.
Despite all that, everyone was in good spirits, aid stations were great, and I squelched my way to the finish in around 6.5hrs and clocked in 19th place.
#climbsouthwest #dartmoor #50km #ultratrail
Would I rather be in front of the fire with a cuppa watching the Winter Olympics? Why yes, yes I would!
But when a child-free window opens, just got to strap on the big boy waterproof pants and get it done. Missed the slopestyle for this crap run, thank god for iPlayer.
The weather has been relentlessly shit lately, everywhere is a bog and the gym is rammed, but still chipping away. 2 weeks til next race/adventure. 🫣
A lot of rain in the week has left the trails in a bit of a quagmire, all fun though and good for testing the ankles.
New race now in the diary in 4 weeks time, a bit ambitious (or foolish) we shall see! But all this mud could be good preparation, for a February long run in the bleak bog of British winter. 🤗
Five Trails Ultra 50km by @freedom__racing on Saturday was a lush day out on the South Downs!
Great event that started in Westerlands Farm glampsite and headed south along the downs and back. Nice to explore some semi-local trails and mind map it out a bit more.
Got a tiny bit of annoying cramp two thirds of the way in, that made me slow down to a bit of a walk/canter. But couldn't have asked for better conditions, and lovely volunteers every 10km checkpoint.
All in all a grand day out and made it back just in time for Fireworks night!
📷 No limits photography
#trailrunning #ultratrail #serpenttrail #southdownsway #southdowns
Back to it! 18km along the Serpent Trail, full of crunchy leaves, acorns, beech nut and chestnut shells. And loads of mushrooms!
Testing the new Nnormal Tomir shoes, this is about their 5th outing and fairly impressed, tiny bit narrow compared with the inov8, but great grip.
#trailrunning #hoverair #serpenttrail
The face of someone that is glad that it's done, dehydrated, and ready for a meal and a lie down!
Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon Ultra was a grand day out in the hills. My legs just about held out, but were definitely not firing on all cylinders.
Some great photos from race photographers Dan Bentley and Neil Shearer. Can't help but give them a wave when they're stood out on top of a mountain pass in the howling wind.
50 miles & 3500m of mountains, 13 hours of fun in beautiful North Wales
A brutal race that despite how much I felt I knew what to expect, I underestimated the climbs and how technical some of the descent was, I didn't film the harder bits as needed both hands to scramble. I definitely didn't do enough hills or hiking this summer, I felt like I was going backwards up some of them and lost loads of time, only to try to gain it back on the downhill again.
After a disappointing DNF earlier this year in a 50 miler due to cramp, followed by a summer plagued with niggles, my race was all about
A. Finish ✅
B. TTry and finish before dark ✅
C. Finish in top 100 for a gold rather than silver medal ✅
D. Try not to get cramp ❌ (managed it better this time)
E. Aim for around 12 hrs ❌
3 out of 5 wasn't bad!
Almost perfect weather conditions helped, despite a bit of head wind along the tops. Great race organisation. Fantastic marshalling, especially on some of the big climbs and exposed areas. It was a self-navigated route, I only lost the path a couple of times but not very far, my Coros GPS was bang-on all day.
The route started in Btws-y-coed, following the River Conwy up through Capel Curig and over Tryfan, then up Snowdon / Eryri via the Pyg track and down along the miners track, then over the valley to climb both Glyder Fach and Glyder Fawr before looping out round Glogwyn Mannod before descending back down to where we started.
Yr Wddfa national park is such a great spot, I only wish it were closer! #yrwyddfa #eryri #gbultras #betwsycoed #snowdonia #wales #trailrunning #ultra
A hilly 30km loop taking in Marsden and Black Hill, a slight navigation error of the top took me off into a featureless bog for a bit of a sweary and sweaty detour.
#pennines #peakdistrict #trailrunning
